Hi, I'm hoping someone has some knowledge about something I discovered last night when I was coming home.

I started up my car, and went to turn on my headlights but they didn't come on. I could see that some very small lights came on that seemed to be coming either below the headlights, and perhaps on the side of the car. I don't honestly know which lights come on when you turn the wand to get your headlights.

It was late and very dark, and I just happened to try my high beams (but didn't think they would be working either) but thank God they did. I guess that means there is a separate bulb for normal beams and high beams?

I thought it was strange that both headlights would have burned out at the same time, and then I started wondering if it could be a different problem and not that I need to buy new bulbs today.

Any help anyone can give me would be much appreciated.

Thank you so much.

Monica - 2003 mini cooper owner

 

its possible both went out, both my license lights went out at the same time. replace them and see if it happens again, or check the fuse for the low beams and see if its tripped

 

Typically, if one bulb goes out the other one will most likely burn out soon as well. As a rule of thumb when replacing light bulbs, always replace it pairs because of this. Them going out together is definitely possible. There is a low beam (driving lights) and a high beam (brights). We have bulbs here if needed. If you don't know which ones you need, I can help you.

 

Not sure I can provide any useful info, but a question...
Xenons or regular halogen headlights?
If halogens, it would be cheap to toss a couple bulbs at it....usual, yes, but have seen folks with burnt out tails.... Typically they drive around, one out for months, then the other side goes,, and when folks start flashing their lights and beeping, find out both rears are out, and they believe it is a huge $$$ issue when $2 in bulbs is all that's needed (except for the fools driving around with the lights set to "daytime" running at 50% brightness, and no tails, thinking they have auto on headlights..but that is pure user error)....

If you have xenon bulbs...then it gets more $$ to toss bulbs at it...so a quick question...
Did you notice a color change in your headlights? They typically turn a bit pink just before they fail...

+1 on it could be a bad wiring/relay or switch, but that is getting behind the basic 5 minute fix by a typical owner in a parking lot.....

 

Thank you saltysalt, PelicanParts and ZippyNH for your replies! You have given me different things to pursue and I appreciate it.

I didn't know that both headlights should be replaced at the same time. Last year I had one go out and replaced just the one that was burned out. Zippy I believe it was a xenon light. I still have one in the package so I will be able to check. I will check out the tail lights, too. I honestly did not notice a color change in the headlights.

Thanks again!!

 

Hey Monica, I don't think that 2 bulbs at once is likely but I don't know. Is your car a Cooper or a Cooper S? How many miles on the car? I'll take a look at my car later - I think that both lights are run off the same fuse. Which would be a very easy fix. I would think bad switch if high beams work and low beams don't....but there's a lot of unknowns. Take a picture of the bulb and we can tell you if it's xenon or not. Xenon bulbs are usually much more expensive...I am leaning towards halogen.

 

They would not design it that way for redundancy and safety reasons (a failure on one side also throwing out the other side), but in any case the headlights on this car do not have dedicated fuses. The headlights are connected directly to the Body Control Module in the footwell. The BCM is connected to lots of fuses and it isn't clear which functions they are associated with (this information isn't in the wiring diagrams). There may be fuses involved with this failure, but it's also a possibility that the BCM itself has gone bad. The first course of action is to swap in a new bulb to check if that was the problem.

 

Hmm...ill go with it because I don't know - would have thought that it works like Christmas lights - wired in parallel but one fuse. But again i don't know

 

Thanks for your replies rkw and kahnfucious. I have a base model Cooper with about 134,000 miles. I had a mechanic help me out a little bit yesterday (he works on trucks) and was able to help me find the fuse box. He told me that there was only one fuse for the regular headlights and high beams. He also told me that the fuse was shared with the wipers, and we tested the wipers and they still work. I found out I had a spare halogen bulb, and we replaced one side it did not light. I was able to reach my mechanic today and they had availability in their schedule to see me Friday morning. They also thought it is probably the switch (hopefully not too expensive to fix). Thank you both for your input!

 

I didn't think to ask this -- if it IS the switch, is that the little oval wand that I turn when I am turning on the headlights?

 

the switch is on the stalk to turn the lights on. I would be interested if you take a multimeter to the socket if it gets power

 

Saltysalt I'm not sure what the socket is, but I will ask my mechanic about this on Friday. Thank you.

 

I think salty salt was referring to the light bulb socket.. Hope all gets resolved for you soon

The stalk is the stick that comes off of your steering wheel and has the controls on it for the lights turn signals etc. lots of them available for sale on eBay for about $50. I don't know what effort it would be to replace one but can't be that bad.

Let's hope for something easy and cheap

 

oh thank you Kahnfucious, I hope it will be cheap, too. I just discovered another problem, and I wondered if you thought it could be related.


When I turn on my car, the fasten seat belt light flashes for a moment. However, it should stay on if it is not buckeled, correct?


I saw a diagram online of the inside cover of mini fuse box, but didn't see one for the seatbelt. Is the light on the dash operated by a fuse? I guess I had better have the mechanic check all of the fuses, just to be safe.

 

Fasten seat belt light should stay illuminated if you haven't buckled up - That's correct. I don't know how that would be related except that all of these items I believe are driven by the BCM. I hope that isn't the issue as the BCM is a very expensive item I think...and I also think must be coded by the dealer

 

Okay so here is the update....and let me say my sweetie and I both feel pretty dumb. As I mentioned above, we tried a new bulb and the low beam still did not work on that one side......that's because we put the new bulb in the high beam compartment and not the low beam compartment. It really seemed so unlikely that both headlights would/could go out at the same time (especially since one side was replace last year)...but it really did happen. I plan on labeling the compartments in case we attempt to replace any bulbs in the future, but that whole clip thing on the light fixture (and the contorted position you have to be in to work on the bulbs) may make us think twice about that. I didn't get the seatbelt light resolved that day -- it will be looked at next week. Hopefully that will be an easy fix, too.

 

The seat belt light not displaying when not wearing it ended up just being some kind of switch that was jammed. So thankful that it was not the BCM.