I have recently fitted a pair of BMW Xenon headlight units to my 1999 5 series E39, they work fine apart from a dash board alarm to say the dip headlight bulbs have blown. I am told there is an adapter cable which shops this happening. Does anyone know what the BMW part number is for this cable or have any other ideas to stop the alarm warning occurring.
Ken.
It's sensing the lower running current of the 2x35W xenon metal-halide lamps as being out of spec (much lower than the current it expects the standard
2x55W halogen lamps to pull). The 'adaptor cable' is probably nothing more than a resistor and a couple of plug/sockets.JB
Actually, no. When the HID lights are actually fired up and drawing current the check control will be happy. It's when the headlights are off that the check control gets upset that it can't sense the resistance of the headlamp filaments. There is a low voltage sense signal sent down the headlamp circuit when the headlights are off.
There are many different designs as workarounds. Most incorporate some sort of resistor routed to the headlamp circuit when the lights are off, but still engages the ignitors for the HID lights when the headlights are turned on.
They sell them here:
Ah ha! A moderator on our website has figured out a way around this for his e46 (which as far as I'm aware has the smae check control system as the e39)
Here it is:
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