Hello all, I recently purchased a 2006 x3 at auction and the drivers xenon light is out. Being a competent mechanic I decided to take on the task of replacing the xenon bulb..... After fighting with getting the bulb aligned without much success I called my local indy and dropped the car off with them. They pulled the bumper removed the light assembly and called me with the bad news. The wires inside the housing are literally falling apart. They advised me that the inside of housing gets so hot that the rubber/plastic sheathing around the wires become brittle and begins to fall apart when you get your hands in there to fiddle around and get the new bulb(s) in. I agree that the stuff is brittle as I had to put some electrical tape around the bare wires I exposed on the igniter wiring when I was attempting the swap.

So now, the question(s), looks like I have the option to spend around $450 for a new assembly that does not include bulbs, igniter or ballast. I can simply swap the old turn signal and high beam, use my new xenon bulb that I purchased and hope that the issue does lie with my igniter or ballast. This route would seem like the easiest, but I am sitting on hope that the issue with the xenon not coming on lies with the old bulb and not with the igniter or the ballast. If it's either of those and not the bulb my bill just gets more expensive as we move down the line.

To be honest Xenon's aren't really a deal breaker for me as this vehicle will be used primarily during the day to run business errands that require a little more space than our other vehicles.

Can I just purchase 2 non-xenon housings? Is this plug n play (as in will the exterior plugs for the xenon housings plug directly into the non xenon housings). Will this throw any codes?

Swapping for non-xenon would all in all be much cheaper in the long run, likely I'll spend $300 on two new housings, and after I pay my indy for the work I'll be out around another $100 for the shop hour to pull the bumper and swap the housings.

Thanks for any info. If no one knows for sure if they are PnP and wouldn't mind taking a pic of the exterior housing plug both plugged in and unplugged so I can see the pins that'd be amazing!!

Tris