KEY08

^ Those are nice bulbs, but very expensive. I guess it's all in what you are trying to accomplish. I would not get caught up in the lumen output of different color temps, Fisch. HID lamps are superior to Halogen to begin with, so you are already way ahead and moving from a 4300 to 5500 or 6500 just makes the output more white. You can easily stick with the OEM 4300. I have no issue seeing at night with the stock HID lamps, but always move to the brighter color when it is time to change. I hope the issue isn't with your light assembly, because this will not be a cheap fix if that is the case!

austin94

Just FYI, I don't think there is a high beam bulb. I recently just had some headlight issues myself, and when I got to looking it seems like there is only one bulb and I read on another forum that the high beam functions by moving some sort of lens to project the beam higher. Also, could that clicking noise be the igniter for the xenon gas in the bulb? Not sure exactly if it would be part of the bulb itself or if it would be another component entirely.

Another the note, yes the driver side is a $&@%# to change, but I was able to take the bulb out without removing the tire. If you know someone with small hands (don't ask for Trump's help!!) it's possible to not have to remove anything.

Just curious, has anybody ever had moisture build up in their w212? I have some in mine and I've tried to dry it out with a blow dryer and it keeps coming back!

cetialpha5

The reason they're called Bixenon is that they work for both high and low beam. There can be a separate set of high beam halogens because it takes a while to move the shutter for the high beam on the Xenons, so they're used for the flash to pass feature. So you just have one set of Xenon bulbs.

Also a lot of people think that whiter is brighter, but really the best color is 4300, you actually get less effective light at higher colors. There's a reason the manufacturers picked 4300.

thefisch

Thanks guys for all the feedback. Reading all this I am starting to worry it’s not the bulb but I am trying to not think so far ahead.

As a point of reference, I called my local dealer and spoke to a service advisor. He quote $250 for xenon bulb replacement installed (one side obviously). I told him I doubted the bulb is bad because it comes on for 40 seconds and he said there are three parts to consider – the bulb, the igniter and the module/modulator (ballast?). He said that the xenon bulbs don’t fail like regular bulbs where they just plain go out and don’t come back. Typically they have gremlin like problems and 90% of the time the issue is the bulb.

Their diagnosis process is to switch the bulbs and see if the problem follows the bulb. If it follows (great movie btw), replace bulb. If not, then they look at igniter and ballast. He also said they can get to the bulb by turning the tires all the way to the right to access through the wheel well – they must have rubber arms.

I didn’t mention to him that the high beam works if you turn it on at first. Maybe I should have. I’ve read about the shield (or insert as MB calls it) and wonder what controls that. I suppose that is controlled by the module but must be part of the headlight assembly. If the shield can’t get it the right position that could be the fault of the module or the headlamp assembly. The bulb and headlight assembly are not covered by my extended warranty so I could be screwed.

Earlier today I tried to get a sense of what the headlight is doing in those first 40 seconds where it works. So I had the lights on with the engine off and was looking closely at it when I noticed another sound. The sound is fainter than the high beam creaking sound mentioned earlier. This sound it more like the ticking sound a second hand on a clock makes. It only happens on the driver side, not passenger and is definitely coming from the headlamp (my ear is right up on it). During those 40 seconds, this ticking sound happens about 27 times with a little over a second in between each sound. After the sound stops the low beam goes out with a few seconds. After the low beam goes off and I turn the headlamp switch to parking lights and back on, the low beam just flickers once on the driver side with no sounds. After hearing this ticking sound, I wonder if there is a startup process for the headlamp and the module (or something) is trying to move or correct the position of the high beam insert but it fails (after ~27 attempts) and shuts down. Or I just have a bad bulb...

I think this weekend I may swap the bulbs. If that doesn’t work, does anyone have info on changing the module? I doubt the igniter is the issue as it seems to do its job of getting the bulb lit up.

KEY08

I think the bulb swap is a great idea. I'm still convinced it's just a bulb going bad on you. $250 at the dealer to replace is a total rip.

