[tristancliffe]

Hello

I've been using the Depo Xenon headlights in my 320d F31 for just over two years now, and they've been excellent. I occasionally get the vertical aim error, but it's fairly rare.

Today, however, I get a message about Parking Light Failure on the way to work. Lo and behold, no angel eyes on the right hand headlight at all, in any 'mode'. First thought was LED failure, but given that there are at least two LEDs (main and dip rings) plus the eyebrow LED, I can't imagine all have failed at once.

So I had a look at the Control Module (Driver Module), which I can just about get to, and the Depo one (Rev 3.3) is different to the OEM board. Depo uses two plugs (2x2 and 2x3), whereas OEM has slots on one edge like a computer PCI-E (graphics card) board.
The LED units (with the big heatsink) are also different, and use a four pin plug, rather than three on OEM.
So I can't just buy parts from BMW.

Anyone know if spares are available to suit the Depos? I'm trying to get in touch with Eurowagens (where I bought the headlights) and Mstyle (who also stock them), as I've so far not found a source for individual components.

I may try swapping the left and right Control Module boards to see if the issue moves to the left hand side, but it's not easy to get to them to unplug and plug them back in, so for now I've put it back together so I can get home! Fortunately the main headlights and indicators still work

If I get any information I'll reply to this so that others can benefit from whatever I find out.

[tristancliffe]

Eurowagens say they can't supply spare parts.

They suggested Automodz in London, so will see if they can help.

I really don't want to have to go back to Halogens. They look awful, and barely light up the road at all.

[teaston]

I highly doubt spare parts would be available, this is how aftermarket parts suppliers get you, they tempt you in with an attractive price and then when it goes wrong, usually once just out of warranty, they get to sell you a replacement headlight!

[tristancliffe]

Mstyle and Automodz have suggested they ought to be able to get spares. Maybe. Nothing confirmed yet.

Even worse teaston, is that they only sell the headlights in pairs!

Alas, not THAT many cars for sale have Xenon as standard, so I ended up with a halogen car (my E90 was halogen and was totally fine, whereas the F31 is just terrible in halogen), but I know now to ignore halogen F3x cars completely.

[tristancliffe]

Over the weekend I removed the wheel arch liners, and pulled out both "Driver Modules", and had a look.

One of the boards (the right hand side that had the dodgy behaviour and was presumably throwing the error) had a sorry looking voltage regulator (VR2), so that's pretty much confirmed that this is the issue.

Angel eyes do actually work as DRL, i.e. in fully bright mode, but don't work as parking/side lights or when the headlights are on (when they should be dim, but on). That means it's not the LEDs at fault, and I don't think it's the FEM but that could be wishful thinking.

Automodz say £186 for a module with a lead time of 2-3 days, so I'll probably go with that unless one of the other people come back to me soon with a better price.

Images of my modules attached.

[teaston]

Originally Posted by tristancliffe

Over the weekend I removed the wheel arch liners, and pulled out both "Driver Modules", and had a look.

One of the boards (the right hand side that had the dodgy behaviour and was presumably throwing the error) had a sorry looking voltage regulator (VR2), so that's pretty much confirmed that this is the issue.

Angel eyes do actually work as DRL, i.e. in fully bright mode, but don't work as parking/side lights or when the headlights are on (when they should be dim, but on). That means it's not the LEDs at fault, and I don't think it's the FEM but that could be wishful thinking.

Automodz say £186 for a module with a lead time of 2-3 days, so I'll probably go with that unless one of the other people come back to me soon with a better price.

Images of my modules attached.

I would have thought an electrical engineer could replace the faulty component on the circuit board for far less than that.

Great news spare parts are available though, i'm very surprised!