Ambient lighting and illuminated door sills.

[randomeddy]

I have a 2011 BMW 530d, the door sill cover was tatty with letters and trim missing so I went to the dealers for a new one (after much fruitless searching for a s/hand one and not wanting a Chinese made M sport one).

I told the parts guy the reg' number and he came back and asked if the car had ambient lighting, which it has.

This set me off thinking the sill covers must light up.

Said cover arrived and upon fitting it I was disappointed to find nowhere to plug it in. With the parts person asking about the ambient lighting I thought it would just be a straight swap and my original one was just not working.

Part numbers of old and new covers were the same when comparing them side by side.

I found a place online that does a wiring harness to make said covers work but it is 65 quid for basically four connectors and four bits of wire.

Any thoughts on why the parts person asked about ambient lighting when they seem to be two separate items.

Edited by randomeddy on Thursday 15th September 06:05

[RUSSELLM]

Probably just a box to tick on his part checker.

I take it the opposite treadplate isn't illuminated ?

For what it's worth, on the cars I work on, ambient lights tend to have adjustable colours. But the treadplates are a normal white light and on the courtesy circuit.

[randomeddy]

So went back this morning to clear up the confusion, another parts guy could not figure out why the 1st bloke had got confused with the sill trim/ambient lighting.

He offered a refund but I told him it had piqued my interest and I now wanted the illuminated sills and asked him to order a passenger side one.

He did a quote for them to get it all up and working. £630.

No thanks.