Well another crap wire victim. 2006 X3. Went to replace xenon and all the wiring inside is flaking. The liquid "tape" sounds good, but how does that work if you paint over flaky plastic? Unless the paint can hold the flakes on, seems it would still flake off. Almost seems better to strip the plastic off first and then paint the bare wires?
Dug into my lights over the weekend. Right headlight has bad shutter on the xenon high beam. Tried the "poke it with a stick" method and didn't work. Only flaked off a few areas of wiring while doing so. However, since I didn't want to bake the lens off to fix a shutter and STILL have bad wiring, I caved in and bought a $550 headlight off ebay. No ballast, no control module, but with bulbs I think.
Other light was hosed on the wires and I shorted something out, hopefully just igniter or ballast. Pulled all the wires out, cut wire ties, etc. to get maximum access. Literally EVERY WIRE, including the halogen DRLs, had severely flaking wires. I ended up flaking off the wires COMPLETELY BARE just with my fingers. Then spent all day coating and re-coating with the liquid tape stuff. Seems to work, but hard to get complete coverage everywhere.
Still waiting on a new igniter and ballast to see if it works. Actually all the lights work, except for the xenon that I shorted out. I'm hoping to limp this headlight along until I cave and buy new again. So at least the lenses will match. My current ones are yellowed a bit.
My 2008 E60 535xi is now a victim of this issue: both left and front headlight DRL bulbs shorted days apart thanks to the exposed wiring. :|
I'll be making my own wiring harness with a selection of materials better suited to house the furnace of lights in front of my car.
I need to take a look at my 08 535xit. My wife had a fender bender a few years ago that got one new light but the other is original.
did you ever replace the wiring or find a replacement assembly for your 330 Ci?
Thanks for posting this. I thought it might have been when I replaced my Halogen angel eyes with LEDs. Although I thought the LEDs use less power and less energy. Also wondering if this issue could be the root cause of the mysterious BMW fires
2005 530i with both lights wiring flaking off. Drivers side low beam is dead. Oddly, when I pull the high beam flash back, it comes on, but turning on high beams permanently it will not. Low beam is just dead. Tried liquid tape last week to no avail. Opened again today and separated all the wires to see if the light would come on in low beam, no deal. I think it fried something else when it first shorted. Oddly, my liquid tape repaired angel eye bulbs work fine, although I do see the insulation on the fiber has also started flaking off.
I will PERSONALLY shove my boot up the kiester of whoever in Germany decided it would be a good idea to use biodegradable wire insulation, forcing the automakers to use that crap in headlights. I will do it dry, and there WILL be dirt on my combat boot. No lube, just boot. Just let me find that motherf*****.
All lights are controlled by the light module (LM). Each individual light has a dedicated circuite assigned to it. Being you have a 05 530i, you have the 1st generation LM. All LM's have short detection on all circuites and turn off a circuites that have detected a short. After x number of detected errors on a circuite, the LM permanently shutdown that circuite. My suspicion is you exceeded the short count and it is permanently shut the light down to protect the wireing. Two choices, replace the LM, expensive, or find someone with software to reset counter for that circuit on the LM.
Last edited by jtbgonesailing; 10-06-2018 at 03:16 PM.
Good deal. I have a couple of really good indies around locally. The wife has driven it like that for months. My guess is the LM is shut down. Replacing the HID's as soon as they get here. I know one of those is completely out, the H7's have also been replaced. Spent last few hours "painting" more exposed wires with liquid tape.
Where is the the LM located? Is it on the back of the HID, or underneath on the housing?
The LM is located below the steering column, behind the trim panel.
https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/a/en/e...odules/DdAYf22
Heres a thread covering the FRM module in the e90-93, f10, and several other models. The FRM performs the same function as the LM does in the e60-61. This will give you an overview of what will be required to restore functionality in your LM.
https://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sh...044&highlight=
Hope this helps you...
Your LM does not need to be removed to reset the affected circuites that may have exceeded the counter shutdown. Coding with a ICOM head will get it.
2006 E85. 130k miles. Right low beam went out. Installing the replacement I see the crappy brittle, broken, flaked, missing, insulation throughout the headlight unit! Both sides of course. Moth%$&#%$ing son of a bitch! So a simple 1 hour lamp replacement job has turned into a multi-day friggin' saga! Don't know what I'm going to do. How many thousands of cars are in this boat but just don't know it yet? Ultimate Driving Machine! Thanks BMW. Arrgh!
Thanks for listening! :-)
Edit: Ended up using Gardner-Bender liquid tape. Good to 200deg F. Messy job with several inches of insulation completely gone on most wires exposing bare copper. Moving a wire just caused more insulation to fall off. Had to separate the individual wires before gooping the stuff on. PITA job cramped up inside the wheel well (removed wheel) but got it done and tests OK. Hope it lasts a few more years.
Last edited by Ricknau; 01-26-2019 at 02:55 PM.
2004 e46 convertible 51,000 miles
So I was going to replace my high beam H7 bulbs the other day and come to find out almost all the wiring insulation had flaked off. I immediately unplugged all the connectors that go to the xenon adaptive headlights. Any tips on taking the headlight unit apart to rewire or shrink wrap the wires?? Threads or videos would be great help!
2001 740iL - wires are dust at 135K miles
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