Auto levelling lights slow to adjust

[mpowered5]

Hey just curious is anyone else has had this issues.
I don't often drive the x5 at night. But was picking up a friend on a fairly hilly rural road over the weekend
As went up and down some hills it was Almost scary at times how slow it seemed the headlights reacted to move up/down as the elevation changed.
It almost left me in the dark a few times. Even my passenger who tagged along made a comment about it.

I had an issue with my e46 with the auto levelling system. The bar/sensor which if I remember was under the car around the sway bars was broken and they would almost be permanently pointed 10' in front of the car at the ground.

Do the f15 xenons work the same way? I wouldn't mind trying to diagnose this myself before bmw Has it and has to replicate this during day light hours.
Is there anywhere to manually adjust the sensitivity of them?

Thanks.

[sj22]

I have noticed this too, no error codes ever, not sure how to diagnose.

[CatalinP]

Auto levelling is used to compensate for car load, not road.

[mpowered5]

Sorry, I guess my wording is wrong. What I'm referring to is the adaptive headlights.

[tntp]

Originally Posted by CatalinP

Auto levelling is used to compensate for car load, not road.

I think this is about the headlights, not the X5 air-suspension. The OP headlights can compensate (within a narrow limit) for certain uphill/downhill roads or the car load imbalance. I think the Xeon ones may not react fast enough compared to the LED

[CatalinP]

Adaptive headlights (LED or Xenon) swing left or right to follow the road, basis the steering angle sensor, not up and down. It would be difficult for the car to predict if the road ahead will go up or down before the car starts to pitch...

[mpowered5]

Im a little confused now. The way I worded it, I understand , i was incorrect.
But that doesn't erase the fact when I go up a hill the lights aren't following me they just seem like they are lazy.

I'll try to get a little more seat time at night and see if I can better describe the issue.
I drive my e46 with xenons daily on a very hilly road and I don't get left in the dark the way I have been with the x5.

Thanks for the input from everyone though. I appreciate it.

[mkdan2004]

I do not think they are supposed to auto-adjust when you go uphill or downhill. This is what the user manual says:
Self-leveling headlights
The self-leveling headlights compensate for acceleration and braking operations in order not to blind the oncoming traffic and to achieve optimum illumination of the roadway.

I have LEDs and never noticed any issues when going up or down on a steep hill but i cannot say anything regarding the Xenons.

[TOPEC]

read here for more info, take this with a grain of salt tho as this section seems to copied from the e86 chassis section, but is also found under f15 when searched

https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/a/en/f...odule/Aj05ieCq

OP, do u have the headlight switch at the "A(auto)" position or do u have it at the "on" position. these fancy functions only work when the switch is turned to the "A" position.

Left and right headlights
The bi‐xenon headlights with automatic headlight beam throw adjustment are standard equipment. Light is generated by an ellipsoid reflector with a 70-mm lens for the following lighting functions:

Low-beam headlights
High beam
Headlight courtesy delay feature
Adaptive Headlight (optional equipment)

The following additional lighting functions are available in conjunction with the Adaptive Headlight:

Variable light distribution (depending on the national-market version):
City light distribution
Country road light distribution
Motorway light distribution
Fog light distribution
Adaptive headlight beam throw adjustment
Cornering light (via a separate reflector)

The cornering light is coupled to the Adaptive Headlight. Instead of the high-beam headlight, the headlight with a cornering light has a fixed additional reflector with an H3 bulb.

Adaptive headlight beam throw adjustment

The adaptive headlight beam throw adjustment is employed when driving through dips and over crests. In accordance with a request from the footwell module (FRM), the headlight driver module activates the swivel module via the stepper motors and in this way adjusts the headlight beam throw.

When the vehicle passes through a dip, the headlight beam throw is increased. The swivel module is moved up slightly. The roadway is illuminated a greater distance ahead.
When the vehicle passes over a crest, the headlight beam throw is reduced somewhat. The swivel module is moved down slightly. This reduces dazzling effect of an oncoming vehicle.

Swivel module

The reflector of the bi-xenon headlight is integrated in the swivel module. The swivel module is horizontally and vertically adjustable via 2 stepper motors (horizontal: to the left and right for the Adaptive Headlight; vertical: up and down for the automatic headlight beam throw adjustment). The stepper motors are activated by the headlight driver module. The footwell module specifies the activation via a message on the LIN bus.

[mpowered5]

Thanks for the link, it sheds some light.(hah) on the issue.

I have a bad habit from owning older BMWs to manually turn the lights on and off myself. So at night I would just turn them to the ON position. Not Auto. I always figured I don't need the headlights turning on and off un necessarily. I'll try leaving it in A and see if it changes anything.

the pictures of the adaptive headlights explain it much better. But like I had mentioned, even my passenger had commented on why my lights were so low. So maybe there is an issue with the functioning of them. I will keep an eye on it. Still under warranty until April 2019 and with winter approaching I'll be seeing some more night time driving

Also, How would I know if my car has the VLD option coded? When I ran the vin it says
Variable Light Distribution is
De-coded. I'm guessing that means they were coded out when delivered? I have the bimmercode app I just never got around to playing with the VLD option yet.

[sj22]

OP I think its by design. Compared to my 7 series and 5 series both of which had adaptive head lights, the X5 is very to react on bendy turns. The previous cars would move the light far left (aiming for middle of road) as soon as I was on a slight turn left and I think thats what its supposed to do. I am not sure if it does it when going up or down. The X5 is often very slow at this predictive turning business.

I do have variable lighting distribution coded, but that does not fix what you are seeing. It is a euro-spec setting and is not default in North America. It requires esys and VO coding.

Try this: park close to a walk. Turn car off lights off, and turn them on. You will see it auto adjust. Thats the sign that auto adjustment is working atleast. Now can't test this really on the road, but that would be the first thing I would check.

[TOPEC]

to my knowledge the car only goes through the auto adjustment range upon initial start up, with or without the headlights on. if the engine is already running, turning the lights off and back to auto will not instate the adjustment sequence again.