I have a 2007 LT. It came with a BMW Xenon low beam headlight, and lately, the bulb sometimes does not come on. Impact revitalization - even just giving the warm up vibration a moment will start it, but sometimes not.

The trouble is that the low beam bulb replacement instructions in the manuals is fiction left over from 2005 or earlier. It neither looks like nor applies to changing the BMW Xenon low beam. There is still a clip on the bottom, but removing it does not allow for removal of the back cover. And it no longer has an H-7 bulb, as far as I can tell.

I was wondering if anybody has changed it before or has seen a set of instructions on how to do it. Earlier years were able to be changed without removing the cowling, but the cover now appears to have at least two screws at the top, which is out of my reach from underneath. The ballast has three torx screws that are somewhat accessible, but before I start to disassemble the high voltage side of this I was wondering if that was the way to go.

Thanks in advance.

Great Question: I will be definitely be following this Post! I have not even figured out what Xenon bulbs to use on my 09. I don't know if my 09 and his 07 takes the same size bulbs. Can anyone post the the bulb types.

Good question. I was hoping to check connections, as Xenon bulbs, to my understanding are more of live or dead thing as far as the bulb is concerned, but not so the ballast and the igniter. To the best of my knowledge, they are arcs between electrodes which live in a vacuum and like halogen, are sensitive to dirt, especially oil from skin or the petrol type.

I think the Xenon run started in the 2006 model. From what I have heard, BMW left the old 7.5 amp fuses in which blew regularly until it was replaced with the correct 10 Amp. size. But both the 06 and 07 manuals have the instructions for replacing the H-7 halogen bulb, which was not too difficult from the description, if your hands fit.

I was hoping to replace the bulb speculatively to see if it corrected the issue, but I have to get it out because the maintenance manual lists the old H-7 as the replacement bulb.

Have you or could you check your 2009 manual for "bulb replacement"? I am just wondering if it says more than remove the clip and the take off the cover, with a picture of the old pre-2006 cover which has no Phillips balast on the back of it. It would be nice to think that somewhere in four model years that BMW would have updated the instructions. But it could be they gave up on that early.

Thanks, Bill

2006 and 2007 have the same front and back ends to their Low Beam Xenon lights.

I expect, unless the supplier changed, that the same components are present in the 2009 LT, but you should be able to see if your bike looks like mine. Set it on the center stand, and lock the front wheel to the left, and look up under the cowl to the right and you should be able to see the the back of the cover, which should look like the second attached picture.

Bill

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Bill, I would love to get the information for you but my LT is presently at the shop getting some work done to it.
Lets hope someone else with an 09 can do this for you, because I won't have my LT back until later this week I hope.
I did look up unger the nose cone last week and remember seeing something like your second picture shows.

Does anybody with a K1200LT year 2008 or later have a manual that describes how to remove the Xenon low beam bulb. In 2006, BMW replaced the Halogen H-7 with a a Phillips Xenon HID bulb, but as a joke I guess, the 2006 and 2007 manuals still have the Halogen replacement instructions.

As I have a problem with intermittent failure to turn on I am trying to trouble shoot, it looks like there are two choices. Remove three torx head screws that are hold the electronics to the back cover, or remove the cowl to get at the screws at the top of the back that used to just be a latch on the Halogen back.

Bill

Typically it is not the bulb that goes bad in an HID light. It is usually the ballast/igniter. There is nothing to burn out in the bulb since it is an arc light. Some times you can get metal deposition on the quartz globe and it will over heat and shatter. But that is the only bulb failure mode I am aware of.

Great thread! I just had my 2006 inspected and the low beam was working fine.
Today, I was installing a Flash 2 Pass garage door opener and noticed that my low beam was out.

The low beam xenon bulb is very black.

I can get the metal clip off of the bottom, but can't figure out how to get to the top of the ballast to remove/replace the low beam bulb.

My bike looks exactly like both of the photos in the earlier post.

Any help with the removal of the low beam bulb is greatly appreciated by me, and I would assume, Wild Bill.

Success!!!

After reading this post and continuing the research using this forum and search engine, I found the thread from 2006 between members Munson and CriticalMass.

CriticalMass pointed out that fuse #5 in the #1 fuse box (right side when sitting, or Starboard for nautical types) is for the low beam headlight.

Mine was open. I wonder if the installation of my Skene designed P3 or Photon Blaster (Can't remember which is for the front) caused to fuse to fail.

I replaced the bad fuse with another 7.5a and all is well.

I still don't know how to remove the bulb though, should I ever need to.

On a side note, does anybody know if I can install a DDM HID kit in place of the Xenon? I have an extra one from the HID project on my old 2005.

I recall reading this post last summer, and being a little bummed that when I purchased my HID low beam (from Kalex, a Canadian outfit that was popular a few years ago) I bought a replacement bulb, and that might have been a waste of money. Well, my low beam went out in November, I replaced the bulb, and it works. So, there's at least one bulb failure data point.

Don't know how many hours it had on it, but lasted 5 years and maybe 25K miles, and was probably vibration that killed it versus being "worn out".

While the bulbs don't "burn out" in the traditional since, they can and do get metal deposits(from the arc) on the quartz globe that cause it to heat and shatter but that is rare. Typically it is the igniter and balast that usually go first.

