E85 unplanned xenon upgrade causing woe!

[BenTheBoatie]

Hello, new user - first post.

I have a 2003 3.0i which had very cloudy headlights. Multiple polishing attempts had only limited improvement, plus there was a crack in the back of one letting water in.

Bought a second hand pair of angel eyes (Sonar type) off eBay to get me through an MOT - they turned out to be LHD so were returned and refunded.
Bought another pair of OEM, marked as halogen in the Ebay ad - but they turned out to be Xenon (i.e one xenon D2s and one H7 bulb) which I didn't realise until my mechanic told me. They don't work as expected and throw a warning on the dash.

My understanding from reading other posts here is that you can theoretically deal with the problem by simply replacing the light control switch on the dash?
Or that it is also theoretically possible to re-pin the connectors and do some coding?

My ranked preferred courses of action if I have this right would be:
1: Change light switch module on dash
2: Go to Zed Shed and ask them to replace them for original and trade in the xenons while they are doing some other work - assuming there is any such thing as 2003 halogens that are in reasonable condition
3: Re-pin and Coding - I live out in the sticks (Powys / Herefordshire border) and finding any mechanic that knows this stuff is challenging.

Any advice, thoughts or recommendations of mechanics in the region very welcome

Thanks

 

[TriggerFish]

You can code this easily enough without having to replace anything, I think.

Do you get the correct lights turning on in the correct switch positions? i.e., main beam in the xenons, full bean the halogens, and side lights/indicators are just correct? You just have a bulb out light on the dash, and possibly flickering/strobing xenons?

If so, then NCSExpert, or BMW Scanner 1.4.0 (aka PA Soft) (both £20 or so on eBay - the latter much more user friendly!) can do this for you. If you pick up BMW Scanner, then there's some tick boxes you can plat with to remove the warnings, and/or stop the strobing.



If you get the wrong lights at the wrong times, then I suspect you'll need to mess with pin outs. No need to change the light switch though

 

[BenTheBoatie]

Thanks @triggerfish - very helpful.

I'm not getting the right things happening at all at the moment so I'll assume the re-pinning needs to be done. Is this pretty straightforward to do without taking the bumper off, through the access port in the wheel arch?

 

[TriggerFish]

If it does need repinning, you'd be better off to do it at the light switch end, rather than on each headlight.

I can't remember if changing from halogen to xenon (or vice versa) in the LCM software (that screen shot above) alters the pin outs for in software you or not. I did this yeeeears ago and on E46, but I think that had the correct pinout to start with.

If it were me, and I didn't need the car/had access to another, I'd buy the software, try changing things there and seeing what happened before I started doing anything physical.

 

[enuff_zed]

Given the value of good condition Xenon’s I would suggest maybe selling them and getting a RHD set of Sonars.

 

[Scooba_Steve]

Bought a second hand pair of angel eyes (Sonar type) off eBay to get me through an MOT - they turned out to be LHD so were returned and refunded.

I’ve got a set of RHD sonars that have never been fitted. Where are you located?

 

[jock156]

I have a drivers side sonar light VGC £75 posted

 

[BenTheBoatie]

Bought a second hand pair of angel eyes (Sonar type) off eBay to get me through an MOT - they turned out to be LHD so were returned and refunded.

I’ve got a set of RHD sonars that have never been fitted. Where are you located?

I’m in the Welsh borders near Hay on Wye