[Chief Orman]

hey guys I installed angel eyes about a year ago and I am now getting some low beam flicker. I was wondering if anybody else has had this experience. frankly I'm not sure how good s job I did at seating the lights in the housing since it was so cramped. even worse my water meth system is blocking my access to the back of the headlight housing. what a pain. last but not least I actually got an error light about the low beams on my dash. I have to hand it to bmw... There is nothing on this car that does not have its own warning light.

[335dsleeper]

Originally Posted by Chief Orman

hey guys I installed angel eyes about a year ago and I am now getting some low beam flicker. I was wondering if anybody else has had this experience. frankly I'm not sure how good s job I did at seating the lights in the housing since it was so cramped. even worse my water meth system is blocking my access to the back of the headlight housing. what a pain. last but not least I actually got an error light about the low beams on my dash. I have to hand it to bmw... There is nothing on this car that does not have its own warning light.

You may have a ballast going out.

[Chief Orman]

Originally Posted by 335dsleeper

You may have a ballast going out.

ballast...the thing attached to the angel eye...sort of like a mini transformer attached to the wire to the bulb itself?

[QUIKDZL]

Is the HID low beam (which is also the high beam) flickering, or is the angel eye flickering? And is it just one light, or both?

[335dsleeper]

Originally Posted by QUIKDZL

Is the HID low beam (which is also the high beam) flickering, or is the angel eye flickering? And is it just one light, or both?

1+

I thought your low beam was flickering. If the low beam is flickering its likely the ballast that fires the low beam light. If its the AE, it could be a faulty bulb. poor connection.

[Chief Orman]

Originally Posted by QUIKDZL

Is the HID low beam (which is also the high beam) flickering, or is the angel eye flickering? And is it just one light, or both?

just the left light on low beam only

[Yozh]

Flickering as in the light itself or just a physical jittering of the light when you hit a bump such as a bridge joint?

If you got a warning light then it may be electrical related and either the connection, ballast/igniter issue, moisture issue or the age of the bulb. Igniter is integrated in to the D1S bulb itself, ballast is attached to the housing and is connected to the igniter/bulb by a metal braided wiring harness.

Check your headlight for connections issues and/or water ingress. Swapping from the good side is a method to narrow down your failed component. Please do not fire-up your HID with out bulb being in the housing and do not touch any wiring. 23kV is not fun.

[QUIKDZL]

+1.

Also, what about high beam? The HID light is always just on. When you switch to high beams, a shutter simply moves out of the way and exposes the entire light beam to the projector lens. Is your shutter broken? Or is the light source itself flickering off and on? If this is the case, your ballast/igniter is likely shot--but this would affect high beams also.

Hope it is the bulb/ballast/ignitor. If it's the shutter, you'll be buying an entire headlight assembly.

[Yozh]

Originally Posted by QUIKDZL

+1.

Also, what about high beam? The HID light is always just on. When you switch to high beams, a shutter simply moves out of the way and exposes the entire light beam to the projector lens. Is your shutter broken? Or is the light source itself flickering off and on? If this is the case, your ballast/igniter is likely shot--but this would affect high beams also.

Hope it is the bulb/ballast/ignitor. If it's the shutter, you'll be buying an entire headlight assembly.

If I may offer something. The bi-xenon high beam shutter mechanism design on the E90 LCI projectors is such that it prevents any possible rattle or flicker contribution. Basically it's blocked in closed position. Suppose anything can break, but this one is the least likely contributor to the bouncy flickery effect that lights may exhibit.

Ballast and the related electrical issues, including the age of the D1S bulbs is one thing and is easy to diagnose. On the mechanical side, there is the mounting integrity of the whole housing that one needs to look at, then there are internal issues, but that is primarily design related. Can be eliminated if one is patient enough and brave enough to crack their perma-sealed housings. Will be happy to give the visual if someone cares enough about these details.

Lastly, if someone's internal high beam solenoid is fried or the high beam shutter is dislodged, there is a way to fix it without resorting to the whole new headlight assembly. Well, at least in theory on my end for now.

[QUIKDZL]

I agree, but I disassembled a headlight assembly from a wreck just to see if I could do it. Couldn't do it without breaking it (I didn't resort to the oven). Bottom line is, we need more info from Chief to make a proper diagnosis.

He said the problem only manifested on low beams. That is a mystery.

[Chief Orman]

Originally Posted by Yozh

Flickering as in the light itself or just a physical jittering of the light when you hit a bump such as a bridge joint?

