I drive an 05 w/ comp.package ordered new with Xenon Headlights. I've recently moved to a rural area of NJ from my lifetime in the more populated north. I find the need for Hi-beams more frequently than in the past. I recently had need to use them to illuminate a portion of my property to find a missing cat. While outside the vehicle I noticed that the hi-beams were not the separate lights under the headlight cover next to the headlights., but part of a dual beam. A surprise to me. The Bentley manual for this car clearly indicates they should be separate units as I undestood them to be when I bought the car. Can anyone explain why they are not as shown? Is there a way to make them operate as designed? I must say the Hi-beams in my E30 325 certainly perform better than the E46 dual beam units.Maybe using the others would be better.
I believe that on these new BMWs the inner lights are only used for Flash to pass, pulling back on the high beam switch or if you have the DRL activated. At night when you have the headlights on and you turn on your highbeams by pushing forward on the highbeam switch it adjusts the outer headlamps optics to adjust the HID light higher than the low beam. So it is a mechanical adjustment not a different filament or bulb. I hope I am explaining this well. In other words inner lights work when you pull back and outer lights when you push forward on the highbeam switch. Have someone in the car while you are outside and you will see the difference.
granthr is correct. The inner lights are "flash to pass". HIDs do not use the inner lights (i.e. quad lights) as high-beams. As an aside, I hate DRLs. I have had mine deprogrammed on each BMW I have owned. It used to be an 'eye catcher' before every Camarobird, pickup, mini-van, and ox-cart started getting them automatically from the factory....
What really drives me crazy are these people who drive around at dusk/dawn and night with their DRLs on and not switching on their headlights. It can be very blinding in low or no sun light, not to mention no tail lights. I think the big problem is a lot of new cars have dash lights that are on whenever the motor is running. So in low/no sunlight situations their dash is still lit and they don't realize their headlights are not on. Do we really need our dashes lit during the day?
How do you de-program DRL's? Can you diy or is it a dealer only job? The dealer in my parts isn't exactly user friendly. I know this is a little off topic, but I too, find them insanely ugly and would love to make them go away. Thanks.
I think it depends on the car you have. I think the newer cars with iDrive the DRL can be controlled somewhere in iDrive. But the "older" cars with DRLs it is a trip to the dealer or an independant with the right computer. I would check out an independant first. Go here http://www.bimrs.org/ to find one in your area.
