Xenon headlight £763!!!

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paulrl

Member
Hi, just looking for a bit of advice...

My car is in for a service today (2003 Z4 3.0, silver 18" wheels, 58000 miles) - inspection 2, which I managed to get for £290 at the main dealer after some negociation.

Anyway, my driver side headlight has not been working - the xenon part.

I though it was the bulb, but I swapped it to the other side and the bulb is working fine.

I then thought it must be the igniter, but swapped that to the other side and again, the igniter is fine.

So, my suspission was that the ballast was not working. I put it into the dealer for the service today and asked them to diagnose the fault.

I got told that the "optics have come away from the headlight and the headlight needs replaced". Price is £763 incl labour - my car is only worth about £9000 give or take and they want a tenth of my cars value for a new headlamp!!

I can't understand though what they mean by "the optics have come away"...how would that stop the bulb from lighting up!?

I'd appreciate advice off of anyone on this. And also, if you believe it is the headlamp needing replaced, anyone got one or know where to get one second hand?

Thanks,

Paul (almost bankrupt)
 
Welcome to the forum!


Ebay is one of the best bets but there are often quite a few people looking for them. im sure that price is wayy too expensive. CJ10Jeeper will be along soon to see your right :thumbsup:
 
The price actually seems low for a silver inner Xenon as they are usually that price supply only :thumbsdown:

The problem you describe is common enough and you've done the 2 obvious checks of bulb and ballast. You really also need to check the high voltage lead and associated connector on the rear of the bulb (not to be mistaken for the ballast). I'm going to make a wild guess and suggest that you havn't actually checked the ballast as that requires the bumper off and the light unit out as it's mounted on the underside of the light.

I assume you are wise enough to be safe with xenon and the voltage !!!

The dealer explanation is an odd one. While it's posible for the various components to break inside, such as the 2 plastic points on which the reflector pivots, it would not affect it illuminating.

Certainly not a sales pitch but I do have a OS brand new xenon silver inner light that you can buy if it proves required.
 
A wee update...

I went into the dealers and asked them how some loose mechanical parts inside the headlight would stop the bulb lighting up....which they didn't have an explanation for.

I then asked them if they had actually checked that the ballast was providing power - which they hadn't.

So my half hour labour charge for a diagnostic check was for nothing as they didn't actually pinpoint the fault.

They have sent me home with a wee mini courtesy car and they have agreed to carry out a proper diagnostic tomorrow morning at no extra charge.

So hopefully tomorrow morning I will know what exactly isn't working.

Thanks for the posts - appreciate the advice.

I shall update tomorrow once they get to the bottom of it.

Paul
 
I've got the mini until Monday.

The delaers ran an actuator(?) test this morning and they think that the light control module / ballast is ok. Their suspission is that there is a wiring fault in the headlamp itself.

They are going to take out the headlamp on Monday and have agreed that they will repair it if indeed it is a wiring fault.

Dealer has been very pleasant and helpful - but still no resolution. Why did a light bulb have to be so complicated!
 
And the result is....the control module needs replaced.

They have given a reduced price of £377 supplied and fitted and it will be done by tomorrow.

Other problem is, the inside of the headlight is broken and I think that's going to mean that the headlight beam is a little off what it should be. So, the headlight will need done also - but with a well and truly emptied wallet it's not going to be this month.

CJ10JEEPER - How much for that headlight?? I'm going to need to but one next month now.

Thanks,
Paul
 
paulrl said:
And the result is....the control module needs replaced.

They have given a reduced price of £377 supplied and fitted and it will be done by tomorrow.

Other problem is, the inside of the headlight is broken and I think that's going to mean that the headlight beam is a little off what it should be. So, the headlight will need done also - but with a well and truly emptied wallet it's not going to be this month.

CJ10JEEPER - How much for that headlight?? I'm going to need to but one next month now.

Thanks,
Paul
Click to expand...

Well I've never heard of the LCM causing a single headlight to stop functioning. Best make sure they guarantee this will fix the problem.

You also PM'd me so will repond to that.
 
It is all fully functioning now with the control module being replaced....

I've decided I'm buying a new fiesta once I sell the Z4 in May!! The Z4's 3 year reign is coming to a sad end and it's time to get something sensible while I save for my wedding.

Paul
 
Great that it's fixed. Costly excercise in all with that, a new light and a looming wedding :thumbsdown:
 
Hi guys...I thought I better add to this than start a new thread since I've had the same problem; I've got a 2003 Z4 2.5

Only issue is that the car ended up submerged in flood water for an hour or so a few months ago to a level halfway up the alloys (not near the actual lights). Anyway, it spent a frustrating 8 weeks in a dealership and after going to and fro, the insurers agreed to pay for a reconditioned engine since this had completely failed.

