Low Beam Failure W/ No Indication on Dash?
 

I was at a Sonic Drive in yesterday and noticed only one of my low beams was on (new Nightbreakers from Powerbulbs). But I got no indication on my dashboard that there was anything wrong? Have not been able to diagnose anything yet and will be pulling the X5 in tonight to take a closer look.

Forgive the questioning before doing any diagnostics... but out house was flooded over the weekend and I've been ripping out flooring and drywall and am on my way to purchase new cabinets, flooring, and some drywall so just have not been able to diagnose. Thanks for any help. I've always been under the impression you'd get a dash warning with a failure of this sort. :dunno: Hope it's not the LKM. :rolleyes::yikes:

You might have monitoring and/or check control coded to off.

You should have a priority 2 warning in the cluster's 20 digit alpha/numeric display when you turn the ignition past KL 15 (ignition position 2)...then the status arrows should turn on, too. If the text CHECK LOWBEAM isn't there...do you have the 2 status arrows on the left/right of the display?

Priority 2 warnings don't come on immediately like priority 1 warnings.

Thanks guys. AFAIK... the monitoring is still coded on. I should pop some LEDs in the license plate lights to verify... but I know for sure when I had a tail light bulb out, I immediately got the check status for that with the arrows.

Qsilver... I don't get the check arrows or any other indication that anything is amiss, at any time. I KNOW the headlights worked on Thursday, and just noticed that the driver's side was out yesterday because the auto lights turned on while under Sonic's shaded carport and I noticed a lack of light beam against their wall.

Xenon or halogen?

I'm wondering about the method of failure detection on xenons... like can it partially fail, say, will the ballast/bulb fire up, but not stay lit - fooling the module?

Don't know enough of what values it's looking for on a Xenon vs a super simple halogen bulb.

Bi-Xenon (high beam solenoid) optioned.

I'm not sure exactly what it's looking for. I just spent 5 hours at Lowe's sourcing cabinets, flooring, etc for the repairs on the house though so I have not had time to start switching ballasts, bulbs, etc. unfortunately. Thanks for the insight fellas, and again, apologies for doing zero diagnostic yet. :dunno:

When my 2004 3.0i did this, it turned out to be the ballast.

Had to do some left to right parts swapping to diagnose 100%.

This is what I was figuring... will have to try and find a used one I suppose. Coolant sprayed everywhere when my reservoir cracked on the trip a couple of weeks ago, maybe it took that long to take out the ballast? Or maybe I have coolant in the connector? I'm bringing the truck in tonight and will hopefully have some time to look at it tonight.

Thanks. If it's just a ballast I'll be a happy man. :thumbup:

Lots of used ballasts on ebay. That's where I got mine. :) I think they run about $70 and up. A new one costs around $200 IIRC.

Or hopefully it's the igniter at the back of the bulb, cheaper!

The easy swap tests are a PITA because of the tight space though!