Mrs Fb’s 650i...regret may be strong with this one!
Discussion
Soooooo, curse of the 650 raises its head, again.
Couple of weeks back Mrs Fb tells me she had a bulb warning for left dipped beam not working. I drove the car a few days later and indeed the usual BMW bong and error for left dipped beam comes up. I ordered a pair of Osram Xenarc night breakers and set about replacing them. It was at his point I started the car to turn steering full lock so I could access inspection covers and noted after it flashed up with the left dipped beam failure, it followed with right dipped beam failure.... bugger !
Anyways I replaced both bulbs as I had already blown £100 on them but still have no dipped beams. I cant see how both igniters or both ballasts failed at the same time so now I have to try work out what’s going on. So currently it’s a daytime only usage until i suss the issue.
Couple of weeks back Mrs Fb tells me she had a bulb warning for left dipped beam not working. I drove the car a few days later and indeed the usual BMW bong and error for left dipped beam comes up. I ordered a pair of Osram Xenarc night breakers and set about replacing them. It was at his point I started the car to turn steering full lock so I could access inspection covers and noted after it flashed up with the left dipped beam failure, it followed with right dipped beam failure.... bugger !
Anyways I replaced both bulbs as I had already blown £100 on them but still have no dipped beams. I cant see how both igniters or both ballasts failed at the same time so now I have to try work out what’s going on. So currently it’s a daytime only usage until i suss the issue.
fastbikes76 said:
Soooooo, curse of the 650 raises its head, again.
Couple of weeks back Mrs Fb tells me she had a bulb warning for left dipped beam not working. I drove the car a few days later and indeed the usual BMW bong and error for left dipped beam comes up. I ordered a pair of Osram Xenarc night breakers and set about replacing them. It was at his point I started the car to turn steering full lock so I could access inspection covers and noted after it flashed up with the left dipped beam failure, it followed with right dipped beam failure.... bugger !
Anyways I replaced both bulbs as I had already blown £100 on them but still have no dipped beams. I cant see how both igniters or both ballasts failed at the same time so now I have to try work out what’s going on. So currently it’s a daytime only usage until i suss the issue.
Check fuses and read codes, wondering if there may be some issues with the LCM or other connected module?Couple of weeks back Mrs Fb tells me she had a bulb warning for left dipped beam not working. I drove the car a few days later and indeed the usual BMW bong and error for left dipped beam comes up. I ordered a pair of Osram Xenarc night breakers and set about replacing them. It was at his point I started the car to turn steering full lock so I could access inspection covers and noted after it flashed up with the left dipped beam failure, it followed with right dipped beam failure.... bugger !
Anyways I replaced both bulbs as I had already blown £100 on them but still have no dipped beams. I cant see how both igniters or both ballasts failed at the same time so now I have to try work out what’s going on. So currently it’s a daytime only usage until i suss the issue.
Hopefully you get to the bottom of it easy enough
d_a_n1979 said:
Check fuses and read codes, wondering if there may be some issues with the LCM or other connected module?
Hopefully you get to the bottom of it easy enough
No codes stored and only two fuses relating to lights which are all ok. Incidentally wife just went to pick something up and I noticed the lights still do the left/right up/down checks when she turned them on, just no dipped beams. I will have to get a multi meter out and have a look. I HATE electrical issues because I’m sHopefully you get to the bottom of it easy enough
te at electric 
fastbikes76 said:
No codes stored and only two fuses relating to lights which are all ok. Incidentally wife just went to pick something up and I noticed the lights still do the left/right up/down checks when she turned them on, just no dipped beams. I will have to get a multi meter out and have a look. I HATE electrical issues because I’m ste at electric
So do I pal; all sounds very odd...te at electric Any water/damp in there?
Can you swap out any bits from the 630i and see if that makes any difference?
StuntmanMike said:
Strange it did it as you turned the wheel.
On my 550, if the headlamp switch is on auto the lights are adaptive. Not the half arsed effort most cars are, they actually turn.
This couldn’t have somehow caused it?
Just thinking out loud really.
No, they appeared to have stopped simultaneously at some point a couple of weeks ago. I just was looking at the dash long enough to see the second message while messing with steering. On my 550, if the headlamp switch is on auto the lights are adaptive. Not the half arsed effort most cars are, they actually turn.
