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Needs help with headlights fast please!

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Morning all,

Lovely weather for it! mad.gif

So my headlights don't work. Think they are Xenons. Car is a 2003 325Ci Sport 2dr. auto

The alternator died on it Tuesday when I bought the car and I've just had a replacement fitted which is great but the headlights still don't work. The coresponding lights on the dash are on in red to show there is an issue with them.

I checked the fuse box but nothing blown. What's happened?!

On another note, how do I stop my passenger wing mirror automatically pointing down when I put it in reverse?!

Thanks!

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Sounds like you have had some right electrical gremlins from your other posts.

Start with a multimeter and check you have juice at the connectors at the lights and go from there.

To stop the passenger mirror dipping when put in reverse slide the mirror adjuster switch to the drivers door mirror.

Edited by R11CH
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OK thanks I'll get a multi-meter on it tomorrow.

 

Yes it hasn't been great. Stuck after buying the car till 2am in the dark getting recovered when the alternator went. Luckily the big Bosch battery held up OK and alternator has been replaced but the headlights don't work still.

I hope it's something simple because they worked fine until the alternator gave up?

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If there's power to the headlights (do they share a socket type with the full beams? Might be easier than finding a multi meter) then it's likely to be the bulbs and/or the ballasts. (And there's an third bit inside the headlight, but they seem pretty reliable). You can buy new D2S bulbs far, far cheaper than new ballasts (bulbs are easier to change too), so if it's a case of guesswork as power is reaching them, I'd pick up some new bulbs first of all.

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If both headlights are out then my guess it's not the lights but rather something that's common to both such live feed, fuse, connectors. It's very suspicious that the headlights no longer work after getting the alternator replaced. I'd to back to whoever did that.

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OK. Is this LCM you are all referring to the ballast/igniter or something different?

I understand that it could be the ballasts but I'm trying new bulbs first as they are far cheaper for now than 2 new ballasts.

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The LCM is only worth investigating at this point if there's no 12v making it to the headlight connector. (This is the first test I'd be doing - it's free, and easy.) It's the control unit for all the lights, and can be set to tell the car it's a saloon, touring, coupe, with/without xenons etc. If you've got 12v, then you can likely ignore it for now. If, once you've got new bulbs, and you find it flickers badly, then the LCM will be worth looking at. (Usually what happens when you fit xenons, and don't tell the car.)

The ballast/ignitors are separate - and can be found in the engine bay, under the lights. The LCM is the right hand thing in the image below.

4 hours ago, Daz 330 Cs said:

The LCM is the headlight switch, it’s all one unit.

Wrong :)

wO2jtu5.jpg

Edited by TriggerFish
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