Ambient overhead lighting....

[Dieseldonkey]

Finished my wee project today with the BMW ambient lighting.



Split the circuit board to widen the light position. Then did some dodgy donkey soldering. A cone drill allowed me to get the right size holes with a nice interference fit.



Thick brown wire on this connector is your -ve. Grey/blue wire is your switch illumination +ve.



I'd previously fitted this DPDT on/off/on switch up in the panel. It's used for switching on 6 cabin lights with...
Pos 1. Cabin lights work with courtesy setting, powered by vehicle battery.
Centre off.
Pos 2. Lights on permanetly. Power from leisure battery.

So this got me thinking. I could add another switch so that the ambient lights could either come on with the side lights, be turned off independently or switched on independently so they can be used as night lights and powered from the leisure battery. They're under the pop top hatch, so ideally located if the wee man wants to jump down and go for pee through the night.



So added a second switch and a dod of silver paint on the surrounds. Just need to print some labels.

Ambient off.
Ambient on
Ambient with radio on.
Just ambient night light setting. No dash illumination.

In total, cost about £20. Quite pleased with that.

 

[saxoboy]

Hi @Pauly, can you get a price on these?

3B7 947 105 F 2EN
3B0 972 706
000 979 131 E x2
000 979 103 E x2
893 971 993

I think this is the list of new bits to make the W8 cab light work.....

Thanks mate...Im a VIP member so any savings would be great

Matt

 

[fezza68]

@Robert have you any pics of this at night time?.

 

[Robert]

I am not sure if I can really show the result in the photo.
But anyway, please try to see my hand with and without illumination below

 

[Lowlec]

You need an ignition supply or button illumination supply to feed the new ambient light (depending how you want them to work) easiest way is to drop a cable down the drivers A pillar and Into the dash then pickup up a supply there, you can get the button illumination from the back of the dash dimmer or ignition supply if you want them on all the time the van on

Which cable would you connect,to dim the leds at the back of the dimmer switch?

 

[Deaky]

Which cable would you connect,to dim the leds at the back of the dimmer switch?

The grey one with a blue trace

 

[Pauly]

^^^^

 

[Dripster]

Just trying to replicate this on my 2019 Beach. Don't seem to have grey/blue wires on the roof console, but clearly have switch illumination feed. Which of these would that be?

 

[Dripster]

Ah, I think I've found it on the feed to the connector. Looks like it connects to the red wire, but I'll take it from the feed.

 

[Dripster]

Done! As ever, thanks to all on here for the advice and inspiration.