BMW: xenon not working?

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave Plowman" <co.uk>
Newsgroups: alt.autos.bmw
Sent: Friday, August 29, 2003 11:16 AM
Subject: Re: xenon not working?

 
Thanks not a bad idea but it seems that the ballast (if that is the silver
rectangular box) is soldered to the bulb housing, so to change this I would
have to unsolder both units.

Still scratching my head

Cheers

Paul

In article <3f4f5257$0$262$dial.pipex.com>,
Paul <net> wrote: 

Right. How silly. ;-)
 

I'd heard it wasn't easy to simply swop the bubbles.

--
*Can vegetarians eat animal crackers?

Dave Plowman co.uk London SW 12
RIP Acorn

"Paul" <net> wrote in message news:<3f4f5257$0$262$dial.pipex.com>... 


No, they're not soldered. The ballast is integral with its connector
cable and bulb connector. They're all part of the whole ballast. To
remove the ballast you remove the entire connector from behind the
housing for the lightbulb (on the headlights).

There were at least 3 generations of ballasts used on E39s.
Generation 2 ballasts look different from the later generations. You
may have a Gen 2 ballast - they have a characteristic "ribbed" surface
on the ballasts. They also differ from the later units in that they
have the igniter for the bulbs on the actual bulb connector. The bulb
connector is quite massive.

If your ballast has died you will probably need to change the bulb
holder that is part of your headlights - separate from the bulb
connector of the ballast. This is because the newer, replacement
ballasts use a different, much slimmer bulb connector (the igniter is
now inside the ballast housing). The new bulb connectors will not fit
the older bulb holders.

If all this sounds confusing someone in the US actually documented his
headlight upgrade in pictures and instructions. Look here for the
webpage - you should be able to understand what I mean:

http://www.bmwdiy.info/celis-front/index.html

You may want the dealer to do this for you.

BTW, I had the same thing happen to one of my E39 Xenons some time ago
- turn lights on, Xenons light up, self-level, then flicker and go
off. Cause: blown ballast. The driver side ballast (LHD) regularly
gets cooked by a nearby component. This is a known problem. Luckily
mine was still under warranty.


Michael