Hello... So I finally took the plunge and bought a low mileage 05 JCW.. Now that I have had a few days to get acclimated with it, I am noticing all the little things that need to be repaired and or replaced... The one that is most disconcerting issue is that the oem xenons are not auto leveling or aiming correctly.. Since the car is out of warranty :-( I am trying my best to figure this out with a dreaded trip to the dealership... I have outlined the issue below.. Any help would be greatly appreciated... I HAVE searched this forum thoroughly and found similar issues but nothing exact.. This car is my daily driver/project car but I am very particular and enjoy a little DIY... The car has never been in a collision and has no evidence of damage at or around the headlight assemblies....

In review:
1) Passenger side xenon pointing down noticeably.
2) Neither headlights go through the auto leveling routine.. AT ALL.. I am very familiar with this as I own and have owned several BMW's with Xenons..
3) Both bulbs illuminate and function fine with no flicker or any other issues..

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

 

More than likely one of the sensors is damaged. There are two of them... One on the left front wheel and the other on the right rear. I had one of the arms break on mine and there were point straight down. I think the sensor was about 100 bucks.

 

Hey thanks for the info... I'll look for a local shop that can diagnose it for me... I really don't want to go to a dealership.. Hopefully that is the fix..

Thanks again!

 

That's strange that the passenger is pointed further down. The right headlight on passenger side is supposed to be aimed higher so it's visible for street signs etc. The other thing, if you flick your headlights on right as you are starting your car they should level. If you just turn the car on THEN flick the lights on they would have already done the little leveling deal. But good luck!

 

MC2005s - Hmmmm... You may have a point there... I am used to cars that have auto on/off xenons, that would in effect flick on right as I start the car... So I would notice it almost every time.. I'll try that tonight... Either way I am beginning to believe that the passenger side headlight is screwed up somehow....

Thanks for the input!

 

Another thing you might want to try. Have someone sit in the drivers seat while you stand in front of the headlights while you have them flick the lights from off all the way to on without the keys in the ignition. if im correct, the headlight assembly will do the up and down level and the lights won't be switched on. by doing that you can test if they are leveling or not.

i hope mine don't break on me...but no problem good luck.

 

Mine auto level (dip, then up) every time I turn them on.

Of course the hack fix is to adjust the passenger side up. The auto leveling is about regs, and if you don't often carry big weight in the back, you likely won't blind people.

 

Eric Rowland - How might I adjust the passenger side?.. I would love the "Hack fix" for now as it is especially annoying to me... Even when looking at the car with the lights off I can see it is different than the other (and simply out of alignment in general)... I would really appreciate any guidance you could provide so I can at least get them even, until I can get the car into a shop for an actual diagnosis and fix....

Thanks for your input!

 

There are adjustment screws on the backs of the headlights. You've got the new versions, which I believe are ambiguous (the earlier versions are very straight forward as to which is up/down vs. left/right.)
When I got my car the lights were adjusted way too low.

 

I had the same issue as Eric, when I first bought mine, the driver said was aimed WAY too low. I believe the left adjuster is for up/down, and the right is for left/right. Fairly easy to tell though, just remember to count the number of turns if you need to set it back to where it was.

 

Okay... I diagnosed the headlight further by having a friend switch the lights on and off as I watched each headlight assembly/unit independently... The drivers side goes through it's routine as planned (Up/Down/Level), but the passenger side unit (the one that is pointing down) attempts to go through the same routine but instead twists in its housing side to side... Which leads me to believe that something in the hinge mechanism inside the headlight assembly is out of place... My next step is to remove the headlight and attempt to get inside of it and see if the effected hinge can be put back in place.... I have searched everywhere to find someone who has opened up a 05/06 xenon assembly but haven't found any info to that effect... and when I look on realoem.com, it only has the schematic for the standard halogen assembly.... Would you recommend I post this as a separate question in another section?.. I guess I will end up going in blind as I really have nothing to lose, as my only other option is to buy a replacement unit... Thanks again!

 

Before you go digging in that lamp, I recommend you look at the sensors and make sure they aren't damaged.

 

Mine are acting strange all of the sudden, they used to have a straight line (at an angle) now more of a V shape pattern. they all seem to be coming on, one may not be coming up, hard to tell. with the brights on, I have a spot on the ground near drivers side.

These sensors are different than the ones for the brakes? I had both of those replaced due to failure already.

Mine's an '03 so the new or old ones?

 

Have the same problem, that part seems to be loose but won't attach to the small ball behind

 

I can move it by hand, any idea on how to plug it???

 

Any luck with the loose headlight fix?

Both my 2005 xenons projectors are loose inside the housing. When I close the hood, I can see the projector move around in the housing. I assume something inside the auto leveling system is broken/detached.

 

The stupid plastic 3-point "ball and socket" joints that hold the heavy headlamp assembly are too weak and will allow the assembly to pop out of one or more of the joints when you close the hood too hard. This has happened on my 06 R53 passenger-side headlight twice now and I'm fed up with it.

To fix it the first time, I opened up my headlamp as when doing the "joey mod" - it was a major pain in the neck. It worked for about year since I was being very careful every time I shut the hood, but there's a very fine balance to closing the hood just hard enough that it fully latches on both sides, without closing it too hard and popping the headlight assembly loose. After my last oil change I accidentally closed the hood slightly too hard (because the first time I closed it I didn't shut it hard enough and one side didn't latch) and of course it popped the darn headight loose again.

 

Thanks. This sounds exactly what happened with both of my headlights.
To clarify, you simply snap the ball and sock back together? There were no broken parts?

Is there any way you can access the sockets without disassembling the entire headlight?

 

Nothing was broken; two of the three joints had come apart. The ball-and-socket joints pop right back together, but the problem is that there's no good way to access them without ungluing the plastic lens. Remember, you're working with plastic parts so if you can't see what you're doing and try to force anything, it'll likely break.

If only one of the three joints has popped loose, you might be able to reach into the headlamp assembly through the access ports on the backside of the housing with a tool and pull the floppy corner of the assembly back together, but if the ball isn't lined up with the socket then you won't have any luck getting it to pop back in. If the light assembly only rocks up/down and isn't loose side-to-side then you might be lucky and will only have one of the joints to pop back together. If the assembly is flopping around every which way, then you're going to have to disassemble the housing per the "joey mod" instructions.

I wish I could just get a set of aftermarket halogen headlamp assemblies so I don't have all these heavy, complex, fragile, and ridiculously expensive components to fuss with (ignitor, ballast, auto-leveling motor, washer) but it's my understanding that the wiring differs between the halogen and xenon cars.

Here's another thread talking about this problem.