[M Sportio]

Hi I'm sure most (if not all) of this is covered somewhere else in this forum but I thought I'd try to get it all in one place. So, I have a 2005 (pre-LCI) 320d, MSport and I've already started upgrading it to the LCI spec. So far I've done the following:


Halo headlights added - this makes a huge difference
Set of 400M alloys from F30 M sport (be careful if you're doing this upgrade as the 400M take a M12 bolt so when you use the M10 bolt the taper is the same but the bolt will go further into your hub - and, in my case, ruin your rear brake shoes. Avoid this by chopping the bolt by a few mm or re-tap the hubs to M12)
Steering wheel - currently in progress of adding a paddle shifter wheel with new leather stitch-on cover
Alcantara gaiters for gear shifter and handbrake
10" touch-screen head unit running android

Things to do next:
LCI bonnet, grills and front bumper
LCI boot with new rear lights
Replace clock cluster LEDs with white LEDs
M3 style boot spoiler + front splitters

What I'm trying to find out:
1. Can I change my headlight selector switch for an LCI unit? My current version doesn't have "auto" option and I don't know if I can retro-fit this function?
2. Will the LCI stop/start button retro-fit in? I don't like the bulky border on the pre-LCI version
3. Tweeters? I don't seem to have any but I can see where they go if I buy the new front door window trim... Will the wiring harness be there?
4. Electric Wing mirrors... is it easy to add this function? Again, I'm wondering if this is plug&play if I buy the electric mirrors?
5. Gear shifter... are the LCI shifters compatible? I noticed there are long and short stem versions


Thanks all, looking forward to your comments

Chris

[neilvan]

Originally Posted by M Sportio

Chris

1. Can I change my headlight selector switch for an LCI unit? My current version doesn't have "auto" option and I don't know if I can retro-fit this function?

-The LCI knob can be switched out with your current one, of you can switch out the whole unit. Your car will need the light sensor to be able to have auto headlights

2. Will the LCI stop/start button retro-fit in? I don't like the bulky border on the pre-LCI version

-plug n play

3. Tweeters? I don't seem to have any but I can see where they go if I buy the new front door window trim... Will the wiring harness be there?

Depending on your stereo version it is very very unlikely.


Also the LCI cup holders have a brushed aluminum trim if you are trying to go for the full LCI look

[Serf27]

You can fit the door trim and install the tweeters and the tweeter plug into the speaker on your door card.

LCI cup holders also look nice as mentioned.
The HVAC controls also have a silver ring around them that look nicer on lci.

[neilvan]

Originally Posted by Serf27

The HVAC controls also have a silver ring around them that look nicer on lci.

Our 07 has this on it. But I have seen some cars with just black; Not sure what determines it

[M Sportio]

Thanks for the comments, I didn't notice the HVAC controls being different before you mentioned it but I would defo be up for changing them now that I know. My worry about buying the new window trims with speaker cavities is that it will be too difficult to get the woring to the head unit but will look into it. Also, I believe both subs may have blown as they don't seem to offer any output whatsoever - are the stock subs any good (when working)? Or would it be worth going straight for an upgrade?

How would I go about installing a light sensor for the auto lights?

[Serf27]

Originally Posted by neilvan

Our 07 has this on it. But I have seen some cars with just black; Not sure what determines it

Yea, my 07 has the silver rings around HVAC.
The black rings must be very early builds.

I think mine also had black knobs for the stereo and I swapped them for the newer knobs with silver rings too. Volume/tune.





OP, you don’t need to run wires from the tweeters to the stereo.
Your door speakers should have a spare space where the tweeter connects and they’ll work.
Just need the trim and the tweeter.
The subs under the seats are not the greatest even if they’re working.

[cdgatti]

one option instead of changing the whole boot to get the new tail lights, just use the blackline tail lights for the pre lci model, they look much better.

[vilord]

In a base audio system, the front door speakers (4 ohm) are wired in parallel with the underseat subs (2 ohm w/capacitor crossover). This results in a 4 ohm total load on the head unit because of how the crossover filters things (at least, that's my understanding from all this conflicting reading I've been doing).

The rear deck speakers are wired to the radio directly, not in parallel to anything else. They're 4 ohm speakers, according to a few different forum posts.

Tweeters in hifi and L7 plug directly into the back of the mids, so adding them is plug and play, there is no additional harness. The tweeter's hookup wire has a mini crossover in it. According to various documents, the combined impedance of those components is 2 ohms, which is lower than your head unit really wants to see, could be okay (but loud), could damage the amplifier circuit.

For the front doors and rear deck, adding a 2 ohm tweeter to the existing 4 ohm driver won't sound good, the mix will be off. You could swap both the mid and tweet with those from a hifi or L7 car, but that will change the impedance from 4 ohms to 2. On the rear, it could just pull too much power from the amp and do some damage (or it might work fine). In the front, since it is wired in parallel with the subs too, it will again sound wrong, the components will be far louder than the sub (and again, could draw too much power from the amp)

The base audio subs are 2 ohm with a capacitor crossover, and have in and out wired in parallel.
The hifi sub has no crossover and is a 2 ohm sub with only input, not output.
The L7 sub also has no crossover and is a 4 ohm sub with only input, not output.
Swapping to the hifi sub will likely drop the front channel impedance even further. Yikes. It will also get frequencies it shouldn't because of the lack of capacitor.

