Washed my 545i at touchless car wash yesterday and immediately after turning right to exit the carwash, the idrive displayed "Malfunction in the drive system. Drive with care" or something to that effect. Strangest thing is that the turn signals would not self cancel and the DTC/DSC could not be disabled. I stopped and switched the engine off for a minute and the error disappeared after restart.

After putting this down to another electronic glitch similar to others previously experienced, I discovered that the driver's side headlight was pointing down and over to the left...blinding oncoming drivers in the process. As my 545i does not have adaptive headlights, I am speculating that the problem may be due to a defective ALC drive in the headlight or perhaps a loose connection for the self levelling.

I am going to run further tests to see if the passenger's headlight self-levels and pull the drivers headlight to see if I can find the cause. I am hoping that it is a bad connection as I did remove the headlights a couple of months ago to install brighter angel eyes. Any comments or suggestions are of course welcome.

 

Given that you had several strange things right after a car wash, I'd suggest that water got to some electronics. Water under the spare tire? Any plastic boxes under the hood loose?

 

Open your trunk and look at the battery compartment on the right. See if the battery is submerged in water. This is a KNOWN issue with 04 to 06 E60's. Dealer should fix it, free. They did for me.

 

Thanks for the comments. I do not believe the glitch was related to the headlight problem and may have just been a coincidence. The self levelling works correctly but I do not understand why the drivers headlight is stuck pointing to the left when I was told by the dealership when I purchased under the CPO that these are non-adaptive. The headlights are embossed with BMW Dynamic Xenon. Does that verify that they are adaptive? I do not get any adaptive errors on the iDrive display. The headlight switch green indicator flashes but it has been doing that for a while with the headlights working perfectly and the dealer had indicated that it could be ignored as this was for a adaptive malfunction which my 545 did not have.

 

I discovered the 545i has the adaptive bi-xenon as a standard option. The guy at the dealership obviously did not know what he was talking about or was deliberately trying to mislead me.

As I suspect a problem with the ALC, I will try swapping the right ALC over to the left to see if the headlight returns to the correct position. However, not sure if this will need to be reprogrammed after removal. Comments anyone?

 

After much research, I have determined that swapping the ALC will not correct the headlight aim as the problem is due to a failed motor in the headlight housing that performs the adaptive function. I have 3 options, buy a new headlight at a cost of $1300, a used headight from BMRparts or a pair of new Euro headlights from Umnitza for $1300 without the adaptive function. I am leaning toward the third option as I do not care for the adaptive feature which will probably fail again. However, the Euro headlights from Umnitza comes with the D1S bulbs and I am not absolutely sure if these will work on my 2004 545i which are fitted with the D2S bulbs. Also not sure if there are any other problems associated with the Euro headlights on a pre-Sept 2005 E60.

 

Sy...I suggest you bite the bullet and buy the OEM replacements and not used or Umnitza lights. You will love the adaptive function once you get used to it, especially on darker roads where the movement of the lights is much more noticeable. I would not swap used ones as you never know what you're going to get and may end up with the same problems...

You only need one light so ??consider yourself lucky!

Yes, you will need a reprogram once you install the new HL....

Goodluck and hope this was helpful...

=s=

 

Thanks for the suggestion and I agree that buying used is risky. However, I may still go with the UMNITZA option as these are Euro with the clear reflectors. Purchasing only one new headlight may not look great as the other side is pitted with stone chips and I am afraid that failure of the right headlight may follow soon. I also agree that the adaptive feature is great option but I think I can live without it as 90% of my driving is in the city on lit roads.

Now I just need to be absolutely certain that there no problems with the Euro headlights....research continues...

 

Further research has shown that the Euro Headlights with the D1S bulbs sold by Umnitza will require the D1S ballasts and D1S bulb holders.
This means that the D2S ballasts on my present headlights cannot be used. The D1S ballasts together with the D1S bulb holders will therefore need to be purchased for about $800 which brings the total cost to ~$2100.

Unless Umnitza can provide the Euro headlights that use the D2S bulbs and ballasts, it looks like I may have to purchase the stock replacement headlight after all....aargh

Here is a link showing the headlight components and part numbers for reference:
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?mo...hg=63&fg=05

Does anyone know of any other supplier of Euro headlights? I checked the forums but found nothing other than TheGermanOne.
Thanks

 

Umnitza has been very responsive and helpful and it looks like I will be purchasing the Euro Headlights there. Fortunately, I was able to source the D1S ballasts and lamp holders at a very reasonable cost. The ALC units on my existing headlights will also work with the Euro headlights.

I will describe the installation experience for reference after all parts have been received.