I picked it up a few weeks ago (it also passed the MOT there) and the faulty light warning indicator came on - the passenger side Xenon lamp has stopped working. Phoned the dealer, they said the light needs replacing and it isn't anything to do with the water damage, and quoted nearly £200 including fitting!

So took it to a local independent garage, they swapped the passenger Xenon lamp and 'ballister' into the driver side, and it worked fine....had no idea what else it could be, but reading this thread it seems it might the ?light control module.

Could someone tell me, where is this Light Control Module situated, and could it have been affected by water damage??
Is there anything else that could be causing the problem - my decision is whether to go back to the expensive dealer and try and struggle with the insurance company again (a big struggle) or just pay up and get it sorted at a more reasonable price with an independent....but if there is any chance that this could be a water damage, I would fight it out :headbang: with the insurers.....if it is more likely to just be 'one of those things' due to age, wear and tear, I'll just take the hit myself!

Any advice would be really welcome!! Thanks!
 
The LCM is where the switch for the lights are in the car. I doubt it's because of the water damage, but other's may know better.

rearfogswitch.jpg
 
plastics said:
Hi guys...I thought I better add to this than start a new thread since I've had the same problem; I've got a 2003 Z4 2.5

Only issue is that the car ended up submerged in flood water for an hour or so a few months ago to a level halfway up the alloys (not near the actual lights). Anyway, it spent a frustrating 8 weeks in a dealership and after going to and fro, the insurers agreed to pay for a reconditioned engine since this had completely failed.

I picked it up a few weeks ago (it also passed the MOT there) and the faulty light warning indicator came on - the passenger side Xenon lamp has stopped working. Phoned the dealer, they said the light needs replacing and it isn't anything to do with the water damage, and quoted nearly £200 including fitting!

So took it to a local independent garage, they swapped the passenger Xenon lamp and 'ballister' into the driver side, and it worked fine....had no idea what else it could be, but reading this thread it seems it might the ?light control module.

Could someone tell me, where is this Light Control Module situated, and could it have been affected by water damage??
Is there anything else that could be causing the problem - my decision is whether to go back to the expensive dealer and try and struggle with the insurance company again (a big struggle) or just pay up and get it sorted at a more reasonable price with an independent....but if there is any chance that this could be a water damage, I would fight it out :headbang: with the insurers.....if it is more likely to just be 'one of those things' due to age, wear and tear, I'll just take the hit myself!

Any advice would be really welcome!! Thanks!
Click to expand...

Can you be clearer abou t what the indy garage swapped over.
When you say you went to a local garage and they swapped the ballast over did they remove the bumper, unscrew the ballast off the base of each unit and swap it over? Did they take one whole light out and couple it to the other side?

Possible problems range from the LCM, failed ballast, failed HT lead or connector, broken bulb (unlikely) None would really be related to water to the level of the alloys centre, except possibly the ballast, that is on the underside of the headlamp.
 
cj10jeeper said:
Can you be clearer abou t what the indy garage swapped over.
When you say you went to a local garage and they swapped the ballast over did they remove the bumper, unscrew the ballast off the base of each unit and swap it over? Did they take one whole light out and couple it to the other side?

Possible problems range from the LCM, failed ballast, failed HT lead or connector, broken bulb (unlikely) None would really be related to water to the level of the alloys centre, except possibly the ballast, that is on the underside of the headlamp.
Click to expand...

Hi, they took the wheels off. Then took out the xenon 'filament' with a metal box behind the headlight unit (a square box about 8 by 8cm) and swapped this over to the drivers' side, and it worked....he called the metal box the ballister??
They didn't remove the whole headlight unit, just the xenon part from the passengers side - there didn't seem to be a big bulb or anything, just a filament with a tiny light emitting thing....
They didn't remove the bumper at all....now I'm confused!!
 
peddy said:
The LCM is where the switch for the lights are in the car. I doubt it's because of the water damage, but other's may know better.

rearfogswitch.jpg
Click to expand...
The cable for this runs down to the bottom of the steering column, just above the drivers footwell. Sounds like it wasn't caused by water damage :(
 
Sounds like he just swapped over the wrong bits. The ballast is actually fasteded on with 3 torx bolts to the underneath of the light unit. The bit he swapped sounds more lke the bulb holder that carriers the HT to the rear of the xenon bulb.

What you really need to do is either 1) put the car on a proper diagnostic and see what codes are thrown for an indication of what bits wrong or do some serious swapping of bits left to right to identify it by elimination

Remember to only touch xenon bits and circuitry when switched 'off' due to high voltage.

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?model=BT52&mospid=47797&btnr=63_0766&hg=63&fg=05
This might help - I think he swapped part 4 wheras part 2 is more commonly called the ballast
 
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