Swapping to the L7 sub without a crossover might mess up the overall system impedance, though it's higher so it could at least keep from blowing up the amp. Again it will get frequencies it shouldn't because of no crossover (the amplifiers handle this).
Swapping to either hifi or L7 sub will also cause the front doors to stop working, so you'll need to add jumper wires between the +in and +out wires and between the -in and -out wires to keep the doors working.

So... basically it is messy. Your best bet might be to grab a multimeter and check the overall resistance on each channel at the head unit and see what happens to it as you swap out speakers. Have a look over here where someone with more audio knowledge than me talks through crossovers and impedance https://www.diyaudio.com/community/t...values.147511/

Adding an amplifier to handle the subs could help, but that's adding wiring.

Good luck!

PS: One thing you could do to avoid all this mess is to reach out to the guys at BavSound, they have systems put together to upgrade the audio in your base audio system. They charge a whoooole lot, but they've put in the time to make sure everything is matched and won't do any damage to your radio.
Here's their driver system. They don't use component tweeters so they avoid all the component impedance question marks, just replace a 4 ohm speaker with a 4 ohm coaxial speaker (tweeter built in): https://www.bavsound.com/products/bs...e92-base-audio

You could also try to find aftermarket component sets or coaxial speakers that will fit and are marketed as 4 ohm. There isn't much out there that will fit without custom mounts... bmw used speakers with 3 bolts instead of 2 or 4, and the tweeter is held in with a plastic ring clip.

PPS: Serf27 if you installed the L7 subs but kept the hifi amp in the trunk, they will be putting out half volume because of the impedance difference. I put in the L7 subs in 2020 without swapping the amp. This must be part of why when I added the L7 amp it sounded so much better overall.

[krhodes1]

Amusingly, I would have loved to swap all my LCI silver-trimmed interior bits for the pre-LCI basic black look.

But I was and am too lazy to bother. I did add back a bunch of pre-LCI stuff though like the seatbacks with nets and the underhood insulation when my car was new.

[vilord]

Right there with you krhodes1

I had my wrecked 2007 in the driveway when I bought my 2009 LCI, and the first thing I did was swap back to the non-shiny things. The silver trimmed stuff reminded me too much of the cheap-o plastic in a Toyota Matrix I had years ago. The black seemed simpler and classier.

I even swapped the background of the gauge cluster to the pre-lci.
I missed the underhood insulation, wish I'd grabbed it, but I put in my pre-LCI sport seats with nets, pre-LCI headrests that adjust (yeah, yeah, whiplash, sigh), and a few other things that are escaping me at the moment.

[Serf27]

Originally Posted by vilord

PPS: Serf27 if you installed the L7 subs but kept the hifi amp in the trunk, they will be putting out half volume because of the impedance difference. I put in the L7 subs in 2020 without swapping the amp. This must be part of why when I added the L7 amp it sounded so much better overall.

Hmm, I installed everything L7 in my e91 with the base audio amp, lol.
One day I’ll venture into swapping the amp and anything else that is required.

[M Sportio]

I guess from what some of you are saying is, most people just want what they don't have. I do like the silver trim and have now bought a LCI HVAC but will put off installing for now as I'm waiting for a white LED kit to be delivered. I'm changing all standard orange lighting for bright white in HVAC, clock cluster, steering wheel, window buttons, stop/start button and a few other pieces too. My main concern with upgrading to LCI is really to have the boot and bonnet upgraded. I don't think there's any dispute about the LCI being better looking in these areas. (At least for me there's not).

On a different note, I've now ordered an under bonnet light which will switch on when bonnet is opened. I will get round to uploading some photos soon.

BTW I didn't realise the seats were different on Pre-LCI vs LCI. I have the m sport leather seats and have no intention of changing them

[Serf27]

The back part of the seats is different because pre lci has the storage nets. They can be swapped out. I prefer the nets but I don’t use them.
The LCI seats have a nicer stitch pattern.

Later LCI models also have a nicer looking button for the traction control and the HVAC recirculating.
Some LCI hvac panels have the “All” feature and some have the “rest” feature. I think they’re interchangeable and do what the button says. I have the rest feature.
I’ve wanted to do the led change on all buttons but that seems like a lot of work.
Post pics when you do it.

[M Sportio]

Yeah I'll defo get round to putting some pictures up. The LED kit isn't due to arrive until 15th December. I've bought the LCI HVAC and have the "rest" button but don't see any difference with the "recirculate" button? I've noticed for the headlight selector switch that I can buy the LCI replacement dial rather than the full unit. Bit gutted about the seats: I've just found some LCI ones online which are electric which would be nice but I don't see it being used as I'm the only person who drives it and the seats never get moved (just would be nice to have). The next big thing to do is change the bonnet and boot but I just can't find anything locally and it costs way too much for courier to get them delivered. Will keep looking

[vilord]

The other change in the LCI seats is the LCI headrests can't be adjusted and have crash triggered anti-whiplash springs, with additional wiring and so on.

[Serf27]

This pic shows the different recirculating buttons. Tiny difference and no one will notice but I did and got the newer one, LOL.

Yes, you can just swap the lci headlight knob to your car.
I just remembered that there are also chrome rings for the knobs and an aluminum/silver. I prefer the silver.

[Dx11]

The older start-stop button is better btw, the lci version fades very quickly, I actually went from lci to old version because it looks better and seems to be higher quality (and the old version doesn't fade). Also the old version is buyable with the limited edition marking on the ring for the same price. Example:

https://shop.bmw-thoma.de/media/imag...p_Schalter.jpg