Rear-Fog Switch Retrofit (U.S. i3s)

OEM Euro light switch
Price: $158 (USD in 2014)
Part: 61319311723
Vendor: https://partsale.eu
Ordered Nov. 18, 2014; Delivered Feb. 14, 2015
Tools required: Hands
Installation time: 30 minutes (with coding)






Grab the right side of the vent* and firmly pull straight out to remove.


Metal tabs hold vent in place.




Note bottom seam of black trim piece is behind top of airbag cover.


Gently pull straight out to remove black trim that surrounds light switch. There are three metal tabs holding trim in place.


Removing switch plug takes some force. There are no metal tabs.


Reinstalled. Four tabs — two on top, two on button — hold the switch inside the black trim. Gently pull away trim from tabs and slide out light switch to remove. (Forgot to photograph.)

After taking delivery of the i3 in November, the first to-do on the farkle list was installing a Euro light switch. I live in a rural, and often foggy, area and having this option brings me peace of mind. The switch arrived on Valentine’s Day, nearly three months later. Waiting** was the most difficult part of this install.

On two previous 3-Series (E46 and E92), the Euro switch was plug-and-play. It activated the rear bulbs and awakened the icon in the instrument display, with no coding required. This isn’t the case with the i3. After plugging it in and pressing the rear-fog button, no lamps illuminated in the rear bumper, and the icon in the instrument remained dark. So I cracked open the world's worst laptop.

Bulb 7 is the rear-fog light, according to the BMW training manual, and their designation trumps all. Forum member PhilH, who is in the U.K., confirmed that bulb 7 is the one linked to the switch from the factory. I hoped coding these settings would illuminate it and the instrument icon:

3068 > NSL_Verbaut Set to: verbaut
3064 > Mapping_Nebelschlussl_L_output Set to: nsl_l
3064 > Mapping_Nebelschlussl_L_Function Set to: nebelschlusslicht
3064 > Mapping_Nebelschlussl_R_output Set to: nsl_r
3064 > Mapping_Nebelschlussl_R_Function Set to: nebelschlusslicht

Coding 3068 NSL_Verbaut activated only the icon in the instrument cluster; all bumper lights remained dark. But adding 3064 > Mapping_Nebelschluss turned on bulb 5, which BMW designates as turn signals. These flash as the emergency lights when the trunk is open. The brightness of bulb 5 is similar to the tail light (1). Until I can figure out how to activate bulb 7, these will do.

---

Codes from the F30/F32 cheat sheet compiled by Halsifer. Many work well in the i3.

* It’s remarkable how weightless the vent and trim pieces feel. BMW and its vendors sweated over every gram in the i3.

** As forum user SSi3 noted, the rear-fog blank in the U.S. light switch might be modified to activate the rear fog. That would have shortened the wait. Trimming the tabs, though, seems tedious. I'd mess it up. But savings galore if you can pull it off.

Nice write-up and pics, thank you!

Too bad that it isn't a simple switch swap like many of the other BMWs out there (I did swap the switch on my GT to enable the rear fog lights, and it took all of about 10-minutes - no coding, just the switch swap). Not everyone is willing to get setup to code their vehicle and the required learning curve to accomplish it.

Curious, do those lights in the bumper function as the extra brake lights during panic braking like other BMWs (Adaptive Brakelights)?

Yes, bulbs 4 and 5 activate. That's why I'd like to figure out how to link 7 to the Euroswitch. That's how it was designed.

There's a bank of LEDs in the bumper.


Photo by Dan Wang via Facebook i3 page (not mine, thankfully)

I guess BMW has wised up to the "free" method, perhaps another 2015 change if you are able to do it on 2014's. I have mine removed in an attempt to do the free button mod, if you remove the two tabs that ours use to keep the button in, then it could just pop out the front at will, I also don't think removing these tabs will allow ours to travel any further inward. Oh well, it was worth a shot, only took about 10 minutes to remove. Thanks for the post OP!

EDIT: It looks like, however, the switches are the same and possibly the wired pigtail is the same so one might be able to find one used on eBay from a totaled F car and perhaps swap it into the i3. I may look into this. I would also love to find out if there is some way to add front fog lights to the i3. It would have to look classy and OEM though. I bet we'll see them at face-lift time (~2017).

Is the top left blank actually used for anything in any region?

That's the front fog switch on other BMW models.

This might be off topic, how can I access to the reverse lights wires since they are in the bumper?

I want to add a reverse camera since my car don't have the parking package, I need to tap into the reverse light circuit to activate the camera. Do I have to remove the bumper to get access?

