[Duhst]

ok so ive had the lights in now for a few hours and this is the break down....

i start the car turn on the lights everything is FINE... IN PARK!
i put it in drive and i get 2 to 3 errors right after each other just ding ding ding and its the headlight error with a ! i push the bc button to clear it, and from underneath the hood on the driver side i can hear a ticking for about 25 or 30 secs, then the right hid turns off for maybe 3 secs come back on then i get a ding and its the red car on a lift. regardless of how many times i try to clear it with the bc button it keeps popping back but with no ding....

any ideas?

[jzchen]

If the lights are still flickering on and off then maybe a larger capacitor is in order. If it is just one side, then I'm concerned with your connections on that side, or possibly a defective unit, if it is plug and play. You can swap the capacitors from one side to the other to verify if it is not a defective capacitor, but this doesn't seem likely. If they are not flickering on and off, (read working fine,) then I would definitely attach a resistor to both lights, along with the capacitor, (sorry if that wasn't clear.)

Originally Posted by Duhst

ok so ive had the lights in now for a few hours and this is the break down....

i start the car turn on the lights everything is FINE... IN PARK!
i put it in drive and i get 2 to 3 errors right after each other just ding ding ding and its the headlight error with a ! i push the bc button to clear it, and from underneath the hood on the driver side i can hear a ticking for about 25 or 30 secs, then the right hid turns off for maybe 3 secs come back on then i get a ding and its the red car on a lift. regardless of how many times i try to clear it with the bc button it keeps popping back but with no ding....

any ideas?

[JonLerd]

wow your errors are completely different than the errors i initially had, you said headlight error? do you mean fog light error? also what ticking sound are you talking about that doesnt sound good also...if your local to me lets meet up im curious to see what this is all about. maybe can shed more light for you.

Jzchen,

the bmw system uses a ammeter type detection for defective bulb. I dont think you can measure resistance while the circut is live in any situation...atleast thats what i last remember learning. but if the problem he was having was flickering from the start then i dont think just the resistor mod will work...all it will do is further reduce the power going to the ballast and bring him right back to square 1. The cap helped him keep his head lights on by filtering out the signal and applying constant current. If its only happening on one side and the fogs are truly going out each time they start up i think it might be a loose connection or a odd ball ballast that is requiring more power than a normal one would take...in that case i would def. get a larger cap.

[jzchen]

Good to know it is ammeter, then resistor with larger capacitor should do the trick right? You said it was 95% duty cycle, so I guessed it could be an ohmmeter checking during the 5% off... It didn't make much sense to me but...

Originally Posted by JonLerd

wow your errors are completely different than the errors i initially had, you said headlight error? do you mean fog light error? also what ticking sound are you talking about that doesnt sound good also...if your local to me lets meet up im curious to see what this is all about. maybe can shed more light for you.

Jzchen,

the bmw system uses a ammeter type detection for defective bulb. I dont think you can measure resistance while the circut is live in any situation...atleast thats what i last remember learning. but if the problem he was having was flickering from the start then i dont think just the resistor mod will work...all it will do is further reduce the power going to the ballast and bring him right back to square 1. The cap helped him keep his head lights on by filtering out the signal and applying constant current. If its only happening on one side and the fogs are truly going out each time they start up i think it might be a loose connection or a odd ball ballast that is requiring more power than a normal one would take...in that case i would def. get a larger cap.

[JonLerd]

Originally Posted by jzchen

Good to know it is ammeter, then resistor with larger capacitor should do the trick right? You said it was 95% duty cycle, so I guessed it could be an ohmmeter checking during the 5% off... It didn't make much sense to me but...

i really doubt its doing a check during those 5% the electronics to do so would be sooo complicated and not worth it...its much easier to measure off load and with a fix variable it could calculate resistance based on current.(volts(known)=i(measured)X r(calculated)) 3 variables only 1 unknown... no point in testing

resistor using a resistor can help resolve the issue but its a tricky thing to do...cus the hid ballast is your black box with an set resistance on its own, and when you introduce anoher resistor you are basically loading it up in parallel. In order to duplicate the stock bulb to remove the error you have to take the inverse of both resistance then add them and then flip the fractions. (adding resistance of parallel resistors) cap is there just to filter out the square wave and give a pure dc signal.

