someone has stolen my wheel arch access cover

Or needed work after a bit of a bump in a previous life?

realoem.com and VIN might help with bits etc and how it hangs together.

If you can isolate the problem, there's always the odd bmw breakers around....

Won't left and right go to the same place?
Does the left behave if test rigged with what right gets?
vice versa?

If you have halogen then you may be interested that there's been a few threads on here of folk having moved to LED bulbs, the point of light origin on LED seems to be pretty close to the original halogen...

 

I had what sounds similar replaced on my F30, garage told me it’s a little plastic part which helps aim the headlights and it has snapped, cost around £123 inc fitting.

 

 

Hi guys,
Thanks for the responses so far.
I'm 100% certain the headlamp is mechanically fine as I checked the linkage and its all good.

I made up a test rig using 2 small 12v bulbs and connected them in place of the windings on both the nearside and offside.

With the car off, on the bad side one bulb was off (0v across it) and the other one glowed faintly with 0.9v across it
On the good side both bulbs glowed faintly.
When the car was started the good side did a bright blip of both bulbs (assume this is the sequence to move the motors).
I couldn't see the other side as I had no assistant so will redo this tonight.
The 2 sides are independently driven.

I'm 100% certain its whatever drives the motor on the nearside. I need your help with a wiring diagram. Do these 4 wires connect to the FEM or another module inbetween?
Any info gratefully received. I've downloaded INPA however waiting on building an ENET cable before I can see if it helps me out.

 

Few here

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=b...u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi-x4rjurrZAhWMHsAKHdXjApYQsAQIJg&biw=1600&bih=765

 

Mentions FEM, Yay!

 

Well yesterday while having a good google I found this great site below which basically shows everything you need from an electrical point of view.

https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/a/en/...g-functional-info/body/lighting/manual-headlight-beam-throw-adjustment/FpUSHuMu

This confirms the 4 motor wires go straight to the FEM on A173*4B pins 49 to 52.

I'm going to dismantle the FEM tonight and see if there is any reworkable circuitry on there which has failed.

 

Well yesterday while having a good google I found this great site below which basically shows everything you need from an electrical point of view.

newTIS

This confirms the 4 motor wires go straight to the FEM on A173*4B pins 49 to 52.

I'm going to dismantle the FEM tonight and see if there is any reworkable circuitry on there which has failed.

Would you believe it.... Bmw closed this site address.... Wow I have this problem and there's no doubt that this would of helped me!

 

Have a good look at the wiring behind the headlamp, the wiring comes out the headlamp and loops down and is “known” to rub on the inner wheel arch liner, usually noticeable with a green patch on the wiring

Never seen a FEM fault because of this

 

Well I sorted this.

There are 4 wires feeding the levelling motor. These 4 wires go back to pins 49-52 on the FEM connector 4B
I unplugged both the headlamp and the FEM plug. Bridged the 4 wires on the FEM plug together and went back to the headlamp plug. 3 were making connection but the 4th wasn't.

Brown/Blue was completely open circuit.

A few inches away from the plug the loom is clipped to a metal bracket and just to the side of this there was the faintest green staining.

I cut the loom insulation back with a scalpel and when I pulled the brown blue wire it just fell apart!

Quick repair on the wire, insulation and heatshrink, self amalg tape and its working a treat!

Thanks to 330d above for the suggestion. Without that info I would have never thought to inspect the loom in that area.

 

Hi guys,

Sorry to bring this back to life.. same problem here.

Can I ask where the broken wires were?Headlights side, or FEM? And which side headlight, because both mine are dead -.-

Problem fixed.

I went back to the mechanic and suggested looking for a wiring fault behind the headlights. Lo and behold broken wires were found and all is fixed.

Thank you 330d uk for you advice.

Max

 

Sorry to hijack this thread and bring it back to life : My car is BMW 320D 2013 F30

I have a similar problem, my lights do not auto level at all at ingnition , and I am getting the "headlight vertical aim control failure" error on te dash. This problem seemed intermittant at first now becoming permanent.

I also have the the basic halogen model, which I presume means these are not adaptive headlights? I have checked the wireing inside the headlights by removing the top screw off lid and all seems fine, the stepper motors are both connected fine (are these replaceable or built in to the headligh unit)?. I have read about the levelling sensors/rod in the wheel arch becoming disconnected? is this mechanism present in the halogen headlights?, see the link below as it only mentions this in the xenon and adaptive lighting systems.

RealOEM.com - Online BMW Parts Catalog

Can anyone suggests as diagnostics to try.

