Since I got my mini this low beam has not worked. The driver side fires about 4 out of 5 tries but never have gotten passenger side working. I changed bulbs and still have had no luck at all. Every other light works in the assembly except my low beam

any help would be much appreciated as I hate driving everywhere with brights on in order to have a light on each side.

 

Do you have factory Xenon or halogen, if xenon the igniter or ballast may be going out. If halogen I'd say you have a short somewhere.

 

Factory xenon. If I purchased a set of aftermarket lights would this fix my issue out of curiosity? I was looking into some halo lights and just replacing the stock light assembly's

 

Unless you do some extensive modification to an aftermarket housing the factory Xenon is going to give you the best light output. Just go to your parts store and tell them you need 1 new ballast, and 1 new igniter for your year, model, and tell them factory xenon.

 

In case you were curious here's a thread I kinda high jacked and turned into a write up to get good output from aftermarket headlights

 

Whoops, forgot the link


https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-question.html

 

If your low beams aren't working and the bulbs are good it could be the ballasts or the ignitors. Switching ballasts could help you isolate the issue to see if the passenger side will work. if that doesn't work you probably have bad ignitors, and unfortunately the earlier models (including yours) do not have easily replaceable ignitors as the units are sealed. Some folks have heated the entire headlight unit in an oven and slowly pealed the beams apart to reach the ignitors. Search for the joey mod to learn more. When my driver's side died with a bad ignitor I ended up getting a complete new headlight for about $400. Before you pass out, that was hundreds less than what a dealer wanted and was exactly the same manufacturer. They have worked perfectly ever since. Good luck...

 

One of mine also only comes on when it feels like it. I've thought about taking it apart and putting in a new ignitor but I've yet to find one that I know is the correct one. They are also around $100 so it's not exactly a cheap and easy fix.

When mine stops working completely I'm going to try one of the aftermarket choices. From what I've read it's just plug and play for all r53 xenon headlights, facelift or not, they fit all models from 02 to 06. Some use the headlight washers, and some you can't use the washers. I figure I can sell my one good headlight afterwards and it will cover the cost of the 2 new ones.