Lotus99

Hi there, I have an E61 actually, but I'm assuming the map lights in it are the same as yours. Our little kids have a bad habit of turning them on, and if I don't catch them when I turn the car off, I'm afraid they'll be on all night.

Someone in the E61 forum said this about them:

Disconnecting the map light / removing bulbs may render all overhead light inoperative. This was the case in my E90. The light controller senses something is amiss and does not operate any interior overhead light 40 seconds after ignition on. Maybe it is to protect from a short if someone sticks metal / pen / coin / wet finger into an empty light socket.

To remove the rear overhead light panel, push / slide the panel towards the rear of the vehicle and pry the front edge out with a plastic credit card (I've installed interior LED on several vehicles).
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I tried that by pushing the plastic cover in the direction of orange arrow, then tried to pry off the clear plastic cover (where I've put a blue arrow) but it didn't want to budge at all, and I was afraid I'd break it...

I could sort of see some slots along the long sides of the cover (red arrows), thinking they might be good points to insert a screwdriver and pry open, but the cover just kept flexing and didn't pop off like I expected.

Anyone know how to do it?
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Lotus99

Bump?

tonymac

Insert prying device in anyone of those slots and pry carefully.

I just used my fingers

Lotus99

Thanks, so just pick any of the red arrow slots, pop it out, and work my way around the whole cover? No need to slide cover towards the rear or anything?

Lotus99

I haven't gotten around to prying off the cover yet, but before doing that, I thought I'd follow up on someone's idea that the lights might even go out on their own.

Scanning the manual, I found this, which was good news. Hopefully the Reading/Map lights also fall within that.

Interior lamps

Control of the interior lamps, footwell lamps,
door entry lighting, courtesy lamps* and the
cargo bay lamps* is automatic.
With the courtesy lamps, LED lights are provided
in the outside rearview mirrors to illuminate
the exterior area around the doors.
To protect the battery, all lamps in the
vehicle are switched off approx. 15 minutes
after radio readiness is switched off, refer
to Start/Stop button on page 57.

Well, it seems that they do! I left the car unlocked, with a window down, reached in and turned on the map light as well as the interior lights. Then left the car, came back like 5 mins later, and the interior lights were off. But the map light was still on. I left it for another 10 minutes and came back, and the map light was off too!

When I turned on the interior lights again though, the map light came on, so it seems to shut it off automatically, but remember its last setting, so it'll come back on again when you turn the lights on, but I guess it doesn't matter, if it goes out again once you turn the car off.

Smart car!

Lotus99

UPDATE: Came across a TSB on how to do it! Seems you pry at the other end, towards the front of the car. Haven't tried it, but here it is in case someone's interested:



http://tis.spaghetticoder.org/s/view.pl?1/09/67/88

Arbuz

Tried that link but its no longer working. Wonder if you had a chance to get them out of their place prying from the front side?

Arbuz

oh wow, thats my first post. Sorry I have been quietly reading this forum but haven't posted a single message yet. So here it is - first official one :-)

JayArras

That's what happens when you respond to an old thread.

That's called "lurking". Glad you finally "came out".

kd7iwp

Is this what you're looking for?