LILBENZ230

In the case of these D1S bulbs, is the igniter not built into the base of the bulb? That is my understanding. In that case, replacing the bulb would also replace the igniter. Do the projectors initialize when you start the car? As in, do they move side/side/up/down?

The ticking noise could be repeated cycling of the igniter due to a problem with the bulb maintaining the arc.

I would replace the bulb first, as suggested.

thefisch

Well, I finished the swap after a couple of hours and it looks like it is not the bulb. After swapping, the driver side acted the same way (41 seconds only on low with ticking sound, high beams stay on no issue, creaking sound when toggling high beams, etc.). I was hoping it was the bulb after all that work. Here I was thinking the bad bulb would be on the passenger side and easier to swap out later but that is not the case.

Honestly once I retesting after the swap, I began to doubt myself that I lost track of the bulbs while they were out. But I kept them in different places and also removed the collar from passenger bulb.

Any ideas on what to do next? I plan to do some more online research but will likely end up calling an indy or the dealer on Monday.

LILBENZ230

Do you have a good indy? Mine would do his best to repair the unit. Dealers will say replace the whole unit at huge cost.

thefisch

Yeah, I know of a recommended indy not far away but I haven't talked to him in two years. I plan on calling him Monday for his thoughts. He will usually talk to you about possibilities over the phone before you bring the car over. However, I have an extended warranty through carmax (maxcare) that excludes the bulb (of course) and sealed beam head lamps. Due to that exclusion, I expect that they won't cover the headlight assembly itself but I am not sure about other components like the control module or wiring assembly. I plan on calling them also.

Right now I am trying to determine what other components there are to this. I am not sure if the igniter is part of the bulb or not. And apparently the control module is mounted below the headlight assembly so you'd have to remove it (via dropping the bumper) to check that component.

LILBENZ230

This is not a sealed beam headlight.. I would get in touch with MaxCare as a failure of the adaptive headlights should be covered by them.

thefisch

Obviously I hope you are right, but what is the difference? Isn't a sealed beam head lamp essentially a headlight on all modern cars?

I do have a deductible of $250/300 which was more $ than the bulbs so I was hoping it was them. Since it doesn't appear so, I hope whatever is not working is covered. However, I never trust warranty companies - I was thinking they would use that headlamp exclusion to tell me that anything within the headlight assembly isn't covered.

thefisch

While I am waiting on the next step, I thought I would share some observations from swapping the bulbs. The passenger side is easy to access from the engine compartment as others have mentioned. The driver side is another animal. I posted two methods described in the forum above (link to old post). After I got familiar with the removal procedure from working on the passenger side, I tried going in over the top (great movie btw) of the driver side by removing the vacuum tube support bracket. It was easy to remove and push down out of the way. But I could not angle my arm and wrist to even get a good grip on the low beam access cap. Even if I could get a good grip, I could see that way being very frustrating as you can’t see what you are doing at all and would have to do it all one handed with a blindfold on like Houdini. Given the short cable lead and the bulky size of the xenon base, I decided to abandon that method.

So I switched to the underneath method through the wheel well. First I tried turning the wheel all the way right to lock as the dealer suggested but having never removed the wheel well liner before I couldn’t see that working. So I got out the jack and removed the tire. Once the tire was off the removal of the wheel well liner was as described in the other threads (here is another good one).

