This is a cheap and simple mod. It looks long, I know, but that’s just because I was pretty detailed in the writeup. After seeing a couple of threads about this and seeing that it was pretty simple I decided to do this myself. What you can do is wire the OEM alarm so that the hazards flash briefly when arming or disarming the alarm using a relay, a couple of diodes, and some wire. For some people this would be useful to have if they want some sort of visual sign that they locked their car if their alarm chirp is disabled. Although there are a couple of threads about this already I decided to compile the important parts into one DIY and add some needed pictures. As I have written this you will remove the glove box and the lower right dash panel but it may not even be necessary to remove the glove box. I didn’t completely know what I was dealing with at first so I removed both. In the end I still think removing both will make it easier to see what you are doing.

What you need:
1 automotive relay (avail. at Radio Shack, I used 30-amp auto relay)
2 diodes (also avail. at Radio Shack, I used 50 V, 1 A)
Wire (get a couple diff. colors so you know what’s what)
Wire terminals (to fit on prongs of relay)
Electrical tape and/or some liquid elec. tape if you want

Tools:
Phillips head screwdriver
Flat head screwdriver
Stubby or right angle Phillips screwdriver
10 mm socket
Wire strippers/cutters
Soldering iron and solder
Utility knife


http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb82/roarf/diy/materials.jpg

1. Remove glove box. Start by removing the six screws indicated by the yellow arrows. You may need to pry a couple of plastic caps off of the two middle screws first. I used a flat head screwdriver for this (see photo). The lower screws can be a bit tough to remove using a normal or even a stubby screwdriver. This is where the right-angle Phillips driver will come in handy (right inset). I didn’t have one so I used a Phillips socket bit in combination with an open ended wrench. With the screws removed, pop out the glove box lamp (left inset) by prying from the sides. Slide it backwards (toward front of car) and down and out, disconnecting the wiring harness once removed. With the lamp removed, you should be able to remove the 10-millimeter bolt that attaches the glove box to the frame of the car (green arrow). This bolt is above where the glove box lamp was.

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb82/roarf/diy/prycaps.jpg
http://www.pelicanparts.com/bmw/techarticles/101-Projects-92-Alarm-Install/Pic2-01.jpg

2. Pull the glove box straight out, you may need to loosen two more screws at the very bottom of the glove box that hold the lower dash panel in. Don’t yank it out too fast though, the flashlight charger is still connected to a wire harness, it should have a decent amount of slack though. Once you have the glove box out a ways, pry the two metal tabs inward on the left and right part of the flashlight charger socket (yellow arrows in photo below) and pull the charger out the back of the glove box. Now you can set the glove box aside out of the car and out of your way.

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb82/roarf/diy/lampwire.jpg

3. Remove the two screws indicated by yellow arrows in the photo below from the lower dash panel. Slide the panel out slowly, disconnecting the wire harness to the foot well light. Be sure to get a hand on the alarm module (next picture, yellow circle) as this may fall down from above when you remove the panel.

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb82/roarf/diy/kickpanel.jpg
http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb82/roarf/diy/opengb.jpg

4. Now we’ll wire up the relay and come back to the car in a minute. Ground will be hooked up to two of the prongs on the relay. Take some wire (it’s a good idea to use brown or black to denote ground wire) and crimp a wire terminal to one end. Splice a short length of wire to this wire and crimp another wire terminal to the end of it as shown in the photo below.

For all splicing connections in this DIY I used wire strippers and cut the insulation on the wire in two places about a half inch apart, then used a utility knife to cut a slit down that short section of wire and peeled the insulation off. I then separated the strands of the wire on that section a bit and sticking the wire to be spliced through the other wire I twisted them together and soldered the connection. It is not required but I brushed some liquid electrical tape over all my soldered connections before taping them up. Tape gets old and sometimes falls off, leaving exposed wires.

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb82/roarf/diy/grounds.jpg

Next take the diodes out. Connect a wire from the end of the diode with the silver band (cathode) to another wire terminal. Repeat for the other diode but splice this wire to the one you just did ahead of the end with the silver band, instead of adding another wire terminal. (See photo below) Solder a length of wire to the other ends of the diodes.

The reason for the diodes is that one wire will go to the unlock circuit, and the other to the lock circuit. The diodes only allow current to flow into the relay along these wires when oriented the way we have. If you did not put these diodes in, the first time you used the alarm you would double lock the car, and there is no way to unlock it after that without getting at the wiring and undoing what you did.

