e86 FRM? Headlights and number plate lights not working

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iksander

Member
Hi

I've got lighting gremlins - high beam works but not headlights or number plate lights. Anyone had this problem and fixed it?

Thanks
 
More history on car would help. OEM or aftermarket headlight? Did you do any recent coding or physical upgrades? Any accident or water history?
 
Have you checked fuses? Obvious but worth a check

Maybe worth swapping an lcm over to see if that sorts it
 
What about instruments? Do they work?

If you turn the car off, key out, and flash the high beam stalk, it should turn on the 'follow me home' lights (they'll turn off automatically). When you do that, which lights come on? (Note - this can be programmed to do a custom subset of lights, but the headlights are usually included from the factory.

I am trying to rule out if the rotary part of the LCM is faulty, or the part which activates the lights, so trying two different ways of turning them on should help
 
Thanks for the responses. Had the chance to spend sometime with the car today to check out your suggestions. Fuses OK, instruments work fine. On further testing it actually seems that it is the high beam that is not working properly; follow me home lights work, side lights and low beams fine.

When I try the high beam, the driver's side headlight only flickers briefly and brightly above the cut off line but full beam doesn't don't fully engage.

(Turns out the license plate lights have never been connected - not very confidence inspiring in the seller but at least that was easy to fix)
 
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Have you checked the wiring to the lights

I’ve seen where the loose wiring gets trapped in the sealing mechanism and the rear light seal- if that breaks the circuit it may cause issue?
 
Hi, so the car has now been to 4 different garages (including BMW and local BMW specialist) and high beam is still not working - the beam flicks upwards momentarily then back to dipped position. Wiring checked and confirmed good. The headlight stalk and LCM have both been swapped out. The front and rear self levelling sensors have been replaced - didn't fix the problem but they were corroded and needed replacing anyway. Cost best part of a grand already and got nowhere and now being quoted £2.2k to replace both headlights still with no guarentee it will fix the problem.

Any ideas very welcome. I'm wondering if a proper auto electrician would open up the headlight to check the shutter and solenoid?

Thanks
 
First off if you are being charged 2.2k for new headlights I’ll do it for a tenner cheaper

Speaking from experience of having to rewire and sort a problematic e86 lighting set up it’s easy to either pop a different set of lights in to test or to wire stuff direct to the lcm to see if the wiring is at fault

Have you had the headlights off the car to check the mech- assuming you have xenons the headlights are constantly on- the high beam function is a gate that opens and lets more light out- that could be failing

Is it just one headlight doing that or both?
 
I'd guess the solenoid for the full beam is defective on the driver's side - if I understand correctly. All of the lights work correctly, apart from the driver's high beam, which works briefly before extinguishing?

You can replace the projector easily on these headlights, which would come with a new high beam solenoid.

Have a Google - you'll find a few people (myself included) fitting these to refresh tired/burned out projectors.

retrofitlab.com

BMW Z4 E85 E86 02-08 Bi-Xenon Scheinwerfer Reparatur- und Upgrade Kit für Xenon Scheinwerfer

Scheinwerfer Reparatur- und Upgrade Kit mit Bi-Xenon Projektoren für den BMW Z4 E85 E86 mit Xenon-Scheinwerfern. Garantiert verbesserte Lichtausbeute! Hochwertige Nachrüstteile
retrofitlab.com retrofitlab.com
 
You can see the solenoid in the last photo on my first post here

T

Thread 'RetrofitLab EvoX-R 2.0 bixenon retrofi'

https://retrofitlab.com/collections/bmw-z4-e85/products/bmw-z4-e85-2002-2008-bi-xenon-xenon-headlights

Hi all, I've seen some posts about these projectors before, and recently bough a set to fit to my own headlights, and thought I'd share my experiences...

Firstly - import tax... They charged tax on the order, and then DHL charged tax when it entered the country. The RetrofitLab refunded the tax I paid them without question, so do challenge them if it happens to you.

The projectors themselves are widely covered online, so I won't go over those too much, but they seem decent quality, and...
 
bigwinn said:
First off if you are being charged 2.2k for new headlights I’ll do it for a tenner cheaper

Speaking from experience of having to rewire and sort a problematic e86 lighting set up it’s easy to either pop a different set of lights in to test or to wire stuff direct to the lcm to see if the wiring is at fault

Have you had the headlights off the car to check the mech- assuming you have xenons the headlights are constantly on- the high beam function is a gate that opens and lets more light out- that could be failing

Is it just one headlight doing that or both?
Click to expand...
Thanks for the kind offer :D

Yes, you're right - both bulbs come on OK, when I try to turn on the high beam for the first time, the driver's side flashes momentarily and the passenger side does not react at all. On subsequent attempts, neither side react to attemtping to turn on high beam.

The LCM and the headlight stalk have both been swapped out with known good ones to no avail.

I haven't had the headlights off the car to check the shutter yet
 
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