How to do you turn on just the two inside lights on a 2003 330ci?

Question

i have seen pictures of just the two inside lights turned on where the high beams would be but theyre not the high beams. how is this possible. i have a 330ci myself and i dont see how you can do this...

Answer 1

What you are describing can be 2 possiblilities:

1. Daytime Running Lights (DRL) - powers your high beam bulbs at half voltage. Your dealer can activate this feature for you; but will charge you a programming fee (usually $75). If this is it, you do not need to read the rest.

2. BMWs outside of the US have "city lights" or "side lights". The picture you saw might be a non-US model like this:
http://mark.cb.spb.ru/pub/BMW/E46/14_e46.jpg

I'm saying "non-US" instead of "European" because on this aspect, ONLY US models do not have this feature. The rest of the world does.

Note that in the picture:
1. Headlights are ON
2. Amber side markers are OFF (non-US spec)
3. A small bulbs in the highbeam units are ON (side lights)
4. DRLs do not come on with the headlights on... so these ARE NOT daytime running lights.

This is an extra bulb in each of the high beam reflector. They come on in the first position (ie; the first click) on your light switch - before turning on the headlamps. US cars unfortunately has this feature DELETED from their specs, they did the same to rear fog lamps on the car; which I feel is a mistake. You however can buy the 2 bulb holders, drill out the hole (which is sealed, but clearly marked if you looked behind the highbeam unit on US cars), and add it back in to your car. The tricky part is to find the correct wires. The bulb holders are cheap (a few $).

Here's another (dimmed) photo showing clearly where this extra bulb is located in the top corner of each high beam reflector..
http://mark.cb.spb.ru/pub/BMW/E46/07_e46.jpg

You can also see these lights on Mazda 6, many Mercedez Benz and Jaguar and many other import cars in the US... not sure why BMW had to remove theirs.

Look in your US spec car's highbeam reflector from the front, you will see some black round plastic in that same location. Or, if you have the opportunity in the future to travel to Europe, Asia or Africa, look at that same location in a local car there.

Answer 2

2 hours would not be long enough. I'm the kind of reader where I can sit my butt down and read all day long. So being locked in a library would be like heaven to me. And how come school could never be this exciting for me? I'd love to come home and have my mom ask that same question, 'How was school today?' 'Oh, you know, some armed man was robbing houses up and down the street near the school. The principle feared he'd come into the school and start robbing all the students and teachers. So we went into lock down. But hey! I got to spend a couple hours reading in the library!'

Answer 3

bring it to the dealer and ask them to program the day time runners. it will be $50 or so. thats what your asking about. wont take long very cheep very quick.. no holes to drill.

Answer 4

its the dlr (day time running lights) . if you go to the dealer and have them program your dlr lights to be on, then whenever you turn on your vehicle (assuming your headlights are turned off) your dlr's will come on .