If you got a warning light then it may be electrical related and either the connection, ballast/igniter issue, moisture issue or the age of the bulb. Igniter is integrated in to the D1S bulb itself, ballast is attached to the housing and is connected to the igniter/bulb by a metal braided wiring harness.

Check your headlight for connections issues and/or water ingress. Swapping from the good side is a method to narrow down your failed component. Please do not fire-up your HID with out bulb being in the housing and do not touch any wiring. 23kV is not fun.

Good advice... feels like it might be a loose connection or moisture. By the way, even though I do very little of my own work on my car, replacing the stock bulbs with angel eyes was one of the more miserable jobs that I have ever done. One needs hands the size of an infants with the strength of Hercules. Miserable job.

[Chief Orman]

Originally Posted by QUIKDZL

+1.

Also, what about high beam? The HID light is always just on. When you switch to high beams, a shutter simply moves out of the way and exposes the entire light beam to the projector lens. Is your shutter broken? Or is the light source itself flickering off and on? If this is the case, your ballast/igniter is likely shot--but this would affect high beams also.

Hope it is the bulb/ballast/ignitor. If it's the shutter, you'll be buying an entire headlight assembly.

Sorry guys...what exactly is the ballast?

[QUIKDZL]

The ballast is the transformer that steps the voltage up from 12V to 23,000V. As Yosh said, be careful of the high voltages.

[QUIKDZL]

Chief, is the flicker only occurring while low beams are on, or whenever the headlights are on regardless of mode?

[Chief Orman]

Originally Posted by QUIKDZL

I agree, but I disassembled a headlight assembly from a wreck just to see if I could do it. Couldn't do it without breaking it (I didn't resort to the oven). Bottom line is, we need more info from Chief to make a proper diagnosis.

He said the problem only manifested on low beams. That is a mystery.

Quik I think it is the bulb and not the shutter. That said, I don't get a visible flicker that I notice on high beam which doesn't make sense if it is the bulb....right? The flicker is most noticeable, not surprisingly, when sitting in the driveway and tends to come on at startup and only very rarely after I have been driving. duh given that it is going to throw a code at startup. I drive my car gently but aggressively so I would not be surprised if something shook loose. I also remember that when I was installing the angel eyes I didn't feel like I could cinch down the bulb as much as I would have liked given the lack of leverage in the confined space.

I don't know about you guys, but I have also been throwing error codes for the rear brake lights for the better part of 18 months based on the readings from Carly. however my brake lights function perfectly but I can't seem to clear the brake light code.

I did a tiny amount of coding with Carly around folding side view mirrors. I hope this coding did not somehow corrupt the readings for my electrical system. I have read too many nightmare stories about the weird foot well electrical junction box.

[Chief Orman]

Originally Posted by QUIKDZL

Chief, is the flicker only occurring while low beams are on, or whenever the headlights are on regardless of mode?

I believe just in low beam.

[Yozh]

Originally Posted by Chief Orman

The flicker is most noticeable, not surprisingly, when sitting in the driveway and tends to come on at startup and only very rarely after I have been driving.

Based on this, it is your bulb/ballast or an electrical connection such as grounding etc. Moisture ingress is not ruled out as it will affect all of the above.

[Chief Orman]

code 00A8AA according to Carly

[GaryE30]

Be careful when troubleshooting. This is what the ballast will look like (or similar). The outputs of this will be at extremely high voltage, which means the same goes for any wiring attached to it.

An easy way to diagnose is switching bulbs, see if the problem persists on the other side. Then switch igniters (attaches to back of bulb) and perform same procedure. Then do the ballasts.

[Chief Orman]

Originally Posted by GaryE30

Be careful when troubleshooting. This is what the ballast will look like (or similar). The outputs of this will be at extremely high voltage, which means the same goes for any wiring attached to it.

An easy way to diagnose is switching bulbs, see if the problem persists on the other side. Then switch igniters (attaches to back of bulb) and perform same procedure. Then do the ballasts.

Thank you!

[QUIKDZL]

Chief, what did you find was wrong?

Also, regarding your Carly codes for tail lights, go back through the coding parameters for the lights and look to see if the car is set to perform bulb checks. If I remember correctly, for every LED-driven light, you can tell it not to perform this check. That should fix it.

[Puerto Rican 335d]

Chief be careful with that or you'll get the shit shocked out of you ok amigo