Is the sidelight bulb in Xenons the same as for Halogens?

roblightbody · Post by **roblightbody** » Sun May 18, 2025 11:03 am

Hi,

A bit confused, despite reading various topics on here. Got a bulb out warning yesterday for the first time in 6 years of owning the car, and upon running some tests, the passenger side sidelight doesn't come on, but the indicator on that side comes on instead. so I'm assuming the sidelight bulb has blown.

My question is simply - is the sidelight bulb/part/procedure the same in the Xenon headlight unit as for the Halogen unit?

Thanks!

Scooba_Steve · Post by **Scooba_Steve** » Sun May 18, 2025 1:20 pm

roblightbody wrote: Sun May 18, 2025 11:03 am My question is simply - is the sidelight bulb/part/procedure the same in the Xenon headlight unit as for the Halogen unit?

But what lights do *you* have?

x-driver · Post by **x-driver** » Sun May 18, 2025 2:03 pm

In a preLCI I believe they are the same.

In a LCI some say only the xenons have angel eyes while halogen doesnt. So it's possible they are not the same bulbs.

roblightbody · Post by **roblightbody** » Sun May 18, 2025 4:18 pm

Our car has the xenons, with the angel eye sidelights.

TriggerFish · Post by **TriggerFish** » Sun May 18, 2025 5:23 pm

In that case, you have these:

viewtopic.php?t=80195

I drilled a small hole above the nubs on the bulb and just replaced the bulb without changing the holder

roblightbody · Post by **roblightbody** » Sun May 18, 2025 6:41 pm

TriggerFish wrote: Sun May 18, 2025 5:23 pm In that case, you have these:

viewtopic.php?t=80195

I drilled a small hole above the nubs on the bulb and just replaced the bulb without changing the holder

Thankyou. I'll have a go at just changing the bulb like you did.

Mr Tidy · Post by **Mr Tidy** » Sun May 18, 2025 7:30 pm

My 3 Series has Xenons and a similar fitting, but I managed to change just the bulb by filing notches in the plastic for the nubs to go through.

roblightbody · Post by **roblightbody** » Sat Jun 28, 2025 12:41 pm

Came back to say that I only just today got a chance to look at it. The replies above were hugely helpful, thankyou. I got it done in about 15 minutes and the warning light has gone out too.

To summarise, if anyone else comes to this topic
- Turn the wheels in the direction of the side you need to change.
- Open the top access panel (a coin works!)
- Pull down the big wire clip (slightly awkward to get it all the way down).
- Pull out the black plastic back panel of the headlight assembly.
- Reach up to where the sidelight is, and you can feel with your fingers where the 2 wires go to the bulb feel for the holder and twist anti-clockwise.
- Pull the wiring harness out of the bulb holder and then bayonet out the bulb (mine came out easily - do the bulbs that BMW fit have extra tiny nobbles?). Offer up the new bulb and see where you need to file a wee slot to let the nobbles go into their slot.
- Refit - Check the bulb illuminates in the holder before going further! I found getting the holder in the right position to turn to clip in quite tricky, took a few goes but i got there in the end.

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