Are you smarter than me??? Probably!

So, my 2001 330xi has more idiosyncrasies than Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man... I've been battling one of them for about 3 years now. You would've thought I might give up at some point and let a stealership or at least a local shop ream my wallet. But no! I am apparently too cheap and continue to deal with this problem.

My stock xenon headlamps blink at what seems to be random times at completely random intervals. Sometimes it's once every ten minutes, sometimes it's twice in 10 seconds, and it is in no way related to bumps in the road or any other external influence. The lights simply BLINK once, and it's both at the same time, so I don't think it's the ballasts. I'm guessing a short somewhere?

The only progress I have made is the connection this blink has with my driver's side tail-light. When I take out the one bulb that's different from the other two (looks like it has two filaments, part 63217160792) the headlights blink at a regular interval, about 1.5 blink per second. Also, when I remove the socket housing it does the same thing, so I don't think it's a problem with the bulb carrier itself...

I tried to do the common ground splice that a lot of people do, and nothing. I also replaced the original brown ground wire in the socket housing, and the problem persists.

I apologize for this being such a long post, but I wanted to give as much information as I could! I am tired of people thinking I'm flashing my lights at them in traffic, especially cops... that's always awkward...

Help me electrical wizards and car experts alike!

If the ground was burnt for a long time sometimes reflashing the LCm will cure the issue

Yep, sound like a problem with the LCm

This just happened to me last night ,

The headlight blinked a couple times on the way home from Tim Horton's. I drove about 10 km home and it blinked about 3-4 times in that span.

The night before, my front corner light brnt out an my only replacement bulb was an amber bulb rather than a clear bulb, so, I used that. Maybe my issue was the different bulb, but, that doesn't seem logical...

I also have the Euro LCM...Maybe that could be the culprit

How much is a re-flash gonna cost me?

This also happened to me and it was due to a faulty taillight and possibly the rear license plate lights. I would drive home from work and my pass. side xenon would blink and while trouble shooting I noticed that my pass side tail light was a lot dimmer then the driver side (I actually got pulled over for this shortly after) After replacing the tail light + lic plate lights it worked great except for the pass side bulb kind of "burned out" is is more yellow'ish to the eye then the other side, So I switched the bulbs around and noticed that it was just the bulb. I just recently ordered the d2s replacement bulbs. Hope this helps!

Edit: I forgot to mention that when I replaced the rear license plate lights I had to actually replace the whole harness, not just the bulbs.

it sounds like it has to do with the "check pulse" the system does to see if a bulb is out. If I had to guess it blinks when somewhere in the lighting system a circuit is open. Being intermittent seems like a filament bulb is going out, not making a clean connection or a ground is loose. I imagine the LCM could cause this also if it's not connected well or going out if it sends the "check pulse". Do any of your dash "lights out" ever light-up?

Originally Posted by Alex323Ci

it sounds like it has to do with the "check pulse" the system does to see if a bulb is out. If I had to guess it blinks when somewhere in the lighting system a circuit is open. Being intermittent seems like a filament bulb is going out, not making a clean connection or a ground is loose. I imagine the LCM could cause this also if it's not connected well or going out if it sends the "check pulse". Do any of your dash "lights out" ever light-up?

Yes, my dash light lets me know when I have a bulb out. I knew that the corner bulb was out because it showed me on the dash. I had the license plate bulbs not working and even that told me that the lights were out. I kept the original LCM, so, if this continues, I will put the original back in to see if that fixes the problem.

Mine only started to do it after I replaced the corner bulb. I had the Euro LCM in for a couple weeks without any issues...

weird...

Do I have to go to a dealer to get my LCM re-flashed? If so, how much should I expect?

did you also check the connector inbetween the light housing and control module(on bottom of housing if memory serves correctly)

spot that corrosion often gets into

Originally Posted by Adamhall321

Do I have to go to a dealer to get my LCM re-flashed? If so, how much should I expect?

No idea, have you tried disconnecting the battery and reconnecting it? Also, try checking your headlight and corner light bulb connectors to make sure they are connected properly. I did that today, even though the blinking has not occurred in the last little while...

Not sure what else to check, but, mine is working ok for now. Will keep you posted.

Originally Posted by DarkJoker

did you also check the connector inbetween the light housing and control module(on bottom of housing if memory serves correctly)

spot that corrosion often gets into

I don't think I checked it, where can I find it? As my title indicated, I still have a lot to learn...