BMW 6-Series Lighting Guide

This guide is not designed to spoon feed every detail while completing any of the below mods. If you are
confident enough to attempt any of these, I assume you have the basic skills to remove panels and parts to
gain the required access to perform any of these mods. If you can’t pull the front bumper assembly off, you
should probably get someone else to do it. All of the supplies/tools needed below can easily be found at
Radio Shack, car parts retailers or your local home improvement store.

Disclaimer: The below mods are not difficult if one has a basic knowledge of electrical systems and
components and some mechanical skills. I’ve tried to make it as simple as possible, but will not be responsible
for any damage/problems resulting from attempting these mods.

Running accessory power to the engine compartment:

What’s needed: Multimeter or 12-volt test light, 15’ or so of 10-12 gauge wire, wire taps/connectors, black
plastic wire loom, and some zip ties.

Running an accessory power wire into the engine compartment is necessary to complete all of the following
mods to your front end lighting. It’s also the biggest pain in the butt. However, once completed, you have the
capability to do a lot of things to your lighting without generating error codes.

- The power source I used is the 12-volt outlet/socket in the passenger side foot well (mounted to the
panel under the glove box). Drop this panel down and tap into the + positive wire. BMW almost
always uses a brown wire for a ground. You can’t go wrong if you use a 12-volt test light to check for
power with the ignition on/off.
- Remove the kick panel on the right side of the passenger foot well.
- Pop the hood and gain access to the wire bundles under the passenger side cabin air filter (see pics)
- At the bottom of the box is a large rubber grommet that feeds a wire bundle into the box from the
passenger foot well. What I did was duct tape the end of my wire (use 10-12 gauge wire) to a long
screwdriver and shoved it through the grommet and then pulled it into the foot well to tap into the 12-
volt socket on the panel under the glove box.
- Then I ran it alongside the factory wire bundle that runs into the passenger side headlight area (see
pic).
- I covered it with some black plastic wire covering and zip tied it to the factory wire bundle. That way it
looks pro and indistinguishable from factory installed wiring.
- Test for power with ignition on/off. Should only have power with the ignition on.
- Put the interior pieces, box cover and cabin air filter parts back together.
- Remove the front bumper assembly. It only takes 10 mins at most.
- Grab the accessory feed you just ran and leaving a couple feet of slack, run the wire through the hollow
center of the aluminum bumper to the driver’s side headlight area (see pic).
- Now you have an accessory feed you can tap from both sides of the car.
 Angel Eyes on when car is running:
What’s needed: 18-gauge wire, wire taps/connectors and two standard 5-bladed, 12-volt relays.

For those of you who have to turn on your parking lights to turn the angel eyes on, this mod will provide
power from the accessory wire to turn the angel eyes on anytime the car ignition is on. It will also revert back
to the factory wire harness when the headlights or parking lights are turned on. This will prevent the lighting
module from sending an error to your display.

- Disconnect wire connectors and remove both headlight assemblies (two connectors and four bolts).
- Peel back the wire covering on the angel eye connectors a few inches.
- Cut the angel eye wires a few inches from the connector and add about 18” of 18-guage wire to both
wires (see pic). This will allow you to connect to the relay and also give you a lot more slack when you
want to replace or remove/install angel eye bulbs in the future. You’ll have enough wire to pull the
connector up and out far enough to easily disconnect/reconnect the plug,

- Reconnect the angel eye ground (brown wire) to the original wire.
- Connect the angel eye +positive wire to blade #30 on the relay.
- Attach a wire to blade #85 and ground it. You can either tap into the brown angel eye wire or attach it
to a bolt/screw that provided a good ground. I just used the angel eye ground.
- Attach a wire to blade #87a and tap the other end to your accessory wire.
- Attach the original factory power feed wire to both blades #87 and #86 on the relay.
- Repeat the above steps on the other side.
- Clean up your wires by using zip ties and electrical tape or some wire loom and tuck the relay back and
out of the way.
- Reinstall headlights and bumper.
- Your angel eyes are now powered by the accessory feed when the headlights and/or parking lights are
off. The relay will isolate the accessory feed and switch to the factory harness when the headlight
switch is turned to the either the headlight or parking light position or when the headlights
automatically come on in the auto position.
 Fog Lights on when car is running:
If you want your fog lights on all the time without having to push the button every time (or having to turn on
your parking lights/headlights to allow the use of them) you can perform the exact same procedure as above
for the angel eyes. Although you’ll probably want to run 16 gauge wire instead. However, as an alternative
you can simply wire them directly to the accessory feed without having to use a relay. If you chose this route
you will get an error when/if you push the fog light button. But since you’ll never NEED to push it, why not?

Converting side markers from turn signals to running lights:

What’s needed: 18 gauge wire, wire taps/connectors.

- Jack up your car and remove the front tire.

- Remove screws and plastic fasteners from wheel well liner.
- Remove light assembly (carefully) by pushing back and out on the lens.
- Disconnect the connector, peel back the wire covering a bit and cut the wires off a few inches from the
connector.
- Cap off the original feed wires.
- Connect two wires (brown is ground) to the connector long enough to reach your accessory feed wire
in the headlight area.
- TIP: stick the ends of the two wires in a drill and pull the trigger to twist them together. It will save
you a lot of with ties and it looks pro.
- Pull the fender well liner down far enough to run your wires up and over the wheel well (a lot of room
in there).
- Attach your ground wire to a suitable ground (I just used the ground from my relay).
- Attach the power wire to your accessory feed wire (if you have done any of the other mods, ensure
you tap the accessory feed upstream of your relays.
- Put your car back together.
- Your side markers are now running lights instead of turn signals (side markers do not generate errors).

Converting Daytime Running Lights (DRLs) from 3 volts to 12 volts:

If you have to have DRLs, ie our European friends or want to run cool LEDs as DRLs this procedure will run 12
volts to your DRLs instead of the miniscule 3 volts that reduce bulb output to a pathetic dim and dull. If your
DRLs are currently off and you want them on, this will also save you a trip to the dealer and about $100. I
have 8K bulbs with 96 LEDs in mine and I like the look. It makes my 6 a bit more unique than all the other
Beemers that are only running with angel eyes.

What’s needed: 16 gauge wire, connectors/taps and two (I used 10 ohm 50 watt) ballast resistors (only if your
DRLs are currently activated).

- Peel back covering from wiring to primary headlight connector (see pic).
- Cut power (yellow/green stripe) and ground wires several inches back from the connector (see pic).
- Connect the power wire from the connector to your accessory feed.
- NOTE: If your DRLs are currently NOT activated, cap off the original wire feeds and you’re done.
 - If your DRLs ARE currently activated continue with the steps below.
- Find a suitable location for your ballast resistor. It will get warm, so mount it somewhere it can
transfer heat without affecting anything (see pic to see where I installed it).
- Wire one end of the ballast resistor to your original ground feed and the other end to the original
power feed.
- Put your car back together…you’re done.
- Now the computer will sense a load and not generate a “high beam” error and your DRLs are powered
by 12 volts so you can install any bulb you want.

If there’s anything I left out of this guide or you need clarification, please feel free to hit me up and I’ll do my
best to help you out.
A few pics of my lighting with ignition on and headlights/fog lights off:

Good reference on 12 volt wiring

http://www.the12volt.com/

Bulb Chart
http://www.sylvania.com/ConsumerProducts/AutomotiveLighting/LampReplacementGuide/

Ballast Resistors and Relays

http://www.superlumination.com/