swapping grey controls for black
 

Friends,

I'm going to be adding an Alpine iLX-107 to my R56 and swapping out the gauge faces while I'm in there. I'd like to get rid of the grey controls for my AC and switch panel while I'm at it. Do you know a source for black controls?

- Keith

Came across this thread and was hoping for some responses. I'm coming from a 2012 MCSr with all black controls to a 2009 JCWc and can't stand the gray. I guess salvage yards and part outs are the way to go. Any coding issues to be aware of?

I have a 2010 R56 with the less-than-preferred grey AC controls. On eBay, I bought a black unit from a 2011 that has up/down rockers for blower adjustment rather than those silly round controls. I definitely prefer the look and it fit perfectly. However, when I plugged everything in, all controls are responsive and the lights work, but there is no air blowing on any setting. Seems like there is a missing software control. I would love to find what the issue is.

CEE3PEO,

I did the same thing with my '07 MCS (did the full JCW interior and exterior conversion) and the a/c will not blow. I plugged my old grey one back in and everything worked fine. On the black unit, everything lights up and everything, but the blower doesn't blow.

I posted in this same subsection (post says "HELP! Did retrofit......(in Florida!)" and was told it was a coding issue. I guess now I just need to figure out how to change the coding??

If there are any gurus in here, please chime in...

My main concern was the USB working because my car never had that- just the AUX; the A/C not working was a monkey wrench I didn't expect. My window switches, door locks, etc all work. Like I said, though, the guy on the other thread said it was a coding issue. Hopefully someone will explain to me how to go about solving that. . .

Everything works after swapping out my 2010 Silver controls with 2011 black controls except for the AC. The lights work and the buttons change the AC settings (i.e. Temp and Vent selection) but the Blower never turns on.

I went to my local dealer (Mini of Kennesaw GA) and their lead Service Tech (Erik) tried connecting to the OBDII interface and updating the HVAC control module. For some reason, it wouldn't let him. He said he only has access to the base software that Mini provides. I paid $99 for this "try". At parting, he said there might be something with the "Final Stage" and he was going to check with Parts on this.

I need to find out if there is a way we can program through the OBDII interface ourselves. I really would like to get the Black controls working. Again, every button and control works. Just the blowers never actuate and start blowing.

Update as of yesterday. I got tired of waiting for a software update to become available so...

I ended up completely disassembling both the old and the new center consoles. Everything, buttons, controls, ect all snapped together on top of my old center console (transforming it to all black, with silver rocker switches and silver digital display trim ring) so I now have all black controls with the older circuitry behind it. All the controls...including HVAC now work.

I did the exact same thing back in July...I guess I have less patience than you lol. Came out beautifully!