[HumanSkunk]

I need to chase my local dealer as my right light is just getting worse, they authorised the repair but it's gone quiet.

Fog is now pretty much over the entire light god knows what it is like driving at my car at night as my guess the moisture is causing the beam pattern to fire all over the the place. No one seems to be flashing me yet...

Luckily I still have 2 more years of warranty so hopefully BMW will figure it all out by then. It is a bit of a joke.

[wb8164]

It certainly isn't a great look for BMW as a Company. If someone sees a nice new/newer BMW in a car park/parking lot and then sees two headlights that look like terrariums, they have to wonder what's going on. I know that if I were in the market for a new car and saw this, it would raise some red flags.

I'm touching wood. I had my headlights replaced last year and they've been solid since........

[AlexTokarev]

Hi guys. I'll tell you how I solved the problem with condensation in the headlights on the bmw g42. I want to apologize for my English right away. I write through Google Translate. I'm from Russia, and as you've probably heard, we don't officially have BMWs anymore. I bought my BMW 230 at an auction of broken cars from the USA. My car had some minor damage on the front, so I had to buy headlights. Both headlights most likely arrived in Russia after a warranty replacement in Europe. That is, I assume that they also had a defect from the factory, then they were exchanged for good headlights. And these headlights were illegally sold to the secondary market of spare parts. But this is just my guess, based on the experience of restoring broken cars in Eastern Europe.
I took my headlights off the car and started checking for leaks. I sealed all the holes with paper tape and started pumping them with air using a compressor. I applied a soap solution (liquid soap + water) to all joints and seams. So I found 3 micro cracks on the glass. They were located in places where the factory sealant was applied in smaller quantities than on the rest of the headlight.
I took a special tool for gluing plastic. It is called "dichloroethane glue" (it may be called something else in your country). And I poured this glue into the cracks. Then I moved the glass around these cracks a bit to let the glue get into the crack. After that, I covered the taped areas with a special sealant for car headlights.
Now my headlights are fine and they don't sweat anymore.

As a result, I can name two main reasons for the ingress of water condensate into the headlight on the G42: 1) a factory defect in the application of sealant (the thickness of the sealant layer is uneven, in some places it is very small) 2) There is no damper between the bumper and the headlight glass. Any impact of the bumper on the curb or pit will cause microcracks on the headlights.

[wb8164]

Alex, That's a pretty nice piece of detective work. Thanks for sharing your findings.

[JoeyJoeJo]

Originally Posted by AlexTokarev

Hi guys. I'll tell you how I solved the problem with condensation in the headlights on the bmw g42.

Very nice, thanks for sharing!

Probaly the best first post ever

[ClarkyM]

Originally Posted by AlexTokarev

Hi guys. I'll tell you how I solved the problem with condensation in the headlights on the bmw g42. I want to apologize for my English right away. I write through Google Translate. I'm from Russia, and as you've probably heard, we don't officially have BMWs anymore. I bought my BMW 230 at an auction of broken cars from the USA. My car had some minor damage on the front, so I had to buy headlights. Both headlights most likely arrived in Russia after a warranty replacement in Europe. That is, I assume that they also had a defect from the factory, then they were exchanged for good headlights. And these headlights were illegally sold to the secondary market of spare parts. But this is just my guess, based on the experience of restoring broken cars in Eastern Europe.
I took my headlights off the car and started checking for leaks. I sealed all the holes with paper tape and started pumping them with air using a compressor. I applied a soap solution (liquid soap + water) to all joints and seams. So I found 3 micro cracks on the glass. They were located in places where the factory sealant was applied in smaller quantities than on the rest of the headlight.
I took a special tool for gluing plastic. It is called "dichloroethane glue" (it may be called something else in your country). And I poured this glue into the cracks. Then I moved the glass around these cracks a bit to let the glue get into the crack. After that, I covered the taped areas with a special sealant for car headlights.
Now my headlights are fine and they don't sweat anymore.

As a result, I can name [...]

Thank you Alex! Very comprehensive hopefully someone at BMW is watching this thread and is an easy fix from a manufacturing perspective. And that they can get around to fixing this before we are all out of warrenty cover either through a general recall and dealer fix ie top up sealant or as they break and a replacement!

The fact alone there is no damper between the headlight and bumper and as I’m sure in most countries pot holes especially in the winter are plentiful this will keep on happening again and again!

[DrewM2K]

Originally Posted by jammy8911

Have you got an update with your vehicle in regards to the beam pattern? I have the exact same issue, my vehicle went in for a replacement headlight due to condensation, it then came back to me with a complete joke of a dipped & full beam pattern so I took it back and they've now had it for 2 weeks with no update other than they are having a 'back and fourth with BMW about the issue'.

The last I heard BMW wanted them to take a photo of my vehicles dipped & full beam and then a photo of another G42's dipped & full beam and send it off to them. Do BMW UK seriously not have access to vehicles to complete that kind of testing themselves?

Car was back in to sort beam pattern… and it’s not gone well at all.

