I was always jealous of the illuminated headrests and the M seats available on Euro models that we can't have here in the US. Decided to try a retrofit the emblems and was successful. Here are the parts/steps:
1) Replaced the headrests with the X5M/X6M headrests (I don't have a part number as I found them on eBay for a great price)... the headrests are a direct/perfect swap as far as fitment into the seats. I realize their shape is a little different due to the way they nest into the M seats, but I think they still look great and I found this to be cleaner vs retrofitting the illuminated emblem into the existing headrest.
2) I swapped out the illuminated X5M/X6M placard on the headrests with the placard that comes on the X3M (PN: 52-10-8-745-038) which just says ///M and not the full model designation, these also are a direct fit/swap for the other placards on the headrest (all these placards across all BMW models seem to be the exact same shape/fit/plug)
3) Picked up some custom wiring harnesses made by
njw1967 which allow you to basically make these plug and play and tap power from the footwell light on the bottom the seats. Many are using these to retrofit their non-illuminated emblems into the illuminated ones, but this worked perfectly for my project too4) Last step was to get some help from
maximking in order remotely to code out the active headrests that I had removed to eliminate the error code thrown by the car. I fully realized I removed a minor safety feature here, but not all models come with this anyways.Pretty happy with the end result! The emblems come on when you unlock the car or come near it with the proximity key (looks awesome at night) and then shut off automatically a few seconds after locking the car.
