BMW 635 CENTRAL LOCKING SWITCH INSTALLATION By Peter Siposs You are one of # people visiting this site since March 9, 2002. Tired of reaching back or using your elbow to lock the doors? Tired of leaning over to open a door for a passenger or opening your own door to unlock them? Want the ability to easily lock the doors AND trunk while you drive thus preventing unwanted entry? All you need is a common window switch from any 6 series, 528e, or early 7 series and some simple wiring. The switch I used was not a lighted type but thats fine. A switch that has the arrows worn off is best since otherwise the arrows would point left and right rather than up and down. Rotating the buttons in the switch is not possible unfortunately. Just remember it cannot be a latching switch - must be momentary. The rear window lockout switch cannot be used for this reason. Here is how it will look when completed. Looks original & natural.
There are four horizontal plates under the radio area. On my car they were all blanking plates but many cars will have a stereo fader control and/or heated seat switches. The standard window switch is a perfect fit with no trimming etc required. I used the far right location so that both driver and passenger can reach it and its right above the shift handle making it easy to find in the dark or without looking for it. To prevent damaging the surround of the switch area, I found it best to remove the dummy plate by accessing from behind. Or, since you're removing the dummy plate anyway you can drill a small hole in it then put in a wood screw and pull the plate out. WIRING: (!!! Since the locking module is also a safety device as used to unlock doors during an accident, you must remove power to the unit by either removing Fuse #27, or disconnecting the battery!!!) (Note: These steps outline my experience on my 89 635. I hear that an 86 model matches mine however. Your cars locking module may be in a different location) Open the glove box and remove the screws securing the ceiling plate of the glove box. You will have to remove the limit straps for the glove box door to remove the ceiling plate. The glove box light will have to be temporarily disconnected too. You will not have to remove the glove box door itself however. Make a new wire set of 3 different color strands of 14 gauge wire and about 2 feet long. I chose red for lock, blue for unlock and black for ground. Leave the ground wire about 6 inches longer and solder a screw tab to it. This will be screwed to the ceiling along with the lock module. I used the original window switch socket and grafted my wires to that, ignoring the original socket wire colors.
I marked with a black marker on the switch to identify the pins you will need - as shown in the photo below. From left to right: L ock , G round, U nlock. The other 2 pins are unused. Note the white plastic orientation pin.
Be careful with the socket you may be using. I noticed one of my spares did not give a connection to one of the needed pins. My choice was for the indented botton to be lock while the bubble button as unlock. Just seemed like up and down to me. Solder and shrink tubing a must. Braid or twist the 3 wire set to stay neat and feed through the switch hole toward the lock module and grab from behind.
The Locking module is mounted vertically to the metal ceiling bracing and to the left side rear section of the glove box. Its a black box about 5 inches long and 1x2 rectangular.
Remove the two screws holding it to the ceiling and bring the unit still plugged in toward the opening of the glove box. I marked on the plug which wires - as shown in the photo below.
There are two rows of about 10 wires on the plug. You want access to pins #6 and 7 which for me was the yellow/blue wire and green/blue wires. The module had the pin numbers identified also. Pin 6 is unlock and 7 is lock. My preferred method to tap into these wires is to remove the plug from the unit, identify the correct wires, use a paperclip to release the wire socket and remove each wire one at a time from the plug. Remove about a 3/8" section of insulation near the end of the wire but don't cut the wire. Attach the corresponding newly made wire set to each old wire and solder. Then cover them each with shrink tubing (or electrical tape) and reinstall into the plug. Reinstall the lock module to the ceiling including one of the screws through the new ground wire. Tie everything up neatly and reinstall the glove box ceiling plate etc. If not already done so, push the new switch into position. Reinstall the fuse or reconnect the battery cable and proceed to test/use. This does not require the key for use. NOTE: I heard that over use of the module in rapid succesion will burn it out. Use it only as needed. You're done!
The red LED on the left is the alarm indicator.
Useful related links: Back to my BMW 635 page
How to install a performance chip How to fix the sunvisor mirror light How to mount 6x9 rear speakers and a subwoofer How to cure a fuel tank leak How to make a cup holder for your 635 How to make a front end frame lift Another BMW I currently own. An 81 320i. 5-speed conversion process for 2002's. 633/635 (E24) Forum on the Web. Oustanding source of info from enthusiasts. Mesa Performance Parts - BMW/Porsche Parts G-tech performance meter.
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