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb82/roarf/diy/diodes.jpg

Take another length of wire and add a wire terminal to one end.
Finally, attach these wires to the relay as shown below. Ignore the pin numbers on the left for now, these are on the 12-pin connector in the car. This signifies a diode. *-------|>|-------*

Wire from pin 3 (ground, brown)----------------------------------------------> Terminal 87 & Terminal 85 on relay
Wire from pin 9 (12V+ unlock, blue/green)--------* -------|>|-------*---------> Terminal 86 on relay
Wire from pin 10 (12V+ lock, black/yellow)--------* -------|>|-------*--------> Terminal 86 on relay
Wire from pin 11 (hazards, green)---------------------------------------------> Terminal 30 on relay

Here is the list of the wires in each of the twelve pins and their function. This was the arrangement in my car, the pin numbers may be slightly different in your car but the wire colors should be the same regardless.

Pin # Function
1 +12V Constant (from battery) – Yellow
2 Ignition – Purple
3 -12V Ground – Brown
4 Door Switch Sensor 2 – Black/white
5 Door Switch Sensor 3 – Black/red
6 Door Switch Sensor 1 – Black/green
7 Horn/siren – Red
8 Trunk switch – Blue
9 +12V Unlock – Blue/green
10 +12V Lock – Black/yellow
11 Hazard lights – Green
12 Dome lights – White

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb82/roarf/diy/wiringdiagram.jpg
http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb82/roarf/diy/allwires.jpg
http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb82/roarf/diy/plugin.jpg

5. Now back to the car. Note the position of the 12-pin central locking connector in the car (see yellow arrows in earlier photo, and also yellow circle in photo below). This is very difficult to reach from the front of the car unless you have very small hands. Wrapped up in this bundle of wires is the hood switch wire (white/red) which plugs into something else that is not part of the 12-pin connector (red arrows in photo below). You could unplug these and splice the wires from the relay to the wires in the car close to the 12-pin connector but I chose to use the other end of this bundle of wires which plugs into the BMW alarm module because this was more easily accessible in my car.

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb82/roarf/diy/12pin.jpg

So what I did was I unplugged the green 30-pin connector from the BMW alarm module on the other end of the bundle of wires running to the 12-pin central locking connector. (See photo below) Cut and peel back any electrical tape or heat shrink as necessary. Use the wire strippers to prepare the four wires which will be spliced into, ground, 12V+ lock, 12V+ unlock, and hazards. Refer to earlier diagrams above to verify which color wires you are tapping into.

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb82/roarf/diy/wirestrip.jpg

I recommend putting something on the floor to protect the carpet in case of solder drips or anything like that. Splice the wires from the relay as shown in the diagrams earlier and solder the connections. At this point you may wish to attach the wires but not solder just yet, so you can test to see if it works. Reattach the green connector to the alarm module and close the car doors. Now test your work by locking the car with the remote. If everything works and the hazards flash, great! If not, you need to check your connections and verify that you are using the right wires from the 12-pin connector. Make sure you attached the diodes in the right orientation and that the wires are attached to the correct prongs on the relay.

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb82/roarf/diy/wiresspliced.jpg

If all is good, solder these connections if you haven’t already and tape them up. Peel any heat shrink back down around the bundle of wires if necessary and tape it up.

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb82/roarf/diy/tapefinish.jpg

6. Now for reassembly. Carefully place the alarm module back into the glove box area where it was before and run the wires from the relay around and find somewhere to lay the relay. You could mount it somewhere with some double-sided tape or something. I didn’t have any so I just layed the relay next to the alarm module.

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb82/roarf/diy/relaypos.jpg

You may want to have a helper hold the alarm module up if it wants to keep falling out the bottom of the glove box area while you put the lower dash panel back in place. Be sure to reconnect the wiring harness to the foot well light and slide the lower dash panel back in place, lining up the heater vents with the holes in the panel. Tuck any wires back up above the panel.

Put the two lower dash panel screws back in but leave them loose! You will need a gap because the glove box has tabs with slots on both sides that slide in between the panel and the dashboard, with the screws fitting into the slot of the tab. (see red arrows in earlier photo) I should have taken a picture of this but don’t worry, it’s pretty obvious how it fits together when you look at it. Take the glove box and snap the flashlight charger back in and pull the wire harness for the glove box lamp through the correct opening in the top of the glove box so that you can plug the lamp back in once the glove box is in place.

Then just slide the glove box back into place making sure you get the tabs on the bottom in the proper position. Replace the 10 mm bolt first then the other six screws. Tighten down the two kick panel screws once everything is back in place. Plug the glove box lamp back in and snap it into place. You’re done!

