I ranted on another posting that I've been more than unsatisfied with Stevens Creek BMW, Santa Clara, CA, service. I had my 2001 M3 in for various issues and one was an intermittent headlight. I've got the xenons. I'd been reading all over the web that many other owners had the same issue. My particulars were that it seemed to be temperature related, the colder it was, the worse it was. My driver side headlight would go out after going over a good bump (don't get me started about the lousy roads here in the Bay Area!). But, it usually came back to life if I simply turned off the lights and then turned them back on. But it had gotten worse over time. So, the dealer mechanic looks at my car and says that it's due to the fact that I lowered it. He actually had me drive back to the dealership so he could point out the level sensor arm (near the control arm?) was broken. The funny thing was, the other mechanics gathered around and laughed at him! I calmly explained that I agreed with the other mechanics, besides, I'd had the car lowered for about 6 years, so that didn't hold up to logic. Needless to say, it didn't get fixed and I paid for an hours labor for nothing. But, the good part is that I torn apart the headlight and found that the connector (under the rubber boot/umbrella) to the xenon bulb was actually disconnected. You'd never know this unless you peel back the boot to check. I had to clean (file) off the corrosion from it sparking. But once I blew out the assembly with compressed air and put everything right, its worked fine ever since.
I am having issues with my HID xenons in my 2003 325i, the passenger side light won't turn on sometimes and I have to turn the lights on and off a couple times to get the light to turn on. I have an appointment for friday at Santa Barbara Auto Group BMW, in Santa Barbara, CA for this problem, I was told it is probably the ignitor for the light by a mechanic I talked to as I was leaving, he also said this is a very common problem. I seem to have had all the common problems with my car since I bought it. Door trim problem (shadowline trim broke off in a section and caused my door to leak water), two windows stuck down, replaced the cooling system thermometer, and now the headlight. I bought the car used in April of '07 in LA. Aside from that the car has been amazing. I better not have to fix any more things on the car for a while.
rcryder325 Did you get your light fixed? I have the exact same problem with my headlight. Once the light has turned on once, I am able to turn it off and then on again without any problem, that is it works as it should. Its getting the light to ignite for the first time. This made me wonder if it was the bulb or the ignitor. I was thinking that if the bulb is warm then it lights up properly and that maybe replacing the bulb would fix it.
well they replaced my bulb first, no luck, then they looked at it for two days and ended up calling the BMW Technical offices or what ever the hell that is (the dealer called, not an indy shop) and they were told to replace the ignitor element which was only $275 (compared to close to a grand for the whole ignitor) and that did it, however when they replaced my bulb they said they did that cus there was some yellow gasses on the lens and my right headlight still has a yellow tint after all that. which makes me a little angry but I can live with it. Hopefully its just the bulb or ignitor element for you because someone emailed me after reading this and I told them to try the element, they did it themselves (they work on their own car a lot) and they said that fixed it. Good Luck!