This couldn’t have somehow caused it?
Just thinking out loud really.
Could light module, wiring issue, both ballasts, both igniters or a combination of them.
Court_S said:
Does sound a bit like a failing module.
We had the opposite on previous cars; telling us that a bulb was out when it was absolutely fine. No stored codes either, just a warning light.
I have a spare LM2 that came with the car, I wonder if that will work without coding it in ? I don’t have the means or capacity to code things in We had the opposite on previous cars; telling us that a bulb was out when it was absolutely fine. No stored codes either, just a warning light.
fastbikes76 said:
I have a spare LM2 that came with the car, I wonder if that will work without coding it in ? I don’t have the means or capacity to code things in
If the part number is the same I think you can get away without coding it but don’t quote me on that. If it does need coding BFlemming on here might be able to help out.
fastbikes76 said:
B'stard Child said:
Just remember if the LCM contains mileage you will end up with the red dot (indicating mileage has been tampered with) on the odometer
Ah balls...don’t want that drama !!! Did I mention i feckin hate leccy faults 
B'stard Child said:
I had same issue with my E38 - LCM failed - bought second hand one it fixed the problem but put a red dot on the dash
Swapped back and red dot went out - got my mate Will to blow all the info from old into second hand and all good
Ok, I will throw spare LM2 in tomorrow if I get a chance and see if we have lights or not... I’m guessing not ! Swapped back and red dot went out - got my mate Will to blow all the info from old into second hand and all good
Well after nearly 6 weeks of her using the 650 as a day time car only, I finally got the arse and thought I would look at it properly.
What seemed strange is that both dipped beams failed what appeared to be the same time. Initially I suspected a bulb so bought a pair of Osram Xenarc bulbs for a cool £100. That didn’t cure the issue and neither did trying a spare LM2 light module. So I left it for a few weeks as we had other cars and I hate leccy faults !
Last week I though I best do something as it was bloody daft not being able to use the car at night. A few lads on the E63 page suggested ballasts were the usual suspect but I wasnt convinced at both failing simultaneously. To access the ballasts the whole front end needs to come off and headlamps removed as they are bolted under the lights.
I gave up the fight and ordered a pair of ballasts from Amazon for £30 each. They primary arrived the following day so I set about pulling the car apart.
Thankfully it looks a lot worse than it is and in reality it was around 45 min to get to this stage. Unbolted the ballasts and out came 3 gold fish and 6 pints of water ! BMW’s brilliant design is the moisture that collects in these lights sits in the bottom and leaks through the connector into the ballasts. Happy days !
Spent the day drying the lights out nicely, resealing the indicators and reassembling the car.
We now have lights and no more bong of death !
What seemed strange is that both dipped beams failed what appeared to be the same time. Initially I suspected a bulb so bought a pair of Osram Xenarc bulbs for a cool £100. That didn’t cure the issue and neither did trying a spare LM2 light module. So I left it for a few weeks as we had other cars and I hate leccy faults !
Last week I though I best do something as it was bloody daft not being able to use the car at night. A few lads on the E63 page suggested ballasts were the usual suspect but I wasnt convinced at both failing simultaneously. To access the ballasts the whole front end needs to come off and headlamps removed as they are bolted under the lights.
I gave up the fight and ordered a pair of ballasts from Amazon for £30 each. They primary arrived the following day so I set about pulling the car apart.
Thankfully it looks a lot worse than it is and in reality it was around 45 min to get to this stage. Unbolted the ballasts and out came 3 gold fish and 6 pints of water ! BMW’s brilliant design is the moisture that collects in these lights sits in the bottom and leaks through the connector into the ballasts. Happy days !
Spent the day drying the lights out nicely, resealing the indicators and reassembling the car.
We now have lights and no more bong of death !
fastbikes76 said:
Unbolted the ballasts and out came 3 gold fish and 6 pints of water ! BMW’s brilliant design is the moisture that collects in these lights sits in the bottom and leaks through the connector into the ballasts. Happy days !
Spent the day drying the lights out nicely, resealing the indicators and reassembling the car.
We now have lights and no more bong of death !
How on earth did goldfish get in there Spent the day drying the lights out nicely, resealing the indicators and reassembling the car.
We now have lights and no more bong of death !
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff