How much! E90 replacement Xenon Bulb

baker

I’ve just had one of my dipped headlight Xenon bulbs go on my BMW E90 LCI (facelift).

I spent some time watching YouTube vids for how to replace etc, but all of the videos I watched suggested the headlamp is accessed via the whee arch, and that the bulb cover can be clipped off. However, on my headlamp the cover is held on with screws and there is no easy way to unless I remove the whole front bumper to access the rear of the light.

Not wanting the faff of all that, I went to the dealers today to enquire about a fitted price...

£275! and £185(plus vat) was the bulb alone!

Surely they’re having a laugh... a quick look on Halfords suggests an equivalent Bosch bulb is ~£60

Anyone had to replace their dipped headlight bulb before on an E90?

un1eash

Afraid it was bumper off on my friends E92 as he had as you describe where the back cover of the light is bolted on.
Also if your replacing with different bulbs you'll likely need 2, we did one at first and the colour was completely different.

494930

The colour of a HID lamp changes as it ages. Even fitting a genuine bulb will most likely cause a visible difference in colour depending how many hours the other has been lit.

baker

This was one of the reasons I enquired down the genuine part route... to avoid a colour difference.

Damn... given I’ve clock up 110k in it now, it’s likely the other has aged considerably.

Anybody know much about what a “ballast” is? When I look online a lot of people also say it could be the ballast that has failed.

I really didn’t want a bumper off jobby

494930

A ballast is essentially a starter/voltage regulator. 12V in - thousands out. Not the sort of thing you want to be messing about with. Your best option is probably going to be a local independent garage who can fit either a single or a pair (recommended) of quality bulbs. It's still going to sting the wallet a bit, but much cheaper than a main dealer would charge to replace just one.

outoftheknow

It limits the current - think the thing screwed in to fluorescent fittings. HID lamp ballast isn’t as simple I believe but it does the same job. If it fails it should stop the lamp working so is there a visible difference in the working and non working lamps? I haven’t seen a failed HID mind you - I assume it is easy to see it has failed compared to a working one?

baker

The lamp flickered for a few days, then eventually just stopped working full stop.  That’s when the warning light/message appeared on the iDrive to say dipped right bulb failure.

So currently, the NSF lamp works and the OSF lamp is off.  All the other bulbs in the light cluster still work (side, angel eye, etc)

baker

Cheers, looks like this will the route I’ll have to take.

outoftheknow

HID strike an arc so maybe failing ballast makes it flicker. I’m not sure but if you look at the two, Is there an obvious sign of failure? If there is it isn’t the ballast (ballast failure to allow unlimited current would be highly unusual IMO).

mjn

For my E46, £25 for two xeon bulbs. And if i remember correctly, it’s the same bulbs on the E90.