...is it shortening the life of my bi-xenons?

 

I'd like to be a flasher too, but I have real body anxiety issues which I compensate for by buying cool cars.

 

P103 of your manual. The short answer is ... yes.

I have bi-xenons in a car but they also have a third halogen bulb specifically for passing (flashing). It appears the MINI does not have this third bulb so if your a compulsive flasher, it does not sound like a good thing to do.

 

Wow, from page 103 of the manual...

"The service life of these bulbs is very long and the probability of failure very low, provided that they are not switched on and off an excessive number of times."

Seriously though, how much would it cost to replace the bulbs? What constitutes "excessive number of times."?

 

Toggle the fog lights?

 

Unless the MINI headlights work differently than every other bi-xenon headlight, the highbeams work simply by using a mirror to alter the beam pattern, you don't actually activate another bulb when you hit the highbeams...

 

So the lower of the 2 apparent lights that's on with lowbeams is actually the only bulb and the upper one just lights using a mirror for highbeams?

 

 

Thats (from my understanding) correct. The brights are not another actual bulb so flashing them should do no harm

 

Most bi-xenons use an electro-mechanical shutter to expose more of the beam when using high beams. Most vehicles (not the Mini) have a halogen bulb for flashing, as does my X5. The xenon lamps in the Mini are covered under BMW's free maintenance program.

 

The regular lights are 1/2 covered by a shutter. Brights are the full lights, possibly with fog lights also.

The excessive wear/tear is when the lights are turned completely off and on over and over again.

 

Just google Xenon bulbs. The internet is a marvelous place. They are not cheap, not like $7 H3s.

Excessive? Obviously BMW isn't telling This is why the xenons are not used for DRLs. At least in the first gen cars, the high beams were halogen and the DRLs were just the high beam halogens switched on/off hundreds of times/sec. You cannot do that with Xenons (well I guess you can buy the bulb might not last very long). If you see a car with Xenons on as DRLs, they are just the "headlights" on.

 

I think deb was referring to flashing your headlights during daytime as a greeting to other mini drivers. I've been trying to wave if I have the window down, but I have not come up with a suitable way to salute if the window is up.

 

Lava's got it right--flashing as a greeting to fellow MINIs, or as a signal, like "the earth's edge is 100 yards ahead," LOL.

So, I'd better not flash my lights, I guess. I'm not worried about the warranty period--it's the years after that that concern me!

 

Not sure, but I recently had to replace the HID's in our BMW (sold for the Mini) it was approx $800 but that included ballasts and ignitors. I would suspect they are not cheap for the bulbs.

 

yeps bi-xenon works that way

MINI should have put in a halogen bulb for the flaser...

 

I heard a rumor that the bulbs alone were $200. I don't know if that is for each or for the pair.

 

Wave, don't flash. Flashing confuses the other drivers that aren't the target of the flash.

 

But I like to flash...especially when Tom Leykis calls for Flash Fridays It's a shame it's so expensive....ya know, with bulb replacement and all

 

Ahh. Traditionally flashing the highs was simply a way to tell the car ahead of you that you want to pass.

If you flash you highs into oncoming traffic, your warning them that the police is down the road (not something the police appreciate)

 

Or that they have their high beams on.

 

Correct

 

Okay, okay, I'll slink away...and wave.

 

You can find HID D2S bulbs for under $80, cheaper if you turn to Ebay, so they're not really any more expensive than high quality Halogens. Keep in mind the service life of an HID bulb is generally 2-3x as long as a comparable Halogen, so they more than pay for themselves. It's usually recommended that you replace both HID bulbs at once because the colors don't ALWAYS match. Over time the bulb tends to get more and more yellow looking (Loses color temperature). A bulb with 50k miles on it may appear to be whitish yellow, while a bulb with 10 miles on it may appear more bluish white.