C5 X7 ambient lighting (and some other bits and pieces)

[vborovic]

If someone has a C5 X7 Exclusive (with the ambient lighting being talked about here) and a Lexia, it would help me greatly to know where in the Lexia's menu one can find the option to turn on/off the LED strip ... since I don't have Lexia myself (yet), the only input on this is from the Citroen Service who told me no such function could be found on my car, so I would just like to double check this ... still after the fitting of the LED strips to my car, it is hard wired to light up with the opening of the door (pavement lighting), and there is supposedly no way of using the also fitted switch behind the wheel which should turn on/off the LEDs ... so, before I go trying something else (linking to the headlamp sidelights or low beams), any concrete information about this would be of help ...

[Xantippa]

I think mood-lightning was mentioned in this document: http://home.hccnet.nl/b.kool/C5%20config%20BSI.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

On my car that led-strip goes off when other interior lights are on, at least when door is opened.

[vborovic]

I had the same document from before, don't remember how I stumbled upon it, but I haven't been able to find anything related to the LED lighting in question ... I'm not sure what the default action of the light is and how it interacts with other elements, IMO the light goes on when the main beams come on (or, simper, when the orange light on the ceiling glows), and then you can turn the LED strips off by using the dedicated button behind the wheel ... in my current improvised solution, the LED strips turn on with the door open lighting, and turn off with it ... in case my car doesn't have the Lexia option of enabling this, then the only other solution for me would be to hard-wire again, but this time to the sidelights running ... but, currently, the dedicated switch is not working, because we couldn't find a way to get it work (it is lit up with the others when it is dark), so electricity is running, but with no sure way of knowing if it sends any signals to the ECU ... I guess I'll have to speed up in ordering my Lexia, because without it I'm clueless in these situations ...

[Xantippa]

Presence of the light
pack unit
No
Yes
Configure yes if the vehicle is fitted with « light bars »
under the fascia.

[vborovic]

I must be blind for missing that one ... ... thanks for the pointer ... ... I'll try to see with the Citroen Service if they can find that on my car again, maybe the option really is missing due to it not being an Exclusive car

[Xantippa]

I think that option should be availabe on all cars despite of trim level and presence of light bars. Why would there be an option to enable it or not otherwise...?

[vborovic]

My thought exactly, but until I can confirm this, it is just speculation ...

[vborovic]

So, the current setting for the LED strip is that it is hooked to work in parallel to the sidelights in the headlamp (since I've configured them by Diagbox to stay on with the DRL, basically, the entire time), because, even after enabling the Light Pack option via Diagbox (which in theory should enable the LED strip in the BSI), the Citroen electrician, following the wiring diagrams wasn't able to get any current on the dedicated pins ... so, I'll stick with this solution for now, and still having the ambient switch on the dash for decoration only ... ... now, can any of the members who have this option (qprdude?) on their cars, explain how this works exactly? I'm guessing the LED strip turns on with the orange lights on the ceiling (or, to be more precise, with the low beam lights) ... and then you can use the dash button to turn the LED strip off/on ... now, when you turn it off, do you get any message on the wheel screen or navigation screen about this? I doubt it, because if you want to deactivate the genuine alarm before turning off the ignition, you also don't get any message for that action ...

By the way, I've also replaced the central console open compartment (that is supplied to the radio options that are not NG4 - Navidrive 3D), because mine had the open one, which meant that for every rapid acceleration everything fell out of the compartment, and I had to catch stuff around the gearstick ... I ordered a closed one (with the door mechanism), and now everything is secure ... the door model has a lower opening, but a very similar base size (width & depth) in dimensions as the open one.

[Xantippa]

I think led strip turns on same time as leds on the ceiling. Strip turns off when doors are opened and ceiling lights + footwell lights are on. And of course you can turn it off with the switch.

[vborovic]

That's what my guess was, except I didn't know of that trick that the LED turns off when the doors are opened ... that's really a more complex logic that definitely can't work without the BSI ...

