Interesting Hidden Item - Read the manual?

[MAH]

All,

As I am sure most of you aware of(at least those who have read the manual and can remember it all) if you pull back on the turn signal stalk twice after the car is turned off, the HID headlights and tail lights will stay on for a couple of minutes for the purpose of helping you see around the car in the dark. A nice feature, but one which you generally forget about if you do not use it very often. In fact, that is the case with quit a few of these mostly forgotten options. If you never hold down on the station changing buttons on the steering wheel, you would never realize you can change stations, not just jump between preset stations.

Anyway, all of this said, I wish BMW could have seen fit to engineer the lights automatically turning off once you remove the key to the ignition and open the door. It probably would save a number of dead battery situations for us all.

Too much to ask?

Mark

[Ashok Arora]

...and if you hold down the seat heater button, it will switch off no matter what setting it's on

[basil]

And those two little red dots of light above on the overhead light fixture serve as navagation lights so one can read a map, etc. in the dark without having to turn the regular cabin lights on and temporarily degrade night vision. The dash lights need to be turned up all the way for them to be strong enough though.

[1badm5]

Read the manual...lol??? I wish for so much patience! All kidding aside, I have only BRIEFLY browsed the manual (to my detriment). I have owned the '98 740iL for about 4yrs now and I must admit there are way too many "do-dads" features to have to learn, so I pretty much "blew-em-off".

The headlite feature you mention is a great feature though...thanks for sharing, I probably would have never known! And it's simple enough to use often without having to pull out the owners manual and have to learn the process each time!

Thanks!
Robert

[mottati]

the "follow me home" feature... On my 00 car, i only have to pull back once to activate this. I use it often.

How about this, click your turn signal into the left or right position before shutting off the car, and the parking lamps will stay illuminated on that side of the car. Helpful if you're parking on a narrow road, so someone can see your car easier.
Mike

[dwasifar]

Originally Posted by basil

And those two little red dots of light above on the overhead light fixture serve as navagation lights so one can read a map, etc. in the dark without having to turn the regular cabin lights on and temporarily degrade night vision.

Y'know, I liked that little feature so much that I bought the parts to install overhead LEDs in my utility car, a '99 Accord. Then other things came up and I never got around to it. I traded the Accord last weekend, for an '04 Accord, and when I took it out for its first night drive I found that Honda has obviously been paying attention to what BMW is doing - the new Accord has the same feature.

[atomic80]

Originally Posted by MAH

Anyway, all of this said, I wish BMW could have seen fit to engineer the lights automatically turning off once you remove the key to the ignition and open the door. It probably would save a number of dead battery situations for us all.

Too much to ask?

They did implement these automatic on/off headlights into 2002 and newer M5's. I've been trying to get these retrofitted into my 2001 M5 for a while now without luck. Maybe you'll have better luck than I did.

[Teutonaddict]

Originally Posted by MAH

If you never hold down on the station changing buttons on the steering wheel, you would never realize you can change stations, not just jump between preset stations.

Dayum, Mark!

You CAN teach an old dog new tricks!!

I guess I'd better RTFM! LOL! I've owned an E39 since 97, and an E38 for two years, and I never knew I had that capability. Wow.

Clear case of 'ESO.' Equipment Superior to Operator.

I'm beginning to feel a bit like my late father when he saw that my 98 540i/6 came with a VHS supplement to the owner's manual. Even as an engineer, he was overwhelmed by the technology. "I just want to DRIVE the flippin' thing!" Of course, he was old school---slide rule style!

-Dave

[1C00lVC]

If you leave the turn signal clicked to one side (left or right) and turn off the car, the corresponding side of the parking lights will stay on.
it looks really cool if you have angle eyes lights, and only one of them is on..

[Terk]

[quote=Teutonaddict]I guess I'd better RTFM! /QUOTE]

I guess we learn things all the time on this board.

Of course if we had a choice of RTFM or .... I know what I'd be doing.

[MAH]

Originally Posted by atomic80

They did implement these automatic on/off headlights into 2002 and newer M5's. I've been trying to get these retrofitted into my 2001 M5 for a while now without luck. Maybe you'll have better luck than I did.

Jason,

NO WAY! Is this really true? I have never heard anyone mention this before. I wonder what the retro would take? Now your not pulling my leg on this one are you?

Another feature - If you hold the button down on your key remote to unlock the car, the second time your push it, continueto hold it down long enough, it will lower all of the windows and open the sun roof. This does have a couple of downsides to it. For one, you cannot push the button again to raise the windows if it has begun to rain. For another, I cannot tell you how many time I have accidently lowered all the windows and found the trunk open because the remote had been pushed inside my pocket by too much pressure from other keys or change.

BTW - the parking lights staying on on just one side is a feature that is used overseas. It burns less juice and is intended for just the side of the car that is exposed to traffic. Fortunaly most of our streets are a bit wider, but BMW left this feature in.

The "mood" lights above the center console have always been interesting to me, but I always thought of them as cool lighting not for real reading.

Mark

[Ahmed]

If you depress the "rest" button for atleast 3 seconds, a sexy blonde appears form the passenger side and goes down on you!