# Mar 03 M3's has rear Fog Lights



## m3evolution (Feb 6, 2003)

How do you turn them on? I went to the dealer and they had no clue the car even comes with them and didnt know how to turn it on either. Anyone knows how to turn these on? Is there a new euro part that I need to retrofit?


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## Desertnate (Mar 11, 2002)

m3evolution said:


> *How do you turn them on? I went to the dealer and they had no clue the car even comes with them and didnt know how to turn it on either. Anyone knows how to turn these on? Is there a new euro part that I need to retrofit? *


It may take more than a simple retrofit.

Are you sure there are bulbs and wiring going into the housing? If you don't have the proper switch, you may have empty housings.

There is a Euro (Canadian?) switch that will be needed. It's the one that has the headlight controls, and a button each for the rear and front fog lights.

There is a long thread documenting the retrofits that a couple of members made here that should have pics of the switch and other things they did to make them work. I appologize for not providing the link, but the search function crashes IE on my computer:tsk:


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## Ajax (Feb 1, 2002)

m3evolution said:


> *How do you turn them on? I went to the dealer and they had no clue the car even comes with them and didnt know how to turn it on either. Anyone knows how to turn these on? Is there a new euro part that I need to retrofit? *


Maybe they only turn on when you put it in Reverse....


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## Divexxtreme (Apr 27, 2003)

That's strange. I have a March '03 build and I don't have rear foglights (not that it bother me). Is yours a European spec?:dunno:


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## m3evolution (Feb 6, 2003)

I have the bulb and socket in the rear driver side right under the reverse light. The bulb and socket is there but there is no switch inside the car to turn these on. You might have the rear fogs in your car but might not notice it. Or its possible germany put the bulb in mine by accident i dont know.


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## GregW in Oregon (Feb 1, 2002)

*Rear fog light*



m3evolution said:


> *I have the bulb and socket in the rear driver side right under the reverse light. The bulb and socket is there but there is no switch inside the car to turn these on. You might have the rear fogs in your car but might not notice it. Or its possible germany put the bulb in mine by accident i dont know. *


They did not used to come with socket or bulb. All you should need to make it work is a new headlight switch module that has the second fog switch for the rear. There are different ones depending on whether you have xenons or not.


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## Kaz (Dec 21, 2001)

m3evolution actually PMd me about this. I looked at a couple of M3Cs this weekend that had the LED taillights (presumably 0303 production) and they didn't have the rear fog bulb. :dunno:


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## m3evolution (Feb 6, 2003)

Kaz said:


> *m3evolution actually PMd me about this. I looked at a couple of M3Cs this weekend that had the LED taillights (presumably 0303 production) and they didn't have the rear fog bulb. :dunno: *


I went to the dealer the other day too and notice some of the 3 series with the LED didnt have the rear fog light bulb either

maybe germany made a mistake with mine and gave me the wrong taillight :dunno:


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## doeboy (Sep 20, 2002)

m3evolution said:


> *I went to the dealer the other day too and notice some of the 3 series with the LED didnt have the rear fog light bulb either
> 
> maybe germany made a mistake with mine and gave me the wrong taillight :dunno: *


Have you tried taking the trunk lid liner off and looking to see if the wiring that connects to the bulb holder has 2 or 3 wires? That would tell you if they goofed with the bulb holder or not I'd guess.

In either case, if you do decide to do the retrofit, I guess you saved yourself a few bucks since you already have some of the parts.


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## m3evolution (Feb 6, 2003)

I just took the trunk lid liner out and there are two bulbs on the drivers side and only one bulb on the passenger side. On the passenger side there is only one socket for one bulb. The part where the bulb would go is covered up with a thin metal piece.

This pic is from my 2003.5 M3 driver side foglight.


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## m3evolution (Feb 6, 2003)

This is a pic of the passenger side.


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## doeboy (Sep 20, 2002)

So how many wires are on each sides wiring harness? If you have 3 wires on each connector, it looks like maybe all the wiring is already there and all you'd need is the switch.


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## m3evolution (Feb 6, 2003)

I forgot exactly how many wires there were but I did take a pic of the back of it that shows the wires. I cant really tell if its two wires or three.


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## doeboy (Sep 20, 2002)

m3evolution said:


> *I forgot exactly how many wires there were but I did take a pic of the back of it that shows the wires. I cant really tell if its two wires or three. *


That's two wires. Notice the hole in the plug just below the brown wire. Another wire/contact goes into that hole.

So it looks like they gave you one of the bulb holders with two bulbs in it. To get it to work, you'll have to get a switch and run wire from the front all the way to the back and through the trunk lid (major pain to do).


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