Light Control Module Programming or Replace

C

cj10jeeper

Lifer
 Lichfield, England
OK - simple question, but no doubt I'm about to tread on a minefield of international variations....

To narrow I'm looking UK car specific here, but the theory probably holds true on all Zeds

Can a prefacelift LCM be dealer (or indy) coded to run xenon lights without the need to go out and purchase a xenon specific LCM/light switch.

In a test today with another member I fitted xenon lights in a halogen set up car. The lights woudl not work as plug and play. Putting my Xenon LCM in made the lights work correctly.

As an aside I need a silver inner (as opposed to the black) from any LHS pre facelift light. Anyone have a trashed light unit, halogen, xenon anything will do?
 
srhutch said:
have you looked on realoem.cm to see if there are different part numbers?
Click to expand...

Oh for sure - way beyond that stage. I think there are 6 different switches IIRC.

We already know we can simply slot in a switch from a 'Xenon' car and it will work xenon's in a 'halogen' car.
Trick is to identify if the original can be programmd to work and avoid the need to give BMW £230 for a new unit
 
Just though that if only one was listed for both xenon and halogen then you could re program but, should have known you would have looked there already. :oops:
 
srhutch said:
Just though that if only one was listed for both xenon and halogen then you could re program but, should have known you would have looked there already. :oops:
Click to expand...

Oops hope my post did not come over wrong. :oops:
As always anything I do has a bit of a complex twist as I'm trying to work with someone to get OEM Xenon's on a non xenon car at the least cost as part of a bigger project.
 
Not a problem, on a tangent though, did it not cause the little orange dot to appear in the dials on either car after swapping the light switched round, it has been posted here about it, as a mileage tamper notification.
 
srhutch said:
Not a problem, on a tangent though, did it not cause the little orange dot to appear in the dials on either car after swapping the light switched round, it has been posted here about it, as a mileage tamper notification.
Click to expand...

No but it did cause me to go into the garage to check.... :rofl:

What it did do on both cars is cause the clocks, date, etc. to zero and on one the ABS warning light to come on for a number of miles before self clearing. Can't see what swapping light switches would cause a mileage tamper error.
 
I cant find the post is was on, but also somebody pointed out the light switch does more than just control the lights.
 
Hello,

I think I can say something to this. Swapping Light Control Module with another car isn't a good idea. As you probably know this module is coded to match vehicle VIN, holds copy of odometer mileage, etc. The good news for you is that it probably can be just recoded. Two weeks ago I've done recoding of friends E46 LCM from original halogen version to bi-xenon after he changed headlamps and it works flawless. It took about 10 minutes. AFAIK there is OEM xenon retrofit kit for Z4 and this is done exactly like I've done it on E46 - you swap headlights and recode LCM.
 
BOSS said:
Hello,

I think I can say something to this. Swapping Light Control Module with another car isn't a good idea. As you probably know this module is coded to match vehicle VIN, holds copy of odometer mileage, etc. The good news for you is that it probably can be just recoded. Two weeks ago I've done recoding of friends E46 LCM from original halogen version to bi-xenon after he changed headlamps and it works flawless. It took about 10 minutes. AFAIK there is OEM xenon retrofit kit for Z4 and this is done exactly like I've done it on E46 - you swap headlights and recode LCM.
Click to expand...

BOSS - thanks this is useful information. I had noted from further research that the LCM is one of the main modules in the bus and clearly controls a lot more than just on and off of the lights. A simple glance at the physical size and circuit board shows its complexity.

How did you recode? Own software, dealer or other?
 
I did it myself using BMW GT1/DIS/CIP diagnostic/programming software with custom made interface. Last weeks I've spent my free time on getting this whole system running, with recent success. Now I can diagnose and program my car and experiment with everything (that is my hobby :D )

I think any dealer with diagnostic system can recode this for you, not sure about price asked.
 
BOSS - I agree that BMW will be able to do it (if they agree to...) They will be expensive.

I'm going to try Carsoft 6.5 software with a suitable interface and see how I get on as I have other things I'd like to do anyway on my own Z4 and X5.

It interests me too to experiment and look at the electronics for various projects I work on as a hobby :)
 
cj10jeeper, I hope you will share your experience with Carsoft. My opinion on this: I've tested CS 6.5 last year and found it pretty useless unfortunately. There was only few options compared to original BMW software and some even didn't worked correctly. Similar situation was with P.A.Soft, although it was way better with ability to read/write EEPROMs (but that is useful just in case you know what to do with that).
 
BOSS said:
I did it myself using BMW GT1/DIS/CIP diagnostic/programming software with custom made interface. Last weeks I've spent my free time on getting this whole system running, with recent success. Now I can diagnose and program my car and experiment with everything (that is my hobby :D )

I think any dealer with diagnostic system can recode this for you, not sure about price asked.
Click to expand...

Hi There
I have a problem with my E85 LCM in that it doesn't supply sufficient voltage to the drivers headlight motor to activate it, (UK car) I have a 2nd hand LCM but need to code it, I have ISTA-D and P and INPA plus WCP and DIS, can you please advise how you downloaded the configuration from your old one and re-programmed the replacement.
Many thanks in advance/
 
[email protected] said:
BOSS said:
I did it myself using BMW GT1/DIS/CIP diagnostic/programming software with custom made interface. Last weeks I've spent my free time on getting this whole system running, with recent success. Now I can diagnose and program my car and experiment with everything (that is my hobby :D )

I think any dealer with diagnostic system can recode this for you, not sure about price asked.
Click to expand...

Hi There
I have a problem with my E85 LCM in that it doesn't supply sufficient voltage to the drivers headlight motor to activate it, (UK car) I have a 2nd hand LCM but need to code it, I have ISTA-D and P and INPA plus WCP and DIS, can you please advise how you downloaded the configuration from your old one and re-programmed the replacement.
Many thanks in advance/
Click to expand...
If you find a replacement LCM with a matching part number then it is simply a case of bolting it in, then updating mileage and VIN to get rid of the tamper dot. No messing about with configuration or anything. I did it using Scanner 1.4. Took less than 5 minutes, once I realised it needs to odometer reading in Km, not miles.
If you have set up specific things like headlights on as DRLs etc, then you can use Scanner to redo those too.
 
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