Originally Posted by awoodward

I have a xenon headlight assembly (driver side ) listed on ebay. From an '03 Cooper S. It doesn't work but I do have an igniter included. Everything is there, the arm on the washer pump, that opens the little door, broke during removal, so it will need to be replaced. I was about 10 degrees in my garage when I pulled it. I was going to try to repair myself, but figured I had neither the skill or patience to do it.

' 03 Mini Cooper s Xenon Headlight Assembly | eBay

Originally Posted by silentservice703

Yes, Virginia, you can change the ignitor on a first generation (X53) Mini Cooper S Xenon headlight.

The ignitor is about $86.00 on eBay.

It's a good long day of work, but better than $500.00 for a new headlight assembly!

Success! I used the reccomendation of a 200*F oven and the twice baked method...lol
Using a paint can lid opener. I worked my way around the lens. This is not an operation for the feint of heart! Once the lens is off, you must remove the reflector...this is a bit tricky as there are actually three screws buried in the goo at the 2 o'clock, 6 o'clock and 9 o'clock positions. These screws can be meticulously cleaned and removed before or after removing the reflector. I did mine after, simply because I did not know any better. The screws hold onto a "C" shaped leg of the reflector...they are impossible to see unless you remove all the sealent, but there is a tell-tale that they are there if you look at the perimeter of the housing...there is an extension of the mold in the form of a quater inch line at each of the three legs of the reflector. Directly above those lines are the screws. They use a small hex key or torx. I pried my lens legs out of the screw cavity and then cleaned and removed the screws...use heat to keep things flexible.

Now the headlight aiming reflector must be removed. There are two screws that hold the adjuste in place. I drilled holes in th ehousing immediately above those screws in order to effect the removal. I don't reccomend trying to pry the adjuster ball out of the snap clip...they break and you're screwed. With that reflector out of the way, simply unscrew the ignitor from the headlight housing, install the new one, and reassemble.

A word of caution: not all ignitors have the same length cabling! I had to splice my used wires ontothe new ignitor to have sufficient lenght. The cables should be 11.5-12 inches long.

The guy I dealt with on eBay was absolutely excellent and has a good used product.