The wheel well liner is in two halves. They meet at the top center of the wheel well where they share a stationary screw with a 10mm bolt on the end. You need to remove the bolt and pull down the rear half slightly to give the front half clearance to pass over the screw threads. There is another 10mm bolt to remove from a stationary screw right behind the strut holding the backside of the liner against the car. As you move towards the front, there are three plastic screws that pull out after you remove the center pin (I found those the most stubborn - flathead screwdriver and small pliers helped remove them intact). Two of them are close to the body edge and one is about a foot towards the middle. The liner wraps under the bumper and connects with one plastic screw just after the bend and two 8mm screws where the liner meets the center scrape guard. Once all are removed, you need to work the edge of the liner as it sits in a crease along the body. It’s a dirty job for sure. Once the liner is off you can see the light assembly as shown here:



After having removed the tire and wheel well liner, I could see myself trying the dealer method the next time. With the tire turned, you should be able access the three plastic screws with the one in the middle being the toughest as the tire is close to it. Then remove the plastic screw and two 8mm screws under the bumper. Then you probably could pull back the liner against the tire to get an arm in between the tire and wheel well to reach the housing. Next time I may try that first before fiddling with the jack. I don’t have a proper floor jack – I just use the one from the tire kit with doesn’t give me confidence as I’ve had it slip before.

The cap closest to the side houses the low beam. It has arrows showing you the direction to twist to open. The low beam bulb is right behind that.




It’s not even a quarter turn and it comes loose.




The xenon bulb base is the silver square with the warning sticker on it. The opening is just big enough to get my fingers through the opening and grip the base. Be mindful of the cable that attaches to the bottom center. As you can probably tell, the bulb is not directly center of the opening. It is a little down and to the side which makes it tougher to grip. All of the videos I found online seem to be for the halogen bulb which has a smaller plug in place. The xenon is bigger than those. Locked in place, the cable sits at 6 o’clock.




All it takes to unlock is a slight counter clockwise twist so that the cable is at 5 o’clock as seen in this second photo. Here you can see the cable attachment at the bottom.



The lead is very short so be gentle as you slide the bulb housing out. To remove the cable, locate the bent metal piece on the cable bracket. Pressing this in lifts the other side and allow the cable to pull off. Be sure to pull from the metal cable head and not the cable itself. Reverse steps for reinstall.

The xenon bulb is one piece and has a removable collar around it that acts as the locking mechanism. As seen below, the bulb on the right is the part you would purchase while the bulb on the left has the removable collar on it. So for a swap you can leave the collar on, but for a replacement you would remove and attach to the new bulb.




The collar has a clasp on one side (10 o’clock in below first photo) and and hinge across from it (4 o’clock below first photo) The position of the collar is very important so the the bulb housing locks into place with the bulb in the right position. The black inner ring that is part of the bulb has two notches in it – one at 12 o’clock and another at 10 o’clock in below first photo. The collar has two small teeth that match those notches that are shown in the photo on either side of the letters PPA GF33. For reference, as seen in the below second photo, the plug is at 6 o’clock.



During my practice on the passenger side, I removed the collar without nothing the position of the teeth and notches and could not get the bulb to go back in. I didn’t note my error until I removed the driver side and saw the position. Once I had it correct, reinserting the bulb housing was a breeze in either side.

LILBENZ230

A sealed beam headlight is what was found on old cars. Where if the headlight went out, the entire unit had to be replaced. Like an old Nissan pickup or an old Jeep Wrangler.




Your ILS is not sealed beam and thus should be covered. MaxCare is one of the best extended warranties you can get, they should take care of you.

thefisch

Wow, I haven't seen a photo of one of those in a while. I guess I should have googled the term instead of assuming they were referring to the headlight assembly. Thanks for setting me straight.

Now I need to check for any other warranty items to get the most out of my deductible. I know the comand control knob no longer scrolls when rotating. I've been saving that repair since I really don't miss it and the DIY would cost less than the deductible.

KEY08

Well, hopefully your documentation of the bulb swap will help someone in the future. I hope the problem can be diagnosed quickly. Have you tried to clean the contacts in the connectors going to the headlight assembly? You probably have everything put back together and maybe this is not possible now. I usually open up these connectors and spray the pins with an good electrical cleaner just to make sure all contacts are functioning. Sometimes corrosion sets in to these connectors and things go bad.
Your insurance may indeed make the claim that these headlights are "sealed". I wish you the best of luck with getting this resolved. It is not common to have the headlight assembly fail, from what i have seen over the years.

