Team-BHP - BMW 5-Series, Inner projectors

Hello All,

I am a new owner of a 530d and have noticed that the inner projectors (the ones that are towards the grille) in both the headlamp clusters don't work. I thought they are for the high beam but I was wrong as they always stay non illuminated.

Though I read over some international forums about the same thing and found out that they are the cornering lamps and light up on two occassions

A) when you turn the car provided the correct indicator is on.

B) when you reverse the car during night to show you the sides.

I tried this experiment in my car but nothing really happened. :deadhorse

Can the fellow Bimmer owners please throw some light on this ? Even the owners of 3 Series and other BMW models equipped with Xenons can participate in this discussion as they also have these "Dead/Dummy lights"

MODS : please put this thread in to the relevant category if I have used the wrong section.

Oh interesting. Then I am sure they are practically dead-bulbs :-) We don't adaptive headlamps in India so I guess the bulb does not do much if it is only meant for cornering. It is definitely not high-beam because the car has bi-xenons.

This sounds like one of those things where the car has all the hardware for adaptive headlamps but disabled by the program? Such things are very common in VW vehicles and people have activated such features by tweaking the program.

So in summary, it looks to be just a dummy bulb.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Berry (Post 2662286)

A) when you turn the car provided the correct indicator is on...

I tried this experiment in my car but nothing really happened.

You need to be going at a minimum speed (i forget the exact value - 40km/h?) before these active cornering lights activate.

akshay1234 pointed this out to me, and i think its mentioned somewhere in my 530d review or the ensuing discussion : http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/offici...ve-review.html

cya
R

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rehaan (Post 2663068)

That was for the RS when we had met, don't think it was for this.

The Inner lights would be cornering lights which would light up one side, not the xenons which move into corners, these are supplementary lights. I'm not sure the 5 comes with them so they might just be dummies.

The inner lights have been deactivated for Indian market citing homologation laws. So they wont work in any BMW post 2007. Prior to that cars had normal halogen bulbs in the inner lights for high beams.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maverick5490 (Post 2663126)

Mav, just using the example of the 3 - I thought after the LCI all the cars stopped using the inner bulbs as hologen fillers for high beam.

Also does the 5 come with adaptive xenons? Quite silly to not offer it on the 3 considering its pretty much fully specced otherwise.

Quote:

Originally Posted by akshay1234 (Post 2663115)

That was for the RS when we had met, don't think it was for this.

Sorry - brainfart!! :Frustrati

No wonder i couldn't find it mentioned in the 530D review.

cya
R

So is there actually a way to activate these?

I had been wondering the same but yesterday a 520d passed me and I definitely saw all 4 projectors on for a few seconds (it was going very slowly).

I am sure they worked on my 2007 325i, but it had the halogen bulbs as high beam not xenons. Not sure about the newer F10 models.

Is there even any bulb present in the lights to use it by software coding?

Quote:

Originally Posted by akshay1234 (Post 2663115)

The Inner lights would be cornering lights which would light up one side, not the xenons which move into corners, these are supplementary lights. I'm not sure the 5 comes with them so they might just be dummies.

The inner projectors come on as corner lights? thats nice, does it give better light when taking corners?

Thanks..

Bumping a very old thread, but has anyone been able to install an additional light into that dummy stuff? Found some related stuff here "https://f15.bimmerpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1796997"