Xenon Headlight Poor Range??

[Jimbo]

Hi,

Hoping someone will be able to help me with this? I bought an 03 plate 3.0 Z approved from Sytner on Friday in Birmingham. Driving it back to Scotland I noticed that when sitting driving the headlights only seem to light no more the a couple of feet infront of the car. Not so bad on the M way but when I came off into the country I was virtualy driving by moonlight!

The car has auto lights and have tried it on this along with turning on manualy. They do adjust up and down when the engine is turned on as they should. I have taken the car into my local dealer in Glasgow to have a look at it,at Sytners expense along with a few other issues however they report back all fine???

Have had Xenon's on other cars b4 and have always been happy with the range. Is this just a feature of the Z4. The fog lights are great and so is full beam. Have noticed on dipped beam when idicating the light of the indicator travels further than the main intensity of the dipped beam! But apparently all is fine according to BMW .....

Any advice, experiences much appreciated

 

[Wondermike]

I had xenons on mine and they were much better than that, but I did have them realigned after I bought it (FOC by the way).

 

[Jimbo]

I had xenons on mine and they were much better than that, but I did have them realigned after I bought it (FOC by the way).

Thats what I was hoping BMW would do but they insist that all is o.k, shame its getting lighter now or I would have taken them for drive at the end of the day to show them.

Is it an easy job to adjust them manually through the wheel arch access? I dont want to blind anybody but at the moment the chances of that are slim!!!

 

[ZetaQuattro]

Hi,
I had the same problem with the range w/my xenons...I only had my car for a day and noticed the beam doesn't extend far enough-felt like they were pointing downward too much, had it taken in the next day and asked for BMW to adjust it. They said the lights were fine, but I had an allowance where they adjusted almost half an inch (still within the BMW specs/range.) to move the headlight up a little. The service advisor said I wouldn't notice it because it wasn't a lot, but at night it was a big difference....I could see far enough ahead and not just a few feet.

Hope it works out with your lights.....

-ZetaQuattro :driving:

 

[Wondermike]

I had xenons on mine and they were much better than that, but I did have them realigned after I bought it (FOC by the way).

Thats what I was hoping BMW would do but they insist that all is o.k, shame its getting lighter now or I would have taken them for drive at the end of the day to show them.

Is it an easy job to adjust them manually through the wheel arch access? I dont want to blind anybody but at the moment the chances of that are slim!!!

Hmm sounds strange, you got another dealer locally you can try first?

Try sending a PM to cj10jeeper he is the resident xenon expert

 

[Jimbo]

I should be getting the car back from the dealer tomorrow as they have been adjusting the hard top fitting, linkages were loose and a worrying ammount a wind noise and also fitting a new headlamp washer cap as it flew off on the M6 sprint home after collecting it. I will see what they say in person and give it a trial run at night if still no improvement will send cj10jeeper a PM.

zetaQuattro, thanks sounds a bit like what may be needed on my car, will see what they say when Im there in person tomorrow.

Cant wait till all is fixed and I can enjoy my new toy!!! So far,other than the niggles :headbang: I am mighty impressed!

 

[cj10jeeper]

Resident Xenon expert - eh. Not so sure there, although at last count there are a total of 8-10 Z4 headlighs in and around my garage in various states of assembly.

In terms of the beam distance it's not a problem on mine and they do throw the beam a good way down the road. They are nothing like as good as say the X5 as coming from a higher start point they seem better positioned to throw the light while still being on a downward andgle to avoid dazzle.

Personally I'd get into a flat underground car park and adjust them up a bit as BMW will simply be stating they are in tolerence which is more about not dazzling nor pointing into oncoming traffic than being high enough.

 

[srhutch]

Some info that may help as I had similar issues, and the dealer wanted to charge to adjust, even thought the car was supplied from the factory with headlights aligned below the lgal limit

http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2207&p=34749&hilit=headlight+adjustment#p34749

 

[edderby]

...

 

[edderby]

..

 

[Jimbo]

Personally I'd get into a flat underground car park and adjust them up a bit as BMW will simply be stating they are in tolerence which is more about not dazzling nor pointing into oncoming traffic than being high enough.

That's exactly what I did. As purchased as an approved used BMW from a BMW dealer, the car was useless in the dark. Took it to my local (Stratsone) BMW (Derby) dealer who I gradually realised are a bunch of t*ss"rs who don't know their ar**s from their elbows, and they said it was fine - complete Bo**o*ks (as normal for them). Parked it in the underground carpark below my gym, 2 minutes with a srewdriver with the lights aimed at the far wall. Out on the road - like the difference between night and day. Sadly was flashed by some oncoming traffic. Back to the car park wall, lowered them a bit, and out on the road again. Still a massive improvement on before. That was over a year ago and no flashings and an Mot pass since...

Your lights are fine, your dealers aren't....

That sounds like the most likely fix. I was thinking that the evening I got back from buying the car but I thought I would give the local stealers a chance, benefit of the doubt and all that! Will head for the nearest underground car park at the weekend. Just a bit of advice though edderby, how far off from the wall were you parked? Whats the process for adjustment, take the access pannel off inside the wheel arch and then is it fairly self explanitory from there on...? Obviously its not in the owners manual?

Cheers for the advice folks realy appreciate the responses!!

 

[edderby]

..

 

[Jimbo]

Cheers, will give this a go at the weekend thats if the dealer has finished messin about trying to get the hard top nice and snug!

Will feedback the results, will try to get a mate to sit in his car a distance away to let me know if im going too far.

 

[ovrkll]

See this thread for a little more info:

http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2629&p=38561&hilit=headlight+adjustment#p38561