And now a video for your enjoyment. :D
http://youtube.com/watch?v=IHt5oK9VlWw

I would like to give credit to Titansilber for much of the wiring procedure and also to M3@Apex for additional help. Credit also goes to Pelican Parts for the glove box removal procedure and picture. Lastly, I can't accept any responsibility for you introducing problems or causing damage to your car. I think it’s a pretty safe mod though. ;)


Other resources pertaining to this mod:
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=397877
http://unofficialbmw.com/e36/alarm/e36_flash_hazard_lights_with_factory_alarm.html

Post any questions you have or recommendations you would like me to add to the writeup.

:wowThat looks intimidating dude.

Haha, it's really not at all. I think it looks worse than it is because I took so many pics and wrote a lot, lol. The hardest part was probably soldering the wires in the car because I didn't have anything to press down on with the soldering iron.

That's the OE alarm... not the factory alarm ;)

If you could do it for the actual factory alarm it will be awesome as it only flashes the hazards when you arm the alarm but not when you disarm it.

That's the OE alarm... not the factory alarm ;)I thought that was AOE, Aftersales Original Equipment, where Aftersales is how they write it in Munich. :)

If you could do it for the actual factory alarm it will be awesome as it only flashes the hazards when you arm the alarm but not when you disarm it.I don't see why not. You can probably sense the IR remote unlock input to your ZKE with a transistor circuit to stretch the unlock/disarm pulse and drive the relay, or better still, a couple more transistors in place of the relay.

BTW, you could eliminate the diodes in the OP's application by substituting a DPDT small signal relay, and perhaps save a little money as well!

That's the OE alarm... not the factory alarm ;)


Changed to OE in the writeup, can't change the title of the thread though (unless a mod does it :) ). Can we get this moved to the DIY sub-forum?


If you could do it for the actual factory alarm it will be awesome as it only flashes the hazards when you arm the alarm but not when you disarm it.

What do you mean actual factory alarm? The security system on the factory where they make the cars? lol. It would be easy on the car to make it only flash when you lock it, just take out the wire and diode running from the unlock wire in the car to the relay.

I thought that was AOE, Aftersales Original Equipment, where Aftersales is how they write it in Munich. :)

I don't see why not. You can probably sense the IR remote unlock input to your ZKE with a transistor circuit to stretch the unlock/disarm pulse and drive the relay, or better still, a couple more transistors in place of the relay.

BTW, you could eliminate the diodes in the OP's application by substituting a DPDT small signal relay, and perhaps save a little money as well!

This is for the OEM BMW alarm that was an option when the cars were being made. Not an aftermarket alarm, athough there are probably similar ways to do it with an aftermarket system (if it doesn't do it already). OEM = original equipment manufacturer.

I don't see how that would save much money, the diodes came in a 2-pack and were only like, $1.99. :)

I don't see how that would save much money, the diodes came in a 2-pack and were only like, $1.99. :)Wow, that price must include A LOT of marketing and distribution overhead. That's about what I pay when I order a hundred 1N4004s.

I just did it in my M3 except I used the siren wire as the trigger for the lights. I followed one of the threads here and used a .1 amp relay from Radio shack. The most expensive part was the liquid tape used to insulate the relay contacts. Once the glove box was out it took about an hour to make the connections. FYI, I used solder direct to the relay due to the very small size of the relay.

I just did it in my M3 except I used the siren wire as the trigger for the lights. I followed one of the threads here and used a .1 amp relay from Radio shack. The most expensive part was the liquid tape used to insulate the relay contacts. Once the glove box was out it took about an hour to make the connections. FYI, I used solder direct to the relay due to the very small size of the relay.
Cool, so does it flash twice when you unlock since the car chirps twice for unlock? I saw the smaller relays but I wasn't sure I'd know how to use them since they had different terminal configurations.

That's the OE alarm... not the factory alarm ;)

If you could do it for the actual factory alarm it will be awesome as it only flashes the hazards when you arm the alarm but not when you disarm it.

It's the only "BMW" alarm available for US-spec models. There was no factory-installed option here.

It's the only "BMW" alarm available for US-spec models. There was no factory-installed option here.
I know, only the euros got the factory alarm.

Cool, so does it flash twice when you unlock since the car chirps twice for unlock? I saw the smaller relays but I wasn't sure I'd know how to use them since they had different terminal configurations.

Did you ever figure out how to get it to flash twice?

