Xenon - check lowbeam message

[petertn]

Last week my passnger side Xenon lowbeam went out. I order new ones and tonight after installing the new bulb, it still would not turn on.

Could this be a bad ballast? And is replacing the ballast an easy DIY?

I did notice while driving the past week with just the driver side lowbeam that it had a tendency to flicker on and off. Not sure if the 2 issues are related, but I have a feeling ti may be since the new bulb didnt light up.

Any ideas?

[dudlet]

I have the exact same issue with my '04 X5 (except on driver's side instead). Can anyone please help us?

[jsears]

Kinda sounds like an issue I was having.....

http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...ol-module.html

[petertn]

jsears, when the dealer fixed it under warranty, did they ell you what exacty the problem was? ballast? control unit?

[jsears]

They couldn't figure out the exact issue, that is why they basically replaced everything. It started happening again maybe a month afterwords again and the dealership replaced all of the bulbs and I haven't had the issue since.

[dudlet]

Jsears - I don't think we have the same issue you had. In your post you linked to, you said that the "check headlamp" warning never came on. But fo us, it did. So, theoretically, we could just replace the bulb.

Anyone know how? If so, how do you do it without frying yourself? There are high voltage warning stickers that make me hesitant to start digging around in there.

[Seabass]

A member by the name of "twinspoppa" posted a great DIY for pulling off the bumper and replacing the xenon headlight bulbs. You should be able to search it out. I did it all myself about 2 weeks ago. It took about an hour.

Don't be afraid of the high voltage warning stickers. The ballast is attached directly to the bulb. The only high-voltage point is the bulb socket. The ballasts are designed with neat mechanical safety device that ejects the power cord as soon as you remove the ballast. On top of all that, you have to unplug the power supply to the housing in order to remove it from the car.

There is high voltage in the system, but you would have to go out of your way to actually expose yourself to it. I think those stickers are on there to scare people into paying the dealer to change the bulbs!

[petertn]

I was actually able to remove the xenon bulbs w/o removing the bumper. It's just 4 screws which I removed and pulled whole the lamp assembly out which gave me access to the xenons.

But after I replaced the bulb it still wouldnt light so I have yet to determine if it's the control unit ($500) Ignitor ($110) or something else.

Whatever it is, it's likly that i will have to go back to the stealer for repairs.

[petertn]

So I bought a used ballast off ebay. It came from a 1999 5 series. It looked the same, and the seller told me that it SHOULD work but he wasnt 100% sure.

i took my chances, bought it and when i put it in it didnt light. I then swapped my drivers side ballast (the good one) to the passenger side & it worked just fine.

So now either he sent me a non wokring ballast or the 99 5 series is not the same as the 2003 x5 ballast.

argh!

[petertn]

The seller on eBay sent me another ballast and it worked fine. All is well again. Damn it feels good not to pay the dealer for what took me 30 minutes to do.