I purchased a 2013 Clubbie S about three weeks ago and noticed an issue with the front driver's side head light when we were driving it back home. From a car in front of the Clubbie, the driver's light is much brighter than the passenger's side. Flipping the high beams on will brighten the passenger's and dims the passenger's when turned back to normal, but the driver's side will stay on the high beam.

I took it to the dealer to have them look at it and after two days (who knows if what they did in that time), they said that it is working normally. I checked it out that night and it did look to me like there was an aperture that was closing and opening on both sides when flipping from highs to lows. Also, when on low, there is a focus line where the light appears to be shaded on the high side. Pardon my explanation as the operation of Xenon's is new to me.

After seeing this, I had thought that they were operating correctly since the car had sat a few months before I bought it and the battery had drained. I figured the MINI tech had played around with it a bit and got something unstuck that was stuck. A few days ago, my son drove it into a parking lot while I was waiting on him and I noticed that the driver's light was much brighter even from about a football field away.

Anyone have any idea why this is happening? Are there special procedures for troubleshooting these headlights? I did do a search in the forum, but didn't find a whole lot that was helpful.

Thanks.

 

Perhaps the drivers side headlight is aiming too high, that can be adjusted using screws on the side of the headlight. Check out this thread for how you can adjust the height. https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...djustment.html

The way I understand these bi-xenon headlamps is that there's one xenon bulb and a flap that covers half of the beam to produce your low beams. When you flip on the high beams that flap is electronically actuated and moved to show the rest of the light. I wonder what the service dept did to troubleshoot the issue and verify that they were working ok.

 

3lusive,

I'll have a look at the aim over the weekend. Are there general guidelines as to where to aim them? Like, say, at a ten foot distance, the low beams should focus at three feet off the road, etc. (I have absolutely no clue, so those figures may sound ridiculous)

 

You can try this: http://www.wikihow.com/Adjust-Car-Headlights

I've never done it myself either so I can't say if that's accurate