Xenon headlight troubleshooting - ouch, ouch!

S

sbtwister

Active member
 Santa Barbara, CA
My car (late '05) has Xenon high/low beams and Halogen DRLs. I am getting an intermittant failure on the right side Xenon, that can sometimes be corrected by a gentle thump on the fender above the light housing - sometimes not. Took it to the dealer for evaluation - they cannot reproduce the problem, but said they could try replacing the bulb ($240 each + labor). This might or might not fix the problem.
Before I go down that rat hole, I'd like to troubleshoot myself - switch right and left bulbs, ballasts, ignitor, etc. Does anyone have pictures or description on how to get to the workings of the headlamps? Not a whole lot visible inside the engine compartment, right off. Is front bumper removal required?
Also - is this a safe thing to do. I've seen many high voltage then die warnings.

Thanks for the help.
 
I'm no expert, but it sounds like one of the ballasts to me. Maybe? But as you say try switching the bulbs first.
 
Went through a similar saga myself. It was the ballast on mine. I had to take the bumper off to change it. It sounds like a big job, but it's not, it's really simple and there's a great how-to on here for removing the bumper. Once the bumpers off (15mins tops) its easy to swap all the component around to troubleshoot.
Here's mine:

d9909257-9474-3ea1.jpg


Underneath the headlight is the ballast (that grey/silver box):

d9909257-948d-8c8a.jpg


Here's the ballast by itself. The red grommet/seal plugs into the bottom of the headlight casing.

d9909257-94c1-e880.jpg


It's seriously a 30-45min job tops - even for a novice like me. BMW wanted £550 to do that! I payed £80 (iirc) for the ballast and job done. Don't buy a light from the dealer. Get one off eBay, I paid £20 for I think.

:thumbsup:


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Oh yeah, it's safe, but disconnect the battery first! DON'T FORGET ;)


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Like the tiltle says...
Just got a call from a very good local Indie, who has concluded that it's not the ballast, not the bulb, and not the igniter.... What's left? The headlight assembly...
Total bill ~$1500... pick the car up on Friday.

Usually get a little foreplay before getting F#*%ked like this....
 
Indie has looked around to try & find something other than OEM, but has not been able to find anything. They are giving a better price than dealer (~$200 less than dealer) for the headlight assembly.
Wish my car was still under warranty, but 2005 (only 29k mi). CPO warranty ran out in February....

Pucker up....
 
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