BMW 1er E82 DRL's

OcUK Staff
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Hi All,

I'm very new to BMW ownership and loving the experience so far, I picked up a 2012 120D M Sport with 39K with full BMWSH, so I noticed when I gave the car its obligatory first wash at the weekend, that the headlights and tail lights are the facelift versions, if there was such a thing.

The headlights have the DRL bar at the top by the bonnet and the rears have the LED sidelight bar inside them, but they don't operate.

I realise this is a pretty minor thing, I've been through the OBD menu on the car and the DRL option that should be there isn't, which makes me think that it was a factory locked option.

I'd really like to be able to enable them, given the units themselves seem to be capable.

I'm a VW guy usually so generally all the units and wiring are the same, its just the options are disabled on the Canbus system.

So my question is, has anyone come across this before? Is there a way that I can enable them or is it a case of giving it to a specialist with a laptop and the knowhow?

TIA :)
 
OcUK Staff
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Hi,

Well I think it must have been a factory option, so if its not possible to enable them, its not going to fail. At least its never been mentioned on any MOT's the car has had previously. So I think it might be locked out of the options currently.
 
Man of Honour
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I don't know what you mean by a drl bar.

The E82 has two types of headlight. The Xenon lights have white angel eyes for the drls, the halogen ones look comparatively a bit naff and just have a regular bulb.

The rear lights are not part of the DRL setup and in times where they were all they did was light up the taillight anyway. Your rear tail lights are 3 bar CELIS led strips and should come on when you turn your sidelights or headlights on.
 
OcUK Staff
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Hi TW

I maybe mistaken on what I've read, like anything thats available from a google search I guess, take with a pinch of salt.

Headlight units I have are as below;

ukH8Hvw.jpg

The White bar along the top I thought to be a DRL?

The Rear lights on mine are;

iHmMZrE.jpg

but when the lights are on, I'm only getting the bulbs in the unit lighting up, not the LED bar, could just be some dead LED's I'm not really sure?
 
Man of Honour
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Your car hasn't got Xenon lights so doesn't have any LED lighting either unfortunately. The bar at the front is cosmetic and has no function.

I can't remember how the rear lights work on a non Xenon car, if you had a defined and obvious red halogen taillight bulb on when the lights are on then I would suggest that the bits you refer to are also cosmetic.

On higher spec models the red bar in the back is a tube that reflects light from an LED at either end.
 
OcUK Staff
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Ahaa, nice one, I figured it was standard on M-sport models, I guess there must have been options for these when new.

Thanks for sharing with me, I'll stop trying to fix something that will never work :D
 
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