BMW 320d (F30) Fuse for Headlamp Main Beam.

BMW 320d (F30) Fuse for Headlamp Main Beam.

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Discussion

Locknut

Original Poster:

653 posts

144 months

Tuesday 15th July 2014
quotequote all
I have posted this query in the BMW section and not got any replies, so I will copy it in here and see if anybody knows the answer.

I have just got a BMW F30 and have not done any night driving in it yet. However I see on other forums that the headlamp main beam is supposed to be very poor and some people have recommended fitting 65W bulbs to compensate. I know these can't be used legally on the roads, however I decided to check the fuses to see if the system is strong enough for extra load.

The information given with the car consists of tables of fuses on a card located in the rear fuse box. It is only slightly better than useless. It seems from this table that there are four fuses related to the lighting system. Two of them are located in the front fuse box located under the bonnet on the bulkhead, and two are in the rear fuse box located under the carpet in the boot. The values are as follows:

Front F/box:
Fuse 40 - 15Amp
Fuse 57 - 40Amp

Rear F/box:
Fuse 100 - 15Amp
Fuse 161 - 20Amp

Does anybody know which specific fuse covers the headlamp main beams? Also, would the fitting of non standard bulbs (for off-road use wink ) effect other systems such as bulb-fail warning or the canbus system?

Doctor Volt

336 posts

132 months

Wednesday 16th July 2014
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If you uprate the bulbs there is a very good chance you will have problems with the bulb failure circuit, the bulb failure circuit monitors the current draw and in upping the current draw it will receive information that it does not expect to and will possibly fail or illuminate the bulb failure light on the dash

S7Paul

2,103 posts

241 months

Thursday 17th July 2014
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If I were you I'd try driving the car at night first. I've got an F30 and main beam seems fine (and I've only got the bog standard headlights).

Locknut

Original Poster:

653 posts

144 months

Friday 18th July 2014
quotequote all
Thanks Paul, I agree with you. However around here at this time of year it does not get properly dark until after I get home.

I saw some reference to poor main beams on other forums and I became worried after I examined the lights. Almost half of the reflector is cut away to make room for the daylight running lights and the parking light bulb is located in the remaining part of the reflector. So the reflector is seriously compromised which seems to be bad design, here are two pics which show it better than I can write it (sorry the reflections interfere with the quality):