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Low beam replacement -lc
Posted: Thu May 26, 2016 2:12 am
by PatriotBMW
Omg I have spent an hour trying to get the low beam bulb replaced. What are the tips/secrets? I can't get the clutch side pin to release, the brake side was easy. I tried from the front, the left, the right, reaching from the back, nothing.... What a poor design on such on incredible bike!
Re: Low beam replacement -lc
Posted: Thu May 26, 2016 2:16 am
by BMVay
Removing the Horn with bracket helps... Cheers
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Re: Low beam replacement -lc
Posted: Thu May 26, 2016 7:05 am
by JayBees7
Welcome to the ultimate headlight struggle this has been a major thorn in what should be an easy to service task. You can bet BM use a special tool for this and charge a silly price. Just another stupid design flaw from a repair point of view. But have to agree it is an incredible machine.
Re: Low beam replacement -lc
Posted: Thu May 26, 2016 1:23 pm
by aweight
At the risk of teaching anyone to suck eggs -
Sit in front of the bike - I use an upturned bucket, legs either side of the front wheel,
Reach up with preferred hand and twist the cover plate to remove (clockwise as you are looking at it)
Feel for the connector and removing by pulling it away from you, try and tuck it to one side
feel for the bulb holder, it's thin wire and has two looped/rounded ends, when located one at a time pull towards you with one finger and move away from the bulb - do both sides then fld back the wire retianer - again away from you.
retrieve bulb - noting the orientation of the locating tab when you can see it.
Hold new bulb in same orientation and looking through the headlight guide the bulb into the holder ( a light source on the back side of the headlight assembly helps
Replace wire holder - fold towards you and clip into place - reverse the unclipping instructions
Replace cap
Hope this helps
Re: Low beam replacement -lc
Posted: Thu May 26, 2016 5:55 pm
by MacJ
aweight wrote:
At the risk of teaching anyone to suck eggs -
Sit in front of the bike - I use an upturned bucket, legs either side of the front wheel,
Reach up with preferred hand and twist the cover plate to remove (clockwise as you are looking at it)
Feel for the connector and removing by pulling it away from you, try and tuck it to one side
feel for the bulb holder, it's thin wire and has two looped/rounded ends, when located one at a time pull towards you with one finger and move away from the bulb - do both sides then fld back the wire retianer - again away from you.
retrieve bulb - noting the orientation of the locating tab when you can see it.
Hold new bulb in same orientation and looking through the headlight guide the bulb into the holder ( a light source on the back side of the headlight assembly helps
Replace wire holder - fold towards you and clip into place - reverse the unclipping instructions
Replace cap
Hope this helps
You missed out the bit about retrieving the wire clip after the bit of plastic holding it in snaps off! Oh and then removing the whole light unit to replace the clip. Lol :-X
Re: Low beam replacement -lc
Posted: Thu May 26, 2016 5:59 pm
by Bertie
Easy enough but only if it was! When mine went recently, I positioned myself as suggested. All went well until it came to the brake side clip, it took me about 20 mins fiddling with increasingly sore fingers before it released. While I had the bulb out I practiced both sides and they went in place 1st try. Put the bulb in and the clutch side went straight on but it took me another 20 mins before I could get the brake side in.I have fitted a Philips long life bulb from PowerBulbs claimed by Philips to last 4x longer, hoping I may not have to repeat the exercise any time soon.We will see!
Re: Low beam replacement -lc
Posted: Fri May 27, 2016 2:35 am
by PatriotBMW
I finally got the other side off, positioned as mentioned above. However, the brake side wire must be distorted (hence so hard to get off) and I couldn't get it back on. Grabbed a cleaning rod for a rifle, snipped the end off the patch attachment (so now it's a "u" shape), positioned a flashlight pointing up on the fender, centered the steering and was able to reach the wire and it was still difficult to get back in but it's done. I'm keeping that rod and attachment to do this in the future! What a pain!
Re: Low beam replacement -lc
Posted: Fri May 27, 2016 3:17 pm
by aweight
I have learnt the hard way - once dropped an LED light tail into the headlight - short of turning the bike upside down to get it out had to remove all the front end fairing/etc to remove the headlight
The wire does get distorted, in my case either it splayed out and needs to be bent back in or I flattened it by trying to mistakenly hook the loop bit under the tang rather than the flat wire near the loop - the effect bows the wire up so that you cant engage it under the tang - bit of hand reshaping and all is well