Low beam xenon not working

[roestl]

Hi all,
I have an x5 2006 4.4.
Driver side xenon is not working.
Here is the quirk:
When I activate pathway lighting by pulling headlight flasher both left and right come on and stay on for the duration every time! (See manual page 100)
I swapped bulbs and ballasts to no avail. I'm thinking it must be the module.
Any ideas?

[PropellerHead]

Originally Posted by roestl

Hi all,
I have an x5 2006 4.4.
Driver side xenon is not working.
Here is the quirk:
When I activate pathway lighting by pulling headlight flasher both left and right come on and stay on for the duration every time! (See manual page 100)
I swapped bulbs and ballasts to no avail. I'm thinking it must be the module.
Any ideas?

You said it wasn't working and then provided an example of when it *is* working. How ab telling us the circumstance under which it does not function as you expect.

[roestl]

Sorry if I wasn't clear
When I have the light switch set to automatic and darkness activates it ,only passenger side comes on. Same result if I turn on lights manually
The passenger side will come on flicker and go off, but then come on again.
Driver side never comes on except as described in original post.

[Qsilver7]

Are you sure that the low beam HID light is what illuminates when you activate pathway lighting? I have never used this feature...I activated a couple of times when I pulled into the garage...but the front of the vehicle was up against the wall so I did not see which set of lights came on.

For some reason...I'm thinking that the halogen bulbs nearest the kidney grills are used for pathway lighting...not the HID (xenon lights). And that's because you pull the turn indicator stalk towards you (like in flash-to-pass)...and that's not the HID bulb...again, that's the halogen bulbs that illuminate.

Report back which lights are illuminating when you activate pathway lights. If I'm correct and it's the inner halogen bulbs...then perhaps the issue is that you have a blown HID bulb and may be time to replace it.

If both driver & passenger side HID bulbs are acting up...it's probably time for new bulbs. What's your mileage (which could be an indication of how many nights the HID bulbs have been used)?

If your 06 4.4 has the adaptive bi-xenon headlights (like in the pic below)...the outer lights are both the low & high beam bulb. There's a flap that moves to change the field of illumination when the "brights" are selected. The inner bulbs (nearest the kidney grills) are halogen bulbs used for flash-2-pass & pathway lighting:

[roestl]

Well, on my car the xenon lights come on when I activate pathway lighting.

[higreenx5]

Wiring is bad. Had this happen to mine. Turns out that BMW uses biodegradable wiring insulation. Need to remove headlight to check all wires.

[roestl]

Thanks higreen
I will certainly check that out even though I don't get how the xenons always work perfectly when I do the pathway lighting.
It seems to me that if I can get them to come on every time using pathway lighting then the wiring to the bulb/ballast is ok.
But I will check it.

[higreenx5]

I say this because everything was fine till I turned on foglights and it went out. Just set aside about 3 hours to check both lights and find the bumper removal diy. Repair all plastic covers since it is the moisture that destroys the insulation. Look for a wiring schematic online for the Headlights makes this easier. The only other places are the Headlight module and the switch but usually water destroys module. Check schematic for switch wiring to see if it is side to side isolated.

[roestl]

Regarding Fog lights. In my car the fog lights come on automatically when ever the car senses that either of the HID lights aren't functioning correctly.
I went ahead and measured the voltage on pin 3 on the head light plug. As I would expect I have 12v when the pathway lighting is active and the left xenon is on and 0v when the light switch is on and the left xenon is off. I have to assume that if under any circumstance I can make the xenon come on every time that the wiring is good. I mean that is what common sense tells me. But sometimes this car does defy common sense.

[roestl]

Fixed!!
Well sort of.
Let me first say that I have been an electronic tech for 33 years.
Perhaps not everyone want to attempt this. This is a work around.
I found the when the issue acted up that I was missing 12 v on a pin on one of the plugs on the LCM. There are one wire for each of the headlights on 2 different plugs. They are both thick wires, one is yellow with a blue stripe and the other yellow with a green stripe. I forget which is left and which is right.
So I hooked up an old fashioned beefy 12v relay with beefy wires than can handle the current. I used the good side, right side's 12v to power the relays coil, the other side to ground. Then I found the thick red wire which is 12 v supply. I then hooked it up to the normally open side of the relay switch and the other side I hooked up to the yellow wire where the 12 v is missing. Voila it's working.
I could have used another source for the coil like the corner yellow light that comes on when headlights are active.
There was no way that wanted to pay the exorbitant fees that BMW charges for boards.