Rear Electric Blind Retrofit Completed
Bits from the last installation of the actual blind and shelf:
Dismantled the rear seats, seatbelts, C-pillars and old shelf:
Old shelf
Removing the seats
Parcel shelf out
Old shelf and the new shelf with the blind cutout, which was given to me for free by an M5 owner in UK.
Plastic bits not included in the new shelf
Plastic bits transferred on to the new shelf
The electric blind fitted to the shelf
Testing the operation of the electric blind. Works fine when connected directly to the battery.
The new shelf with the electric blind goes on the car
Note that these plastic tabs are used to hold and align the shelf to the metal part in the car
Those plastic tabs goes into these metal brackets. I had some trouble aligning these earlier, and took me some time to realise their importance. If these weren't aligned properly the C-pillar wont go back in correctly.
Everything put back together again nicely
Managed also to run the two wires from the blind to the front centre console.
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Okay that bit is from the last install, this new bit is to complete the wiring for the blind system.
When I first started out this is how my centre console wiring plug looks like:
Upon further investigation of BMW WDS (Wiring Diagram System) there are a few wires missing from the plug:
And from the plug assignments schedule, I could determine that these pins are needed to complete the install:
Pin 7: A thick red wire from the centre console, to Fuse 32 in the glove fusebox and then run from F32 to under the driver's seat.
Pin 14 and 15: The two wires directly from the blind.
Pin 21: A wire from the centre console to a junction box behind the glovebox (not the fusebox)
Pin 23: A wire run from the centre console to Fuse 45 in the glovebox.
Okay to actually run the wires is a little bit difficult, this is my centre console plug before I started:
And this is it when I was finished, a few good wires added to the plug:
You can see that I added Fuse 32 and Fuse 45 which was originally an empty slot.
Now thats the easy part. To install the final wire, which is from Fuse 32 to a fusebox under the driver's seat, a lot of works needs to be done.
This is when i started
Use a T50 Torx key to remove the screw holding the front seat.
Then the screw in the back. A total of 4 torx screw needs to be removed.
Move the seats so it can be taken out easily.
Two more things to disconnect to remove the seats: The seatbelt tensioner and the occupancy sensor wire.
Driver seat taken out
The occupancy sensor wire and the seat belt tensioner below the seat position.
Door sills and B-pillar cover removed to lift the carpet. (This is a picture of the other side, forgot to take the driver's side but its the same).
Lifted the rear carpet in order to lift the front carpet.
This is the junction box that I needed to access
Connected the red wire and I'm done. All proper connectors are used which are taken from chop shops.
Tested the blind button and it worked as anticipated. Phew what a job!
Look what a mess I made in the car that day! Note that I'm also fixing my vapor barrier which will be updated in the next post.
