F30 LCI - LED lights as standard

[James_G]

I'm looking to change my current car and one of my options is an F30 LCI, specifically a 340i.

My understanding is that all LCI cars came with LED lights and that all LED lights were self leveling. But occasionally I see cars on the market that still have the leveling control adjustment in the dash, alongside the adjustment for brightness of the dash lights. Here's an example:





Can anybody explain why? Obviously I could phone the selling dealer but I very much doubt they'd have a clue.

[Somebody]

LED headlights were not standard on F30 LCI's until July 2017. I know 'cos I've been tracking the price lists since the the start of 2017. LED headlights were a £710 option but then became standard when they increase the list prices in May/June 2017 by £1,145.

The headlight adjustment wheel would suggest that they are not LEDs? My F30 has LED headlights with no adjustment thumb wheel.

[Smuler]

If it's any help, the build sheet of the blue car in the photo gives these LED options :-

S5A1A LED Fog lights

S5A2A LED headlight

[SteBrown91]

Somebody said:

LED headlights were not standard on F30 LCI's until July 2017. I know 'cos I've been tracking the price lists since the the start of 2017. LED headlights were a £710 option but then became standard when they increase the list prices in May/June 2017 by £1,145.

The headlight adjustment wheel would suggest that they are not LEDs? My F30 has LED headlights with no adjustment thumb wheel.

LEDs were standard on m sport cars from MY16 onwards. The lights are obvious as well as you can see the shape of the drl signature.

I will check my car in a bit to see if it has the light adjust scroller - mine deffo auto adjust though as you can see them move on startup

[Somebody]

Smuler said:

If it's any help, the build sheet of the blue car in the photo gives these LED options :-

S5A1A LED Fog lights

S5A2A LED headlight

No doubt an 18 car would have LED headlights, but I'm surprised to see the thumb wheel adjuster.....

[SteBrown91]

My 16 plate 3 series doesn’t have the scroll wheel for headlight level and there isn’t a separate option for manual/auto levelling. Only thing I can think of is the wrong panel was fitted at the factory ?

[gizlaroc]

Probably just used a generic interior shot they had of another car.

[Fox-]

SteBrown91 said:

mine deffo auto adjust though as you can see them move on startup

That doesn't mean they auto adjust as my E39 5 Series with manual adjustment does that, too.

[Pizzaeatingking]

My F30 has LED lights and the adjustment wheel, as per the pictures above.

[James_G]

Thanks all for the comments. I also thought it might be a generic shot but whatver it is it must be petrol based on the rev counter.

Pizzaeatingking said:

My F30 has LED lights and the adjustment wheel, as per the pictures above.

Interesting. Do your lights also self level?

[Pica-Pica]

My F30 335d 66 plate, built Nov 2016 has LED, presumably with auto level setting.
There is no driver operated adjuster wheel for height, but of course there is a dash illumination adjuster.

[XMT]

I think the different might be LED headlights and then adaptive LED headlights. When I specced out late 16 plate f30 you had two options for the LED headlights, there was a £750 option and a 1700 option. The 750 gave you the fancy DRLs with high beam assist and the 1700 option was sort of a matrix style LED adaptive headlight system which looked very similar on the outside bar some writting but worked obviously by blanking oncoming traffic etc

This might explain some of the differences you are seeing.

[Pizzaeatingking]

James_G said:

Interesting. Do your lights also self level?

Well i thought they did, but im assuming not now. I spun the wheel/adjuster the lights went up and down

[Pizzaeatingking]

So after a bit of digging, the only thing that might make sense is that it's a recent change to go from self levelling to manual. I can only find a handful of cars with the LED lights & adjuster wheel and the only thing they have in common is they're 18 plates. I cant find any that are older and have both. Spoke to a guy who's car was built February this year and he has no adjuster with his LED lights. Mine was built March and has the adjuster and my mates 140i was built 2 days after mine and his has the adjuster wheel too.

So I can only assume that the few cars like the one above that are the same are the first few that are come though that have been built since some time in April/March.

Edited by Pizzaeatingking on Wednesday 23 May 14:44

[Sensible66]

I have a Dec 2015 320i M-Sport. At the time of buying it new I had the M-Sport plus package that included LED headlights. These are self levelling with no headlights beam adjuster dial.

I am now looking to change my car for a nearly new 320i M-Sport Shadow edition, registered at the end of June 2018. I see that this car has an adjuster wheel so presume this is a cheaper less sophisticated headlight on the newer car. This seems a bit odd.

[drdino]

Lower intensity LEDs so they don't need washers/self levelling?

[SteBrown91]

drdino said:

Lower intensity LEDs so they don't need washers/self levelling?

The standard non adaptive LEDs don’t have washers so are lower intensity anyway. But as above my July 16 build does not have the scroller