I haven't messed with mine any more. I think you could make it flash with the chirp instead of the lock/unlock signal though, thus it would flash twice for unlock and once for lock. To do this you could try only connecting the hood/siren pin (#7) to a diode and then to the relay post 86 instead of running the two wires from the relay post 86 to the lock and unlock pins, instead. I think that's the pin for the chirp/siren so that would make the hazards flash in sync with the chirp. I'm guessing that's what zmmnm3 did.

so who wants to make a pretty plug and play harness for this? :)

I think you could make it flash with the chirp instead of the lock/unlock signal though, thus it would flash twice for unlock and once for lock. To do this you could try only connecting the hood/siren pin (#7) to a diode and then to the relay post 86.... I think that's the pin for the chirp/siren so that would make the hazards flash in sync with the chirp. I'm guessing that's what zmmnm3 did.

Can anyone confirm that the flash will coincide with the chirp if wired this way?

looks hard but isnt. just take your time and it will be easy.

looks hard but isnt. just take your time and it will be easy.

+1 I think I made it look to difficult. :dunno Just take your time. And I found with this and also when I wired up my angel eyes that it helps to understand why you are actually wiring it the way you are. Figure that out and it will make complete sense and not be so intimidating.

Excellent write up, and very clear instructions, but I have a bit of a question. On my 96 328i, I don't appear to have any wire on pin 11 of the central locking connector, and there is no green wire in sight on the harness. the rest of the harness is exactly the same as in your diagram.

Now I have no problem trying to wire directly to a pin, but on which side of the harness? 12 or 30?

Hm, so the green hazard wire isn't there, or is a different color? If you don't know which wire is for the hazards you may be able to determine which one it is with a multimeter. Perhaps you can switch on the hazards and check the wires with the multimeter to see which one is the hazards. I wouldn't wire directly to an empty pin, it's probably not connected to anything at all and would do nothing. Let me know if you still can't figure it out, maybe take a picture of the 12-pin connector and we'll see if we can figure it out.

Alright, so after taking my glove box off again and looking a bit harder, it seems my alarm is a different style from yours. It connects with another 12 pin connector thusly:
(I can't post pictures yet, apparently)
brewsky.org/imgs/bmw/alarmmodule.jpg

the pinout of this connector, counting from top right is:

1 - brown----------assuming ground
2 - black\white-----spliced into 3 b\w wires in the door sw positions on the central locking connector
3 - blue------------labeled down the line as trunk switch
4 - ---------------empty
5 - purple----------assuming switched ignition +12v
6 - red-------------goes into a relay that clicks with chirps, assume siren
7 - purple---------- sunglass caddy led+
8 - black\yellow----assuming lock
9 - yellow----------assuming +12v
10- black----------sunglass caddy led-
11- -- ------------empty
12- blue\green-----assuming unlock

the alarm is bmw part# 88 88 1 600 227 and says BMW Prewired. perhaps it is an aftermarket model.

I understand the idea behind this mod, I just don't know where to tap into the hazards here.

here is my central locking connector:
top
brewsky.org/imgs/bmw/centlocktop.jpg


and bottom
brewsky.org/imgs/bmw/centlockbottom.jpg

any ideas? (apologies for the crappy cellphone pics btw)

Ok, I would guess that the hazards are one of the blue wires in the pic you took, BUT it's not the best idea to just go by wire colors. If you have access to a multimeter, I'd give that idea a shot. Does the 12-pin connector on the other end of that bundle of wires look like mine at all? (the one up inside the glovebox area, not the one that plugs into the alarm module) Let's see what that one looks like if you can get a pic.

the two bottom links go to a picture of the connector on the other side. Here is the pinout, as numbered on the connector

1 - yellow
2 - purple
3 - brown
4 - b\w
5 - b\w
6 - b\w
7 - blue
8 - --
9 - black\yellow
10- blue\green
11- blue
12- --

hrm... parhaps 11 is the hazards here and I've been running in circles. let me follow that wire.

Nope, labeled trunk switch.

the other blue wire (#7) goes to a relay with the red wire from the alarm module, a yellow, and a brown. I'm assuming it is the siren.

and btw, with the way the harness was wrapped, i'm assuming it was wired by an idiot.

Ok, here's one thing you can do. Set off the panic alarm and see if the hazards flash, if they don't then the person who wired it up didn't wire in the hazards like they were supposed to. The alarm will still work fine, it just won't flash the hazards when the alarm goes off. You could also pull one of your corners out and see what color the wire for the blinkers are, mine matched up w/ the same color wire going to the alarm. Ok I just had an idea, if the hazards aren't wired into the alarm module then they should still correspond to one of the empty pins on the 12-pin connector that is doesn't plug into the module (the one up inside the glove box area). If that's the case, you could try checking the empty pins. Let me know what you find.

Ahhhh, they do not. First bimmer I've worked on... I was wondering what the hazard lights were supposed to be doing on that harness.

