I hate for my first posting here on North American Motoring to be one in which I relate a problem but that seems to be the hand that was dealt me currently.
I have a 2004 "S". It's my second MINI and even with nearly 90,000 miles behind the wheel of a MINI I still consider it a joy every day I climb onboard. Recently the low beam lamp on my left side xenon headlight stopped functioning. I took it in to our local official Mini service center. The service manager had intended to simply replace the bulb for me and send me on my way until he noted that I had xenon lights. Without any further checking he diagnosed in a rather matter of fact fashion that I had a faulty igniter and that I would need to have the entire headlight assembly replaced. The price he quoted was somewhere between $900.00 and $1000.00. After picking my chin up off the floor I promptly rescheduled an appointment to have this procedure completed.
I'm now wondering if any of you fine and learned folks have any wisdom to share. Are there other diagnostic tests that should be completed? Is there any way to simply replace a faulty igniter without replacing the entire headlight assembly? Anyone else with similar stories?
Thanks,
Greg

 

I had this same failure more than once on MINIs I've owned - luckily always in warranty.


Sadly I think the service guy is correct.
I've not seen anyone selling parts for the Xenons, though rarely a complete Xenon unit shows up on eBay.

 

[quote=GBMINI;2440865

Sadly I think the service guy is correct.
I've not seen anyone selling parts for the Xenons, though rarely a complete Xenon unit shows up on eBay.[/quote]

I had this happen on my 03MCS.

There are a few pairs on ebay now ~275.00.

 

An update: I pulled the bulb from the non-functional headlight and put it in the opposite lamp and it works over there so I know the problem is NOT a simple bulb problem.
From a thread I found in checking past discussions of similar xenon failure issues I found mention of a ballast unit that is available. Indeed I found a couple of listings on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Range...spagenameZWDVW

Does anyone have experience with these? Where is this ballast within the car? Is it part of the headlamp assembly or is it in a remote location? The dealer service manager referred to an "igniter". I'm assuming this ballast and the igniter would be the same thing. Can anyone confirm that?

 

It could also be the ignitor.

You could try swapping your ballast from one light to another to see if it is a ballast issue.

 

It is actually called a "control unit" and is #1 in the picture of this link:
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...23&hg=63&fg=05

It is very easy to replace. Look under the headlamps for a gray metal unit. Once you took the two screws off, then it will be accessible. You can swap them to see if the problem is the "control unit" or not...

 

I never had this problem with the Xenons on my 03 MCS (~85Kmiles) until my passenger side headlight was broken and I obtained a used replacement. Now, once in a while, the passenger side xenon refuses to come on. If I wait about a minute and try again, sometimes it works at the second try, sometimes at third. Once it is on, it never turns off by itself, never flickers, etc etc.

All of the symptoms pointed to a possible bad control unit of the replacement. To be safe, I replaced both the Xenon bulb and the controller unit in the replacement with my original ones. Unfortunately, the problem is still there. So it is not the control unit and not the bulb. There aren't anything else to replace really, so I looked at the housing that the Xenon bulb sits and saw some pins. With the hope that they could be loose, I bent them little bit this afternoon to provide a "tighter" connection. Let's see if that will help or not.

Puzzling?!?!?

 

There is a separate ignitor in the headlight housing. I have been told that could be switched out. I just don't know of anyone who has done it.

 

Himm... Since I have my original housing, which cant be used for anything else, I can just take it apart and see where that "ignitor" is and whether I can use it to replace the current one...

 

im about to order an 09 mcs. makes me think twice about getting xenon now. seems like for the long terms a simple head lamp repair could cost an arm and a leg....

 

They dont go bad that often, but when they do, make sure you can do stuff with one arm and one leg

By the way, I am happy to report that my intermittent issue with the replacement Xenon is now resolved by the "bending" of the connectors in the Xenon bulb housing. As I mentioned above, I changed the bulb and the control unit with my original set; the other possibilities were the cables, connections, etc. This little "trick" has seemed to work so far...

