Left Low Beam Malfunction

[blue dragon]

The plastic rivets are non reusable, you need a tool like this one to set the new ones
http://www.amazon.com/Marson-48000-K.../dp/B00137PEPK

There are 4 bolts holding the tabs on each headlight, two at the top an two at the bottom. There is also an additional bolt at the bottom of the headlight housing. If you yank on the headlight without getting all the bolts, you will break the tab. (look at my picture you will see where the tabs are).

For the passenger side headlight, there is a bracket that needs to be removed first, you will see what I mean after you remove the wheel well liner. To remove this bracket, there are two screws that you need to remove from the engine compartment

I honestly don't think you will need to remove the headlight to change the ballast though.

[Unit107]

I was able to tackle the ballast replacement over the weekend. I found a guaranteed working one on eBay for about $130 and picked up a hand full of plastic rivets from the local BMW parts dept. and went at it.

What I learned: There were 9 plastic rivets to remove on the trim. That was the easy part. The wheel well cover had about a dozen bolt head screws, one torx screw (which I suspect may have been a shop find replacement for a bolt head screw), a plastic nut, and three small plastic rivets for a vent duct that RealOEM shows as a discontinued item. With a little maneuvering, the wheel well cover came out easily.

I was not able to access the ballast on bottom of the light housing directly, as it was directly above what looked like an oil cooler (if that's not what it is, please correct me, otherwise, that's what I'm calling it). I remember a note of that being located on the passenger side, but it was directly in the way on the drivers side (not so much the cooler itself but the bracket that held it in place). Short of taking the light assembly out of the vehicle, there was no way to access two of the four screws holding in the ballast on the underside of the light assembly. PLUS, it would have been extremely difficult to unplug and retrieve the old unit, and re-plug and seat the new one. It was best replaced on the work bench.

So I decided to remove the light assembly completely. Basically just had to unplug the unit and remove the 5 bolts mentioned earlier in this post. I found the two screws on the left and one bottom screws for the light assembly easily, but had to use a long flexible extension to remove the two on the right (top and bottom).

Once the screws were removed, the light housing was free, but the fun was just beginning as to how to get it out through the wheel well. It did not come out easy and without force. The bracket holding the oil cooler was in the way, and to remove it would have almost required removing the fender itself. Plus the bracket was not coming out without removing the oil cooler, which was not a path I wanted to go down. I had to find the position that posed the least resistance and give it a healthy push to get it past the plastic fender and brackets. It was a scary moment when it popped free but no damage done.

Once out, replacement of the ballast was easy on the bench.

Re-assembly went much smoother and it seemed to slip back into position easier then removal. It still took quite a bit of maneuvering and a little force at the pinch-point to get it over the oil cooler bracket without damaging the freshly installed ballast.

Getting the wheel well back in was a little more tricky than removal, in order to get it back in the correct overlapping orientation with the other panels.

I would give it a 3 out of 10, as far as difficulty, but I may have made it a 5 or 6 by not removing brackets, or missing a step where removing an additional bolt or two might have made it easier.

Hope this helps anyone tackling this project.

It seem

[Price]

Originally Posted by blue dragon

I just removed my passenger side headlight over the weekend. I was trying to install some Osram night breaker bulbs...

Did you have them installed? Any feedback on the bulbs?

[blue dragon]

I did install them. Then I went back to my Osram CBI bulbs. After being used to the colour temp and output from the CBI, the night breakers were not for me..

What I found also was the spread of the CBI was better, the Night Breakers were brighter in the bulb hotspot, hard to explain, but this youtube video is what I experienced

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVYO2sFcmg4

Its not my video, but you can see the differences

[knhappybaum]

I have a 2011 x5d and my rt. side xenon lo/hi beam is not operating even with a bulb change. The dealer says the only fix requires removal of my front bumper but I am attempting your wheelwell approach and went to ordering the control unit. One is called a 'mini', rectangular shaped and has three prong mounting but another controller is square and has four hole mounting. Which do I replace? Thanks

[knhappybaum]

I went to purchase a control/ballast for my 2011 x5 and found two for sale; a 3 tabbed rectangular 'mini' and a square shaped unit with 4 mounting holes. Which one is preventing my xenon low/hi beam from burning? My service tech says removal of the front bumper is necessary but I' m approaching it through the wheelwell as you described. Thanks

[Unit107]

So I get this done and everything is working fine...

And now, about a week ago, my right headlight goes out. Same warning message indicating Right Low Beam failure.

Why my dilemma is interesting, is that when the left one failed, I swapped bulbs to see if it was the bulb or the ballast. Since the left bulb was working in the right side (right not working in left, but did once ballast was replaced), I left it there and went to work on ordering the ballast. Fast forward two months, and the right side fails.

I am curious if there might be an issue with the bulb that could be causing the ballast failure, or if I am truly lucky enough to have a double ballast failure in less than 2 months.

Before going completely dead, the bulb was giving off a dim pink glow. This was for about 3 or 4 starts, then it was dead with the warning message.

Again, I had a 2001 X5 with Xenons for 13 years and NEVER had an issue with the headlights. It seems strange I would have both go within months of each other on a 6 y.o. vehicle.

Any thoughts on whether it is the bulb could be causing a ballast failure, or just dumb luck? or if I should avoid the swap-back of the bulb to avoid frying the new ballast I just put in on the left, if the bulb is causing the failure(s).?

Thanks,

Mark

[sweetsound2001]

Do you have the part number needed for 2011 X5 w/ LCI?