Adaptive Headlights
 

Hey,

I was messing around checking out how my headlights move back and forth and I noticed that mine will only turn right with the wheel. They stay straight with the steering wheel fully turned to the left.

Thoughts? To note, one assembly is new to my car after being fixed after my run in with a deer, but I know they didn't go left before the unit was switched out.

Thanks.

Its designed that way so you dont blind oncoming drivers

I bet the ones in Aus. only turn left.

I had a 525 D M sport for a few days with adaptive headlights and they turned left and right .
really useful on dark twisty roads with hairpin corners .

Not sure if these have LKMs like other BMWs, Its possible there are Euro and US spec Light Kontrol Modules.. Usually the US has more restrictions.

But mine go left and right, maybe its a computer issue. To me it sounds like you either need a new LKM, or the LKM has connections that need to be soldered.

When you are not moving, they don't turn to the left. Once you are moving they do. :thumbup:

Thanks for all the info...but, I'm thinking I might have other problems. The lights were going up and down while I was driving, quite erratically. I even had some kid pull behind and try and give me the brights because he thought I was shining him.

Again, car was just fixed from accident with a new "used" light put into place. Both lights seem to be acting crazy.

Thoughts?

I don't know if the X5 has this, but my E38 had a rod that connected the headlight to the control arm. After an accident this rod wasn't reconnected and I was having issues with the headlights.


....I just checked realoem.com and the X5 does have this. It's #11. Though I guess any one of these parts could be your problem. But I would check for this first.
RealOEM.com * BMW E53 X5 4.6is HEADLIGHT VERTICAL AIM CONTROL SENSOR

http://realoem.com/bmw/diagrams/u/n/240.png

Hmm, can you be a little more specific on what you mean by "both lights seem to be acting crazy"?

Can't remember the exact motions it goes through but when parked, and you turn the ignition switch to (either position 1 or 2) I believe it should go down , up then right and back.

If you're driving and the road is flat w/o dips and your lights go up and down then something might have been disconnected. I seem to remember something about if you adjust the headlight aiming screws too far it gets unhooked or something where the projector is just loose in the HL housing.

However, if only one was replaced it seems strange that you're now having problems with both. Let me see if I can find more info. on the adjustment screws thing or if I'm just not remembering correctly.

Seriously, check to see if that rod is attached.

According to my manual, the lights will only go to the right and will not go to the left.

re: twins.... the lights will go way up and and stay up for about 3 seconds and then come down to normal position. They keep cycling like this throughout the drive ever 30 seconds or so.

I took a picture of the current connections, looks like everything is connected and in place. I'm only checking the side where I had the knuckle replaced, although, I called my mechanic to see if he did anything to the other side while the car was being repaired.

I'm going to spray the contacts and reseat and see where we go from there.

Thanks for everyone's help here.

An update, my re-seating of the front sensor didn't improve my spastic headlight movement. I traded voicemails with my bodyman and he said in order to repair the knuckle, he jacked up the car at high degree angle in the front and heard the rear suspension airbags kick in (would that happen when the car is off?). He's wondering if he may have bent something but since he was working on the passenger knuckle, the driver's rear would have been under the most pressure. I've only found sensors on the passengers side, so I'm not sure he bent/broke anything back there.

The other option on the table is the replacement light that was installed....I'm not leaning towards that as the issue as I believe it's both lights that are having spasms.

This also doesn't seem to occur while the car is not moving and/or it doesn't necessarily happen if I hit a bump.



Enclosed is a picture of the rear sensor set up.

Update: I talked to my body man and he talked to his buddy that had the 'official' repair/diagnostic manuals. They said that since a new headlight was inserted post accident that I need to get them recoded by the dealer.

Of course that makes sense but at the same time doesn't make sense. I'm going to book an appointment today.

I'm curious how this turns out for you. I replaced both my headlights with the Euro versions and didn't have to recode anything. :dunno:

Yeah, maybe one of the tech's will read this thread and add some input. It would save me time and money if this is not true.

i passed a 550 last year and his lights were going NUTS! :wow:it looked like a mobile night club coming right at me lol

Dealer looked at it and said the linkage was seized up. This $8 DIY part cost me $180 in diagnosis and replacement. I still might be able to claim it for insurance though, so that's nice. Funny, I looked at the part and it seemed to move for me, but maybe not enough.

So, I think i'm good now.

Glad to hear you seem to have found the problem. If you're good to go now, then tkasser was right - it was that rod he mentioned.

Updates on my updates. Everything was great and then I went and got some new winter tires put on my wheels....car came back with the same spastic light issues. This time I was going to resolve it myself. I went and bought a sensor from Pelican and put it on over the weekend. Drove the car at night and same f'n issue. I was pissed but thought it could be back sensor. The part number is the same so I figured it I would just swap that out.

I jacked up the entire passenger side of the car and took apart the linkages for both sensors to see how the lights respond.