[jzchen]

If it is a set resistance for the ballast then that is a good sign. I am just trying to adjust the resistance to get the correct current, approx. 4.6A by my calculations. I calculated 2.9A for 35W, which seems a little off from your 3.2A from another thread though. Resistors in series or parallel, I kind of know the drill. (At my College, there were three types of Physics courses, non-science, life-science (or I think it was called that,) and engineering, (the one with calculus.) I ended up taking the latter two, so with one yr. from high school that makes 3...)

What I wasn't sure about was whether the ballast had a fixed resistance or not, or more specifically if it wasn't the same at startup. Then we could get unlucky and have the system check the current flow at that time and it would obviously give an error.

Anyways, I hope the OP solves the issue with just adding the resistors, I'd kind of feel bad if it starts to flicker again and he needs to go back for larger capacitors, if that be the problem with his setup that is. I'm having more confidence that the errors will go away with the resistors....

Originally Posted by JonLerd

i really doubt its doing a check during those 5% the electronics to do so would be sooo complicated and not worth it...its much easier to measure off load and with a fix variable it could calculate resistance based on current.(volts(known)=i(measured)X r(calculated)) 3 variables only 1 unknown... no point in testing

resistor using a resistor can help resolve the issue but its a tricky thing to do...cus the hid ballast is your black box with an set resistance on its own, and when you introduce anoher resistor you are basically loading it up in parallel. In order to duplicate the stock bulb to remove the error you have to take the inverse of both resistance then add them and then flip the fractions. (adding resistance of parallel resistors) cap is there just to filter out the square wave and give a pure dc signal.

[JonLerd]

Originally Posted by jzchen

If it is a set resistance for the ballast then that is a good sign. I am just trying to adjust the resistance to get the correct current, approx. 4.6A by my calculations. I calculated 2.9A for 35W, which seems a little off from your 3.2A from another thread though. Resistors in series or parallel, I kind of know the drill. (At my College, there were three types of Physics courses, non-science, life-science (or I think it was called that,) and engineering, (the one with calculus.) I ended up taking the latter two, so with one yr. from high school that makes 3...)

What I wasn't sure about was whether the ballast had a fixed resistance or not, or more specifically if it wasn't the same at startup. Then we could get unlucky and have the system check the current flow at that time and it would obviously give an error.

Anyways, I hope the OP solves the issue with just adding the resistors, I'd kind of feel bad if it starts to flicker again and he needs to go back for larger capacitors, if that be the problem with his setup that is. I'm having more confidence that the errors will go away with the resistors....

thats the thing with electronic components, the resistance is never fixed! (my mistake i did mention it was fixed but what i mean was a fixed range henced the term black box) it is varying resistance as the current ranges. it has the lowest resistance when it is not powered and then gradually builds up resistance. Hence the drop in current draw, the 3.2 amps i stated is what i mentioned as the consumed steady state power of a average efficient hid ballast. 3.2 amps at 12 volts gives you just a tad over 36 watts. Take a look at your hid ballast the Imax and I norm are listed Inorm should be around 3amps. Like i said resistors might help you but only if your consuming less than 35 watts already. Which on an HID ballast you either have a odd ball ballast or your system has a bad connection. I guess you can always power up your hids measure the current being drawn. And then target it to fall near 3amps. however a correctly functioning hid ballast should only consume 3amps so with that being said you should be able to do it WITH OUT the resistor as i have done so in my car and 2 other 335s.

as for classes im not sure what you have taken but i can only speak for myself, BS in EE and MS in MBA with work experience as a llumination engineer which is where i learned much about these lights.

