» Site Navigation | | » Recent Threads | | | | | | | | | 08-22-2011, 04:35 PM | #1 | Senior Member Join Date: May 2011 Location: Philly Posts: 605 | turn off floor lights? is there a way to turn off the floor lights when opening your doors? i know you can manually unplug the wire but sometimes i want to use them. sometimes ill have my door(s) open awhile doing work and don't want those lights on the whole time you know? | | | 08-22-2011, 07:04 PM | #2 | Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Portland Or Posts: 2,666 | Its a reed switch, A properly placed magnet works on mine. Dave __________________ Dave - PDX 1995 318ti - Active Black and Tan. 2005 330xi - Mtech 1 - 6spd - Orient Blue/Black | | | 08-22-2011, 07:27 PM | #3 | Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Bremerhaven, Germany Posts: 977 | Those footwell lights are a nice touch BMW added a few months after my car was built. I believe BMW wired them directly to the ZKE as they would have added too much load to the overhead light switch. Have you considered adding a footwell light cut-off switch to the underside panel above the passenger footwell? I retrofitted an E39 dome light and more electronics to add and gang my footwell lights to the other interior lights. A much simpler thing you could do would be to change your footwell and/or interior lights to LED, to eliminate the stock bulbs' high inrush current. Then you could wire the footwell lights to the other interior lights and not worry about burning out the switch. | | | 08-22-2011, 07:31 PM | #4 | Senior Member Join Date: May 2011 Location: Philly Posts: 605 | John, I like your thoughts on putting in LED's and wiring a switch in. I'll look into that. | | | 08-22-2011, 09:09 PM | #5 | Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Portland Or Posts: 2,666 | ?? ON my 95 they come on with ,, uh,,OOPS! Thats my E46 with the foot lights... Off to get my meds... Dave __________________ Dave - PDX 1995 318ti - Active Black and Tan. 2005 330xi - Mtech 1 - 6spd - Orient Blue/Black | | | 08-22-2011, 09:11 PM | #6 | Senior Member Join Date: May 2011 Location: Philly Posts: 605 | Haha, Dave | | | 08-22-2011, 09:15 PM | #7 | Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Bremerhaven, Germany Posts: 977 | The most noticeable disadvantage of substituting LEDs is that the ZKE's theater-style fading dims them a little (to 10%) and then snaps them off. Before you start rewiring, you might try LEDs in just the footwells or just overhead or both. LEDs in just the footwells might give you something like a Cheshire-cat effect, with your shoes being the last thing to disappear into darkness, after a brief pause. Last edited by John Firestone; 08-22-2011 at 09:19 PM. | | | 08-22-2011, 09:21 PM | #8 | Senior Member Join Date: May 2011 Location: Philly Posts: 605 | I wonder if I can fit any newer BMW foot lights with a switch in place of mine? | | | 08-22-2011, 09:26 PM | #9 | Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Bremerhaven, Germany Posts: 977 | Do some of the newer footwell lights have built-in switches? If so, which car models? | | | 08-22-2011, 10:06 PM | #10 | Senior Member Join Date: May 2011 Location: Philly Posts: 605 | Oh, I'm not sure. I was assuming they would. I know many other cars have that. Simple feature. Same goes for my trunk. I had to take the bulb out. | | | 08-22-2011, 10:14 PM | #11 | Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Bremerhaven, Germany Posts: 977 | BMW can sometimes be pretty conservative. I'll snoop at some cars the next time I'm at the dealer. | | | 08-22-2011, 10:21 PM | #12 | Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Scranton/Wilkes-barre area PA Posts: 454 | I have green LED strip lights in my footwells and i like them I never noticed if they went off after the dome light or not. __________________ ***Derek*** ^^Lola^^ Pioneer radio/ Pioneer 6-Disk CD Changer/ JBL 601.1 Grand Touring Amplifier/ Bilstein Sport shocks/ Bilstein e36sedan springs/ Green LED Courtesy Lights Accident Counter: 3... | | | 08-22-2011, 11:37 PM | #13 | Senior Member Join Date: May 2011 Location: Philly Posts: 605 | Led strip ;O | | | 08-24-2011, 04:47 AM | #14 | Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Scranton/Wilkes-barre area PA Posts: 454 | What?? __________________ ***Derek*** ^^Lola^^ Pioneer radio/ Pioneer 6-Disk CD Changer/ JBL 601.1 Grand Touring Amplifier/ Bilstein Sport shocks/ Bilstein e36sedan springs/ Green LED Courtesy Lights Accident Counter: 3... | | | 08-24-2011, 05:40 AM | #15 | NOBODY F's with the Jesus Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Ventura California Posts: 7,824 | Quote: Originally Posted by geetarspaz is there a way to turn off the floor lights when opening your doors... | | | | | | Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests) | | Thread Tools | | Display Modes | Linear Mode | Posting Rules | You may not post new threads You may not post replies You may not post attachments You may not edit your posts HTML code is Off | | | |