BMW Hidden Comfort Features

A BMW full of comforts. Who doesn’t want that? Having your mirrors adjust as you go into reverse, headlights cleaning themselves or your ventilation turning on before you even get in.  As it turns out, you don’t need to buy the latest BMW to have your car do it all for you! You don’t even have to retrofit anything, most of them are hidden in your BMW!

Your E and F-Series vehicles are already equipped with multiple comfort features that will make your driving experience much easier. Want to know more about them? We are going to share with you 8 comfort features hiding inside your BMW, and explain how to activate them.

BMW Garage Door Opener

BMW feature available in E/F/G-Series models. 

You have remotes for everything. Remotes for the gate, for your garage door and for your friend's house gate. What if you could keep everything in one place and exchange 3 remotes for 3 buttons? That’s exactly what the controls on your interior rear view mirror are for.

How to program BMW garage door opener?

You can program the buttons on your rear view mirror to make them responsive to any remote-controlled door. Here’s how to do it with a garage door:

1. First, switch on the ignition.
2. Secondly, press and hold the left and right button on the rear view mirror simultaneously for about 20 seconds, until the LED on the rear view mirror flashes. This will erase all programming of the rear view mirror buttons. 
3. Then, hold the garage remote control approx. 1 to 3 in/2.5 to 8 cm away from the buttons of the rear view mirror. The required distance depends on the manual transmitter.
4. Simultaneously press and hold the button of the desired function on the remote control and the button to be programmed on the rear view mirror. The LED on the rear view mirror will begin flashing slowly.
5. Release both buttons as soon as the LED flashes more rapidly. The LED flashing faster indicates that the button on the rear view mirror has been programmed. If the LED does not flash faster after at least 60 seconds, change the distance between the rear view mirror and the remote control and repeat the step. Several more attempts at different distances may be necessary. Wait at least 15 seconds between attempts.

Garage door opener setup not working on the first try? You may have a rolling code built into your garage door. In that case, you’ll have to reset it, and a common way to do that is:

1. Go to the power head of the garage door and press the ‘Learn' button.
2. Get back to your vehicle as quickly as possible. You have about 30 seconds.
3. When in the vehicle, press the desired button on your rear view mirror twice. With the second press the garage door will open.

BMW garage door opener compatibility

Vehicles compatible with the garage door opener are as follows:

• 2-Series (2014 - 2018)
• 3-Series (2007 - 2022)
• 5-Series (2007 - 2022)
• 5-Series GT (2013 - 2021)
• 6-Series (2007 - 2020)
• 7-Series (2007 - 2021)
• 8-Series (2007 - 2010)
• i3 (2014 - 2021)
• i8 (2014 - 2021)
• M-Series (2007 - 2010)
• X1 (2014 - 2021)
• X2 (2018 - 2021)
• X3 (2007 - 2022)
• X4 (2014 - 2021)
• X5 (2007 - 2022)
• X6 (2008 - 2021)
• X7 (2019 - 2021)
• Z3 Roadster (2007 - 2010)
• Z4 (2011 - 2015)

Setting BMW Parked-Car Ventilation

BMW feature available in E/F/G-Series models. 

If you live in a sunny California or Arizona, you know how uncomfortable it is to have your car all warmed up and stuffy as you get in — especially after a long day of work. So something you can do to avoid entering a vehicle full of hot air is activating your BMW's auxiliary ventilation. It will run your fan to get the air moving at a specific time, but won’t turn the climate control on to make it cold.  

To activate the comfort ventilation follow these steps:

1. Go to your iDrive menu.
2. Enter ‘Settings’.
3. Select ‘Climate’.
4. Activate parked-car ventilation.
5. Then set up the BMW parked-car ventilation timer. Choose either timer 1 or timer 2 and set the desired time for the comfort ventilation to start. Next, either activate timer 1 or timer 2.
6. Lastly, the ‘Fan’ symbol will activate and start to flash when the system is switched on.

From now on, the fan will get moving at the set time for 30 minutes, to make the interiors of your car bearable as you get in. Take a quick look on how to activate it:

BMW Parked-Car Ventilation battery

Some of you may wonder whether this feature could cause your BMW battery to drain, as it works on a turned off engine, and the answer is — if you use it wisely, it won’t. The ventilation activates once in a 24 hour period for around 30 minutes, and it won’t run again unless you set it to. Having the ventilation on for such a short period of time is safe for your car’s battery. However ,if you decide to turn it on several times during one day without the engine running, your battery may get drained.

Prefer to turn on cold or hot air conditioning before you get into your car? Check out how to do it with BMW remote start.

Tilting BMW Mirrors in Reverse

BMW feature available in E/F/G-Series models. 

Typically, each driver sets up the mirrors manually, but did you know you can actually control them automatically? Although tilting the mirrors in reverse is used quite often, some of you may not know how to replicate it. 