When I would move the back sensor, I would hear the air suspension kick in and the lights would move. The linkage joint was frozen on one side so I lubed that up with WD-40 and got that joint working better. I thought that could be it.

I then moved to the front and found out where the range of the sensor needed to be to move the lights. They moved like the should have.

So with two 'working' sensors, I wanted to watch the lights move as I moved the front passenger suspension up and down with a floor jack (had stands in other spots). They didn't really move at all. I was perplexed but put the tire back on and lowered the car.

I then realized that the sensor arm had to be in the right position to make it work. I looked under the car and saw it was out of alignment and flexed the wrong way. I jacked the car up and flexed the linkage and arm out the other way, putting the sensor back into spec.

So jacking up the car and or putting it on the lift was making the linkage go the wrong way I guess.

Hopefully, I'm not back tomorrow with another update.

Hey I'm interested in knowing too. My 04 X5 3.0L lights keep going up and down while driving. Pretty much pi$$ing everyone one off in front of me. They think I'm flashing them. After reading all this, I will look at my sensors and linkages too..

You can easily check the without lifting the car. Make sure it looks like my final picture. If you need a sensor, I can probably sell you one since I have an extra now.

Hey I finally made it under the car to look, below is what my car looks like. I guess either the sensor or the link is seized. Do you have parts left over? thanks

04 BMW X5 3.0L

Here's what mine looks like. It's on "back to front" as well, right ??

Yours is not right. Mine above is also incorrect. I removed the nut connected to the Left most link and the tie rod, based on the picture, shifted the link to be up/down, and reattached the nut. Its works great now.

Note, do not attempt to disconnect the nut attached to the sensor and link, usually there is rust and the sensor arm is not strong enought to withstand the force of removing the nut and can easily break!

Right. You mean the black plastic thing will snap or crack or break if you try to undo the middle nut ?

Yeap, I would remove the other nut connected to the Tie rod (metal) arm, remove the half clamp, swing the link and sensor arm upwards. Once you do this, the link should be vertical, then re-attach the half clamp, and you are good to go.

PS. Spray WD40 on it and let it soak for 2+ minutes before removing nut.

Cool, thanks.

So now the question comes to mind how did our sensors get themselves up side down ? I'm sure they didn't leave the factory that way ....

I think it was my fault when I changed that sides CV Joint. I think I over extended the arm and the link fell to the lower side. Did you have any suspension work done on that side?

No I've had no work done on it. I bought it about a year ago when it was 9 years old so I'm presuming a previous owner must have had work done.

Mine occured twice after jacking the car up. Looks like it can invert on the way down after it's fully extended.

Did the switch today. 15 minute job to undo the clamp attached to the suspension arm, invert the position of the sensor arm and reattach the clamp. All looks good now ... lights no longer pointing down onto the road and I can actually see where I'm going when it's dark !

I'm wondering if this works as designed or not....I never noticed this before my accident...

When I accelerate the light move up quite a bit and then once I let off, they come back down. My wife thinks they are pointed too low at the ground when we are driving, I'm not sure.

I did notice on another thread that there are some coding options for the adaptive lights. Maybe I need to take it in?

First things first, is this normal.

Thanks

No, that is not normal. Your headlights should not move like that just because you accelerated.

Sounds like its loose. Sometimes the projector gets unhooked so that it moves like a pendulum.

I forgot what the fix is. Let me see if I can find the thread I saw a while back that might be related.

Check and see if your xenons look like this:
http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...t-problem.html

maybe the replacement one is a little out of spec..not as bad as this picture. I was always assuming it was both lights doing it. Maybe I'm wrong. I'll have the wife accelerate towards me while I watch. Hopefully she doesn't forget the brakes.

You didn't just have an argument, right? :rofl:

Anyways, you could probably just nudge the car on the fender or something and have someone else see if it moves. You probably don't have to risk getting run over. :D

just looked and thought about it again....

I'm pretty sure this is happening to both lights....I would have to take my bumper off to physically inspect the new light. The temperature outside disagrees with that idea. I'm going to check the adaptive headlight connections, but they turn and do the test on start up so I'm not so worried about it. I just hope I didn't get a broken light from the boneyard. It was in tip top shape visually.

If it was just one light doing this, it would be a whole different situation. I think I'll use a life line and send this to one of the techs.

Sorry to revive this thread from the great beyond, but I wanted to show my appreciation for it, as it saved me from having to take in my 2005 X5 for service.

I too would notice the lights would move up and down at times, with the smallest of bumps or just acceleration. Sure enough the actuator on the passenger side front was facing down. A quick squeeze under the car with a 10mm socket and I had it fixed. Will know for sure after driving at night, but the lights did do their up down sequence (which it hadn't before) when I turned the key.

I should point out that I bought the vehicle used a few months ago.

Thank you Xoutpost.com! Best BMW site on the net!