Smart Opener Retrofit by Richard Bevan (bimmerfest riku2) Document history V 1.0 02.04.2015 Document created. Introduction This document tells how to retrofit the smart opener to a 2011 BMW 5 series (F10). The smart opener is a way to open the boot (trunk) by waving your foot under the bottom of the bumper. Model year 2012 cars with comfort access have this feature as standard but early F10 s do not have this feature. However it s possible to install the components and retrofit this feature. What is the smart opener? Smart opener is known by many names, all are the same thing. You will see many different names even in BMW material and tools such as Rheingold: Smart opener Kick to open trunk Non contact rear lid opening Contact-free tailgate opening Smart opener only works in conjunction with comfort access (option SA322). F10 s with comfort access from model year 2012 (built late 2011 onwards) have smart opener as part of their comfort access system. Cars before model year 2012 with comfort access did not have the smart opener feature. Smart opener cannot be ordered separately. It s included with comfort access. For this reason you will not find it listed as a separate option code. Smart opener is not related to powered trunk lid (option SA316 automatic trunk lid mechanism). That refers to a motor opening and closing the lid. Smart opener is compatible with both motorized/un-motorized versions. In the powered version the lid opens slowly with a motor, without option SA316 the lid springs up without motor assistance. Adding smart opener to non-comfort access cars is very hard (without comfort access anybody would be able to kick their foot under the boot to open it), so it only works in conjunction with comfort access. Retrofit of comfort access is quite difficult and most postings say it s almost impossible due to the number of changes needed. For model year 2014 onwards there is a smart close feature: the reverse of smart opener and by waving your foot under the bumper the lid will close but this does need option SA316 since the motor will CLOSE the trunk. Smart close is not discussed here.
How do you use smart opener and how does it work? Behind the rear bumper there are two strip sensors about 1metre long mounted above each other. There is also a small control unit which interfaces to the footwell module and from there to the car access system (CAS). The picture below shows the sensors in a cross section view of the rear bumper. For the lid to open, the following three conditions must be satisfied: 1. The key fob has to be close to the rear of the car (less than about 1 metre). Normally it will be in your pocket. 2. The top sensor has to detect something close to it (approx. less than 30cm from the bumper). This is normally your shin. 3. The bottom sensor must detect nothing under it, then briefly something under it such as your foot. The foot should be there for less than a second. Longer than that and the action is not recognized. All three conditions are needed for the opening to work. If you do the action right then it works almost 100% of the time. It s not affected by cold weather or snow on the bumper (I live in Finland and -30 degrees and lots of snow are common). Your foot does not have to touch the bumper at any time. Here are some reasons the action will not work You do not have the key with you (does not satisfy condition #1). Even if the car is unlocked the smart opener still needs the key to be near the rear bumper.
You keep your foot under the bumper too long or move it from side to side. This does not satisfy the briefly part of condition #3. You walk up to the car and immediately put your foot under the bumper. This does not satisfy condition 2. This is probably to avoid triggering by animals such as cats walking under the car. About the retrofit I added the smart opener to my car because it was a March 2011 build and had comfort access but not the smart opener feature. Since my previous car was a 2012 build I really missed the smart opener. Since my 2011 car had comfort access I thought it might be possible to add the smart opener feature and with the right parts it is possible. You will need to add the parts under the rear bumper and then run a cable from the control unit under the bumper into the front of the car and wire in the control unit. You must then update the software for the footwell module (FRM) to enable the smart opener feature. Parts details You can find details of parts on these two sites http://www.realoem.com/bmw/ http://www.etk.cc/ Parts needed (5 series F10) There are five main parts needed under the rear bumper. Part numbers can vary by model. Use the resources above to check the exact part numbers. The part numbers also change over time. Part Part number Cost new euros Sensor lead, Smart Opener, top 61357391042 23 Sensor lead, Smart Opener, bottom 61357391043 15 Control unit, Smart Opener 61357422700 170 Adapter 51127299970 20 Repair kit, socket housing 61132359997 15 The pictures below show the parts. The first picture shows the top sensor (item 1) and bottom sensor wires (item 3). Part #5 is part of comfort access and not related to smart opener. Some clips are needed for the top sensor and those can be found on the parts diagram at realoem. In the second picture is the control module itself. It has three sockets for the footwell module connection and upper and lower sensors. The sensors come with cable and plug attached but you will need to make a cable from the control module to the footwell module and for that you will need the connector ( socket housing in the parts list above). The top and bottom sensors have slightly different connectors so it s impossible to plug them into the control unit the wrong way around.
Finally under the bumper is a black plastic support about 50cm wide (item #2 below, called adapter in the parts list). This holds the sensor cables and control unit. For cars like mine (MY 2011) you need to change this part to a more recent one that has clips for the sensor cables and control unit. In the parts picture below the non-smart opener compatible version is shown. Photos later in the document show the smart opener compatible version. The adapter is listed under carrier rear in parts lists. It was not obvious that the adapter was needed since it s not listed as part of comfort access. But by checking the dates it seems this part is changed in 09.2011 so probably every car made since then
has the adapter with clips ready for smart opener, regardless of whether comfort access is fitted or not. Electrical installation I will cover the electrical installation first because before fitting the parts it s worthwhile checking that they work and that you can update the car s software to recognize them. The following picture shows the wiring for the smart opener (called here evaluation electronics contact-free tailgate opening). The two connectors to the upper and lower sensors come with the sensors themselves and will present no problem but you will need to wire the three pin connector to the footwell module s LIN bus (yellow and green wire in this picture).
