Greetings everyone.

I tried searching for this problem, but I got a lot of DIY mods when searching for key terms. If I happen to be repeating a thread, please let me know.

I have a 2007 MCS - and never had any kind of electric or otherwise issues with it. It's got around 9,500 miles on it, and it's my daily driver.

The other day it was getting a tad overcast. My automatic xenons came on, same as usual...except my driver's side light blinked. Not auto-adjusted/leveled -- but blinked on and off. By itself. I thought I was seeing things, so I kept driving. It did it again (could see reflection in a vehicle ahead of me), and the computer "malfunction in driver headlight" notification came up, repeatedly.

I pulled over and tested the light -- looked at it head-on, no issues.
Turned lights off, no issues.
Turned autoheadlights on, no issues....but when I turned the lights fully ON again, it blinked again, then remained on.
I opened it up, and checked all connections and again, no visible issues! It's drivable, so I continued home.

Since then, it's only happened periodically, and not on any kind of pattern I can figure. I've taken it to the dealer, and what they thought was a simple replacement of a Xenon light (which, did you guys know they're ~$400 to replace a bulb?? And ~$1,600 to replace the whole lamp system??) -- has now turned out to be a bigger issue. They used a loaner's xenon bulb, and it still blinked. They're telling me now that it's either an igiting problem - xenons, I've learned, are actually ignited to glow -- or a computer glitch issue. They're waiting for the "puma" computer technicians to help them this morning.

Has ANYbody else had this issue? Can you give me an alternate scholastic opinion?

 

That should be under warranty. Take it back to the dealer!

 

x uh oh x I am sorry to hear about that with your driver side Xenon headlight blinking.I can't offer any advice other then to see what they figure out with running the PUMA diagnostics on your Mini.

Keep us posted once you find out the cause.

 

I will keep you posted - that's not a cheap problem! This is my second MINI, and I've never had a big problem with either of them. I thought this was just a loose connection or something...I didn't expect to be MINI-less for more than a week!! Warped1966 -- Already took it to the dealer. I'm not into zapping myself by messing with electrical I don't understand!

If anybody else has this issue, please speak up and share!

 

OK! SO, if anybody cares, here's the latest update on the "headlamp" situation.

It turns out (or so the service rep and/or techs tell me) that the car computer kept "thinking" the xenon lights weren't igniting properly, and so "double tapped" the igniting of the xenon -- makes sense, since that would be the "winking" effect.

They tell me that they tried a known working headlamp (bulb and entire receiver with headlamp modules) and it did the same winking thing. They tried verifying all codes, etc. Nothing worked, and my lamps kept winking.

So, after much dicussion with PUMA types (and over a week's R&R at the dealership ), they ultimately decided it was the "footwell module", and suspect that this module / SNAFU is a 2007+ model error, since they tried everything they have experienced like this with pre-2007 models. Yay - I get to be another "first."

They had to replace said footwell module completely...which evidently cost the dealership something around the tune of $1,300 or so. Better them than me. They had to re-boot the car's computer to accept the new footwell module, and everything works now.

Hopefully, end of story.

 

^^x uh oh x that is great to hear they finally located the source of the problem and fixed your MCS.

 

Thanks, JCR1960...but the thing that now makes me wonder is: is this new footwell module issue going to be a problem if I ever break down and buy some ralley lights? The ones I was looking at (MINIMania) have a switch that connects in to the footwell module. Hm. If i ever get there (buying the ralley lights), I'm going to have to tread carefully I guess. AND have somebody else do it for me!!