High Beam Assist Retrofit - Discussion

[AnubisZed]

OK, so firstly this is not an How-To (all being well that'll come later).

So I've wondered about this one for a while now and assumed it would be an expensive mod, with replacement headlights, and probably complicated wiring changes! Well I've been doing a bit of research on it all and it turns out that it's neither.
If I told you that full OEM High Beam Assist (FLA) could be fitted for as little as £35 would you believe me? Well it's true, I've just ordered a used mirror with the same spec as my current one + FLA and the plastic surround (which is bigger than the original one) for £26 complete, to be fair that was a real bargain compared to some out there. All you need to then do is a minor wiring mod from the FZD (the interior light unit) to jumper in the canbus wires (so a bit of twisted wire and some plugs), fit it all up and do a bit of coding, which is basically adding 5AC to the VO and coding that to a few modules. Probably about 1/2 hours work and you've got a new feature on your Z4, for very little money.

This is the mirror with the extra sensor that looks forward...


And this is the replacement surround...



And this is the indication you have on the cluster (not an E89, but it's the same).
This shows that it's in the active state but High Beam is not currently on. Once it turns High Beam on the normal Blue indication illuminates...



And this is what it looks like from outside (again not an E89, but you get the idea)...



So to the best of my knowledge that's it, but according to the options list this was only available if you have auto dimming mirrors.
Also if you have iDrive then you get an option to turn it off in the Lighting Menu.
Like I say though I'll do a proper How-To, including wiring diagrams, photos and full coding process, once I've actually fitted mine.

So, open to discussion, what do you think? Do you already have it?

 

[Marcoose]

Brilliant, Dave. I need to check if I have it already.

 

[Pondy]

OK, so firstly this is not an How-To (all being well that'll come later).

So I've wondered about this one for a while now and assumed it would be an expensive mod, with replacement headlights, and probably complicated wiring changes! Well I've been doing a bit of research on it all and it turns out that it's neither.
If I told you that full OEM High Beam Assist (FLA) could be fitted for as little as £35 would you believe me? Well it's true, I've just ordered a used mirror with the same spec as my current one + FLA and the plastic surround (which is bigger than the original one) for £26 complete, to be fair that was a real bargain compared to some out there. All you need to then do is a minor wiring mod from the FZD (the interior light unit) to jumper in the canbus wires (so a bit of twisted wire and some plugs), fit it all up and do a bit of coding, which is basically adding 5AC to the VO and coding that to a few modules. Probably about 1/2 hours work and you've got a new feature on your Z4, for very little money.

This is the mirror with the extra sensor that looks forward...
View attachment 292381

And this is the replacement surround...

View attachment 292383

And this is the indication you have on the cluster (not an E89, but it's the same).
This shows that it's in the active state but High Beam is not currently on. Once it turns High Beam on the normal Blue indication illuminates...

View attachment 292384

And this is what it looks like from outside (again not an E89, but you get the idea)...

View attachment 292385

So to the best of my knowledge that's it, but according to the options list this was only available if you have auto dimming mirrors.
Also if you have iDrive then you get an option to turn it off in the Lighting Menu.
Like I say though I'll do a proper How-To, including wiring diagrams, photos and full coding process, once I've actually fitted mine.

So, open to discussion, what do you think? Do you already have it?

Great Dave. And after all that work you will be able to blind lorry drivers and get flashed by 50% of the traffic on the road.
I have auto main beam on both our daily cars and have had it on several others in the past (all different manufacturers). None have worked very well. It's about as reliable as auto headlights on a foggy day. IMO.

 

[MikeyH]

Great Dave. And after all that work you will be able to blind lorry drivers and get flashed by 50% of the traffic on the road.
I have auto main beam on both our daily cars and have had it on several others in the past (all different manufacturers). None have worked very well. It's about as reliable as auto headlights on a foggy day. IMO.

That's what I like most about my E85, nothing auto. Oh, and I like the engine sound of course

 

[AnubisZed]

I appreciate the issues with FLA, other people waiting at junctions, long stretches of undulating road where the car in front goes into a dip to then come back out of the dip as your high beams are back on. I get that, we have it on our Mazda, it's new and it's still not perfect and does exactly that.
But the majority of the time it's fine, and that's the point.
This project will be partly "because I can" and partly for information. It's a cheap retrofit and adds something else to my car. If I don't like it then I'll simply turn it off in iDrive. It's probably not going to get much use now until next winter as it's getting lighter for my daily journeys .

 

[IRD]

I have had this feature on quite a few cars with varying degrees of effectiveness. The best experience was with a Mazda CX60. The system was quite sophisticated and worked really well. Never had anyone flashing me when it was in use. On the other hand the one in the Toyota Corolla was the worst and really slow to respond, a bit of a nightmare. The system on our current daily is pretty responsive. So I am a fan. It makes driving at night just that bit more convenient. I do think manufacturers are improving what they offer.

