Spare bulbs and EU driving.

[sapphireblack]

Buy a BMW kit or assemble my own?

It seems 63212318123 is the kit suited to my car. But online sellers don't seem to detail what is in it. I suppose the 'xenon' bulb is the highest value item, and BMW assume that would be workshop work so isn't included?

I'm trying to assemble a proper kit from the plethora of bulbs i have stored in food takeaway containers. Sods law says if i needed AB or C, I'd not have it to hand. I have learned not to trust online bulb sellers charts, anyone know where a proper list can be found, the cars handbook is most likely i suppose?

Additionally, my car has S522A & S524A on its build spec. I understand the 'adaptive' element and the separate cornering lights are also a nice feature. I need to understand if the lights in my car are properly non directional for EU driving. After X5 Sports recent experiences, I'm wary of having anything adjusted or altered.

[X5Sport]

I assembled my own from one of the kits for Amazon and bought spares for the angel eyes as they aren’t in any kit I could find on line. I already had a spare HID so took one of those as well. Didn’t have a failure, but that wasn’t a chance I was taking as finding the right bits in deep rural France was likely to be tricky.

I kept the lights off ‘auto’ which stops the adaptive bit working.

I also had the tyres filled with Puncture Safe as again finding a runflat in the same area was unlikely. Knowing how fussy the transmissions are meant taking no chances there either. It’s a water based compound that you inject via the tyre valve that then spreads around the inside of the tyre and can seal up to 0.25” holes. Used it in a previous guide (Punctureseal) on my motorbike 20 or so years ago. When the rear tyre was changed there were no less than 5 sealed holes! Never lost pressure.

[sapphireblack]

I'll go out to the car shortly for the handbooks bulb chart

I recall call you saying previously about switching lights manually, fresh mental note made!. I assume the cornering lights function independently and are EU acceptable, i hope so

Point taken about tyres too, though I've always understood adding anything inside the tyre means it can't be professionally plug repaired? I already have some rubber coated 'screws' designed to plug a hole. I would obviously hope not to need anything of that nature?

[X5Sport]

Cornering lights on mine are fog lights and those have such a low, flat bean they aren’t going to be a problem. It’s only the headlight pattern that needs doing with a manual lever above (in my case) each bulb. The black lever is your target. It goes vertical from the current position, lift 90°. Image below is the normal position

The lever is right above and behind (so forward of) the bulb. I can only get to them with the bulb removed. It’s a twist fit. Put towels or something below the lamp in the wing itself. Dropping a bulb is not what you want to do! Don’t touch the bulb glass either.

IMG_3309.jpeg

[sapphireblack]

Hmm. So Xenons do still need adjustment. I read your post on the subject but also recall reading they produce a flat beam and not needing any adjustment ?

[X5Sport]

The lever device actually just places a shutter like light blocker into the top left corner of the beam on each side. No need to actually adjust anything. We only drove once at night in France and didn’t use the ‘Auto’ setting so the lights weren’t waggling about.

I think the shutter just prevents the near side light throw that we need in the UK. That slightly higher pattern might slightly blind (albeit momentarily) an oncoming vehicle.

We only saw two Gendarmeries whilst there. Both on the other carriageway and going somewhere in a hurry. You could always say your lights don’t need adjusting. I’ve no idea what other EU countries are like though.

To be honest, I thought the lever would actually cause the pattern raise to the right and lower to the left, not stick a blasted great light blocker in the way! It just made the light pattern look very odd. You could get away with a sticker on the front of the light. I did consider that but was worried about damaging the anti-UV layer on the plastic that stops the fogging so prevalent on cheaper model headlight lenses.

[sapphireblack]

I think I'll probably end up winging it, should i be able to fulfill my desires of a life in Greece

[StuBeeDoo]

I kept the lights off ‘auto’ which stops the adaptive bit working.

I think that's what I'll end-up doing, when we go on our month-long road-trip in the Spring. I would have preferred to have the adaptive functions coded out, meaning auto would have worked in the same way as it did on my old E46. I have had the cornering lights coded out, though.
I'm not a lover of the adaptive lights, although I do use the "A" position for the duration of BST, because then I rarely drive after dark but having the lights on auto is handy for when I drive through our local tunnels.

I also had the tyres filled with Puncture Safe

I did try Puncture Safe a few years ago, but I found that for the first couple of miles of every trip it was like driving with all 4 wheels completely unbalanced. How did you find it?
I might try it again, for our trip.

[X5Sport]

When first done, it did make for a lumpy ride, but it eased off pretty quickly. The car is often left for a few days and as you say, it takes a short distance to sort itself. I really need to get the wheels rebalanced now this stuff is installed.