Repairing adaptive headlight motors ?

[nrgetic99]

Looks like my Adaptive issue may be the drivers side adaptive is pointing all the way to the left. Looks odd from front, not centered in housing. From what I could see, the gear mechanism/adjuster is all the way over to one side but I can see no way to access it.

Anyone got any ideas/suggestions/experience ?

Thanks

David

[nrgetic99]

UPDATE :

Pics to follow . The motor that drives the left /right adaptive part of the mechanism has a worm drive (brass) onto a plastic gear that moves the headlight.

Overview, plastic cover removed, top of headlight to left.




Motor that moves hjeadlight left/right (up and down in this pic) is just above sticker that says Hella (small red circle ). You can just see worm drive (yellow oval)above igniter, below black plastic assy , motor at top .
Worm drive drives cam (big red circle) that is jammed over to right (top in this pic) and should be in position of blue circle

More of same





Pic of Headlamp before I worked on it, clearly pointing down and to left (headlamp upside down in pic and is D/S and should not point toward oncoming traffic )





The plastic gear had essentially fallen off the brass worm gear and was jammed at one extreme of its travel. Without actually dismantling it which I think is not possible as it looks like this is assembled then the two halves are glued together (post facelift 2006) , I was able to work gear back into mesh and manually wind it back to center.

Its all back together and working fine now except the adaptive portion no longer functions. I suspect the stepper motor is shot as it went beyond its limit and probably burned out trying to run.

What would be ideal solution would be turn off adaptive coding if that is possible as I am not sure I need it and I would hate to have to do all this again if it starts working again.

To be fair, I don't see the benefit of adaptive and they have been a PITA so far. It even makes it a huge problem to switch to Euro clears.

Now I need to confirm aim as I have State Inspection coming up.

I still have to sort the error I am getting but I suspect that the small LCM located on the headlamp assy is to blame as the contacts were severely corroded and obviously been getting wet. It has a seal but clearly is not up to job. The LCM I refer to is this one Control unit for Head Light 2 10/2003 63126939069 $130.78 One per headlamp, not the one located in the pass side footwell, I have already removed and checked that for damage.

Not igniter for xenon

The joy of X5 ownership continues....

David

[cmetter]

I just had my car diagnosed by bmw and they said that my stepper motor is dead. Headlight functions perfectly. I am not shelling out a grand to fix it. Any suggestions?

[romeokc10]

Craigslist or Ebay, see them all the time.