[BOTUS]

I just realised that the "main beam" bulbs never do anything...

I've got xenon outers and halogen inners (and angel eyes on both)

dip bean is xenon's and I assumed high beam was all 4 headlights xenon and halogens. But its not

main beam is only the two outer xenon's that move about to give different beam pattern and somehow much brighter... but I would like more.

the inner halogens only light if you flash. can you code it so they actually do something for a living ?

[dsjr2006]

They can be coded, not sure what the option is though.

[BOTUS]

thanks for the reply...

anyone know why they don't use as std, seems odd to got to all that expense designing, fitting and putting two bulbs in then never use them.

[jwzimm]

The inner lights are used as cornering lights when the car has bixenons. The beam pattern is set up to only illuminate to the sides of the car. Having them come on with the high beams won't do much for extra light down the road.

[BOTUS]

this is where I get lost on the meaning of bi xenon's


is it

1) 4 xenon lights (two per side) if so that's not my set up I have one xenon and one halogen

2) single xenon lamp per side (with or without any other main beam unit) that does strange things with the xenon that's there to manipulate the pattern depend upon low or high beam selection (coz this is what my car does)

3) something else (if so what)

My Omega has xenon's that do one thing only and additional halogen main beam units, so on high beam all 4 work. I thought that's how my late 2007 335d worked, but its not.

As for where the two halogens point... at night on low beam, if I flash headlights I get typical halogen additional light (yellow) where I expect main beam to point. In this set up its not as bright or as effective as the xenon's achieve by some magic on high beam. But all 4 would be better.

My car has no cornering function on the lights... I think it has "active xenon's" which seem extremely keen to jump up down for no good reason in almost instant reaction to bumps or braking etc. ... (rather annoying and a hindrance to seeing where you are going)

Under EU legislation all cars with xenon must have headlamp wash and self levelling... but on omega you can never see it happen aside from self check on start up, (where they nod just like BM does).

So I was thinking "active xenon's" are different to "bi xenon's" and "cornering function" is yet another option.

Why "Active" someone thought was of use I don't know, as dancing up and down is not a benefit. The biggest reason why, is the "polling rate" at which they try to help out. They move to help too fast and get caught out. often I have to wait to see where I'm going as the light tries to get back to the normal position after certain types of bump are over before the light reached the first "new position" only to need to get back to where they has started coz the bump stopped 1 second ago.

I'm not a fan of the cornering ones either. Make you feel drunk when working through high speed s bends and by the time you can afford a car with this you got used to not seeing where you're going. I guess in the Alps at 10 10th's driving in the summer it would be great.

[jwzimm]

Bi-Xenon refers to using the HID Xenon lights as both the high beam and low beam. The way a Xenon projector works is it uses a shield inside the projector to limit the light output to only the road and mask the light above a certain level. This ensures you do not blind oncoming traffic. A Bi-Xenon light has a motor inside of it that can move this shield out of the beam on command, thus allowing the light to project out fully. This increases the amount of light and the distance it travels as it is no longer shielded.

Active lights and self leveling are different. They have motors that move the entire projector to level the light (so if you ass is heavy it doesn't cause the light to project up and blind people) and to rotate the light into a corner.

The cornering lights (the inside ones) do not come on unless you select the blinker or turn very tightly (beyond a certain steering angle). They are there to help you see curbs when going around tighter corners at slow speeds.

[Kenti]

All 4 of mine lights up when using the high beams, and the halogen points where they should point in hi-beam mode.. I have an 06 with bi-xenon

[dsjr2006]

Originally Posted by jwzimm

The inner lights are used as cornering lights when the car has bixenons. The beam pattern is set up to only illuminate to the sides of the car. Having them come on with the high beams won't do much for extra light down the road.

The E90(sedans) have a different headlamp and the highbeam is not listed or considering a cornering light for some reason, but the highbeam can be coded (probably on e92/93 also) to illuminate with the Bi-Xenon. If you try flash to pass, just holding the lever back you will see that they are actually quite good as a high beam, not necessarily better than xenon.

[Tegs4tugs]

I accidentally came across this yesterday in my 06 E90 as I was coding my car to disable the corner amber lights but it appears that when I disabled this now my halogen drive light comes on with Xenons High beam. I was a bit frustrated at first but then decided to let it remain as it helps at night with the xenon high beam.

[grzes]

well glad I found this post, maybe someone can help, my inner light don't seem to come on even at the tight turn as someone above described, the lens is a bit darker as well. Main light is bi-xenon and both low and hight are there and flashing is there as well so I have no clue what is that inner lens for. Hope the file will get attached and oops, sorry for the dirty light but we just had a fresh dump of snow lol

[cryptomit]

You don't have adaptive headlights, that's why your inner lights don't come on. It is standard in LCI models.

[09Monaco335i]

Interesting post. I've had my E90 335i for 5 years now and just learned something new about my car. I previously didn't understand how or when the "inner" headlights (lights closest to the center grill) would be lit. The owner's manual does not do a very good job describing how the various headlamps work relative to the adaptive headlight feature.

I previously thought that the adaptive headlight feature just meant that the main xenon headlights swiveled to follow the path of the car through a turn... which they do. But in addition, the inner headlight on the side of the car where you making the turn will light up as well to help illuminate the road through the turn.

You can test this out at night, by putting the headlight switch in the automatic setting. Turn the wheel sharply to the right, and you will see that just the right inner headlight will light up.

For my model/year E90... turning on the high beams or flashing the high beams don't light up the inner lights.

Found a cool video that shows the how xenon headlights swivel per the adaptive headlight feature:

[Boxtyp3]

Adaptive headlights pertains to the outer(main) lights to swivel up/down/left/right. The inner ones are cornering lights. It's only on when turning left/right. Cornering lights are both on in reverse.