E9x Only One Headlight Washer

[Lewis's Friend]

Hi all

This is probably a slightly odd question, but I'm hoping in the week to look at a 05 plate 3 series. However, I notice from the pictures that it only has a headlight washer on the drivers side.

Is this a normal BMW thing? I'm not sure whether it has HIDs or not, and am unsure what that means in terms of passing an MOT.

Any wise thoughts would be welcome!

[RUSSELLM]

Are you definitely looking at the headlight washers ? A quick look at the 05 plates on Autotrader, and it looks like the washers are very close to the bottom of the light, but on both sides.

I notice all the cars have a blank plug on the driver’s side of the bumper, which I presume is for the front tow hook. You’re not looking at that, by any chance ?

[Pica-Pica]

Headlamp washers, if fitted, will be one for each front lamp. As stated, you may be looking at the tow-hook access cover (the tow hook is in the tool kit and screws into a female thread underneath the cover).

[Lewis's Friend]

Cheers for the replies.

I don't think it's a tow hook cover, but could of course be wrong...! The cover in question is directly under the headlight. I'll try to post a picture.

648df641e9fa4fa2ac9fbfb2c13711f1 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

Edited by Lewis's Friend on Sunday 24th October 14:35

[RUSSELLM]

That is an odd one

[Pica-Pica]

A quick look at current legislation seems that a cleaning system should be on both headlamps, where fitted.
I am sure ‘LargeChris’ will be along and advise; he is of course ‘kind of a big deal around here’.

[Lewis's Friend]

I would welcome advice, as it seems rather odd.

No hint of an issue with passing previous MOTS. However, this is going to be my daily driver and for the life of me I don't want to have to reinstate a washer system to get it through the next one!

I can't quite understand why there would only be one...

[Sicksilinda]

Man, that’s weird. Where’s the near side one gone?

For the record, they don’t get checked on MOT if the vehicle was manufactured before 1 Sept 2009 so in any case you’ll be fine.

[drdino]

Something odd going on with the ad... On one of the pictures it's as if they've smoothed the missing cover over via photoshop and then on the one with the bonnet up it's clearly missing:


I would say it's had a shunt on the nearside, the headlight looks newer as the offside one has some signs of yellowing?

[Pica-Pica]

It may be that they simply want to make the photo look neater. But a missing cover is a missing cover - or rather a missing jet on that side, which makes you think is there/was there damage that side. Questions need to be asked!

[Ultuous]

The jets are known to break and fall out (I've got the same on my E92 right now)... Still poor from the dealer though (the parts are cheap enough and painting a new cover's probably the the hardest thing about the fix) - unless of course they wanted to get it advertised ahead of fixing it!

Edited by Ultuous on Sunday 24th October 20:45

[Lewis's Friend]

Good spot finding the missing cover in the later picture.

A missing cover isn't the end of the world, and easy to put right - and is in fact preferable to a weird oddity with only one fitted! I just wish dealer's would be straight with you. Very much puts me off the car when you spot silliness like that...

[Pica-Pica]

It’s not just a missing cover, the cover is part of the jet assembly and moves out when the jet is deployed. The question is what happened to the jet, and how?

[Mr Tidy]

That's definitely a good spot!

So far I still have both of them on my E90, but I've also owned Z4s for 7+ years and it's very common on those for the cover to fly off when you use the headlight washers. The clips seem to break, but new covers can be bought separately for about £13 from BMW - in primer (don't ask how I know)! And a few owners have also lost the moving part of the washer with the jets on, which looks like what has happened to this one.

[RUSSELLM]

I’d never considered someone photoshopping a car advert

[graham22]

You might find the washer mechanism has been removed and the pipe blocked.

The cover mounts straight onto the washer itself.

The washers leak overtime and in doing so drain the screen wash bottle hence perhaps the above solution.

Genuine items are expensive and cheap Chinese ones leak from the start.

Talking from experience and as mine had factory HIDs it needed washers for the mot.