They kept my car overnight and one of the techs took my car home at night and advised they could find no fault.

It’s laughable as several friends have been in car and have burst out laughing at how bad it is… I now have a ‘bong’ car. Both BMW and dealership have zero interest in acknowledging issue and fixing it.

My last avenue will be seeing if I can find detailed instructions for adjusting the headlights for the exact model - x meters from wall, marching target points an wall e.t.c

If I can’t find that, I all ready have appointment to test drive 2 new cars on Saturday. Not a BMW and not Arnold Clark.

[AlexTokarev]

Originally Posted by ClarkyM

Thank you Alex! Very comprehensive hopefully someone at BMW is watching this thread and is an easy fix from a manufacturing perspective. And that they can get around to fixing this before we are all out of warrenty cover either through a general recall and dealer fix ie top up sealant or as they break and a replacement!

The fact alone there is no damper between the headlight and bumper and as I’m sure in most countries pot holes especially in the winter are plentiful this will keep on happening again and again!

Thanks! I totally agree. Based on what I've seen, this problem is going to happen all the time. From the point of view of the factory, it is impossible to add sealant, there is only an option with the release of a new improved batch of headlights. But we can already see that the design of the headlights on the new g42 lci has not changed. Their contact with the bumper is exactly the same.
Unfortunately, BMW owners in Russia currently lack support from the official BMW representative office. We will manage on our own.

[jammy8911]

Originally Posted by DrewM2K

Car was back in to sort beam pattern… and it’s not gone well at all.

They kept my car overnight and one of the techs took my car home at night and advised they could find no fault.

It’s laughable as several friends have been in car and have burst out laughing at how bad it is… I now have a ‘bong’ car. Both BMW and dealership have zero interest in acknowledging issue and fixing it.

My last avenue will be seeing if I can find detailed instructions for adjusting the headlights for the exact model - x meters from wall, marching target points an wall e.t.c

If I can’t find that, I all ready have appointment to test drive 2 new cars on Saturday. Not a BMW and not Arnold Clark.

Mine is finally sorted after 4 workshop visits over almost a month. Its had 2 realignments, 2 reprograms & beta firmware for the headlights. The pattern is certainly different to the older headlights but apparently all replacement headlights for the G42 are different now, this has come from BMW directly I got shown the email. There is still a missing part of the beam in the middle when on high beam & you are close to an object but as soon as the vehicle is more than 10m or so away it closes up.

If you post a picture of what yours look like I could try and let you know if mine looks the same so you know if thats just the new norm or there is still an issue?

[Pentland]

Originally Posted by jammy8911

Mine is finally sorted after 4 workshop visits over almost a month. Its had 2 realignments, 2 reprograms & beta firmware for the headlights. The pattern is certainly different to the older headlights but apparently all replacement headlights for the G42 are different now, this has come from BMW directly I got shown the email. There is still a missing part of the beam in the middle when on high beam & you are close to an object but as soon as the vehicle is more than 10m or so away it closes up.

If you post a picture of what yours look like I could try and let you know if mine looks the same so you know if thats just the new norm or there is still an issue?

There is a gap between beam patterns on high beam.

Someone did post a picture previously but you’ll need to search for it.

[jammy8911]

Originally Posted by Pentland

There is a gap between beam patterns on high beam.

Someone did post a picture previously but you’ll need to search for it.

Yeah, my point was that this is only on the newer headlights that are being put in as replacements. This was never the case on my old headlights, nor on my previous G42. It seems BMW have revised either the headlights themselves, the firmware controlling the beam or both.

Additionally the high beam is now not a straight square, it follows the pattern of the dipped beam along the bottom edge which leaves a very minor dark line between the dipped & high beam from left to right. Again this was 100% not the case on previous headlights/G42's.

[Pentland]

Originally Posted by jammy8911

Yeah, my point was that this is only on the newer headlights that are being put in as replacements. This was never the case on my old headlights, nor on my previous G42. It seems BMW have revised either the headlights themselves, the firmware controlling the beam or both.

Additionally the high beam is now not a straight square, it follows the pattern of the dipped beam along the bottom edge which leaves a very minor dark line between the dipped & high beam from left to right. Again this was 100% not the case on previous headlights/G42's.

It’s not the lights. It’s a software upgrade

[jammy8911]

Originally Posted by Pentland

It’s not the lights. It’s a software upgrade

A poster earlier in this thread mentioned the headlights showed a later revision number on the sticker so it could well be both, not just software.

[Pentland]

Originally Posted by jammy8911

A poster earlier in this thread mentioned the headlights showed a later revision number on the sticker so it could well be both, not just software.

Can guarantee it’s not. I’ve had one headlight changed. If it was a design change, you’d get an offset of some sort.

[Winrya]

My m240 had the headlights swapped due to condensation and the beam was all over the place afterwards. Had them adjusted and sorted but never seemed as good as before. Swapped to a g87 m2 recently and as suspected the lights are fantastic again. I was also never happy with the fit and alignment of the bumper/bonnet afterwards.

Id have stuck with the condensation in hindsight