Dipped beam fault....

[sillybollox]

Help.
One of my dipped beam lights is not working properly, it is half as bright as it should be.
I used a volt meter to try and find the fault but it dosent make sense. The reading i got at the end of the wire (bulb side of the connector) was good but when connected to the bulb and reading off the blade of the bulb i can only see 5 volts?

[Brianmoooore]

Am I right in thinking this is a facelift car, built before '89? If so, you have the dim dip driving light feature that BMW introduced ahead of legislation that never happened, and a fault with this is probably causing your problem.
If you pull the headlamp switch out to the first position, the sidelights come on. If you now start the engine, do both the outer headlamps come on at this reduced brightness?
The power to the headlamp bulbs is reduced in this mode by a pair of resistors mounted at the front of the LH inner wing, and when you pull the headlamp switch fully out, the resistors are shorted out of circuit by a pair of yellow relays behind the LH corner of the glovebox. I suspect the cause of your problem lies with one of these relays.

[sillybollox]

Thanks Brian one of the relays had popped out, i always wondered what they were for.http://www.e30zone.net/modules/Forums/i ... iggrin.gif
By the way its a pre-face lift 1987 sport.

[Brianmoooore]

By the way its a pre-face lift 1987 sport.

With what type of headlamps?

[sillybollox]

Early, non smiley type

[Brianmoooore]

You must have one of those pre/post facelift hybrids where BMW were using up old type parts!