Help! Flickering headlights

komodo_e46 · 10-14-2011, 12:59 PM

Greetings All,

My friend's car has some headlights and some sort of aftermarket HID or XENON (no idea which) which I was hoping you could help me to identify.

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B5l...lZWFm&hl=en_US

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B5l...jMGEw&hl=en_US

The issue that I am having is the headlights will flicker while driving (and sometimes while stopped). I am planning to take everything apart and check for ground wires, etc.

But before I go any further, I would love your input as to what kind of housing / headlights these might be?

Thanks for your help in advance!

komodo_e46 · 10-14-2011, 01:30 PM

Found this thread and will be checking the rear tail light bulbs as well, guess I should stop ignoring those warnings! Keep you guys posted, thanks for having such great resource here!

http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthr...=xenon+flicker

komodo_e46 · 10-18-2011, 02:29 PM

I pulled off both tail light pannels and disconnected each of the harnesses. At first they looked exactly the same, but heard from a previous post that there might be some sort of a burning smell. I put my nose to both, and low-and-behold.... the passenger side one clearly smelled burnt! Under closer examination, you could see that pin #3 (ground) had some funky thing going on with the connector. I followed a modified version of the instructions found on this page: http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=512469

1. Got a piece of 14 gauge wire and cut a piece about 5", stripped both ends
2. Cut a small relief into the brown wire (#3) and attached one end of the 14 gauge wire to it
3. Since the lighting panel did not have a place for a connector, so I traced pin #3 (from the female socket) to somewhere on the board in which I could wrap the wire around. (Found a hole that I was able to wrap the wire around)
4. Put some electrical tape on both ends of the connections to make things tight.

This re-grounding solved the issues:

1. Flickering Xenons - SOLVED!
2. Passenger side blinker would start fast and then return to a normal speed (barely noticeable, but if you drive the car a lot) - SOLVED!
3. Tail light out indicator - SOLVED!

sillieidiot · 10-22-2011, 01:45 PM

good job

10-14-2011, 12:59 PM	#1
komodo_e46 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 5 My Ride: 2000 323i View My Garage	Help! Flickering headlights Greetings All, My friend's car has some headlights and some sort of aftermarket HID or XENON (no idea which) which I was hoping you could help me to identify. https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B5l...lZWFm&hl=en_US https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B5l...jMGEw&hl=en_US The issue that I am having is the headlights will flicker while driving (and sometimes while stopped). I am planning to take everything apart and check for ground wires, etc. But before I go any further, I would love your input as to what kind of housing / headlights these might be? Thanks for your help in advance! Last edited by komodo_e46; 10-14-2011 at 01:19 PM.

10-22-2011, 01:45 PM	#4
sillieidiot Registered User Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: the OC Posts: 43,337 My Ride: '06 AW 330ci View My Garage	good job __________________ I like to reply to threads with 0 posts Have a lighting problem? Read this first: Lighting-related Troubleshooting Guide

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10-14-2011, 01:30 PM	#2
komodo_e46 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 5 My Ride: 2000 323i View My Garage	Found this thread and will be checking the rear tail light bulbs as well, guess I should stop ignoring those warnings! Keep you guys posted, thanks for having such great resource here! http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthr...=xenon+flicker

10-18-2011, 02:29 PM	#3
komodo_e46 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 5 My Ride: 2000 323i View My Garage	I pulled off both tail light pannels and disconnected each of the harnesses. At first they looked exactly the same, but heard from a previous post that there might be some sort of a burning smell. I put my nose to both, and low-and-behold.... the passenger side one clearly smelled burnt! Under closer examination, you could see that pin #3 (ground) had some funky thing going on with the connector. I followed a modified version of the instructions found on this page: http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=512469 1. Got a piece of 14 gauge wire and cut a piece about 5", stripped both ends 2. Cut a small relief into the brown wire (#3) and attached one end of the 14 gauge wire to it 3. Since the lighting panel did not have a place for a connector, so I traced pin #3 (from the female socket) to somewhere on the board in which I could wrap the wire around. (Found a hole that I was able to wrap the wire around) 4. Put some electrical tape on both ends of the connections to make things tight. This re-grounding solved the issues: 1. Flickering Xenons - SOLVED! 2. Passenger side blinker would start fast and then return to a normal speed (barely noticeable, but if you drive the car a lot) - SOLVED! 3. Tail light out indicator - SOLVED!