I don't know exactly when will I do it because I'll have the help from a friend of a friend who works at BMW. He told me he would investigate as much as he could to see what can be done. So I decided to come here and try to find out something myself. There's a lot of people who seems to know so much around here.
All E46 have the same Electronic Module, the "A1 (GM V)-Electronic Module. And since the module can be programmed, in theory, it should made possible to add other functions to any car. For example, my car is going in to add things that it didn't bring from factory like cruise control or auto doors lock.
But I don't know if the Module is fully programmable or not. Anyway, starting from the fact that the Modules are all the same, I decided to give some thought about it. If I was an engineer
I would try as much as possible not to change the original layout in order to reduce costs.
So, for the rain sensor, I would create a sensor with the ability to process information and then I would connect it to the clock that controls the intermitent function.
And for the light sensor, I would do pretty much the same connecting it to a switch that would allow manual and automatic function. Eventually leaving the "I-bus" out of the question at this point. But this is just me guessing.
Running around the Ebay I also came accross the Hella Raintronic which is an aftermaket solution. They are the manufacturers of the OEM version and when you compare the two they look very similar. But I would prefer to use the OEM version... If possible... For the looks and for the Lightronic.
Just out of curiosity, the Hella raintronic works with BMW's from 87!
(Yeah, that's right, from 1987!
)
Here are the models:
E31, E32, E34, E36, E38, and E46
Linear Mode