Okay, so I might as well wire up the hazards properly while the harness is copper spaghetti. Shouldn't be too hard to figure out with a multimeter or test light. One question though; the other empty pins seem to correspond to the dome lights. What do they do when the alarm (or panic) is going off? Blink? or just come on?

All my alarm does when sent the panic signal is sound like a small dog is repeatedly being stepped on... hard, and the dome lights stay on from the original lock\unlock signal. Never seemed all that effective.


Not quite enough daylight left for tonight, but I'll definitely let you know how it goes tomorrow. Thanks for all of the help. :)

No problem. I'm not sure what the dome lights are supposed to do, probably just come on, I can check mine though. My alarm does seem semi quiet compared to my dad's E39, which f'in screams. It's not bad though, it just chirps 5 times then goes into full panic where it wails repeatedly. The positioning of your alarm siren might affect how loud it is perhaps, although probably not much.

Okay, after going to the local dealer and paying 9 friggin dollars for two pin pigtails, I've gotten it to work. I went off of the siren signal so that the hazards would flash when the alarm goes off as well (no need to figure out which pin to go to on the alarm side of the harness.) The rear corners look a bit weak just because the chirp is such a quick burst, but I can certainly live with that. I decided to put everything back together before the urge to wire three more relays for fog, head, and brake lights got too strong... long way to go to that fog light switch.

In case anybody runs into a similar problem, it does appear to be pin 11 for hazards trigger (but make sure you test it just in case!) And the socket you need for the vehicle-side central locking connector is BMW part #61 13 0 007 450. At my dealer, it came with a green and black pigtail more than long enough for the situation, and a price ($4.50) that made me say "how much?!" for the 600th time at a BMW parts counter. Milestones are nice. I think it was $1.50 at realoem.

Thanks for all of the help roarf, excellent DIY.

No problem, glad to see you got it working. I was curious to find out if it flashes quicker when wired to the siren too, I take it it flashes twice when you unlock it then? Does it flash at all when you disable the chirp? I kind of wanted to do that with mine but I didn't think to do that at first, I still like the way mine turned out though. Good to see at least a few of us have had success with this.

It flashes twice when unlocked, and it does flash very quickly. Exactly in time with the chirps. The side markers on the fender kinda look like little strobes.

With the chirp disabled, it doesn't flash at all, but I don't mind the chirp all that much. If someone was dead set on disabling the chirp but having the hazards flash with lock, unlock, and alarm, they could probably run the siren line to a relay for the hazards, and run the hazard line to a relay for the siren. The siren line would flash the hazards for lock, unlock and panic; and the hazard line would sound the siren just for panic. Sounds like it would be complicated, but it wouldn't be any harder than the original mod. The siren would sound a bit different tho. And it's a bit harder than flipping a dip switch.

And btw, the rears looked weak because it was in hard sunlight. It looks sick at night. I honestly don't understand why it wasn't designed this way.

Cool, yeah I actually like the chirp, it sounds cool IMO. :cool

Ok, so it looks like we have two options for the way it flashes. Just to make it clear for anyone else who wants to do this, you wired your siren to the relay instead of the lock and unlock wires, right? Which if I understand correctly, this will make the hazards flash in unison w/ any chirps the siren makes. Did you use a diode inline with the siren wire?

If you wire it as I did, running the lock and unlock wires to the relay, the hazards will flash once for lock and unlock, and the flash will be held slightly longer than with the siren wired to the relay. (see video I have provided)

Either way works, it's just a matter of whatever people will want to see their car do.

Aye, it probably isn't necessary, but I used a diode inline with the siren trigger going to the relay. I had already wired it as per the instructions above, and wrapped it quite nicely:

brewsky.org\imgs\bmw\alarmflash\wrappedrelay.jpg

and I'm lazy, so I cut off one wire going to terminal 86, and used the other as is, diode and all. Here is a diagram of how it went with a good ol' radio shack auto relay:

Siren signal wire>-------->diode>---terminal 86 (switch signal)
ground>---------------------------terminals 85&87(common ground)
Hazards>--------------------------terminal 30 (switched)

Siren signal wire is usually red, and usually on pin#7 on the central locking connector. Hazards are usually green, and usually on pin 11. If not, it is definitely possible to test likely empty pins for the hazards.

If needed, there are more crappy cellphone pics at brewsky.org/imgs/bmw/alarmflash/

and here's a video of what it looks like with this method (beware. my phone camera is no good at night, and for some reason, it was set in landscape mode. But you can kinda get the gist of it.)
youtube.com/watch?v=_kMC-mAgoNc

I still can't post links or images, so copy and paste.