BMW E30 - LED instrument lights flicker with rheostat switch

Work fine wired straight to power, but flicker and come on and off when run through the dimmable rheostat switch. Switching back to 5w bulbs may be the only cure.

BMW E30: Digital Clock quick LED upgrade

The bulb had blown in my E30’s digital clock, so I decided to repair it with a quick and easy LED upgrade. It’s another bulb load of power taken off my 35 year old dash wiring so can’t hurt. 

The bulb-holder is integral to the working of the lamp, with the metal clips that hold it in place also acting as live/earth contacts. LEDs built into such a holder can be purchased specifically for replacing bulbs like this if you want to go that route, but if you have a bunch of cheap LEDs lying round and don’t want to spend any money then read on.

Simply remove the plastic holder and cut the old bulb away from the two pieces of metal. Solder a cheap yellow or red LED onto the metal contacts in the place where the bulb was attached and bend the LED stalks back on themselves so the diode is pointing the right way, as in pic. A pure-white LED would probably be better, but they use more wattage, will probably require a spend and cheaper dome LEDs work fine anyway.

The bulb for the clock has a resistor built in anyway, so the LED will run fine and not pop without modification, but if you find it is too dim or bright to you can ‘piggy-back’ another resistor across the stock one to raise or lower resistance to suit. A calculator to help work out what resistance you need are easily available online, but trial and error is best if you have a bunch of LEDs / resistors lying round.

You may want to cover the recess at the back of the clock with electrical tape to stop light spilling out.

F10/F11/G07: Front Fog-Lamp / Spot-Lamp Fault fix... the bulb or not the bulb?

 If you get 'Front Foglight Failure' coming up then it's likely a bulb has blown, but I believe it is a common problem on the F10 showing this error but both front fog lamps are still working, or a light not working but the bulb is not blown. It should be an easy fix.

REPLACING THE BULB / CHECKING FAULT:

1. Using an 8mm hex-socket remove four of the screws holding the front side of the corresponding wheel-arch liner - two from the bottom edge and the other two that run up the outer edge of the wheel-arch. This should be enough to peel the arch-liner back and see the back of the fog-light.

2. Remove the wiring-connector by pressing the clip and sliding it upwards.

3. Remove the bulb-holder in the back of the fog-lamp by giving it a quarter-turn anti-clockwise and it should pull out easily.

If the bulb is blown then it can be removed from the plastic holder and replaced.

IF IT'S NOT THE BULB:

The worst case scenario is a fault with the lighting module or wiring to it, see this post - https://www.beemerlab.org/2019/04/f10-halogen-headlight-module-issues.html, but it is far more likely to just be a loose wiring-connector behind the bumper.

Firstly, the wiring-connector to the fog-lamp itself connects from above, so it is possible moisture can fid its way in and corrode the terminals, which can be easily cleaned up with some emery-cloth and a small screwdriver/awl. It is also feasible that road dirt / debris can drop into the plug as it is removed, making it not seat correctly when it is replaced, so rule these out first.

Secondly, there is another wiring connector higher up in the front bumper behind the bottom of the headlight unit. It is hard to spot, as wires seem to run to the fog-lamps from both sides of the car and also link to the headlights, so it will appear as if the wiring to the fogs are intact, when this plug becoming loose or not properly connected will stop the fog-lamp working and throw the error, but not affect the headlights. This can be caused when a headlight has been removed for bulb-replacement or work on the front of the car, so if this work has been done to the car recently then be sure to check this plug. 

E60: First Fault - Parking-Light Bulb

Got a lovely polyphonic chime last Sunday, one week exactly after buying the car. The iDrive showed a failure on the front o/s parking-light (sidelight), the angel-eyes basically. Seemed a bit weird that the bulb would fail so suddenly so I wiggled the wire connector with no joy. The standard headlight model E60s (non-LCI) use normal 501 capless bulbs for the angel-eyes and are just an easy swap. With the optional xenon headlights though, as mine features, the bulb swap is not so simple.