The same switch that’s responsible for shifting from the passenger's side mirror to driver’s side mirror may also let you automatically adjust both mirrors when going into reverse. All you have to do is hold the switch on the left hand side and put the vehicle into reverse. The mirrors will auto dip so you can see the ground behind your car. This can be especially helpful during parallel parking. 

Automatic BMW Mirror Unfolding

BMW feature available in E/F/G-Series models. 

If you have a BMW that’s programmed to automatically fold the side mirrors when the car is parked, you’ll be happy to hear about this automatic unfolding technique, for which… you don’t have to do a thing ;) Just enter your car, start it, reach 25 mph and both mirrors will open up without you having to touch any buttons. 

Don’t have remote power folding in your BMW? Code it with us and control your mirrors using a standard BMW key fob.

Using BMW Headlight Sprayers

BMW feature available in E/F/G-Series models. 

Gloomy weather doesn’t help with keeping cheerful, nor with keeping your BMW clean ;)  And everyone knows how important it is to have your headlights bright during dim conditions. 

Fortunately, there’s a simple way to clean your headlights without going to a car wash. If your BMW has the rhomboid cutouts under the headlights, it means it’s equipped with the headlight cleaning system, which can give your vehicle's messy front a little bath.

To turn the sprayers on, you first need to turn your lights on, then press and hold the turn lever in your direction two or three times — this number depends on your vehicle. While the E60, E90 or E92 need two pulls, F3x or F9x vehicles may require three.

When you do so, you’re going to see a mist that gives out two powerful blasts to clean your headlights.

How can you make sure you have this option added to your vehicle? You can check your BMW features by VIN. Just enter it here and we’ll give you a PDF specification with all features available in your BMW, including the headlight cleaning system (S502A).

Turning on/off BMW Parking Lights

BMW feature available in E/F/G-Series models. 

Has it ever happened to you that you left your car when coming home from work, and the next day unexpectedly saw the lights on one side turned on? It's apparently happened many times to car owners who don’t know about parking lights mode, and kept the headlight lever in a non-neutral position. 

This comfort function is more of a BMW safety feature, since it comes in handy when you leave your car on the side of the road, especially at night. Most BMWs have it enabled, and in some European countries it’s even mandatory to use it.

So, how do you control the BMW parking lights? Very simply.

1. Enter your car and make sure it’s off.
2. Press the headlight lever either up or down depending which side you want to be lit up. For turning the driver's side lights on, press it down. To turn on the passenger's lights, press it up.
3. The ‘angel lights’ will light up. To turn them off, push the lever to the neutral position.

Using parking lights will make your car visible for other drivers on the road and help you avoid unwanted damage. If you worry it will drain your BMW’s battery, you can sleep tight, because nothing like that will happen. The power for the lights is supplied by the alternator while you’re driving, so it’s safe to say that it will have enough energy to support the lights all night long.

Turning on/off BMW Pathway Lighting

BMW feature available in E/F/G-Series models. 

This lighting feature will always guide you home. Let’s say you just got back to your house, it’s very late at night and there’s no light around you whatsoever to show you the way to your door. What can you do to light up the path? BMW Pathway Lighting is here to help out.

It uses the headlights to provide visibility when exiting the vehicle for around 30 seconds, after which they turn off on their own. To switch the home lights on, you have to work the headlight lever manually. 

1. Once you park, pull the headlight lever once.
2. Exit and lock your vehicle.
3. Your home lights will illuminate for 30 seconds or any other set time, if activated in iDrive.

Activating BMW Welcome Lights

BMW feature available in E/F/G-Series models. 

Would you like your vehicle to give you a warm welcome for a good start to the day? ;) BMW’s welcome lights function utilizes the angel lights to provide so-called ‘welcome lighting’ after unlocking the car with the BMW key fob. 

For this BMW standard feature to be activated, you need to switch the light position to ‘Lights on’ or ‘Automatic lights’, and select this feature in iDrive settings. 

1. Go to iDrive menu.
2. Then enter ‘Settings’.
3. Choose the option ‘Lights’.
4. And lastly, select the option ‘Welcome lights’.

Once you do it and keep your lights in the correct position, the front and back LEDs will light up every time you open the vehicle. You can also activate an additional lock sound confirmation via BimmerTech's USB coding. You’ll add the Acoustical Lock Confirm in no time, and have it deactivated whenever you want.

Summary

It may seem like many comfort features are available only to the newest vehicles, but as you can see, BMW likes to surprise even owners of older cars with nifty functions. There’s a whole array of BMW hidden features — even your BMW key fob hides secrets! So, if you feel like we didn’t touch an important topic, don’t hesitate and reach out to us in the comment section. We’d be happy to hear your suggestions.