KyleB

I got my AE upgrade bulbs from ECS earlier this week. I took out the left headlight, removed the bulb access cover, and saw that the insulation for the wiring harness inside of the headlight is completely disintegrating! I am the second owner of the car; PO was elderly and had the car serviced at BMW of Sarasota for everything. I am literally the first non-dealer person to ever work on this car, so I know there wasn't anything else done to the headlights. I'll post some pictures in a bit. Anyone ever come across this before as well? '04, xenons. I looked online for any recall notices related to the headlights, and I didn't see anything.

I opened the access cover on the right headlight, saw the same thing. Needless to say I stopped doing anything until I show BMW what is going on.

KyleB

***update***

insulated as much wiring as i could get to with 3M electrical tape. i could clearly see that the three wires going into the high beam bulb were the worst, and there is no way to get to all of it. I was pretty certain that once I got the headlight back in, I'd have a short and the bulb would be out - I guessed right. AE looks great, but it looks like I have a research project and a dealer visit in store. all other bulbs inside of the housing are working OK. I was able to dig up a couple of vague SIB descriptions for this, but not much more than that. This should NOT be happening on an 8 year old car.

KyleB

padre

The same crap with my 2008 year model. Unbelivable enginering ignorance.

Andres

turboawd

i wonder if it has to due with the high temps down south, combined with the heat the lights put out....but still, this shouldnt happen.

hatemax

I faced the same thing with my friend E65 2007, luckily he had extra set (broken) so we opened the covers and changed the whole cables! It took more than 8 hrs of continuous working!

KyleB

Did you ever take the car into BMW for this problem?

tonyb635

Thats amazing, just make sure that when you take your car in that you the approved bulbs installed. Otherwise, they will say you were running incorrect bulbs and this is the cause. Interesting to hear back from this. When I replaced my AE's I noticed that the wire casing seemed to be a bit harder than I would expect but I don't recall any breaking away. I will be having another look today to make sure.

dingolfing

Same thing happened to both of my AE wires. I've come to expect many things BMW aren't made for long-term, or even short-term, durability. BMW likes to ride on the edge of the performance envelope...

padre

I did not. I am not tempted since car is under extended warranty for another while, I will wait till more of crap repairs accumulate. I am just lightheaded every time I have to deal with service advisor who has opinions but no knowledge on cars he is expected to advise on.
I did covered exposed wires with insulating tape.