Hey everyone, I'm having trouble with my xenons.
They were going a little crazy for a while, driver side would work, but passenger wouldn't, then a week later both would work, and then the passenger side would work but the driver wouldn't. Sometimes I could turn them on and off 10-30 times and the other would come on, other times it would just stay off.
Now I have neither working. I was fiddling around with the connections and was able to get the one to come on briefly until I would let go of the wires, and now I can't get either one to come on. I tool the connectors off where they come from the hood into the housing, and I have noticed that one prong on of the connectors seems to be burnt.
So I am really at a loss where to go with this. If it was the connector I would figure that it would just be the one light, but both xenons aren't working right now. I tried switching the control modules but got no change, and when I had the one working I switched bulbs and the problem didn't follow the buld, so I am sure they are both still ok.
Any help would be great.
Thanks,
Tim

 

Can you post pictures close up of the connectors and "burnt" wires. What year MINI do you have? And whats the pin number of the "burnt" wire? Are they burnt on both connectors?

 

Yeah I will try and get a few pictures, but both high beams are working now so I would rather not toy with it too much unless I know what the problem is. It is a 2003 Mini Cooper, and I don't know the pin number of the burnt wire. I don't know if it is an actual wire that is burnt or just the pin on the connector. I just tried to get onto realoem to see if I could find the connector and post a picture of it and I could tell you which the burnt pin is, but the site seems to be down right now. The passenger side has a burnt pin on it, driver side seems to be fine.






If one of the mods can merge this and my thread in the general discussion forum, that would be good because I don't know how to.

 

Turning xenon bulbs on and off rapidly is bad for them. Something do to with voltage spikes. I'm sure the resident electrical engineer will contribute soon.

 

Sorry.. I only ask because I used to have somewhat the same issue with one of my Xenons flashing and working sometimes and not sometimes. I unplugged the connector to find similar issue (appeared to be a burnt pin) which in fact turned out to be the ground wire to the connector. After inspection found that the pin was installed backward from the factory causing the male pin to actually sit next to the female pin. Not going inside the female pin like it is supposed to do. I removed the female side and repaired the wire end. Reinstalled (properly) and have not had an issue since (3yrs ago).

 

i had a simmilar problem with some xenon lights i bought i changed them back to the factory xenon bubls and it worke fine maybe its the bulb

 

The bulbs are factory, and they both worked intermittently

 

+1 on check grounds .

 

What you are saying by "burnt", do you mean corroded? I have intermittent on/off problems with my driver side xenon, but I havn't checked it out because it works 85% of the time. You could clean the connectors in some water with baking soda if you have any corrosion. If you can get in there with a wire brush, that would be good also to mechanically remove some of that stuff. Also if you are using the wire brush method, don't do it with the power on, as you may create a short.

 

How many grounds are their for each assembly? I figured there would be one ground for driver side and one for passenger, and since the ballasts are making noise and the high beams work, would that not mean that the gound was ok?

 

By burnt I mean burnt, not corroded. The pin on the headlight assembly is black and bent over and the female end in the plug that comes from the relays is discoloured and has shifted in the plug as if some of the plastic was melted.

I will try to get a picture.