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Thread: Headlight Wire Jackets Just Flake Off

  1. #51
    Join Date
    Nov 2017
    Location
    Srq
    Posts
    1
    My Cars
    2006 525i

    What was the outcome

    Quote Originally Posted by chrisryan1972 View Post
    I have a 2006 X5 4.4i with the dynamic activeBi-Xenons and have the same flaking issue with the insulation. I decided toinvestigate when my drivers side low beam went out. Before I looked at thewires closely, I ended up swapping the bulb, igniter, and ballast betweenlights to trouble shoot the bad component. All worked fine in the otherheadlamp. It was only then that I looked at the wires closely. It was worst onthe 12v+ and ground wires for the actual bulb, ballast and igniter, but almostall of the wires had at least cracks in the insulation. Needless tosay, the LCM did it’s job, sensed the short and cut power to the lamp.




    I obviously had a short. I went the route of using heat shrink on all of the wires. I was lucky that the connector, terminals and copper conductors were in very good condition.







    Here are a couple of shots of the finished fix…





    I didn’t have to cut any wires or do any soldering, I was able to slide the heat shrink over the terminals without any issues.





    I bench tested the assembly, and the lamp works fine with a 12v transformer.



    So now I have the assembly back in the X5 and this is where my problem comes in. The LCM is still holding the short fault codes, and won’t power the light. I tried disconnecting the battery, letting it sit to clear any residual power in any of the modules overnight, and reconnecting the battery, but still no light on the driver side.
    How do you clear the fault codes in the LCM? Do I have to take it to a shop? Is there a hack fix, pulling a relay or fuse, or jumping a wire somewhere on the service port under the hood? Or do I need to find someone with a BMW code reader that can plug into my OBDII port and clear it that way?
    I’ve seen lots of stuff on swapping in a used module from another car and recoding it to the new vehicle, but I just need to reset the one I have. It appears to be doing its job well. Any and all advice welcome, my X5 is stuck in the garage with the bumper hanging half off of it until I can figure this out. Thanks!
    Hi, I've been dealing with this issue for almost a year. Now both headlights are completely out. Were you able to solve this?
    Thanks!

  2. #52
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Location
    Tampa, FL
    Posts
    165
    My Cars
    '06 BMW X3
    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?

  3. #53
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    Abilene, TX
    Posts
    231
    My Cars
    1986 325e
    Quote Originally Posted by Rustynuts View Post
    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?
    I went with the heat shrink tubing because I could shrink it over the flaky wire shielding. And I never thought to ask what temp the liquid tape holds up to. So far I have not had any issues with my fix.

  4. #54
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Location
    Tampa, FL
    Posts
    165
    My Cars
    '06 BMW X3
    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.

  5. #55
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Location
    Montreal, QC, Canada
    Posts
    1
    My Cars
    2008 E60 535xi
    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.

  6. #56
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    New England
    Posts
    25,402
    My Cars
    F90 M5; E36 M3 Turbo
    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.

  7. #57
    Join Date
    Sep 2018
    Location
    md
    Posts
    1
    My Cars
    2004 BMW 330 CI
    did you ever replace the wiring or find a replacement assembly for your 330 Ci?

  8. #58
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    Glenn Dale MD
    Posts
    90
    My Cars
    2008 535xi Sport
    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

  9. #59
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Location
    Charlotte, NC
    Posts
    724
    My Cars
    2016 X5 SDrive M-Sport
    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*****.

  10. #60
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Atlantic Beach, Fl
    Posts
    502
    My Cars
    81,e21 orig ownr&05,e60
    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.

  11. #61
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Location
    Charlotte, NC
    Posts
    724
    My Cars
    2016 X5 SDrive M-Sport
    Quote Originally Posted by jtbgonesailing View Post
    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.
    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?

  12. #62
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Atlantic Beach, Fl
    Posts
    502
    My Cars
    81,e21 orig ownr&05,e60
    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...

  13. #63
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Location
    Charlotte, NC
    Posts
    724
    My Cars
    2016 X5 SDrive M-Sport
    Quote Originally Posted by jtbgonesailing View Post
    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...
    AWESOME! Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!!

  14. #64
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Atlantic Beach, Fl
    Posts
    502
    My Cars
    81,e21 orig ownr&05,e60
    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.

  15. #65
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Baker fl usa
    Posts
    7
    My Cars
    2006 bmw Z4 3.0si
    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.

  16. #66
    Join Date
    Feb 2019
    Location
    Louisiana
    Posts
    1
    My Cars
    2004 330ci
    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!

  17. #67
    Join Date
    Aug 2019
    Location
    Chesterfield County VA
    Posts
    8
    My Cars
    2001 BMW 740iL
    2001 740iL - wires are dust at 135K miles

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