BLooD

abbizle keep us updated on how you get on

Abbizle

Right. Latest update.

I've spoken to an independent garage in London and have the car booked in for 4th December. Before that, I was advised any retrofits you want to get on there, get them on before bringing the car in.

So, I'm going all out and getting the following fitted before I go in.

-CCC (already in)
-2008 M Sport Leather seats (already in)
-2007 Adaptive Bi-xenon lights (to buy)
-Adaptive + HUD LCM (already bought)
-2007 LED rear lights (to buy)
-M Sport steering wheel (already bought)
-M5 wing mirrors with puddle lighting and fold in function (to buy)
-New style Gearshift (See pic)



The M5 mirrors and adaptive lights are the interesting ones. Wonder if they'll cause issue. Shouldn't if programmed.

Originally I had heated velour seats, but no heat on sports seats. But the switches and buttons are already in place cause I used the seat wiring loom from my old seats. So have seen another member use Waeco heated element pack, but using the packaged switches. I was wondering if anyone can help me decipher the switches in the loom and whether I can use the wiring from them on the Waeco pads.

If people with some knowledge can hhelp me here I will put up a DIY of how to retrofit the heat element on sports seats and use original switchgear and plugs.

One thing in my favour, I hope, is I've noticed there is a lot of stuff that fits pre 09/2005 and post 09/2005. My car was registered on 30/09/2005. Pretty much October. So I'm hoping it's got all the LCI style plugs and fittings etc. Any idea if this could be the case.

Also, am I going towards a dead end with the gear shifter, as the actual gear transmision is the same on RealOEM. Just the module and gear shifter are different from the top side.

Then I should be ready for the programming.

bruce_miranda

The problem with most (if not all) switches on the BMW car are actually just CAN ID generators. i.e. They simply put a message on the CAN BUS for the modules connected to the CAN BUS to pick up and interpret. I have built an experimental unit for myself that can pick up any button and convert that to actual On-Off button presses. I built this originally just for fun to get the gears to shift on a friends car with the Up Down arrows of the steering wheel. But now I have made it into a device that I can programme to read any button presses. I made this also to retrofit my M5 mirrors without having to programme the car. Why am I telling you all this? The reason being the short answer to your heated seats question is NO, you won't be easily able to use a BMW button panel to work with an after market heating pad.

Abbizle

But Bruce, aren't the wires just normal electric type wires (copper). I'm thinking this CAN BUS type system uses some other type of wiring, or does it send CAN ID's from heated element through these normal copper wires?

I may not be making sense, so just stabbing in the dark.

bruce_miranda

I think you've misunderstood or I may have misunderstood what you are trying to do here. The heated pad switch is a traditional On-Off switch which simply supplies 12V when On. If you can get the OEM buttons programmed so that they supply a 12V to the heated pad then there should be no problem integrating the heated pad with the OEM switch. I thought you wanted to simply replace the heated pad's switch with the OEM switch and that won't happen.

Abbizle

Any idea how many Volts the OEM buttons are sending to the OEM pads?

skelevirus

abbizle i cannot wait for your monstrosity to be completed bwwwoooo hahahaaa!

Abbizle

Thanks.

With the E60 being half car, half computer, I'm half expecting, when I put all this stuff on, the car to come up with an error message saying "Too many changes to compute, this car will self distruct in 90 seconds!"

SCardamon

Call to competitor dealers in the area and tell this story. They may want to be the good guys who help you out. Mention you are on a forum and got this advice too and they may see an opp to get more business by helping one of the forum family.

bruce_miranda

Nothing. The OEM buttons are not directly connected to the OEM pads at all. The OEM buttons simply send a signal to the CAN BUS, which the heating module picks up and then starts supplying voltage to the OEM pads. I don't know how many volts the OEM pads use to run off but I'd be surprised if it was anything other than 12V.

I've looked at this is some more detail and I think you might actually be able to retrofit the rear seats heating pads to the front seats a lot easier. The rear seat pads have their own thermostats built into them and just require the rear seat switches to work them. Just another option for you.