The G Man

On a D1S xenon bulb, the igniter is housed inside the base of the bulb. The other possible faulty assemblies are the headlight assembly, the ballast, the headlight control module and maybe even the SAM. I am not sure how far you want to get into it, but it might be worth to try to swap the headlight assembly. Good Luck.

thefisch

That's a good tip. I didn't think of cleaning them, but I did check them to make sure they were properly seated and there were no external signs of corrosion or fraying. As you can see from the photos, the connector looks fine from the outside. Honestly, I couldn't even get the plug to come off when I tried on the passenger side with one hand. I thought I was pinching the tab on the bottom but it didn't budge when I tried pulled it back. I didn't want to do any further damage with my brute strength.

Thanks for confirming the igniter is built in. I thought that might be the case from the look of it, but this is my first car with xenon. If the headlight assembly was easy to remove from up top I would be fine switching the units just to see how they work afterwards. But from what I've seen, that involves dropping the bumper, grill, etc. which is it little beyond my comfort zone especially since I am hoping the warranty will cover it. Those parts you mention should justify paying my deductible.

thefisch

Took it into CarMax today for warranty diagnosis. Mechanic found that 'headlight leveling motor' was not working on the driver side. They believe that is the source of the creaking sound I was hearing. They also believe that because the motor could not adjust the headlight insert into low beam mode that it would cut off power to the headlamp as a precaution. That's how they explained it could remain in high beam mode but turn off after the motor cycled in low beam mode. Not so safe if you were driving at night and lost your headlight. But keep in mind this diagnosis is coming from CarMax not MB.

Fortunately, this repair (along with the comand knob) was approved by the warranty MaxCare. Service rep said the comand knob was $260 for the part from MB but, get this, the headlight motor was $2,500. No way that is right. Even he said that has to be more than a motor for that cost. Heck even a headlight assembly from MB is only $1,400-1,500. I hope they get the right part and don't waste my time.

Unfortunately, since it is at CarMax it will take longer to get work done as they won't have the parts until tomorrow instead of beginning today. And the loaner car under warranty is via Enterprise. I ended up with a 2016 Altima 3.5SL which isn't bad. It's got some newer features since it's a 2016 so I should be fine until tomorrow. Sadly, I won't see my car until maybe Thursday or Friday.

KEY08

Good deal, fisch. I'm sure you are getting a whole new light assembly, and the $2,500 includes the labor. The bumper needs to come off I believe.

The G Man

Who knew a CarMax warranty would come thru

jahquan3

That's awesome based on the alternative. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

FYI - Great write up for future reference @Thefisch

thefisch

Well I will keep you all posted. Still have my fingers crossed about the actual cost to me, other potential issues, quality of work, etc.

One plus on the Altima is it does have integrated remote start using the key fob. That is a first time feature for me and might make my list of cool features for the next car. I like to blast the seats with cold air before getting in. One minus is the CVT transmission on this car. It was smoother on my Prius IIRC. This one seems to jump around to find the right ratio too much. And it has paddle shifters on a CVT which just seems strange to me.

This Florida heat makes me miss my tint and vented seats already. Remote start on my MB would up my 'no back sweat' game.

jahquan3

LOL

Sometimes having to deal with another car makes you appreciate yours so much more. A friend of mine has a brand new Cruze and I swear even the most standard type of cars come with all kinds of gizmos now a day.

The G Man

I would hope a Altima would make the OP appreciate his E550

thefisch

For sure I do miss my car. There is really no point in comparing the two.

However, I have owned Hondas and Toyotas in the past so it's interesting to spend some time in a Nissan. The Altima is not a bad car if you're in the market for an Accord, Camry or Optima. The fact that these non-luxury cars have some cool features to play with is fun though. It's nice to see those features trickle down to cheaper cars even if the implementation of those features is somewhat basic.

While I do want to get my car back, I have to say that I am enjoying this Altima a little more than the 2015 C250 loaner I had a while back.