Last night when I cranked up my bike to head home I got a lampf fault. It was dark and my dim was out. I drove to the nearest auto retail store (hopefully not blinding everyone with my high beam) and picked up a bulb. In the parking lot I was able to replace the bulb in about 5 minutes and no tools were needed. Man I love the maintenance on these bikes. Just thought I would share a good repair experience, Pfreak
Congratulations, but changing a light bulb is easy as pie, what took you so long? There's guys on here that can patch a tire in the mud and rain in less time that that.
And this year's award for "Biggest Debbie Downer" goes to this guy ^^^^^ OP, Im new to my BMW as well and I am pleased to hear first hand that these bikes aren't as scary as others would like you to believe. Thank you for sharing!
Someone once said "the GS eats headlight bulbs like popcorn"' and after owning one for over a year, I have to agree. Buy a two-pack of bulbs and keep one with the bike. One of two things will happen: Either you'll have a spare, or you'll never need to use it because you have a spare :)
I changed my bulbs when I first got my r1200gs for whiter light. Took about 5 minutes. Several months later one blew so went to change it, couldn't figure out for the life of me why it was takin so long to get the clip back in place, 45 minutes later... The next time I was at the dealer I asked them about it, they took one look and told me I cracked the housing near the screw and the part was $500 bucks. There are 3rd party fixes most people do to spare them the cost however. I told my dealer to try to warranty it, they said they could try but what usually happens is BMW requires the part be shipped to them, denies the claim, then destroys the part so the customer ends up eating the $500 plus installation $$$. I got lucky as the BMW rep who has authority to approve the warranty repair showed up at the dealer and OK'd mine, but the dealer said he had one three weeks prior that was denied.
That reflector plastic is brittle as hell. I broke both of my little retaining tits off :huh...ended up putting a big washer on that screw. IT IS very difficult to get a big hand in there without removing the headlight assemblt totally. Those "brighter" bulbs are known to burn out (break the filament) quicker. I've gone thru 3 sylvania ultra's in 2 weeks on my VFR. My answer was to convert to HID!
pfreak Glad you got it changed OK. Next time it happens, if you're not anywhere near a parts store, you can always use the bulb that's in the high beam housing, as opposed to blinding people with your high beam. (Also thereby doubling your chance of breaking off BMW's flimsy retainers by changing two bulbs.)
Had the same problem. I simply made a hinge out of some saftey wire and used the screw to hold it in place. Better then new and cost next to nothing.
After chasing that stupit f'n clip around inside the f'n light bucket, in the f'n dark with my f'n fat fingers, I made this mod.
+1 Great picture of the same fix I made. The stock part is worthless beyond belief and seems to be a cash cow designed into the bike.
"After chasing that stupit f'n clip around inside the f'n light bucket, in the f'n dark with my f'n fat fingers, I made this mod." I just pissed myself.
What exactly is the mod/fix? Putting a small washer under the screw? I had mine break too but the dealer replaced the housing under warranty.
Same mod here. It seemed it didn't matter what type of bulb I used, I had to replace it every 9-10K miles. I finally splurged on a thirty something dollar HID bulb upgrade last year, it has been around 5K miles, so far so good. Hopefully I won't have to mess with that damn clip for a few years.
Oh You're a F'ng Genius!! I'm going to the hw store tomorrow. I average 10K miles a bulb. I started buying the cheap ass nine dollar ones from the Suzuki store instead of the 25 the dealer was charging. Last just as long. The girlfriend and I on the way back from SC one summer both burned out bulbs so I got the sylvania high intensity in a pinch from autozone. I don't think we even got 5k miles out of those bulbs.
The higher the output on a H7, the shorter the life. I don't ride a lot in the dark here in TX, too many forest rats willing to shorten you ride. Lights on my motos are mainly for me to be seen. The standard H7 and a pair of H3 55w aux lights do this job nicely, I carry a spare of each. I have in a pinch, pulled my high beam out and stuck it in the low beam bucket until I could get to a replacement.
Damn, I have had 1 head light bulb fail (that i recall). WTF am i do'n wrong. several of bikes over 50k, a couple over 80k and 1 over 100k