[jzchen]

Hmmm. Thanks a lot! I may have just cost someone $5.00 for nothing... So why didn't you chime in when I told him to get resistors??? And isn't the car looking for somewhere around 4.6A? (I didn't mean to say I know very much about lighting, just that I know how to figure our resistance. You could have just said 1/Rtot= 1/R1 + 1/R2... This is something people might recognize... I watch my little boy for a living.)

Originally Posted by JonLerd

thats the thing with electronic components, the resistance is never fixed! (my mistake i did mention it was fixed but what i mean was a fixed range henced the term black box) it is varying resistance as the current ranges. it has the lowest resistance when it is not powered and then gradually builds up resistance. Hence the drop in current draw, the 3.2 amps i stated is what i mentioned as the consumed steady state power of a average efficient hid ballast. 3.2 amps at 12 volts gives you just a tad over 36 watts. Take a look at your hid ballast the Imax and I norm are listed Inorm should be around 3amps. Like i said resistors might help you but only if your consuming less than 35 watts already. Which on an HID ballast you either have a odd ball ballast or your system has a bad connection. I guess you can always power up your hids measure the current being drawn. And then target it to fall near 3amps. however a correctly functioning hid ballast should only consume 3amps so with that being said you should be able to do it WITH OUT the resistor as i have done so in my car and 2 other 335s.

as for classes im not sure what you have taken but i can only speak for myself, BS in EE and MS in MBA with work experience as a llumination engineer which is where i learned much about these lights.

[frahuang]

Wow, this is a great thread for learning about our headlights.

[Duhst]

ok so now im offically lost....

when i was warming the car this morning i decided to drive to work with the lights on just to try to break them in i guess and see if i could get the error to turn off...

it was a little different this morning, i started the car, turned on the lights and started my 15min drive to work, as soon as i put it in reverse i got one headlight error and the little triangle with the ! in the right corner, i did not clear it with the bc button. when i pulled onto the freeway got up to about 75pmh the triangle with the ! went away..... and i had no more dings and no more red car on lift.... ha, i figured hell yes, problem gone!!!

wasnt the case... as i pulled off my exit at about 40mph i got the headlight out error again!! and back to the triangle with the !.

and on another freak note, the whole drive to work 106.7 (kroq) would not come in, it was nothing but static (i've listened to this station every morning for the pass 1 1/2 years in this car with NO problems) and when i pulled into my parking spot, with the car still on, i turned off the lights and bam my radio station was clear as day..... ha im soo dam confused now....

[jzchen]

Sounds like Jon was right that a resistor may not be necessary, or at least the setup is very close to being fine without one.

One has to wonder what is coming out of the alternator as one increases the speed of the engine. This is probably not constant either. When you put the car in reverse there is a little decrease in output at the moment load is applied. I'm assuming there is decrease also as one is decelerating....

About the radio station, this is really weird. It only happened after adding the capacitors? If so you could try to add a diode ahead of the capacitor to isolate the circuit, but I'm betting Jon can help you out better. I'm just speculating. I wonder if a larger capacitor could help, not voltage wise, but capacitance wise. Why were you looking for one before?

Maybe the gremlin will go away after a few days...

Originally Posted by Duhst

ok so now im offically lost....

when i was warming the car this morning i decided to drive to work with the lights on just to try to break them in i guess and see if i could get the error to turn off...

it was a little different this morning, i started the car, turned on the lights and started my 15min drive to work, as soon as i put it in reverse i got one headlight error and the little triangle with the ! in the right corner, i did not clear it with the bc button. when i pulled onto the freeway got up to about 75pmh the triangle with the ! went away..... and i had no more dings and no more red car on lift.... ha, i figured hell yes, problem gone!!!

wasnt the case... as i pulled off my exit at about 40mph i got the headlight out error again!! and back to the triangle with the !.

and on another freak note, the whole drive to work 106.7 (kroq) would not come in, it was nothing but static (i've listened to this station every morning for the pass 1 1/2 years in this car with NO problems) and when i pulled into my parking spot, with the car still on, i turned off the lights and bam my radio station was clear as day..... ha im soo dam confused now....