I also have a low beam that just quit working yesterday. My 2006 K1200LT with only 10,000 miles, has the factory Xenon headlight. My high beam still works. I checked the fuse and it was good. Now I am wondering what to check next. Does anybody know how to diagnose these kind of headlight? From what I have been reading you can't check the bulb with a ohm meter, and I don't think my multimeter goes to 20,000 volts so checking for voltage at the bulb probably isn't a good idea either. I'm not exactly sure how the ballast/igniter works to check it with a multimeter. Can you tell if the bulb is faulty by looking at it? I guess I'll start looking for a bad connection or a bad ground. :

Today the low beam worked today. I guess that means there is a bad connection somewhere. Does anybody else have any other ideas on what to check?

Mine is aftermarket but the fuse was corroded and it caused me a problem. Now next time you start her up and the bulb does not fire, just hit your starter button and that will trigger the load relief relay to cut power to the light and then restore it. May get it to fire.

I have a latching relay on my bike that I activate with the high beam switch. That way my head light is off until I trigger the high beam and activate the latch relay. My HID does not always fire on the first try and I hit the starter button to "unlatch" my relay with the load relief relay. I hit the high beam again and it usuall works on the second "strike". Easy enough to do.

Seems I am not the only one to have this problem occur. I called the service departpartment and was told they did not know how to determine if it was the bulb or the ballist and wondered if I could tell by looking at the bulb. The bulb looks fine so not sure if it is the bulb based on the other posts. But the prices quoted for the bulb $250 + or the ballist $425 range is a lot. Hoping I can find a way to determine as I'm not looking forward to spending over two or four bills for a maybe fix. Any insight is greatly appreciated

Kevin

Check these guys out if a simple fix doesn't do it for you. I put in their HID kit on my 05 LT without any issues and consider myself a basic wrench turner. They are a corporate sponsor of this site and offer a discount as well. (Or did so previously). Good responsive customer service too. Greg

kbcarstuff.com

I don't think you can put a kit on a 2006 or later as they already have a Phillips HID bulb. I am not sure if there is a replacemnt bulb to fit the socket. Most kits are designed to replace H series bulbs. Has anyone fixed an 06 or later without spending $700.00 ?

Thanks for the insight, I would prefer to replace the bulb as it looks to have shattered (small pieces of glass on the bottom of the housing) but still hoping to get some better instruction on pullng the old. Going to give it a try today and hope I can figure it out. Will let you know what I learn.

I know this might sound a bit kooky, but I had a DDM HID system that often didn't fire up straight away. I am running the light off a relay I installed to get max power to it from the battery. I also recently had installed a new Odyssey battery. I was starting the think I had a faulty ballast, and having pulled the fairing to get it all installed I wasn't so keen to find this as a cause. So I did more searching on this site and others. In scouring threads on this site I found one that suggested it could be as simple as the battery not being charged enough. I didn't believe it because the bike started fine with the new battery, but just in case I put the battery tender on the battery. Guess what - the light has never failed since I did that. Might be worth a try.

All the best!

I've also been having a problem with my headlight. Also a 2007 with factory Xenon. It would generally start when I turn the bike on and then go out when I started the engine. A good solid thump on the front of the headlight and it would come on and stay on. But the other night I went over a bump in the road and it went out. Another thump and it would work. But that's asking for trouble sooner or later when it finally stops working when you really need it so I decided to pull it apart and have a look. Just putting the whole thing back together now.
After reading on this forum about how the globe actually works, I didn't pull the globe. Yes there are two torx screws at the top that you need to get to to remove the ballast / light / globe assembly.
I did read on the forum someone who said they had a problem while still under warrenty and the dealer had identified a poor connection (I think). For what it's worth, when I pulled the nose cone and removed all the wires I thought the plug for the headlight felt kind of loose and seemed to be just floating around on the connection while a wire clip held it in place. Without the wire clip there seemed to be very little pressure holding the contacts together, so I have given the female contacts in the plug a bit of a squeeze to tighten them up. It feels like a much better connection and so far the light appears to be working. It comes on and stays on when the engine is started. The real test will be when I get it properly back together and take it for a spin. I hope I'm lucky and thats fixed it otherwise no option but to replace the igniter / ballast and whatever, an expensive option here in Australia.

Well got the bulb out finially and as noted there are 2 screws at the top of the cover that need to be remove to get the cover off. My bulb was blown and is D2R HID that I was able to order from Midnight Sun, on my 06. Can't say for sure yet that I am home free as still have to get it back in and getting the clips that hold the bulb in are giving me a bit of an issue. Will work on again tomorrow and hopefully figure that part out and get fired up an hopefully work.

Kevin

My '07 LT I'm having similar headlight problems that are described here. The Lo-beam was off yesterday AM when I started the bike, so I used the Hi-beam on my way to work. Getting to work I looked at it again and it was on. Basically the same scenario on my way home after work.

So if I understand right you don't have to take the whole nose off but reikin and KLiudahl found that you can remove the light by taking two Torx screws out from the back, under side. Does the power supply attached to the back of the light have to come off separately or are the Torx screws in question somewhere on the top of the headlight cover above the power supply? Thanks.

I can't believe I'm replacing a bulb on a fairly new bike, '07 with 10000 miles on it. I've ridden a 30+ year old and a 17 year old Gold Wing for several years before this and never touched the headlights. As far as I know they were both originals but they weren't Xenon either.

Look for a corroded brown ground wire first before you start replacing things as there is some history. Xenon bulbs generally have a VERY long life. I would suspect the ballast before the bulb. Test before you start replacing things. Maybe one day I'll follow my own advise!

I agree even though I have an aftermarket HID it was a cheap one and the bulb is going strong 10 years later. I did replace the cheap ballast with a good Phillips unit. Look for a bad ground.