2004 E46 Xenon malfunction

[DrumReaper]

Just purchased our first Bimmer... 2004 E46 sedan. Absolutely love the car and the 5 speed manual.

Ran into an issue with the headlights though... in regular "city" setting the lights are dim. Flipping to the brights doesn't help much, however when I pull the lever back and hold it, the lights are good and bright as they should be.

Is this a ballast issue or something else? Both lights are affected, I was thinking it's more of a switch/relay issue.

All help greatly appreciated.

[Mless5]

City light/DRL are not supposed to be bright/illuminate the road. They are there to make the car more visible even during day time.

I am assuming you have factory HID and questioning effectiveness of low beams? If so, who is the maker is housing assemblies? If ZKW (stamped on the front plastic), your lights suffer from traditional "burnt bowl" and are not capable of reflecting bulb's output properly.

[DrumReaper]

Stock HIDs.

The low beams are impossible to see with at night. The high beams are just as bad... but when I pull back the stalk lever and hold it, the lights are very bright.

[RedOctober]

Depends on year of the car. People say xenons "last forever," but my experience is that they don't. After 10-15 years, they get very dim. I just picked up a 2002 330i and the bulbs were really dim (flickering too). Ended up picking up new bulbs and used ballasts from the forums here and it made all the difference. ECS Tuning has them for $159 each.


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[DrumReaper]

Thanks brother.