[dmmeys]

Hello all. I've had a trawl through the forum and generally online and I cannot find the info I need so posting here as new thread. If I have missed it please direct me to appropriate thread.. My issue. We have a 5 year old X1 we bought brand new from dealer in Edinburgh. Happy with car but developed a fault with front indicator last summer. Front left indicator bulb blown.. For whatever reason O/H left it months before booking into local Farmer garage to replace bulb. Did so in December and immediately on leaving garage failed again... I wasn't there so I have no real idea what they did and whether they ever actually put a new bulb in or just charged us and jiggled the old one about. Farmer held hands up and said beyond us gov.. speak to your dealer. Called dealer.. AHA.. we'll need £200 to do a diagnostic... Did that in December. Told that the indicator bulb simply hadn't been seated correctly and they'd fixed it by correctly seating it. Again, no idea if they actually replaced it as I wasn't present. Drove out of dealership.. immediately not working!! Drove back in to discuss.. Ahh.. Farmer have obviously broken the seating in the headlight and we'll need £1000 to replace it... Dealer washed hands and Farmer obviously shrugged and said Dealer was at it (don't disagree) BUT... I'm left with a non-working front left indicator which will probably cause an MOT failure in March. Makes a very quick sound internally when using. Usual double tick tick tick sound indicating a bulb has blown. All other bulbs working fine. Cannot find online how to get access to look at or replace bulbs in the F48 X1. Can't find it on this forum either... Saw a post with someone replacing bulbs with LED variants but they don't show how they got access... Can also find videos of older version which had access through a little flap in the front arch. Newer ones don't seem to.. Looks like there are 4 metal covers where the 4 bulb locations are when I lift bonnet up but I don't want to start mucking about blind... Anybody got any idea how I access? I want to go in to have a look myself at both to see if I can see a difference so I at least know whether anyone ever replaced a bulb or if I'm getting taken for a ride at Farmer or the dealer (or both!)...

[X1604M]

You will find the information in the manual. Both in the paper manual and BMW guide.

[dmmeys]

Thanks for your response. My car bears no resemblance to the manual... Tried to attach an extract from an F48 manual uploaded by another forum user but the forum is asking for an image URL to share and I have no idea how to do that! Whilst that manual is for a different market the instructions and imagery contained in my own hard copy in the glove box is the same. Happily explains to just access nice circular plastic covers and turn them to access the bulbs.. My vehicle has nothing of the sort.. Sealed light cluster and 4 aluminium castings strategically located where you might imagine bulbs could be. Secured with what looks like Torx screws.. Does anybody have any other information? I know they'd rather I pay the dealer to replace a £2 bulb but surely there is a way us mere mortals can access them? At the very least I'd like to check and see whether the dealer is right when they say Farmer may have damaged the fitting.. I've managed to find an image of an engine compartment the same as mine from an Autotrader post... It's the only way I could get the URL to share it!! In the image you can see the aluminium blocks on the light cluster... those are not even present in the manual! Had a look at my BMW order to see what code my lights were. All I can see is: S5A4A LED headlight with expanded content..

[X1604M]

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/134934471582...mis&media=COPY


Please have a look if that headlight is the same as you have. On photo no. 9 you can see the cover to the signal bulb.

I circled with the yellow marker.

[dmmeys]

Thanks X1604M. My apologies for the delay in replying.. I thought I'd set this up to notify me if anyone answered/ posted but apparently not!! The light cluster you show in the photo is the same as mine. I went back to my local Farmer Autocare and discussed it with them (before seeing your reply). They pointed out the access to the indicator bulb/ bulb holder which is exactly as your photo shows. Slightly convoluted doing it in the engine compartment but accessible if you take your time and have small enough hands. We took the lamp holder out with bulb attached./ Replaced bulb (even though it didn't look blown) and put it back in. It worked! Sadly only lasted for a couple of days. That tells me there is a connection issue either in the lamp holder or the headlight assembly (as numerous new bulbs are performing the same intermittent fault. MY next task is to swap the bulb/ bulb holders between left and right. If the fault moves to the right side it must be a fault with the lamp holder.. If it stays on the left it must be (god forbid!) a problem with the headlight cluster... That's how my simple mind is working it out at least. I presume I can find a new replacement lamp holder somewhere. There may be a parts code printed on it when I take it out. If so I'll share it here or share a photo of it if I can work out how to do that... PS: The guys at Farmer told me in no uncertain terms NOT to remove any of those cast aluminium covers as they protect electrics and do NOT provide access to the lamps.