Thanks

websterize said:

Bulb 7 is the rear-fog light, according to the BMW training manual, and their designation trumps all. Forum member PhilH, who is in the U.K., confirmed that bulb 7 is the one linked to the switch from the factory. I hoped coding these settings would illuminate it and the instrument icon:

3068 > NSL_Verbaut Set to: verbaut
3064 > Mapping_Nebelschlussl_L_output Set to: nsl_l
3064 > Mapping_Nebelschlussl_L_Function Set to: nebelschlusslicht
3064 > Mapping_Nebelschlussl_R_output Set to: nsl_r
3064 > Mapping_Nebelschlussl_R_Function Set to: nebelschlusslicht

Coding 3068 NSL_Verbaut activated only the icon in the instrument cluster; all bumper lights remained dark. But adding 3064 > Mapping_Nebelschluss turned on bulb 5, which BMW designates as turn signals. These flash as the emergency lights when the trunk is open. The brightness of bulb 5 is similar to the tail light (1). Until I can figure out how to activate bulb 7, these will do.

Click to expand...

Question, since I'm digging this up from the dead.. Did you ever find the code for bulb 7?

This isn't a specific answer to your question, but there may not be a separate wire that only turns the reverse lights on! BMW puts digital logic in the light panel, and sends a digital, serial signal to it, and the light module then turns on the light. This allows you to not have to run as many high-current (and thus heavier gauge) wires. It also means that the switches can be very light duty since they are not switching any current, only sending a signal to a computer, digitally. So, in this case, there's probably one 12vdc line and one ground, then a pair of small wires that carry a digital signal. The reason you need to code the i3 to be able to turn on the fog light is that the computer was not programmed to recognize the message sent from the switch panel. On my 2011 GT, the programming was there, but there was no switch to generate it! So, just swapping the switch made it work. IOW, the wiring is there (power and serial data), but the car needed to be programmed to recognize the message to do what you wanted. Why the USA doesn't rate fog lights, even when they're already in the panels in the rear of most of their cars, really irks me. Since I don't drive my i3 longer distances, I've not invested in trying to make the fog lights work as opposed to my GT, which is my long-distance tourer which is more likely to be out when the weather could turn dicey.

jadnashuanh said:

Why the USA doesn't rate fog lights, even when they're already in the panels in the rear of most of their cars, really irks me.

Click to expand...

Especially since there's nothing in the DOT regs prohibiting it... many Volvo and Mercedes cars equip them in the US-market cars.

dirtyblueshirt said:

jadnashuanh said:

Why the USA doesn't rate fog lights, even when they're already in the panels in the rear of most of their cars, really irks me.

Click to expand...

Especially since there's nothing in the DOT regs prohibiting it... many Volvo and Mercedes cars equip them in the US-market cars.

Click to expand...

Nothing prohibiting but also nothing requiring them either unlike all EU markets. So if the lights aren't required here the oems will save some coin and leave them out. Plus no one in North America knows how to use them properly because there's no knowledge of them and no training of them. I've followed enough cars with them on in perfect weather to confirm this

SSi3 said:

Nothing prohibiting but also nothing requiring them either unlike all EU markets.

Click to expand...

Not required in all EU markets. Certainly not here in Sweden unless that's changed recently. I don't know whether Swedish i3's have them activated.

Well, there are certainly lots of people that run around with their front fog lights on all of the time, and that does bug me (well, not on i3's since they don't have front fogs!), but I do like and use them occasionally on my other car in the rear. Rear fog lights can be more distracting when the weather doesn't call for them, though.

dirtyblueshirt said:

Question, since I'm digging this up from the dead.. Did you ever find the code for bulb 7?

Click to expand...

No, I did not find the setting to change bulb 7. I suspect it's in the BDC_BODY module, along with the other tail light settings.

This will be my first mod, thanks OP for the writeup.

FWIW, on most of the newer BMW's...the rear fog light is literally already there in the panel...it's just that BMW does not include that switch (and programming for some) in the car. There's two very small plugs with small wire (no where near big enough to switch loads) in the switch panel and a small circuit board. The switches only provide inputs to the logic board which talks to the computer, and that sends the signal to another board closer to the lamps which then turns the lamp(s) on. This allows one power line to provide current to more than one lamp through most of the car and keeps the cost of the switches down while including more flexibility.

Hi.
Thank you for your post. I am facing the conversion to EU version of my US i3.

On your post I can not see your pictures. Can you send me them, I do not want to brake anything while changing the light switch in the cockpit.

Regarding the coding, can you specify what hardware, connectors soft or any I need to use your codes?


Rgds Greg