[ALPx3]

Originally Posted by Sachink1981

I am having the same issue, one of the angel lights has turned yellow. BMW suggesting a $1600 module replacement. Thought to check before here before I go ahead and do that. what did you finally do?

What year is your car? And so you have adaptive or non adaptive headlights? Xenon or led headlights?

[davfer86]

Originally Posted by Iangiulu

Unfortunatelly no spare parts exist for facelift. Probably we need to change the whole headlight... BMW need more and more money time by time. I am so disappointed.

What you ended up doing?

Same issue on both headlights on BMW X4 2015

[BMWfan73]

2015 w/LED adaptive headlights. On mine, the driver side inboard ring, only half is yellow - the rest is fine. Took it to my local indy shop and they said it's not repairable that it's have to be replaced in its entirety - $2300. I'll ignore it for now, but it sucks.

[rcblackwell]

Originally Posted by BMWfan73

2015 w/LED adaptive headlights. On mine, the driver side inboard ring, only half is yellow - the rest is fine. Took it to my local indy shop and they said it's not repairable that it's have to be replaced in its entirety - $2300. I'll ignore it for now, but it sucks.

The same issue occurred on my 2016 X3 in March. Took it to the dealer for diagnoses and repair. They said it's not repairable and that the headlight unit would have to be replaced. Final bill was $5316.77. Yes, you read that right! ABSOLUTELY REDICULOUS! Thank heavens for extended warranties!

[dtox9]

Does anybody know..........
IF I buy a replacement housing... ebay, salvage, etc...

Is it a plug and play replacement and the problem goes away?
OR
is it in a separate module, and not the actual housing, and we need to replace that instead?

OR
does the housing include the module?

AND
IF a simple housing swap fixes the problem... is there coding involved?

[dtox9]

Has anybody gone through the replacement process on these - or is everybody just driving around with partial yellow rings ?

[Burnaby]

Originally Posted by dtox9

Has anybody gone through the replacement process on these - or is everybody just driving around with partial yellow rings ?

You've read the previous post where the cost went over $5300 to replace, so what do you think: Do we drive with yellow ring or we fix the annoyance for the price of a decent 7 years old Civic or Corolla.



I would try to buy one from salvage car. The module is integrated thus the reason to replace the whole unit.

[6MT_Addict]

Originally Posted by dtox9

Has anybody gone through the replacement process on these - or is everybody just driving around with partial yellow rings ?

If/when this happens to my 2015 I'm planning to bake the housing, remove the board with the LEDs and replace them then reassemble. Hard to say how difficult that might be without seeing it though but in theory just a simple process of desoldering the diodes in there now and replacing with a similar/identical diode. Finding out the diode draw, intensity, and colour temp is probably the hardest part.

[6MT_Addict]

Originally Posted by Burnaby

You've read the previous post where the cost went over $5300 to replace, so what do you think: Do we drive with yellow ring or we fix the annoyance for the price of a decent 7 years old Civic or Corolla.



I would try to buy one from salvage car. The module is integrated thus the reason to replace the whole unit.

$500 deductible. Have an argument with a conveniently placed 2x4 😅

[dtox9]

Originally Posted by 6MT_Addict

$500 deductible. Have an argument with a conveniently placed 2x4 😅

[alpinec1984]

One of the "certified" cars I drove this past weekend was so affected (mildly but unacceptably), and my eagle-eyed dad spotted it in the reflection in the dealership front window. I never would have imagined this would be so expensive to fix.

[dtox9]

What I still am not clear on...........

You can get just a 'housing' on ebay for around $500
And they all state they are housings only, with no modules or bulbs.

You can find an entire housing with the modules and bulbs for a little over $1k.

So my question remains...
Is the failed part included in just the housing by itself?
Or
Is the failed part included in the module or other components typically sold OE with the housings as a 'set'?

Dealer = $3-5K
Ebay = either $1K or $500 pending what actually needs to be replaced.

[pungo]

Originally Posted by dtox9

What I still am not clear on...........

You can get just a 'housing' on ebay for around $500
And they all state they are housings only, with no modules or bulbs.

You can find an entire housing with the modules and bulbs for a little over $1k.

So my question remains...
Is the failed part included in just the housing by itself?
Or
Is the failed part included in the module or other components typically sold OE with the housings as a 'set'?