 

DO NOT LET THE DEALER FIX YOUR HEADLIGHTS!

buy one on ebay for cheap

 

Thanks to all for the info in this thread.

My right side Xenon quit working (3) days ago. I figured, no problem. In response to my NY State Trooper "fix-it" ticket, I'll replace the bulb and be on my way. That is not the case. After reading this thread, i switched the control unit from one side to the other to verify the culprit. I just got done ordering a used control unit / ignitor combo on e-bay for approx. $150.00 from an e-bay store called "OEM_XENON_PARTS". There are (7) more left for the 2002 - 2004 models if anyone is having the same problem.

Sure beats the $900 - $1000 dealer robbery that I may have been faced with.

 

I just went through the process of replacing the ballast and igniter on one of these. The igniter cannot be removed without taking it completely apart. I had another one on order and the spare parts so I figured I might as well try. It was a success but I had to cut apart the housing like doing a joey mod. Also the wire going to the bulb is running out the high beam and into the right spot. Looking back I could have drilled a couple holes in the back to remove the reflector but I was so happy it worked that i just put it back in the car. Perfect but not the easiest undertaking.

 

Yeah, the igniter is an integral part of the headlamp assembly, and yes, it can be removed, but at the risk of damaging the housing. Sadly there is not a separate part you can order from the dealer. Thus the $1000 bill.

 

My 2004 S Right Side Low Beam quit working last week. The Left Side went out under warrantee and the whole assembly was replaced.
Following the advice on this thread:
I swapped bulbs from side to side and the problem stayed with the assembly.
Then I ordered a controller and igniter from OEM_XENON_PARTS on ebay.
Replaced the controller, and we have light.
Glad it wasn't the igniter, which looks much more difficult to replace.
Thanks for all the good input.

 

I have a spare perfectly working driver side xenon headlight complete assembly (minus washer) from 03 MCS (low mileage) for sale:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ct/3528/cat/22

If interested please PM me soon.

 

Interesting - from the sounds of it, I have exactly the same problem you described (passenger side Xenon on '03 MCS, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. when it doesn't if I wait a bit and try again, it ususally works...). Can you post a picture of what you mean by "bending the connectors"? Do you have to cut the housing like in a Joey Mod to get to the connectors?

 

Same exact problem - swapped control units, swapped bulbs, must be the ignitor. Anyone have a stop by step?

 

So i replaced the silver box thing...I think its the ignitor? I bought it from ebay. Installed it and had light! About 3 months later. same issue. driver side light is flickering then turning off, then back on, then back off, and finally stays on. What is the deal???? I love mini but doubt i'd buy another. So much little Sh*t has gone wrong with it.

 

Bump

Anyone???? Whats the deal with bending the ground/earth wire pin I've heard about?? Gives the lights a better connection or something??

 

I too suffer from the left headlight not always "firing" so far I have cleaned allll my connections and have noticed that the problom occurs on humid days more so then dry days. MY headliight is intermittant or "901" as I like to say. I just recycly the headlights on and off and that will get the left one to fire... I recycle them slowly about once every min or so.

 

bump. Has anyone found any resolution to the causes of this problem??

 

I have a Control Unit for sale if you need it. Quickest way to check if it is the control unit is to swap the unit with the one from the other side If I had done that I would have saved myself $400. It turns out the brand new bulb I bought 2 months ago went bad.
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ct/9759/cat/22

 

Wow! I know this thread is a bit dated but I've had a ballast go out on my drivers side light in the past. I bought a used one and all was well for a little over a year maybe even two. Anyway, as soon as the weather started to cool down recently I noticed that same light is flickering yet again. It flickers then shuts off, then flashes on, flickers, shuts off, etc etc until it eventually shuts off all together. If I flick the switch off and then on again; the light will illuminate. Moments later it will continue to flicker and shut off. Any ideas on what needs to be done to diagnose this issue? I tried swapping ballast and same result on driver side light. So I know its not the ballast. Any ideas would be greatly appreciate. Thanks!!