The Xenon headlights in my 2004 MCS have failed (flash on and off randomly while driving). While researching this i came upon a TSB for exactly that problem. check it out here:
http://www.alldata.com/tsb/BMW/11176...105/index.html
http://www.alldata.com/tsb/BMW/11176...105/index.html
the TSB is SI M63 01 05

The problem is some incompatibilities between individual parts from different manufacturers. The problem is limited to cars produced between march 1 2004 and June 30 2004 with Xenon headlights.

Headlights to be replaced under warranty.

Except my car has 88000 miles and is way out of warranty. Its gonna cost me $1350 to fix, they have to replace both the bulbs and the controller units.

Why is this not a safety recall? We are only talking 4 months of production! Picture this, i am driving fast down a twisty 2 lane road at night, and the headlights turn off. The sudden lack of ability to see causes me to run off the road. I then sue the S___ out of mini USA.

It seems to me that Mini knowing about this problem of faulty headlights and not recalling them is a lawsuit waiting to happen. Anyone here a lawyer?

If your mini is in that range of production dates and you have xenon lights, go get them replaced if you are still under warranty.

Mike Parsons

 

I also posted this on MINI2 under fixes&faults

 

Headlights are a safety issue. If they are faulting at any point then MINI is liable, call your dealer and let them know the situation and they should swap them out. The problem you will run into is the service techs will want this problem to be present when they look at the car which is the hardest part.

BEATNUT

 

You may want to make a complaint to NHTSA.

 

Warranty shouldn't matter for this. If your car meets the production dates req. then you should get the lights fixed no charge.

 

before you get the mob fired up, you need to know 2 things. 1. that you have AL control modules. 2. that the dates on the modules match the bulletin.

This is a problem with a specific production run of modules from a specific company, not the result of miss matched parts or a mini design flaw. It happened with bmw as well.

I posted this to keep other owners from looking foolish while pitching a fit at the dealer. It is entirely possible for a bulb, module or ignitor to go out.