[vborovic]

I've managed to obtain the interior electro-chromed mirror, used (as usual, at a great price), which is installed in X7s that have exterior electro-chromed mirrors as well. What distinguishes it from mine currently is that it has an AUTO button on the bottom, meaning you can turn on/off the dimming feature, and this is visible by the green LED in the corner of the mirror. Why bother with this? This is only Phase 1, Phase 2 will be when (and if) I manage to find exterior electro-chromed mirror glass, but if you consider one (1x) costs around 200 GBP new ... I'll try to pick a pair from a scrapped X7, if possible ... I just have to wait for the evening to be able to go out and test if it actually works as it should (the dimming part) ... if it will work, then I'll post up pictures of the procedure, if it won't, well ... no pictures ... ...

[vborovic]

In the meantime, here's one more spot-the-difference game from me & my car ...

[vborovic]

After a night test of the new (actually used) interior rear-view mirror, I've concluded that it works, and it also works with the Auto switch on/off, will I find it useful sometime, who knows. At least I was reminded during the test runs that when you put the car in reverse, the dimming is suspended, to allow for better rear-view visibility (yes, it says so in the user manual, but I'm not reading it daily). So, on to the procedure. My now old interior mirror was 0000815489, and the new one is 00008153TW ... if normal, you wouldn't find the latter alone, meaning it is always paired with external electro-chromed mirrors (I'm half way there, ain't I) ... Since I didn't make any check beforehand, I wasn't sure if the wiring would support any extra wires/connectors for the new mirror, which would make it a big issue later on.

"new" interior mirror

The 2 piece plastic cover that covers the hinge of the mirror is easily un-clipped, there are 3 hooks, you just have to get under one cover and slowly pry/unhook them. The connector has to be unhooked as well from the mirror (black square head), no tools required, just press in its side clip. The mirror can be unhooked the easiest way by doing a rotating action (in any direction) on the metal part regarding the central black bolt (seen on the following picture), a quarter turn should do the trick. It grips tightly, so you need to apply more pressure that expected while doing that.

after unhooking the mirror

Here it can be seen that there are 2 wire strips, which in total have 5 wires (2+3, if I saw correctly, the working angle could've been better if the central handrest wasn't in the way), thus my fear of not having all the connections was proven wrong.

The clipping of the mirror took more time, as I tried being really gentle with the clipping (start with aligning the mirror's clips to the bolt corners, and then do the quarter turn), and actually fought with the mirror&bolt (they didn't want to cooperate as gently as I wanted them to), after several failed attempts (had a fear of doing damage to the windshield if using excess force), decided to push/turn it harder, until the mirror admitted defeat .

almost-the-end result

The plastic 2-part cover is obviously missing in the picture, but everything was working at this point. After ignition, you get the green LED indicator constantly glowing (that is, if the Auto button is pushed inside - on position), meaning the mirror will be dimmed if required. And that's all there is to it.

Two short(and obvious) tips on how to quickly tell the two interior mirrors apart (applies to the electro-chromed versions only, the regular one has a very slim window joint, compared to these two that have much bigger plastic covers around the metal joint): outside view (sensor hole is in the middle bottom - only interior chromed | sensor hole on the side - interior + exterior chromed); inside view (sensor hole in the middle - only interior chromed | LED on the left, AUTO label center, sensor hole right - interior + exterior chromed).

[vborovic]

After a while, getting back to the ambient light strip problem ... one more attempt in the Citroen Service to get it right (genuine setting) this time failed again ... the schematics show the 2 led bars, where they need to connect, and that's the way it is set up, but the missing piece is the button behind the wheel (which should provide an option to turn the LEDs on/off) ... this is driving me nuts, because the missing piece of the puzzle could be just the wrong wiring schematic, but we can't pinpoint it or know for sure ... the button is wired (genuine) to something on the BSI board, but we have no idea to what exactly ... any thoughts?

[vborovic]

What we did now, is connect two wires to the BSI, where the ambient light strips should be connected to work as intended, and they're tucked behind the small under steering wheel compartment, for future easier access & testing ... we've tried with closed doors, lights on/off, default actions ... nothing triggered it ... the thing that occurred to us is that the actual official schematics are wrong ... wouldn't be the first time as I was informed ...