View Poll Results: Do you have ambient lighting to all four foot wells?
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Do you have Ambient lighting to foot wells
Member
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 247
Likes: 0
From: California
2003 E320
Originally Posted by konigstiger
Thanks, I did notice this upon further inspection. Actually it would have made more sense to incorporate the ambient door, footwell, and front overhead lighting along with the instrument cluster into the trip reset – IMO, easier. But it is what it is.
BTW I submitted your audio concern; hopefully we’ll get to the bottom of this.
BTW I submitted your audio concern; hopefully we’ll get to the bottom of this.
Niles called, seems like a great guy, we should talk tomarrow regarding the audio problem as well.
Almost a Member!
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 46
Likes: 0
From: San Diego, CA
03 E500 Sport, Pewter/Charcoal
I now have ambient lighting in the four footwells. As Konigstiger reported, they replaced the left front SAM to enable the feature. The part number and name was: 211-545-41-01 RELAY BOX. My invoice indicated that the replacement took 30 minutes. There was no charge.
A word of advice to anyone taking their car in for the SAM replacement, don't assume that service advisors and techs have the same definition of ambient lighting as you do. In my case, when I took my car in for Service D, I mentioned that ambient lighting in the footwells was not working. However, when I got my car back, the invoice said that nothing had been done about ambient lighting in the footwells because the feature was working properly. The service advisor and the tech said that they had checked several times and that there was ambient lighting in each footwell. Since I knew from Konigstiger's research that cars like mine, produced prior to 2003, didn't have ambient lighting in the footwells, I asked how they had checked the ambient lighting. They replied that they had opened the car doors and seen what they called ambient lighting in the footwells. They were confusing what I call courtesy lighting with ambient lighting. My big mistake was in not saying that there was no ambient lighting in the footwells WHILE DRIVING.
I arranged a meeting with the Service Manager and the Shop Foreman about this issue. They quickly understood there was no ambient lighting in the footwells. The Service Manager said he would research the issue and get back to me. I gave him a printout of this entire thread as background for his research. He called me the next day to say that he had special ordered the part necessary to enable ambient lighting in the footwells. It took several weeks because the part was back ordered, but, as I mentioned above, ambient lighting in the footwells now works.
A nice tip I got from the Shop Foreman was that you don't have to wait until it's dark outside to check things like automatic and ambient lighting. He took a dark towel and covered the light sensors on the windshield. This fooled the system into thinking it was dark outside.
A word of advice to anyone taking their car in for the SAM replacement, don't assume that service advisors and techs have the same definition of ambient lighting as you do. In my case, when I took my car in for Service D, I mentioned that ambient lighting in the footwells was not working. However, when I got my car back, the invoice said that nothing had been done about ambient lighting in the footwells because the feature was working properly. The service advisor and the tech said that they had checked several times and that there was ambient lighting in each footwell. Since I knew from Konigstiger's research that cars like mine, produced prior to 2003, didn't have ambient lighting in the footwells, I asked how they had checked the ambient lighting. They replied that they had opened the car doors and seen what they called ambient lighting in the footwells. They were confusing what I call courtesy lighting with ambient lighting. My big mistake was in not saying that there was no ambient lighting in the footwells WHILE DRIVING.
I arranged a meeting with the Service Manager and the Shop Foreman about this issue. They quickly understood there was no ambient lighting in the footwells. The Service Manager said he would research the issue and get back to me. I gave him a printout of this entire thread as background for his research. He called me the next day to say that he had special ordered the part necessary to enable ambient lighting in the footwells. It took several weeks because the part was back ordered, but, as I mentioned above, ambient lighting in the footwells now works.
A nice tip I got from the Shop Foreman was that you don't have to wait until it's dark outside to check things like automatic and ambient lighting. He took a dark towel and covered the light sensors on the windshield. This fooled the system into thinking it was dark outside.
Super Member
Joined: Sep 2014
Posts: 916
Likes: 134
From: NOVA/DC
20' RCF, 18' NX, 09' E350, 07' Solara, 05' STi, 01' Ranger
On our 2009 e350 we do have 4 ambient lights in the foot wells.
With the normal incandescent bulbs you could HARDLY see them when it was dark. Note that changing the ambient light senor ranger from the cluster ONLY changed the overhead console ufo shaped light.... no other ambient lightings via the door handles or below the mirror changed. Those stayed a constant brightness.
I just changed the entire interior to LEDs and now the foot well lighting is more pronounced. They are very bright when you open the doors. When you shut the doors, they go into a dim mode which then eventually shuts off.
When the headlights are on and it's dark they are on dimly but more bright than the normal incandescent bulbs. It's not distracting but if you are used to NOT seeing any light in the foot well during night driving then this is going to be different for you. It's not bad.
TLDR:
Headlights off= No foot well lighting. But they turn on full brightness and dim when the doors are opened/closed and then shut completely off.
Headlights on= Foot well lighting on. Same affect as above when the door is opened they go very bright. Door closed they go dim but do NOT shut off if the car is running/headlights in the on position.
-Nigel
With the normal incandescent bulbs you could HARDLY see them when it was dark. Note that changing the ambient light senor ranger from the cluster ONLY changed the overhead console ufo shaped light.... no other ambient lightings via the door handles or below the mirror changed. Those stayed a constant brightness.
I just changed the entire interior to LEDs and now the foot well lighting is more pronounced. They are very bright when you open the doors. When you shut the doors, they go into a dim mode which then eventually shuts off.
When the headlights are on and it's dark they are on dimly but more bright than the normal incandescent bulbs. It's not distracting but if you are used to NOT seeing any light in the foot well during night driving then this is going to be different for you. It's not bad.
TLDR:
Headlights off= No foot well lighting. But they turn on full brightness and dim when the doors are opened/closed and then shut completely off.
Headlights on= Foot well lighting on. Same affect as above when the door is opened they go very bright. Door closed they go dim but do NOT shut off if the car is running/headlights in the on position.
-Nigel