The part you need, above, is a very rare fitment bulb peened in to a ridiculous holder / lens. These are bought from BMW for £25 +VAT, but when I rang up from work to get same-day delivery they said it would need ordering specially and takes 2-3 days anyway, so I reverted back to eBay, where I got the part, BOSCH/Hella, so is OEM and only cost £23.99 with NextDay delivery included. I also got a feedback so that was a no-brained really, online part prices seem to be killing motor-factors lately.

The bulb and holder location is near impossible to work out without knowing what you're looking for, as it is one bulb powering both angel-eye rings, unlike the non-xenon headlights which have one small bulb for each ring. The single xenon angel-eye bulb is located at the inner-side of the headlight unit, behind the smaller round plastic-cap. Getting to it without removing the headlight is all but impossible, unless you have the most double-jointed hands ever, so just pop the headlight out. An official service-guide recommends dropping the front bumper to get the headlight out freely, but this is not essential and will quadruple the length of the job! With a bit of wiggling the headlight can be worked out without damaging the grille or wing.

Process: (For Xenon-headlight equipped cars)

1. Remove the round plastic-cap from the inner-side of the headlight back by gently pressing it anti-clockwise with a screwdriver a short turn and carefully extracting it through the gap.

2. Remove the two bolts holding the top of the headlight in place using a T35 Torx socket. The bolts are located on the headlight bracket on either corner.

3. Remove the two screws holding the bottom of the headlight using an 8mm socket with a long extension-bar. The screws are found just behind the lower corners of the headlight-back, right at the bottom. Dropping these into the lower-tray is annoying, so it's best to use a magnet-on-a-stick to retrieve them rather than extracting them in the socket.

4. Wiggle the headlight unit free from its mount and work it forward out of huge body. Start by moving out the outer-side a small amount and then begin to work the inner-corner away from the centre-grille. The outer-side should then pop out.

5. Remove the main wiring-connector from the headlight unit by sliding the sides of the clip down on either side until it ejects the wiring-connector plug, which should then pull out easily. If it doesn't, the sides of the clip need to go down further.

6. Remove the smaller wiring-connector from below the main connector-plug by pressing the clips in either side and pulling it back.

7. The parking-light bulb/holder is located in the small round aperture, which the cap is already off, right at the bottom - the holder is gold/orange in colour. Using two-fingers rotate the bulb-holder anti-clockwise 1/8-turn, or carefully use a screwdriver. The holder should now easily pull back out of its mount.

8. Use the wires to the bulb-holder to rotate it and pull it out of the headlight unit, wired-end first past the other bulb-holder.

9. Pull the wire-connector out of the old bulb-holder, plug in the new one reverse the process to refit.

E21: Front indicators - a common problem?

Is your front corner-indicator not working, but the bulb and fuse are fine?

Mine wasn't and it turned out to be the metal live-clip that sits against the bottom of the bulb. Not the best of designs, connection is lost to the bulb if the clip is bent back slightly, causing the indicator to fail intermittently [denoted by faster clicking of the turning-signal]. The clip having a little corrosion or crud on it is also enough to stop the bulb getting a signal.

A quick clean up with emery-cloth and a slight bend forwards so it sits tight on the bulb was enough to get mine working solidly again. This could be a common problem, especially in the UK and Europe where grime gets pushed everywhere in an E21, so if your fuse and bulb appear fine, but the indicator won't work, you can bet it's the live-clip.

PROCESS:

1. Dis-connect the corner indicator wiring by sliding apart the plastic-clip located behind the headlamp under the bonnet and push it through the hole to the outside of the wing.

2. Remove the two crosshead screws holding the corner-indicator lens and lift the lens off.

3. Remove the two crosshead screws holding the indicator-housing to the wing. The housing should now slide forwards and clear the wing.

4. Use nose-pliers to remove the metal live-clip from where it sits in the plastic-housing.

5. Bend the prong [denoted by the arrow] in towards the other prong, bringing the flat-edge down.

6. Clean up the face of the prong and the metal-contact on the bulb with emery-cloth.

7. Replace the live-clip to the plastic-housing and reverse Steps 1-3 to re-fit.