 

[Stevo1987]

I have this on my 35is. Yeah, as per Pondy, it's a bit hit and miss. It's the only car I have had it with so I can't compare how well it works with others.

 

[Pondy]

I have had this feature on quite a few cars with varying degrees of effectiveness. The best experience was with a Mazda CX60. The system was quite sophisticated and worked really well. Never had anyone flashing me when it was in use. On the other hand the one in the Toyota Corolla was the worst and really slow to respond, a bit of a nightmare. The system on our current daily is pretty responsive. So I am a fan. It makes driving at night just that bit more convenient. I do think manufacturers are improving what they offer.

The wife's Focus has those matrix LED headlights. Now those are great, as they move the beam pattern all over the place to stop from blinding oncoming traffic. It is very entertaining watching them when driving. Probably not the safest thing to do, though.

 

[Pondy]

I have this on my 35is. Yeah, as per Pondy, it's a bit hit and miss. It's the only car I have had it with so I can't compare how well it works with others.

I've had them on:
A Merc E250.....crap
A Volvo V90......crap
A BMW F33.......crap
An Audi A4....... crap
A Focus ST.........great but matrix so doesn't count.

There's a pattern if you can spot it.

My Fauxrrari doesn't have them. That has a couple of candles.......which I fitted on purpose believe it of not.

 

[IRD]

I've had them on:
A Merc E250.....crap
A Volvo V90......crap
A BMW F33.......crap
An Audi A4....... crap
A Focus ST.........great but matrix so doesn't count.

There's a pattern if you can spot it.

My Fauxrrari doesn't have them. That has a couple of candles.......which I fitted on purpose believe it of not.

Do you ever take the Fauxrrari out in the Dark?

 

[Pondy]

Do you ever take the Fauxrrari out in the Dark?

I haven't taken it out in the light yet this year. See my build thread for the reason why.

 

[AnubisZed]

Update No/1

OK so the mirror finally arrived (issues with double Bank Holiday and crap service from Evri!) I've made up the small adaptor loom for the canbus for the mirror (plug-n-play jumper from the FZD) and done a test fit. Then I did some coding to see what would happen.
So the results....
First test proved that I'd buggered something up and now had a fault in the airbag system. This was, eventually, traced to me placing the canbus wires in the wrong holes , try again...
No indication on the clocks.
Full beam did not come on initially at all. Placed something over the RLS (Rain Light Sensor) and tried again and full beam came on (normal blue indication on clocks).
So it's detecting that it's dark enough for needing full beam by the RLS being covered.
So the system is working as far as I could test it at the time.
I've since done some more research, mainly regarding the lack of the FLA Active light on the clocks, and I've found a really good detailed thread over on E90post.com that's given me some more to check and do to sort this.
The only other issue I've got to sort is the key fob receiver that on my original mirror is a small PCB, but the new mirror doesn't have this as it has one large PCB. A minor problem to sort.

For now the original mirror is back in, all faults rectified.

 

[B21]

Update No/1

OK so the mirror finally arrived (issues with double Bank Holiday and crap service from Evri!) I've made up the small adaptor loom for the canbus for the mirror (plug-n-play jumper from the FZD) and done a test fit. Then I did some coding to see what would happen.
So the results....
First test proved that I'd buggered something up and now had a fault in the airbag system. This was, eventually, traced to me placing the canbus wires in the wrong holes , try again...
No indication on the clocks.
Full beam did not come on initially at all. Placed something over the RLS (Rain Light Sensor) and tried again and full beam came on (normal blue indication on clocks).
So it's detecting that it's dark enough for needing full beam by the RLS being covered.
So the system is working as far as I could test it at the time.
I've since done some more research, mainly regarding the lack of the FLA Active light on the clocks, and I've found a really good detailed thread over on E90post.com that's given me some more to check and do to sort this.
The only other issue I've got to sort is the key fob receiver that on my original mirror is a small PCB, but the new mirror doesn't have this as it has one large PCB. A minor problem to sort.

For now the original mirror is back in, all faults rectified.

The curse of the traveller…a for perseverance…

 

[Matt.rowley.1990]

I've had them on:
A Merc E250.....crap
A Volvo V90......crap
A BMW F33.......crap
An Audi A4....... crap
A Focus ST.........great but matrix so doesn't count.

There's a pattern if you can spot it.

My Fauxrrari doesn't have them. That has a couple of candles.......which I fitted on purpose believe it of not.

Interesting that your experience with the F33 wasn't a good one.

I had a 2012 (pre-LCI) F30 335i and that had high beam assist. I was amazed when I first used it and saw that it would independently dip the beams for each headlight. My replacement 2018 B9 S4 didn't do this and was much slower to react. My 2020 G20 330e doesn't have it at all, despite having the fancy turning lights! Apparently can't even be coded in.

 

[AnubisZed]

The curse of the traveller…a for perseverance…

The original place I found this information, where in itself wasn't wrong but was lacking some additional detail, so now I have this detail I'll continue when I get the chance.
This is another of those "because I can" and not "because I need it" type of retrofits