In the picture below you can see this middle connector in place connected to the control module. I have used different colours to the factor colours but they are similar. Cable Factory colour My colour 12v power Red red Ground Brown black K_LIN_8 (LIN BUS) Yellow/Green yellow
You can see the order of the cables in the picture below (yellow, red, black).
The reverse of the connector has a catch to hold the connector in place. When you buy the connector the pins are separate, so connect those to the cables and push them into the connector in the alignment shown below (I have soldered them instead of crimping). They will click into place once you have pushed them in far enough (you will need a small screwdriver to push them fully into place). Once all three pins are in place snap down the blue plastic catch on the right. Later I discovered I had installed the three rubber boots the wrong way around. They should be installed in the reverse orientation to the photo above.
Connecting the control unit cable For this step will you need access to the wiring diagrams for your car. By doing this I realized the same LIN bus connection was also used for the driver assistance module underneath the light switch (this is for heads up display, lane change warning etc). It has identical 12v, ground and K_LIN_8 connections. This made wiring the smart opener control unit really easy since those wires are easy to access. Later I found out that the light switch has the same three cables (12v, ground, LIN bus) available and if your car does not have driver assistance then you can use those wires instead. For temporary testing you can lever off the light switch and driver assistance panel and access the cables behind. Wire in the cable (either temporarily if testing or permanently) to the appropriate connections. The colours are vaguely similar at both ends of the car (red, brown, yellow) so it should not be too hard to match them up.
Coding/software changes Before the module works you must update the footwell module software. There are two changes needed and you can do both of them using ESys software: 1. You must have firmware in the footwell module new enough to recognize the smart opener (updating this is sometimes called flashing an ECU) 2. You must enable the smart opener sensor (known as coding ) How to do coding and the software needed is not discussed here. Consult forums like bimmerfest for more details. Start with step #2 and check the footwell module (FRM) and find setting 3000 SMART_OPENER_VERBAUT and set this to aktiv. If you can t find this setting then your footwell module software is too old and you must do step #1 above to update the firmware. Once you update the firmware you will have a new cafd file and the smart opener setting should be there and then you can try step#2 again. By chance my 2011 car had already been updated sometime during its life and it had 2013 software and step#1 was not needed. Only step #2 was needed for my car. You can read some information about step #1 in bimmerfest coding forum here: Flash all ECU's with E-Sys This step is not the same as coding. With coding you update the setting for something controlled by an ECUs. In step #1 you update the software (firmware) of the module itself. Hopefully you will not have to update too many other modules (since there are sometimes dependencies between one module and another). One post I read said that a new footwell module (FRM) was needed for this change but this doesn t seem necessary, only new firmware for your existing FRM module. If you have connected the smart opener control unit and sensor cables and done the coding then you can try out the smart opener (even if it s not installed on the rear bumper yet). For this kind of testing you must not hold the smart opener panel itself since the system would recognize your hand and kicking it would not work. Rest the panel against a wall and kick sideways and it should recognize your foot. If it works you are all set for installation under the bumper itself. Installation of the parts under the bumper This step takes several hours since you must remove the rear bumper and then route the cable from the smart opener control unit to the front of the car. To remove the rear bumper takes approximately two hours. There are good instructions and pictures here: diy: rear bumper removal I recommend you clean the car before doing this since too much dirt in the bumper seams might cause scratches while you prise the bumper from the car. Once the bumper is removed you will see the support panel clipped to the body of the car. This support is the old kind that does not have clips for the smart opener. The module on the left of it is for tire pressure monitoring (RDC) and might not be present on all cars. The module in the centre above the support panel is the antenna for comfort access (if you don t have this then you are in trouble since smart opener only works if you already have comfort access).
Below you can see the two adapter types. The bottom one is the original one and the one at the top is the one compatible with smart opener. You can see the two sensor cables already installed. The control module is not yet fitted (it will go on the right side of the adapter).
The support panel is easy to clip/unclip from the body of the car and below you can see the new panel clipped into place with cable ready for testing. It s sensible to test the smart opener well before putting the bumper back in place. Below you can see the control module in place with my white cable installed.
Once you have installed and tested the module you need to run the cable through the car to the footwell module. I drilled a small hole in the rubber grommet leading into the boot of the car. Use some silicone sealant to seal around the cable to prevent any water getting into the car. Once the cable is inside the boot run it alongside the existing cables in the car. There are some convenient cable trunks already installed and you can use those.
From there pull up the door trim covers and run it under the carpet and eventually next to the footwell module. From there you can permanently connect to the driver assistance panel or light switch as appropriate. Test the action of the smart opener thoroughly before you put all the parts of the car back together. Bumper work takes about 4 hours and wiring to the front of car another 1-2 hours.