[JonLerd]

just got a pm from the OP turns out he was talking about hid retro into a halogen low beam setup...this entire time i was assuming he was doing hid fogs. In this case he most certainly needs to have a resistor added to simulate addition load. The problem with radio signal being loss is something new to me but im going to guess its some sort of highfrequency interference coming from the ballasts thats going thru the lines..possibly a larger capacitor or better ground from the ballast casing is needed. This is going to have to be researched and experimented. Perhaps others e90 owners can chime in

[Duhst]

this is soooo strange, so i found out that at 28mph the error triangle will turn off....

hmm....?

[LuvMyRide]

I have a E90 harness for sale if you need it.. Its from E90 Andy

[Duhst]

Originally Posted by LuvMyRide

I have a E90 harness for sale if you need it.. Its from E90 Andy

sounds like the easiest way out of this problem but......

im hoping this will solve the problem to all other e90 owners that have or are wanting to upgrade their lights!

[ken714]

hey so I was skimming through the post, and it said somthing about older models keep throwing errors? I have a lci would I have to go through all this?

[jzchen]

You'd probably have to try it to find out. Your car is quite new...

Originally Posted by ken714

hey so I was skimming through the post, and it said somthing about older models keep throwing errors? I have a lci would I have to go through all this?

[Duhst]

just to make things clear...

i will try to pick up 2 8ohm resistor
and 2 more 4700uF caps just in case?

and FYI that dam error ding is ANNOYING!!!!

[jzchen]

If Jon's situation with 35W halogen to 35W xenon is true, then by my calculations 55W halogen to 35W xenon should work, with the resistors that is. If you'd like me to show my work, let me know.

Originally Posted by Duhst

just to make things clear...

i will try to pick up 2 8ohm resistor
and 2 more 4700uF caps just in case?

and FYI that dam error ding is ANNOYING!!!!

[JonLerd]

sorry ive been mia but like i pmed the op, i think the way to do it with the low beams is with the resistors...i suggested 125ohm 50 watt resistors. capacitors maybe necessary but can certainly be tried with out it at first. Good luck!

-Jon

[jzchen]

Dealer, I'd like to stand please.

Originally Posted by JonLerd

Duhst, sorry for the slow reply im in sb right now for bimmerfest and been out and about the whole day. I sent you a PM but this is not all that uncommon. After working on your car and testing sometimes the battery can be run down a bit by the time your ready to fire up your lights (i work on the car with my radio on and music jaming) not sure if this is your case but it might be. This happens to me also when im trying to take pics and i have the engine off with the lights on and then when i go to fire up my fogs they dont always come on the first time. Usually when you get them to flicker when you turn them on and they dont stay on that means that their not getting enough power. You might and i state this MIGHT have a better chance with a higher capacitance cap but its iffy. Try your current set up with the engine on and see if you get the same issue. Now about this errror, so with both lights on and you still have an error? or is it just showing an error when your lights flicker and dont come on? From what i have seen the BMW system basically modulates power via square wave modulation and errors when the current draw falls below a limit, hence why sometimes a resistor can fix the problem. In my case the current draw with these ballast are spot on with the 35 watt halogens. (this is after the lights stablize). Run it for now and see if your errors start going away. Sometimes there are just gremlin that need to work out on their own. If your really bothered by this error i can try to help more but i need more details on what your seeing.

For those of you with andy's harness im more than willing to help you guys fix your problems just give me some details about this harness and i will do my best. but it sounds like its just a relay harness with a few mods.

Were any of you guys at bimmerfest today? talk about a wack meet...waste of 20 bucks if you ask me.


-Jon

[E92-Lighting]

did you contact the company you bought it from?