Proud new owner! Have some questions

[Nisaja]

Hey guys! First time posting here! I've lurked around for years. Real happy to finally be a part of the community!

Not new to BMWs but new to E89s (and BMWs made after 2003 ). I just bought a beautiful 2012 alpine white sDrive 20i today. Great car. Just have a few questions.

The car I have has yellow halo rings. I want white halo rings. Now, I googled this and found out that they're H8 bulbs. I saw a bunch of BMW specific H8 LED bulbs for sale on eBay. Thing is, theres an import ban where I live, so importing these is kinda out of the question. Can I drop in some off the shelf H8 LED bulbs? Will they fit?

The right side headlight is aimed all the way down. I can barely see the light cutoff. It's that low. The left side headlight is fine. Could it be the auto leveling sensor?

The car I have has bluetooth but only for calls. I plugged in my iPhone into the USB port in the center armrest and the car detected it as an iPod but kept saying the device is not supported. Went on google and people say you gotta use the original cable. I am. Still no luck.

My car has the 8 speed auto. I've been trying to find the minimum and maximum speeds for upshifting and downshifting in each gear but couldn't find anything. I find it useful because whenever I tried to downshift into first, it didn't downshift. It would help if I know the max speed I can go into first. Kinda geeky, I know lol, but that's how I am.

My car has black kidney grills. For some weird reason I love the silver grills and I've been thinking of painting them silver. Did the silver grills come on higher optioned cars?

Thats pretty much it for now. The rest I can google up and figure out.

Thanks a bunch!

 

[Ole gits rule]

Hello and welcome to the forum, congrats on the purchase.

Pics will be good and also model designation

Black grill, quite a few people change the silver for black I think, lights there is a thread on here on halos that should be used.

Can't help with much else as my iPhone plays music via bluetooth

 

[flybobbie]

You will never get completely white halos, rubbish design. Some leds can improve it a bit.
Try adjusting headlamp up, look from above you will see a white hexagon socket. Also check the beams fall and rise when you start up.
I sprayed my grilles silver, they will come apart from chrome surround.

 

[Ole gits rule]

You will never get completely white halos, rubbish design. Some leds can improve it a bit.
Try adjusting headlamp up, look from above you will see a white hexagon socket. Also check the beams fall and rise when you start up.
I sprayed my grilles silver, they will come apart from chrome surround.

Doh, I was thinking of the chrome surround being black

 

[Mr Tidy]

Hi and welcome aboard.

Sadly I can't offer much advice regarding E89s as I've only had E86s, but we'd love to see a photo or two of your Z4!

 

[buzyg]

Welcome to the forum.

 

[Anonymous]

There’s only one headlamp level sensor so the fault must be on that headlamp side specifically

If you search threads here on ‘angel eyes’ you will see much discussion on led bulbs in DRLs

If you have the basic connectivity then it’s likely that you do not have e tended usb support..an easy way to check is to copy a few mp3 or wma files from say WMP onto a Fat 32 format 32gb or less usb and see if they come up when plugged into that central usb slot

No E89 grills AFAIK were OE all gloss black

The auto box even in manual mode stops any inappropriate downshifts...

In sport mode and sports+ mode higher Rev downshifts are automatically engaged

 

[Jasonn]

I have a 2016 and couldn't stream music via Bluetooth either, I got in touch with a local coder who got it sorted in around 15 minutes. I did try doing it myself but gave up after making no progress.

If you're local to East London, I can DM his details

 

[Nisaja]

Thanks a lot for the welcome guys! I don't have an upload worthy picture. I'll take some tomorrow.

I tried adjusting the headlight. They both dip down and up when I turn on the car. Adjusting the right headlight does nothing. It's always pointing down. The same thing happened in my E39 when the headlight adjuster broke. It was constantly pointing down. I guess this one's broken too?

I bought a Bluetooth aux adapter. Weirdly, listening to music through the aux cable reduces the bass! It doesn't sound the same as the radio. It's a huge difference. What's up with that?

Regarding the gearbox, I was talking about the maximum speed in each gear for downshifting, so I can pull the at the right time.

Why doesn't the AC turn off? Pressing the low fan button until it switches off makes it turn back on again!?! I have to hold that button down for a few seconds to get it to stay off.

I have a new problem now I was cleaning the car today, and while cleaning the armrests, the window switches got a little wet. Now, the windows don't work. The drivers side panel doesn't work at all. Not even the mirror controls. The passenger side switch works to roll the window down, but not up. So now I can't close the window. Will this be ok when it dries up? I really hope I won't have to replace the switch panels.

