LED headlight conversions for 2008 S

Discussion in 'Feedback, Reviews & Comments' started by Foxhollow, Jun 4, 2017.

  1. Foxhollow

    Foxhollow New Member

    Jun 4, 2017
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    Good Day,
    I have recently bought a 2008 S
    With 50 K miles. It is my wife's car.
    I had to replace the front headlight which is a halogen bulb . I discovered all the wiring going into the headlight assembly had lost all of its installation .
    Has anyone else ever seen this problem with the lights getting so hot, I don't know if this is the first headlight replacement on this car for it is used.
    I repaired the wiring is best I could by wrapping electrical tape over it. The second headlight went out soon afterwards found the same problem on it the insulation around the wiring was all cracking off as I remove the bulb.
    I elected to buy some LED lamps for both the headlights and have install them. After starting in the car for the first time the headlight symbol came on the dash panel as well as the fog light
    symbol.
    Any news would be helpful from anyone who is tried to fix this problem or is had this problem.
     
  2. Metalman

    Metalman Well-Known Member
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    Sep 29, 2009
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    Maybe check the wattage of the bulbs you removed in case the last owner put in more powerful bulbs that exceeded the OEM recommendation....
     
  3. Crashton

    Crashton Club Coordinator

    Jun 4, 2009
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    The LED bulbs do not provide enough resistance. That leads to the dash nanny saying you have a bulb out.

    I agree with metal man, it was probably a high wattage bulb that made the wires get crispy.
     
  4. Zapski

    Zapski Well-Known Member

    May 4, 2011
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    I've got an 08 S as well, with far, far more miles. No problem with the wiring on the lights at all, but I use the recommended bulbs.

    I'd be interested to know if you have success with the LEDs, though I'm not sure how to bypass the computer freaking out about them.
     
  5. Qik

    Qik Well-Known Member

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    I'm about 98.4% sure that you can code it out with a simple wifi ODBII scanner and the Carly for BMW app. I know you can code out bulb out notifications for just about all of them.
     
  6. Zapski

    Zapski Well-Known Member

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    I'd been thinking of paying for that app, and now that's incentive :)
     
  7. rkw

    rkw Well-Known Member

    May 7, 2009
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    Besides the dash warnings, did it light up and work otherwise? If it did, how was the quality of the lighting? I bring this up because aftermarket LED headlight bulbs often produce worse/dimmer light in a housing designed for a different type of bulb.

    Since 2008 MINI didn't offer optional LED lights, there might not be any coding option in the car for removing the warning.
     
  8. DneprDave

    DneprDave Well-Known Member
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    Oct 23, 2010
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    Maybe you could code out the lamp warning altogether. Then you would have to walk around the car and look to see if there are any lamps out, like in the olden days.
     
  9. wmwny

    wmwny Well-Known Member

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    Welcome to M/A!:Thumbsup:
     
  10. Crashton

    Crashton Club Coordinator

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    ^^^ The bulb makes a difference, but it is the lens / housing & how they are made that makes a difference. A halogen bulb & an LED are worlds apart & not really interchangeable in a headlight designed for halogen. Putting a brighter bulb in usually only makes your lights very harsh for other road uses to have to deal with.
     
  11. Qik

    Qik Well-Known Member

    Oct 27, 2015
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    Totally worth it. You can code it so your windows go up and down with your remote, you can set different lights to come on as running lights, register a battery, read trouble codes etc. I've found it very useful.
     

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