Brights......questionPP

[bamaboy473]

Driving when the car image with two front lights appears. After some wrangling, I turn Light switch ON, then turn Brights on/off. Display disappears.

Happens several times; each with the same fix. Sometimes happens with just one light showing, but the same fix.

I used to have regular OEM headlights, and now have Zenon lights from a 2000 e39. if that makes a difference.

What's up?

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Stock or aftermarket ballasts? How old are they?

[bamaboy473]

My guess would be stock from the year 2000. The display shows either both lights , or just one light. In both cases, I have to turn headlights ON, then activate the Bright stick in order to turn the display off. The event can occur during the same drive several times.

This is all happening during daytime hours when lights are not On.

[RyansBMW]

Someone else can chime in here because I don't remember for sure - did the older cars have the option for Xenon lights? You might have to have that option checked off in the LCM. The car is doing a check on the bulbs and since you have HID lighting, the resistance is lower so the car thinks the bulb has burned out.

The other option would be replacing the ballast with a canbus ballast or similar. That should prevent the message from popping up.

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Sounds like it's not the lights, sound more like your LCM is on the brink. They're not that cheap, see if you can source one cheap out of a part out, but make sure the car it's coming from is like yours, LCM 2 or 3, otherwise, you may have to code the unit.

[bamaboy473]

OK, good plan. The car the lights came from has the LCM for them, so I'll do a swap-out and see what happens.

[Mach540]

I used to have regular OEM headlights, and now have Zenon lights from a 2000 e39. if that makes a difference.

Gee, ya think??

That should have been the very first words on your post.

[edjack]

I use these: http://www.hidkitxenonlights.com/hid-accessories/warning-canceller-anti-flicker-hid-conversion-kit-accessory/

[Qsilver7]

Halogen to Xenon light change...then have headlight warnings from check control?

My first thoughts are exactly like RyansBMW in post #4. You can't change from halogen to xenon without making a ZCS coding change (well, you can, but you'll get false warnings like you're receiving). :)

The reason for the warning (again Ryan already mentioned this)...the LCM will do a "cold check" for low beams to make sure they are working. Well...xenon headlight set-up has COLD CHECK turned OFF because there is no "filament" to check. Thus, you get a check lowbeam warning (on high cluster) or check headlight warning lights on the graphic display.

If you swap in the LCM from another BMW...then you'll have other issues if you don't write the VIN to the new LCM...the odometer tamper light will illuminate, and the LCM & IKE will NOT exchange data (mileage,service interval, & matching VIN).

The best route to go is to go into DIS and turn off headlight cold check and select HID (xenon) headlamps.


{see BULB MONITORING in info below as to why cold check is turned off with XENONS}

http://bimmerboard.com/members/q/original/LCM%20Hot%20and%20Cold%20Bulb%20Check%20Monitoring .jpg

[bamaboy473]

If this is the LCM, it doesn't look like there are any switches on the board. Is what you're saying to do a dealer item?

Otherwise, if this unit came from the same car as the lights did, would it hurt anything to install this into my car, the one with the donor car's zenons?

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Oooof! Quicksilver's right! Do not plug that in. Read and understand his post very well. My suggestion would have screwed you, sorry.

[bamaboy473]

A search of what e39 DIS brings up shows a diagnostic process that requires laptop/software/knowledge/process that are beyond my abilities....so to be clear, why would it be a problem to install the LCM from the same car as the lights came from? What could go wrong...go wrong...go wrong........says Hal.

[RyansBMW]

That is the general control module, not the lighting control module. That won't solve your problems

[ImTheDevil]

A search of what e39 DIS brings up shows a diagnostic process that requires laptop/software/knowledge/process that are beyond my abilities....so to be clear, why would it be a problem to install the LCM from the same car as the lights came from? What could go wrong...go wrong...go wrong........says Hal.

Nothing will as long as it's the same generation LCM as the one that came in his car (i.e., LCM 2, or 3, etc), and as long as the VIN is written to the replacement LCM. LCM is one of the places the odometer mileage is stored in the car, and if it doesn't jive with the DME and cluster, it'll throw the tamper dot and other side effects as mentioned above.

[Mach540]

A search of what e39 DIS brings up shows a diagnostic process that requires laptop/software/knowledge/process that are beyond my abilities....so to be clear, why would it be a problem to install the LCM from the same car as the lights came from? What could go wrong...go wrong...go wrong........says Hal.

The LCM controls a lot more than just the headlights, for one reason. It would probably have problems with other items in the car that were not changed out.
On top of all that, like Qsilver said, it needs to be coded specifically to your car....... VIN#, mileage....etc...

So, if that computer process is beyond your abilities, short of finding someone that will do it for you, your will probably have to live with it, or go back to your old lights.

[bamaboy473]

That is the general control module, not the lighting control module. That won't solve your problems

...explains why there's no way to changes switching functions. This was around the glovebox on the firewall, which other posts suggested location. What does the LCM look like?

[Mach540]

There's no switches on the LCM, either. All changes are done via computer cables.

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

LCM is behind the kick panel, passenger side, if I remember right, and yes, there are no switches on it.

[RyansBMW]

Instead of swapping things over, it might be easiest to go to a BMW dealer or indy and just have them go into the LCM real quick and check the box for Xenon headlights. Boom. Done. No coding different modules, no matching vin numbers, etc..

[Qsilver7]

...What does the LCM look like?

Here's info about the LM/LCM as it debut in 1995 on the e38...then onto the e39 & e53 as they debuted.

And below that is the REDUNDANT DATA STORAGE info which explains in the 6 datapoints listed why you can't just swap in an LCM or IKE from another BMW without zeroing out the mileage and writing the VIN to the required modules.



http://www.bimmerboard.com/members/q/original/E38%20LM%20Light%20Lamp%20Module%20up%20to%209_95. jpg

http://www.bimmerboard.com/members/q/original/LCM%20E38%20E39%201995-1998.jpg

http://www.bimmerboard.com/members/q/original/LCM%20LKM%20Follow%20Me%20Home%20Light%20Info%201. jpg
http://www.bimmerboard.com/members/q/original/LCM%20LKM%20Follow%20Me%20Home%20Light%20Info%202. jpg

http://www.bimmerboard.com/members/q/original/Odometer%20Tamper%20Dot.jpg

[bamaboy473]

Can't thank you enough for the education, Q. Found the LCM in the donor car and have it here at the house. The car will be coming back from the paint shop in about a month (re-do of the whole whole-car paint job) and I'll do a swap-out, if it makes sense that the LCM should match the headlights from the donor car.

[RyansBMW]

It really doesn't matter. There is no difference between the modules, just the options selected within. Either swap and have it coded to the car or select the xenon option on the current one

[Qsilver7]

...if it makes sense that the LCM should match the headlights from the donor car.

Just to clear up any misconceptions...if you swap in the LCM from the donor car to match the HID/xenon headlights...you may get rid of the "cold check" issue...but unless you write the VIN to the donor LCM...you will get the odometer tamper light, and your LCM & IKE (instrument cluster) will not communicate with each other (see the REDUNDANT DATA STORAGE info again if needed). :)

The simpler plan would be to code your existing LCM to turn off the left/right low beam "cold check":


http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc12/Bike_enthusiast/LCM_zpsb7ad5d23.png