I need help! I just bought my Z4 and I just discovered that my highbeams do not work. I have the Xenon style lights. The outside bulbs light on the lowbeam setting. When I move the switch to the highbeam setting the outside bulbs will appear to become my highbeams. This happens half the time. The other half, the bulbs will flicker and then go out. The inside bulbs do not light at all and never have as long as I've owned the car. These bulbs will light if I pull the switch back. I need some input from someone who has experience with this system. If I have to guess what the problem is, I would say that I may have a bad relay. Any advice on what to look at first?

John

Usually the high beams are the same lights as the normal lights, there is simply a flap raised that allows the light to reach up higher than before. All Xenon lights are auto-leveling on BMWs. Some even turn with the steering, but I don't think they ever added this feature on Z4s.

Aren't you under warranty? Xenons are expensive. Take it back to the dealer.

I need help! I just bought my Z4 and I just discovered that my highbeams do not work. I have the Xenon style lights. The outside bulbs light on the lowbeam setting. When I move the switch to the highbeam setting the outside bulbs will appear to become my highbeams. This happens half the time. The other half, the bulbs will flicker and then go out. The inside bulbs do not light at all and never have as long as I've owned the car. These bulbs will light if I pull the switch back. I need some input from someone who has experience with this system. If I have to guess what the problem is, I would say that I may have a bad relay. Any advice on what to look at first?

John


Did you test them at nite to see if the hi beams were coming on? The inside ones are just the halos and don't lite up,that's my understanding.

I discovered that this past Friday evening. It has the halo ring, but does nothing else other than balancing the look within the headlamp enclosure.

The inner headlights are empty, they dont house a light fixture if you have bi-xenon headlights. Your "outer" projectors will function as your low beams, high beams (push forward), and flash2pass (pull back, momentary) beams.

Thank you for the tips. That makes sense that the inner lights are not the highbeams. I just need to figure out why the Xenon highbeams will not remain on. However, sometimes, they work fine. Any advice on what to check first?


John

Best way to test it is against a wall turn on your low beams, pull the light stalk (one used for blinking left/right & obc) towards you, your outer projectors should open up and you'll notice a significantly higher cut off. When you let go it should spring back into neutral position and go back to normal low beam. This is your flash2pass option. Now push the same stalk forward, away from you. You should see the same high beam pattern but the stalk should lock forward and stay like that until pulled back to neutral position. This is your Bi-Xenon High Beam.

The inner headlights are empty, they dont house a light fixture if you have bi-xenon headlights.
That's only true of '06+ Z4s, '03-'05 (his is an '04) Z4s have halogen bulbs for flash to pass.

Ah ya, thanks for correcting that, 06+ with bi-xenon

Thanks again for the help. I do have halogens for the inner lights which work fine. When my highbeams stay on for about a second, it looks like they get brighter (The Xenons). I don't see them rotate to a higher position, or I can't tell. Are there two bulbs behind the lens? Do they get higher voltage in the highbeam mode? Is there a relay in the system? Does anyone have a wiring diagram I could look at? It would really help me out. Right now, they seem to be pretty much broken since I haven't been able to get them to work in a while.


John

The highbeams use the same bulbs as the lowbeams, the cut-off shield just moves to change the beam pattern. Are both sides shutting off or just just one side? If it's both, then there's likely a problem in the switch on the column or the lighting control module (headlight switch assembly).