Dealer = $3-5K
Ebay = either $1K or $500 pending what actually needs to be replaced.

Since no one is selling the parts or doing a DIY to repair the failed AE LEDs, I doubt they are removable, so must be internal to the headlight

The LED chip itself must be failing since the driver circuit is not capable to change the color of the LED.

Maybe the headlight can be baked open but I'm pretty sure it uses permaseal glue, which can be very difficult if not impossible to take apart.

Many new vehicles are using LEDs for DRLs and are part of the headlight assembly making an expensive disposable headlight

Looks like the pre-facelift are the better headlights since the LED module is replaceable on those

[greenlifevt]

Same issue 1 yellowed angel eye on a 2015 X3 LCI for over a year. Have not found a solution..

[rubethenoob]

Same issue on passenger side outboard angle eye ring on a 2012 x3 f25 with xenon headlights.
Replacement LED modules are available from BMW for about $400 per pair.
Amazon, ebay etc have the led modules for about $25 each.
Getting to the modules is a bit of a pain. Need to remove the plastic wheel well after jacking up the car and removing the wheel.
The LED modules are on the bottom of the led light assembly. Held in by 3 T20 screws.
On the car I’m working on the led module itself did not look burned.
What was burned is the bottom of the angel eye tube where the light from the LED enters it. Heat from the LED bulb burned the plastic.
I scraped off the brown burned stuff, but then the surface where the light enters the tube was rough.
I superglued a small circle of 1000 grit sand paper to a pencil eraser then chucked the pencil in a drill. Then did it with 2000 grit paper.
It is not perfect. With the new LED module and the sanded angel eye interface the angel eye ring is less yellow, but still not as bright as the other 3 rings.
It looks bad.
My opinion is that it is a stupid design with a limited life span which is very expensive to replace.
The xenon headlights sure are bright though.
I’m afraid it will throw a code if I unplug both tge left and right outboard angle eyes.
They seem to be unnecessarily complicated daytime marker lights.
Well I guess if you buy a bmw you sign up for the multi thousand dollar headlight replacement cost it would take to fix this right.
Me, I’ll leave the one dimmer than the others, unplug both outside angel eyes, or hopefully find some reasonably priced solution.
Oh, and the inner fender is held in by a combination of 10 mm nuts, 8 mm screws and plastic pop rivets. The rivets take a special tool, and were not in the assortment set I already had. And one 8mm screw was frozen and stripped on disassembly.
rube

[pungo]

Originally Posted by rubethenoob

Same issue on passenger side outboard angle eye ring on a 2012 x3 f25 with xenon headlights.
Replacement LED modules are available from BMW for about $400 per pair.
Amazon, ebay etc have the led modules for about $25 each.
Getting to the modules is a bit of a pain. Need to remove the plastic wheel well after jacking up the car and removing the wheel.
The LED modules are on the bottom of tge lead light assembly. Held in by 3 T20 screws.
On the car I’m working on the led module itself did not look burned.
What was burned is the bottom of the angle eye tube where tge light from the LED enters it. Heat from tge LED bulb burned the plastic.
I scraped off tge brown burned stuff, but then the surface where the light enters tge tube was rough.
I superglued a small circle of 1000 grit sand paper to a pencil eraser then chucked the pencil in a drill. Then did it with 2000 grit paper.
It is not perfect. With the new LED module and tge sanded angle eye interface the angle eye ring is less yellow, but still not as bright as tge other 3 rings.
It looks bad.
My opinion is that it is a stupid design with a limited life span which is very expensive to replace.
The xenon headlights sure are bright though.
I’m afraid it will throw a code if I unplug both tge left and right outboard angle eyes.
They seem to be unnecessarily complicated daytime marker lights.
Well I guess if you buy a bmw you sign up for the multi thousand dollar headlight replacement cost it would take to fix this right.
Me, I’ll leave the one dimmer than the others, unplug both outside angle eyes, or hopefully find some reasonably priced solution.
Oh, and the inner fender is held in by a combination of 10 mm nuts, 8 mm screws and plastic pop rivets. The rivets take a special tool, and we’re not in the assortment set I already had. And one 8mm screw was frozen and stripped on disassembly.
rube

Welcome to the forum...

