Headlight out but no dash warning indicator - Trying to understand

[Blurr]

I did a lot of searching on my issue all over the forums and the general internet.

Foreknowledge: Xenon headlights, face-lift variant, 2005 ZHP

I had some moisture in my passenger headlight after it rained recently. Something happened and that light stopped working around the time of the moisture. The headlight warning indicator came on as well as the fog lights, at least initially.

Now, the headlight warning indicator does not come on nor do the fog lights automatically turn on yet the passenger light is still off. The headlight switch in the cabin blinks green, instead of being solid, when the one operational headlight is on.

I'd just like to know what might have caused this, to understand the oddity of it all.

I'm about to remove both headlights and switch the ballast, etc. I'm sure I'll have to replace something, but how is the passenger light out yet not trip the headlight malfunction sensor.

Thanks

[Blurr]

Update:

I swapped ballasts from one light to the other and the problem traveled so that was good to learn.

I decided to open the ballast that wasn't working and I found a lot of white powdery material all over the circuit board and inside the casing. I found some threads with descriptions of how to clean ballast circuit boards, when they have this kind of white powder situation, with electrical cleaner and a tooth brush.

The pictures below are from my ballast just after opening it. I'm going to clean it, post more photos and see if we have a solution.


10871


10872

[echo46]

Great job, in for description of the cleaning process.

[johnrando]

Cool. Hope it works out.

[BCS_ZHP]

Blurr,
Having a similar issue. New right headlight installed a month ago, car pretty much parked until last week when I needed to drive it. Lots of rain that week and a car wash on Saturday, immediately afterwards notice the headlight error message on the dash & the blinking green light on the LCM, then noticed the condensation inside the headlight. Opened the hood to investigate and the access cover on top of the new headlight is ascue, remove it and can see water at the bottom of the headlight enclosure. And this is the little rectangular cover with a rubber gasket, at that point I'm fairly sure this is my issue as it was not snapped securely into place and water got inside the new headlight. Use a turkey blaster & paper towels to remove water and a hair dryer to try to dry out the remaining condensation. Cross fingers & hope for the best, next morning still have no right side low beam and have the right side error light on the dash. Order a new xenon bulb on Monday & install that on Monday night but the problem continues - no right side low beam, error light in dash indicates right side headlight issue - use the hair dryer to remove some more condensation. Drive Tuesday morning by the body shop that replaced the headlight, they find no simple or easy fix and invite me to drop it off the next day. Tuesday night driving home and the dash error light for both right & left side headlight comes on but my left headlight is still functioning, my right one is not -- same issue as previous couple of days, the extra dash warning light for the left headlight is the only new issue. Wednesday morning come out to crank it up and now only the left headlight warning light in the dash is illuminated, get out and find right side low beam is functional and now left side low beam is not. Drop it off at the body shop, they run all kind of little tests including swapping igniters, no root cause is found. So today a headlight specialist is called in, he checks things and diagnoses it as a bad igniter and not the right side one that got wet but rather the old existing leftside that appeared to function perfectly fine until Tuesday night. A new igniter has been ordered & delivered, they're waiting for the headlight specialist to return to install it and check out the car.

What the specialist said so far in my layman's terms is these BMW headlights are a bieatch & mystery. He suspects the water in the right side shorted it out causing a current drop which was detected by the left side. The left side then tries to compensate for that current difference until it fries itself. Eventually my right side dried out enough to start operating again but not soon enough to prevent the death of the left igniter. If I get the car back this evening and am able to talk with him, I'll update with the specialist's final determination.
Bruce

[Dave1027]

Definately got soaked. That ballast PCb is toast.

[BCS_ZHP]

Dave, do you have a photo of said PcB ballast that I can post to them in the morning?
Bruce

[Dave1027]

Dave, do you have a photo of said PcB ballast that I can post to them in the morning?
Bruce
No sorry.

[BCS_ZHP]

Is it the silver & black thing located directly below the igniter? If so, then why is the new headlight working again when that silver/black thing definitely was water soaked cause I suctioned out a lot of water?

[BCS_ZHP]

Sorry but no update tonight, the shop called around 5:30 but I was in a meeting until after 6:30 and when I returned the call they were already closed. Hope to find out something in the morning.

[BCS_ZHP]

Replaced the left igniter and still no left low beam. They took the right igniter out and checked inside for any white residue, none found. The specialist was finally able to get the left low beam to function by jumping some circuit which leads him to believe its a bad LCM. So LCM ordered from the dealer, they're waiting for it to arrive to install and see if this resolves the problem.:foottap:confused:fingerscrossed

[BCS_ZHP]

Time for an update. They have chased this problem around for over a week while replacing a control module under the dash, still no left low beam. Next replaced the LCM switch with a 4.0 version (the old one was 3.6) and got both headlights but lost the taillights. Then subbed the car out to a BMW Indy who replaced an adaptive control module located in the bumper and everything worked fine with headlights and taillights while in manual mode. I drove it home last night with parking lights & fogs on because it was still early and I didn't require headlights yet. But this morning it was still dark so turned it to automatic on the LCM switch, the green light starts blinking while all lights are perfectly functional and there are no error lights in the dash warning panel illuminated. Back to the shop, they have the car again today to try to figure out why the LCM switch green light is blinking while everything appears to be functioning correctly. They are pretty damn frustrated by this mystery, remaining patient as I just want it fixed.

Anyone ever had the blinking green light when everything was functional? If so, what caused it.

[danewilson77]

https://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=329204

http://www.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=487082

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=343968