Many thanks

Max

 

Have a read of the last two posts?? it tells you where to look and what to look for

it’s getting quite common

 

Thank you. Its being looked at by a friend this week, at least he has something to go on.

Will keep you posted.

 

Just back from a diagnostic at the garage,

They say the harness behind the headlights look fine, however were confused as they thought this car should have had the self levelling sensors in the wheel arhes but it doesnt so I presume the headlights are just manual halogens with manual leveeling via the switch on the dash?

One thing they did say that is was very wet behind where the harnes lies.

Still stuck with the error headlight vertical aim control failure

Cheers

Max

 

Problem fixed.

I went back to the mechanic and suggested looking for a wiring fault behind the headlights. Lo and behold broken wires were found and all is fixed.

Thank you 330d uk for you advice.

Max

 

Hi,
Sorry I've not had notifications turned on for this so forgot about it totally.
The wiring damage was behind the wheel arch liner in close proximity to the access cover to change the bulbs.
Remove the access cover from the arch liner and feel the loom - it makes contact with the arch liner just below and this probably rubs the wire away.
This must be a more common issue than first thought. You can get away with removing the arch liner screws near the bumper edge and wedging it away to carry out the work.

I couldn't believe it until I saw it myself - the most faintest of green staining on the loom wrap.

 

Hi AndyMartin,

at first sorry for my english but I guess you can understand me I think, I am on the same boat, F30 2014 just halogens lights and vertical aim failure on my F30 somethimes shows sometime not but lights are always in different vertical position - Left and Right are never on the same height. Everythink looks like its the same issue as you had but I am not sure wich cables do you think, please could you explain it little bit more or mark on screen? I have only this one connector on my headlights, is that one where I have to trace the wires and find broken one? Example screen:

These are random screen from internet (i dont have garage and now is in my country littble bit cold to spent a lot of time outside...)

 

headlight issue

Hi andy like yourself i had the same issue with my bmw headlights and narrowed it down to faulty wires i have now replaced these cables and can get my headlights moving up and down. now the issue i have is after a few times going up or down they freeze and i get the same headlight vertical aim issue on my check control it goes away if i restart ignition but i move it a few times it comes back do you have any idea what this could be thanks.

 

Hey,

I have found a blog related to this, it could give you the answer you are looking for
https://xenons4u.co.uk/blog/bmw-headlight-vertical-aim-control-failure/

 

not sure if this has been mentioned or is any relevance
i have a F30 LCI 2015 - got this error on my dash
turns out tire pressures caused the issue - had a slow puncture but kept topping tire up with air - eventually had a replacement tire and the warning went away

 

Have a 318d se 2012 swapped out the halogen lights for aftermarket LEDs M4 style lights but still have error messages from the old unit that failed ie vertical aim control and sidelight malfunction which was on drivers side so it still thinks the old lights are still in. Does anyone know what software/procedure is best to clear these messages? It pings and displays these messages every time I start and stop the engine/ignition........ The new lights are fully operational, auto aligned and passed through MOT no problem just the old messages are annoying and need to be cleared.

 

hello Thank you for your post.

where is this located in the car please There are 4 wires feeding the levelling motor. These 4 wires go back to pins 49-52 on the FEM connector 4B

where do I find the pins 49-52 on the FEM connector 4B.

is this located in the engine, in the interior of the car or in the boot

Thank you

 

I'm having a similar issue with my f31 halogens but both headlights do the normal start up routine and i have no warning lights but the vertical aim adjuster by the headlight switch doesn't do anything... could it be the switch?

 

Just had this fixed by BMW.

Intermittent fault on the dash. In the dark, I could see the lights trying to change height and then falling. When I start the car, they would move through the full range of motion. No problem.

BMW diagnosed and fixed by using the following parts:

37.14.6.870.000 949234/Level Sensor
37.14.6.797.817 949234/REGULAT.ROD
07.14.7.575.163 Nut
07.12.9.904.491 949234/Screw

£101.23 + VAT

My failed unit was the front left.

 

Hello, did you find out solution

 

Another +1 from me.

Had this on my fairly low tech F31 (as in a basic model) had the error and O/S lamp stopped dancing on startup. My car doesn’t have any self levelling sensors etc. unravelled look behind drivers from inner arch and found chafing to some core in the loom. Just happened to be the wires for vertical aim, a pair twisted together. Spliced in new, protected the loom and re routed slightly so wasn’t touching arch liner and all good….

 

So I've got this error, however both my headlamps arent adjusting. Is it likely to be the wiring or something else?