[Papi325i]

Hey everyone. I just moved from California to Tempe, AZ. My first night here my left HID bulb went "pink". So I purchased two GE bulbs from Amazon. Now, my right headlight flickers when I go over bumps and turn left sharply. After 4 to 5 flicker cycles, it stays off.

When parked, I can only replicate the flicker by moving the wires leading to the red box.

And to top it off, for no reason the left light flickered off with the car just sitting there.

So... wiring? Bulbs? Should I have splurged on OEM bulbs? I'm getting so sick of these problems maybe I should just trade it in for a lease.

2004 330ci
116k miles

 

[Solidjake]

Probably the wiring on the ignitors.

 

[Papi325i]

Yeah, that's probably it. But I ran them all day today on the manual setting and no problems; freeway, speed bumps, fast turns, etc. Once I set the lights to Auto, then every left turn results in a right headlight flickering out. Only way to get it back on is a restart.

I've seen mentions of the problem being the LCM (which I believe is the whole light switch mechanism). Maybe that?

 

[Papi325i]

I just to give an update in case others are searching with a similar problem.

The above problem wasn't happening for a while in Manual mode. However, the past few days every bump would shut off the right headlight momentarily. So I looked at the wires closer in a parking garage. I had enough light to see what was up, but not so much that I finally saw sparks coming from the wires when I moved them. The last 3-4 inches of wires (all four) leading to the red box that attaches to the bulb & bulb holder (I forget what it's called) had insulation cracks. Most cracks I was able to seal with electric tape. Two were so bad, the wires broke, so I had to reattach the wires.

So, if any people out there have flickers/momentary shut down of a light during bumps, check the wires very closely. The cracks are easy to miss, and for my car they were only on the right side. Age and the tight turn of the wires deteriorated the insulation. I'm hoping the ghetto fix holds. So far so good in Auto mode.

 

[Solidjake]

Thanks for the update.