Hi guys,

My R53 Cooper S' headlight height adjustment motor has started to go. I can manually adjust the height with the plastic screw behind the headlight, but sometimes my left headlight decides to work again and then it's too high. BMW told me they do not sell the motor seperately and it would cost me $330 to replace the entire headlight unit. I never use that little scrolley thing inside the car just next to the steering column to adjust the height ever, so I think it would be cheaper just to disable motor for good and run on manually adjusting the height of the low beam.

Does anybody know what I need to disconnect to do this?

thanks.

 

Anyone?

 

Bump for the last time? ANY suggestions?

 

lol!

I am sorry. I didnt even know my car did this OR what that **** was for. I hope someone can answer this question for you.

 

I dont have an adjustment ****

 

disconnect the adjustment switch.......

 

i dont hav a know either. i know mine do it. when you turn the lights on they are down, then beam up. and when your stopped for ~15 seconds they will beam down (your lights wont blair opposing traffic this way) ansd *** son as you start moving again they will beam up. (thats for those of you who didnt know your mini did this). idk if its a standard feature, but i have the stock 03' xenons, and havent had any trouble with the motor as of yet. sorry.

 

undo the connector to the sensor on the driver side control arm. Cover them with some electrical tape or something to keep the dirt out. No signal, no movement. Better yet, cover the end of the cable, and remove the gizmo from the control arm. Save till later.

I haven't hacked into the light module to see if you can do it there, but I'm sure it's possible as well.....

Matt

 

Thanks, I'll have a look. How do I identify this cable "easier"?

 

$330. Um... I don't know about that. I just had one of my headlights replaced and the price was $615. And that dosen't come with the water sprayer assembly. Luckly I have an extended warrenty .

 

He's in South Africa, so has the Euro version with manual headlight adjustment. In the US the Xenons come with automatic adjusters, so it's likely that he doesn't have the sensors of which Dr. O speaks.

mini2.com (euro based) might be a better place to ask.

 

That's true, thanks Eric!

 

I can't remember the prices off the top of my head, it was very long ago that I asked Could have been way off, but I just only decided now to try fix the problem.

 

on the driver side front control arm, there is a plastic gizmo that is attached with either a 6mm or a 8mm nut. It has a plastic arm that reaches up to something above that so it knows how much the control arm is compressed or extended. There is a mate on the rear driver side control arm as well (forgot about that earlier). Same deal there. Disconnect both.

The manual system has a switch in the parcel shelf. But that may be in addition as opposed to instead of, but I"m not sure about that. But a manual system shouldn't fight at all unless you hit the switch, right?

Anyway, you can look at REALOEM.com to see what's bolted to your cars control arms.

Matt

 

Basically what happens is, mine has a manual switch. It will still automatically go into lowest mode when I turn the key on. Sometimes what happens is the left motor won't move at all and in default it is much lower than even the lowest setting on the manual switch.

 

is to get them to the level that you like, and find the connector on the light module that does this stuff and disconnect it. That SHOULD fix your problem, but I"ve never tried to do this so don't know exactly what you should do.

Matt