 

[Anonymous]

The 3.5mm socket gives really poor audio...best audio is through the usb, then Bluetooth..the 3.5mm is the worst , adjusting the level may help.

Water on the window switch gear can disable the unit as described, with luck after a day or two in a dry atmosphere it should work again, don’t ask how I know.

Your data figures are here https://www.automobile-catalog.com/auta_perf1.php

 

[Marcoose]

If we lived closer, you could come grab a pair of silver grilles gratis.

 

[Nisaja]

The 3.5mm socket gives really poor audio...best audio is through the usb, then Bluetooth..the 3.5mm is the worst , adjusting the level may help.

Water on the window switch gear can disable the unit as described, with luck after a day or two in a dry atmosphere it should work again, don’t ask how I know.

Your data figures are here https://www.automobile-catalog.com/auta_perf1.php

Thank you so much! I adjusted the level. The problem is not the volume. It's the bass. For some reason FM sounds way better with a lot more low end bass. Audio from the 3.5mm jack sounds flat.

That's great! The drivers side panel doesn't work at all. Not even the mirror controls. I'm really worried because this was a perfect car with nothing to do, and now I screwed it up what's the worst that could happen?

Thanks for the link! Great info, but I needed the min and Max entry speeds for each gear set by the computer.

https://imgur.com/gallery/Kb5tIOc

This is what I'm talking about. The maximum speed I can enter into a gear, coming from a higher gear.

 

[Nisaja]

If we lived closer, you could come grab a pair of silver grilles gratis.

Thanks a lot. Sadly I live in Asia. I'm planning to wrap the roof in black so I'm starting to think the black grills will suit the car. Will def post some pics!

 

[Nisaja]

Is there any way to temporarily close my passenger side window? It's open halfway I tried holding the lock button to see if the windows would go up. No dice. Would opening the roof and closing it get the window up? Or will it only come back up to its last position?

 

[Roddy]

Is there any way to temporarily close my passenger side window? It's open halfway I tried holding the lock button to see if the windows would go up. No dice. Would opening the roof and closing it get the window up? Or will it only come back up to its last position?

What do you mean? You have window open/close switches right? Try using them....

 

[Nisaja]

Is there any way to temporarily close my passenger side window? It's open halfway I tried holding the lock button to see if the windows would go up. No dice. Would opening the roof and closing it get the window up? Or will it only come back up to its last position?

What do you mean? You have window open/close switches right? Try using them....

They stopped working after they got wet while cleaning the car.

 

[Anonymous]

The 3.5mm socket gives really poor audio...best audio is through the usb, then Bluetooth..the 3.5mm is the worst , adjusting the level may help.

Water on the window switch gear can disable the unit as described, with luck after a day or two in a dry atmosphere it should work again, don’t ask how I know.

Your data figures are here https://www.automobile-catalog.com/auta_perf1.php

Thank you so much! I adjusted the level. The problem is not the volume. It's the bass. For some reason FM sounds way better with a lot more low end bass. Audio from the 3.5mm jack sounds flat.

That's great! The drivers side panel doesn't work at all. Not even the mirror controls. I'm really worried because this was a perfect car with nothing to do, and now I screwed it up what's the worst that could happen?

Thanks for the link! Great info, but I needed the min and Max entry speeds for each gear set by the computer.

https://imgur.com/gallery/Kb5tIOc

This is what I'm talking about. The maximum speed I can enter into a gear, coming from a higher gear.

It’s not that simple..the ZF8HP is ‘smart’ and ‘adaptive’ so it’s shift permitted speeds up and down are governed by many variables

Rate of acceleration or de-acceleration, turn rate, brakes on or off, previous driving behaviour and mode set..

So if you want to play set it to manual mode and sports+ mode then use the paddles to blip up and down and see what she does...generally she will let you shift down unless the shift places it above the lower gear red line..

 

[enuff_zed]

Is there any way to temporarily close my passenger side window? It's open halfway I tried holding the lock button to see if the windows would go up. No dice. Would opening the roof and closing it get the window up? Or will it only come back up to its last position?

What do you mean? You have window open/close switches right? Try using them....

Read the whole thread before being too flippant with a new guy.
His window switches got wet and he's hoping from advice given on here that they will dry out and start working again.
I'm guessing, in the meantime he's trying to find a way to make the car secure.

 

[Pondrew]

Regarding the windows issue. It might be worth checking you haven't popped a fuse as the whole panel is out. Don't ask me where they are though!

 

[mr.tourette]

Regarding the windows issue. It might be worth checking you haven't popped a fuse as the whole panel is out. Don't ask me where they are though!

Ah, the e89 fusebox, what a joy for ease of use, not something you really want to ask a new owner to do although I guess you have to learn to access it at some point