DIY - E36 window switch retrofit

[BDSax]

its easier to take these e36 switches apart then it is the e30 switches.

[dude8383]

holy shit man, thats awesome! i may consider doing the whole LED replacement.. it looks relatively simple. Is the rocker switch fragile or can it be taken apart easily?

[BDSax]

I think the white leds look better than the orange.






and to clear things up, you can use the switches any where. i made a tail and it works everywhere and plugs right in.

[BDSax]

First Open up the switch. should look like this




Yes, that black thing in the middle is the bulb.




Bulb should look like this..




POS Bulb




Rip out the old bulb




Tear out the plastic bulb holder with a pair of skinny needle nose




All I had was whire LEDs and some old resistors around. bend your led - lead like so. it will fit on the top bar going acrossed. the positive will hook up on the bottom part.



Solder on your Resistor on the + (down below) then solder on the - (up top)



Make sure the Positive and negitive on the LED isnt touching anything. Tie the other end of the Resistor to the positive of the LED. Make sure you snip your ends so nothing touches.



Mine will shine White, but i dont care, i think it should look good at night. Ill take a pic at night when its in the car.

[BDSax]

i went through the shit load of e36 switch i have gotten and figured out what did what.

E30 Switch:

Window Up 1 - Black or (Black/Grey)
Positive (+) 3 - Green/Grey
Negitive (-) 4 - Brown
Negitive (-) 5 - Brown
7 - Black Yellow (i had this, it did nothing)
Window Down 8 - Purple

The e30 switch is very confusing...... there are tabs that come from the up and down leads and its always touching, im guessing it has more resistence the more it is pushed down.
I tried to go from Power (Green/Grey) to the down lead (Purple) and it blew the curcuit. so im guessing it controlls the amount of voltage? thats what im confused about.

E36 Blue Base:

Negitive (-) 1 - Black/Yellow
Window Down 3 - Blue
Window Up 4 - Black
Positive (+) 5 - Green/Grey
Negitive (-) 6 - Blue/Green

I think that the blue/green ground is the stupidest thing i have ever seen


There are 3 different White Basee switches that i had, please check your colors. the Numbers on the switches still all lined up.

E36 White Base #1:

Negitive (-) 1 - Brown
Window Down 3 - Black/Yellow
Window Up 4 - Blue/Green
Positive (+) 5 - Red/Brown


E36 White Base #2:

Negitive (-) 1 - Brown
Window Down 3 - Purple/Grey
Window Up 4 - Black/Grey
Positive (+) 5 - Red/Brown


E36 White Base #3:

Negitive (-) 1 - Brown
Window Down 3 - Black
Window Up 4 - Green
Positive (+) 5 - Red


I havent tried hooking up any switches yet, but i tried the Green base switch. it didnt work except the bulb lit up.
Every switch i went through had a blown bulb. so if your bulb isnt working its because its blown. im going to change mine to LEDs, i think these little POS bulbs suck. i will be installing mine soon. i hope this helps some people

[golde30]

IIRC, there was an extra brown wire on the switch that we did not connect. I am thinking now that this wire is the wire for the light.

yeah there was an extra wire for me too, i just connected the 2 brown wires together...

[BDSax]

what some one needs to do is use a Digital Volt Meter and test what wire on the e30 side gets power only when the lights are turned on.

i have been playing around with the Green base and white base switches, i just need to figure out what does what.

does anyone know how the switches work? like is it normally open then when you push the switch it closes the curcuit? or is it vice versa? that would help some of my confusion?

[Jand3rson]

IIRC, there was an extra brown wire on the switch that we did not connect. I am thinking now that this wire is the wire for the light.

That may very well be. Maybe one of these days we can get in there and check it out. Until then, I'm not worried about it.

[AndrewBird]

IIRC, there was an extra brown wire on the switch that we did not connect. I am thinking now that this wire is the wire for the light.

[Jand3rson]

You wouldnt happen to be the guy who wrote the one for strictlyeta.net? It looks word for word.

Yeah, that was me that wrote that, along with my brother in law.

[So Live]

You wouldnt happen to be the guy who wrote the one for strictlyeta.net? It looks word for word.

[Jand3rson]

If you wire the blue based switches up like Josh did in his write-up, they don't light up.
I think that the switches themselves are supposed to light up because I took apart a blue based switch and saw that there was indeed a light in there.
Therefore, I would assume that the reason they don't illuminate is because of the wiring.

Someone that has an e36 sedan with blue based switches needs to check to see if they illuminate to test my theory.

-Erik

That's a possibility, I'm really not sure. At any rate, it doesn't bother me.

[erik325i]

I'm pretty sure the blue base switches, otherwise known as E36 sedan rear window switches from the rear doors, don't light up. Other white base switches (console, sunroof) light up.

If you wire the blue based switches up like Josh did in his write-up, they don't light up.
I think that the switches themselves are supposed to light up because I took apart a blue based switch and saw that there was indeed a light in there.
Therefore, I would assume that the reason they don't illuminate is because of the wiring.

Someone that has an e36 sedan with blue based switches needs to check to see if they illuminate to test my theory.

-Erik

[YAN-3]

so in order to get one touch i would need more than just the switch right?

[dude8383]

true by b. now i just did a quck search for them on ebay and found ones with yellow, green, white and blue backings. ONLY white and blue will work for us correct?

why? i mean whats the reasoning behind it?

the blue and white is regular operation, and the green and yellow are the one-touch switches.