This thread is discussing the LCI AE yellowing, while your model is the pre-LCI that has a replaceable LED model. The LCI headlights do not have a replaceable LED module.

It's interesting the AEs light tube optic on yours was burnt brown since I've never heard of them burning like that

BTW, you can simply disable the AE in the idrive settings so no need to unplug them if you don't want them on.

ps... I think your "h" key is messed up...

[rubethenoob]

Thanks for the info.
I’m not very familiar with BMW models and did not understand the LCI vs non-LCI. I did not realize I was posting in the wrong thread.
I appreciate the info about being able to turn off the AE lights. It is not my car but I’ll let my wife know that is an option.
Sorry about the Mis-typed tge for the. That happens all the time on my phone and is not caught by auto correct.
rube

[pungo]

Originally Posted by rubethenoob

I’m not very familiar with BMW models and did not understand the LCI vs non-LCI. I did not realize I was posting in the wrong thread.
I appreciate the info about being able to turn off the AE lights. It is not my car but I’ll let my wife know that is an option.

No worries, just didn't want someone with a LCI yellow AE think it was curable with a module swap. Yes, the later X3s are LCI and have a differently designed headlight then the pre-LCI and they got rid of the user replaceable LED module as found in the pre-LCI headlights

[S4NoMore]

Originally Posted by Iangiulu

Dear guys , one ring of the "angel eyes" is losing intensity day by day and moreover is changing color from white to yellow (look attached photo to understand what I am speaking about). Consulting bmw electronic parts catalogue I noticed that, unlike previous versions of x3 and other bmw cars, there is no replacement for the drl's LEDs.
Does anyone know if the lighting is integrated into the lighthouse or if there is a method to change it?
Thank you for your help.

My car is a x3 f25 facelift.

There is a method to change it. Someone on the FB group was bold enough to attempt, I followed suit.

The part number is 1308310415-C1, it's not a BMW part number and I don't know if it can be bought new somewhere but there are dismantlers selling them on eBay. I rolled the dice on a seller in Lithuania, paid US$79 shipped and took 2 weeks to arrive. I looked for signs of wear at the LED chips, which are visible - in my photo, the replacement is on the bottom on the bag.

The module is above the headlight bulb housing, remove the bulb for ease of access. But access still isn't easy, I drilled holes in the housing to reach in with a T20 screwdriver and remove the module.

Sadly there's another failure mode to look at - wear to the faces of the plastic DRL "tubes" which you can imagine are functionally fiber optic. The hot LED can cause discoloration. This would warrant entire housing replacement.

I carefully cleaned the faces with IPA and a cotton swab and I think the result is better. The worst part of the job is pulling the bumper cover.

Pictures are not in order but you can clearly see the difference in color of the LED output.

[Bimar]

Originally Posted by S4NoMore

There is a method to change it. Someone on the FB group was bold enough to attempt, I followed suit.

The part number is 1308310415-C1, it's not a BMW part number and I don't know if it can be bought new somewhere but there are dismantlers selling them on eBay. I rolled the dice on a seller in Lithuania, paid US$79 shipped and took 2 weeks to arrive. I looked for signs of wear at the LED chips, which are visible - in my photo, the replacement is on the bottom on the bag.

The module is above the headlight bulb housing, remove the bulb for ease of access. But access still isn't easy, I drilled holes in the housing to reach in with a T20 screwdriver and remove the module.

Sadly there's another failure mode to look at - wear to the faces of the plastic DRL "tubes" which you can imagine are functionally fiber optic. The hot LED can cause discoloration. This would warrant entire housing replacement.

I carefully cleaned the faces with IPA and a cotton swab and I think the result is better. The worst part of the job is pulling the bumper cover.

Pictures are not in order but you can clearly see the difference in color of the LED output.

Interesting, so total cost of $79? I gave up after various research I need to buy the whole unit, it’s not that serious to drop the $$$. Kindly confirm total costs all in.

[heticor]

There several vendor on line fro that part number

here one from ebay

https://www.ebay.com/itm/164505029986

[S4NoMore]

Originally Posted by X4guy

Interesting, so total cost of $79? I gave up after various research I need to buy the whole unit, it's not that serious to drop the $$$. Kindly confirm total costs all in.

Yes, in my case the only cost was for that part plus about $10 in plastic rivets for reassembly of the front bumper. Prices on eBay vary.