Dim low beams

My 1990 535i has the dimmest lowbeams. The high beams seem pretty normal, but the lows, yikes! I put new bulbs in the lows, almost now improvment resulted. I've soldered the cold joints on the LKM module relays. Everything works great except they are dangerously dim.

Any suggestions?

Hi brfrompa

Have you adjusted the beams to the correct height. If the beams are pointing too far down, the lights will seem extremely dimm....even if you look directly at them. The reflectors are designed for a narrow beam so that they don't blind the on-coming traffic.

Just a thought. Good Luck.
Ice

i agree with 'ice' and you also might check the voltage @ the lamps.......should be within about 0.5 volts of battery voltage......just to be sure the circuits are ok.

Thanks Ice and Jeffrey, I'll check both those things before i just hang some supplmental lighting on it.

I have a 1990 535i also, and have noticed the same thing. The high beams are super bright (almost as bright as the Hella H1 sealed beam headlights I used in my old BMW). I wouldn't say the low beams are DANGEROUSLY dim, but...they're pretty pathetic.

I'm thinking about upgrading to PIAA Xtreme whites anyway, but in the meantime, I've read that polishing the dust off the reflectors will help immensely. I've never disassembled the headlights on this car (although on my E28 5 Series the whole headlight assembly came out really easily). Has anyone done this or know if it will work?

I'll have to take a look and see what it would take to polish them. It makes sense that they are part of the problem. Thanks csieminski

while you can replace the bulbs, you can't 'polish' the reflectors as the lamp/lenses are sealed units....
IF properly aimed, the elipiziodal lenses are quite effective........AND use great caution with any type of higher wattage bulb as other damage may occur.

I'm sure they were great when new. I'm thinking voltage loss somewhere. They aren't white enough. Red shift and dim sure could be voltage loss.

They aren't "sealed beams" in the old sense of the word. I just put new bulbs in them, they pop'ed right out of the reflector/lense unit. I guess the reflector and lense are one piece? Oh <he reads the post again> i think that's exactly what you are saying !

my headlights look pretty standard for halogen bulbs. Perhaps theyre just not aimed right, as you said. When I drive with the fog lights on, the illumination of pavement near my car is more intense, and the area to the extreme right and left is illuminated as well.

As far as I know, the PIAA bulbs demand the same or less wattage than standard ones. I guess I'll order them sometime and have the aim checked after I put them in.

by all means, test the voltage [with the lamps on], to be sure........if you have a level surface about 30' from a wall you can check their aim yourself. with tires @ correct pressure and car loaded as you normally drive it, measure from the ground to lamp center, then mark the wall the same. do this at night as it's easier to see the beam pattern, the center of which should be just, just below your mark. you can 'eye-ball' the verticle aim by sight-lining rear to front up the trunk and hood seams. it's not perfect but will get you close............jb.

Thanks! I will try this, as soon as I find a nice wall. Also, do you agree with an above post that there's no way of polishing the reflectors? I know the H4/H1 lights on my E28 were sealed beams, but the low beams on my E34 seem like there's the assembly, complete with reflector, with the bulb fitted into it. I can already tell that it'll be a lot harder to remove the headlights from this car than from my old one (especially now that the hood opens forward), but I may be way off here in the first place.

Don't mind that!! YOU were the one who posted that they cannot be polished, so I'm testing your vast expertise against your own comment! Sorry.

there is a trick thats difficult to explain with only words to replacing the lenses AND i could try BUT ! ! ! in these posts, i've been assuming there are NO HOLES in the lenses and they haven't turned brown or are full of water...THIS HAPPENS.

No, there aren't any holes in the lenses, and they are definitely not brown or full of water. The bulbs themselves in the low beams are sort of dark colored, but I believe this is normal (when you look from a distance, the outside headlights appear silver-colored with darker gray centers)

i'll check 1 or 2 things and be back thurs'..........jb.

Thanks very much for your past help (and future advice).

A post on another thread directed me to bmwe34.net, where it was stated that you can also modify 9005 bulbs to fit the low beams' 9006 slots. I'm not sure whether or not using high beam bulbs in your low beams would be blinding to oncoming drivers, but since the beam pattern is different, hopefully not.

Anyway, I'll wait until I eventually get the PIAA Xtreme whites before trying this--plus I also want to order Stellar keyless entry (loved it in my 528e), and a performance chip, and also there's a large scratch on the pass. rear door (there when I bought the car) that will cost $650 to fix. There's never as much money as there are things to spend it on!

anything new on the low beams? My son's 90 is the worst I've ever seen. Even with new lamps.

Thanks
Brent