Rudy

Right, I wasn't trying to imply that it took a lot of force, just that the retraction of the armrest is not something mechanically linked (by design) to the hand brake. In other words there is no "automatic" retraction of the armrest when the brake is applied as an earlier post implied...

dcaranci

I think it's mentioned somewhere in this 21 page post, but just in case it's not... from what I can tell this is not mentioned anyplace in the manual, I found it by accident.

After you park and turn off the car (but before you open the door) press the turn signal indicator in either direction. The corresponding tail light and angel eyes come on and stay on solid (not flashing). Apparently this is to mark your car if you're parked on the side of the road so that others driving by at night can see it, and hopefully not hit you. Probably a bigger concern on the narrow roads in europe than here in North America.

Not sure how long they stay on... I let it go almost 12 hours the other day and it was still on. Still plenty of battery left to start up too.

Maybe you all know about this, but I didn't and think it's cool... apparently this is on most all BMWs, and other european cars too.

Just my 2c contribution to this thread!

Turboe

I think there is a mechanical link though. When I just start to actuate my brake lever, the armrest immediately jumps back a half inch or so. And as I pull it up more the armrest continues to move back . The brake lever never touches the armrest, the armrest moves away in advance of the lever ever getting within an inch or so of the armrest. At least that is what mine does.

Rudy

Wow, you're absolutely correct! You learn something new every day, right?

This clearly is something they added on the LCI cars...

On my pre-LCI, the brake used to slam into the armrest (no mechanical linkage) so back in 2004 I formed a habit of always retracting the armrest with my arm before applying the hand brake -- I always apply the brake -- and I also formed the habit of always sliding it back again after the brake was released. (I think I actually had a similar habit with my two E39 cars since I seem to remember that they had a similar sliding armrest.)

When I got my LCI car, I never changed my habits and still manually slide the rest back and forth each time I apply/release the brake. I just went out to the garage just now to see what happens if I don't slide it and by golly it moves by itself!

Thanks for teaching me something today...

werva

Hehe. This tread is too good to be forgotten!

Anyone else with something to say?

jprovence

Actually it doesn't seem to be an lci thing with the armrest. My 04 does it. I watched the arm rest retract with out ever touching the e brake.

augustrush42

Dont know if this has been mentioned but if u like hiding stuff inside ur car, like ur wallet or something.. Theres a little pouch underneed the steering wheel. Just bring the steering wheel up to the highest position and stick ur walllet or phone or whatever in the pouch (make sure the leather is there, cus the pouch sometimes opens and it might fall back in there ) Once uve put the thing in there, bring ur steering wheel down again and viola! It will hold it in place and you can see it unless you know its there

higher

I always park in the most remote part of the car park, well away from others, but still safe. I figure it takes maybe 1-2 extra minutes to walk from the remote spot to the car park exit than it would have taken if I had parked closer to the exit. 1-2 minutes walk is a lot less time than it would take to repair a door dink.

I started doing this when couple of times I nearly ripped off my ear on the door getting into the car in tight spaces where I could not fully open the door.( I am 6ft 5) I also sometimes notice that even though I park ina remote spot, with lots of space around me some idiot will park next to me - it just a human grouping condition I decided.

v_therussian

I've always been curious how bad it is for the battery to leave this light on overnight. I'm in the States, but I live in NYC - sometimes I park in places where such a light wouldn't hurt. Especially, since my car was damaged last year in a blizzard, I've been kinda trying to figure out if leaving this light overnight would cause a bad enough drain to damage the battery in any way?

Thanks for this contribution btw - when I first discovered this feature, I thought my car had some kinda electrical gremlin, where the light would not go off and then I figured out that it was bc I accidentally pushed the turn signal stalk when getting out...

goingtheresoon

I came across this a while back and I haven't noticed it on this thread yet.
If you are "parallel parking", put your gear into reserve (manual or auto), and flick the mirror switch to the passenger side. The mirror will automatically tilt downwards so you can see how close to the kerb you are. Great for parking!