Botched headlight upgrade?

[cae93]

Hi All,

I am sure there are a bunch of previous posts and questions about headlights, but I cant find anything that covers my issues.

I started looking at this because I had another round of condensation in one light, but having dried it out, a couple of issues came up:

1) the angel eyes "lux" upgrade done by previous owner seems not to be fitted propoerly as the rubber seal on the LED bulbs are visible outside of the reflector and the bulb is loose.

2) the high beam (outer light) labelled as "Xenon" on the passenger side, I can see the shutter moving when high beam is switched on but no light comes out.

I spoke to someone at ECS who tried to sell me new Lux bulbs, saying that these light both inner and outer lights, can that be true? If so then where does the Xenon come into it?

So questions:

can some explain exactly how these lights are supposed to be configured?

if there is a Xenon bulb , how do I get to it?

does anyone recognize the "upgrade" that's fitted here?

does the LED bulb twist into the reflector body or is it just a push fit? it would seem like it should lock in because it has some need for orientation?

pictures below, it looks like I am going to be taking the headlights out this weekend, does this mean dropping the bumper?

[Kisenwether]

Hi All,

I am sure there are a bunch of previous posts and questions about headlights, but I cant find anything that covers my issues.

I started looking at this because I had another round of condensation in one light, but having dried it out, a couple of issues came up:

1) the angel eyes "lux" upgrade done by previous owner seems not to be fitted propoerly as the rubber seal on the LED bulbs are visible outside of the reflector and the bulb is loose.

2) the high beam (outer light) labelled as "Xenon" on the passenger side, I can see the shutter moving when high beam is switched on but no light comes out.

I spoke to someone at ECS who tried to sell me new Lux bulbs, saying that these light both inner and outer lights, can that be true? If so then where does the Xenon come into it?

So questions:

can some explain exactly how these lights are supposed to be configured? Your angle eyes are ran off the inner bulb and uses reflective tubing the move the light to both inner and outer rings. You normal low and high beam are the "xenon" location.

if there is a Xenon bulb , how do I get to it? Cant remember 100% but i know you can remove the rear cover of the head light and get the bulb out. You might be able to get to it from the top side but most times you have to access from the wheel well. These bulbs are sensitive and if you got moisture in the headlight it could have caused it to burn out.


does anyone recognize the "upgrade" that's fitted here? I had lux years ago but to me that doesn't seem to be lux

does the LED bulb twist into the reflector body or is it just a push fit? it would seem like it should lock in because it has some need for orientation? twist to lock if lux

pictures below, it looks like I am going to be taking the headlights out this weekend, does this mean dropping the bumper? yes

[noremaC]

To get to the Xenon bulb, you have to remove your front wheels, remove the front portion of the fender liner, remove the xenon/headlight cover (4 or 5 screws), push aside 2 clips that hold the bulb/bulb unit in and unplug the bulb/bulb unit.

There are multiple videos on YouTube that show you exactly what you need to do. Can do both sides in about an hour.

[cae93]

Post weekend update:

Ugh. Previous owner had taken the headlights apart (I assume to fit the angel eyes "upgrade" bulbs that seem impossible to get in or out without taking the unit apart, but had broken the lens cover in multiple places and added globs of extra butyl to try (unsuccessfully) to seal it up. This, at least, tells me why I have a condensation problem on the passenger side after rain.

Sadly, after re-fitting the inner bulbs correctly and repalcing the Xenon on the passenger side I still have no Xenon function and despite my attempts to improve the butyl application, I still have no confindence that the unit is sealed.

Quick question, as the very "helpful" fusebox card tells me, I think, that the 2 40A fuses 84, 86 are for headlights, are those independent fuses for left and right Xenons?

Thinking now of scrapping the unit, can anyone tell me if/how it's possible to test them on a bench to make sure it's a headlight unit problem, not some control module elsewhere in the car

Thanks