Adaptive Headlight Failure Message

Mophead

Mophead

Site Supporter
Joined
Apr 10, 2017
Messages
555
Location
Texas panhandle
Bike
FJR1300
Gonna try for some wisdom from BMW riders on this forum. Around sunup, sundown, or very cloudy day, I get this message:
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Took bike to OKC dealer and they could not find the error code. I got the message three times on the way to OKC and once coming back toward home. It got very cloudy around Weatherford and the message popped up again.
Dealer says they have never seen that message on any other bikes and visiting BMW sport touring no one there has either. I really don't care if the headlight doesn't turn around corners since we have about 4 curves in the Panhandle and I don't ride at night unless necessary. I would like to rid the bike of the message that keeps popping up. What's strange is that while riding the bike in good daylight the message does not pop up. If the message pops up around dawn I will cancel it with the wonder wheel. Stopping the bike after good daylight and restarting the message does not pop up or show up in the message column. Then about 30/45 minutes before sunset it will start appearing again.
Maybe the bike is haunted.
I did try covering the headlight with a towel to recreate darkness and could not get the message to appear. Just some Redneck troubleshooting.

Has anyone ran into this message before? If so, a resolution?
 
Sorry I’m no help. I have owned a 2016 RT and now have a 1250GS and have never seen that code and have not read about anyone having any issues until now. Good luck and sorry I couldn’t be of assistance.
 
Only thing I found was (I assume) your other post on the BMWLT forum, and one on ADVRider. They claimed it was solved by doing a hard reset (disconnect negative terminal, wait a minute, reconnect).

I don't know if I allowed to share a link - but Mellow will delete it if needed. He lives for this stuff, right? ;)

LINK

Ryan

*EDIT TO ADD*, I don't know the age of your battery, but I do know that all the newer "fancy" cars with computers running everything get glitchy if the battery is at all dying. I mean, still starts the car and everything, but will start having random errors and failures. Might be worth load testing the battery if you haven't yet.
 
Does a GS911 offer any assistance?
If you don't have one, might shout out on the other forums to see if someone has one and a spare VIN.
Particularly since your dealer seems unable / unwilling to pursue the issue. One would think they could ping the Mothership for help.
 
I do have the GS911. The failure message did show up on it so I cleared the code hoping this would stop the message from coming back. It did not. I got the message three times going over to OKC dealer so it should have been back in the code log. They could not find anything. All they found was a recall note to update the software which they did.
Really my only reason for solving this is to keep the little warning triangle from being on the display. It is the warning thing and if I get used to seeing the warning thingy then if something really goes wrong I would probably just dismiss.
It's strange that the adaptive headlight failure only pops up during dawn, dusk, or very cloudy conditions. Normal light will not make the message pop up and if I stop the bike, ignition off, and restart there is no message and no warning light. Like it never happened.
 
Mellow said:
He has... this is a very rare issue and nothing a dealer has found yet.
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He said he posted his q in one forum - BMW sport touring. I saw at least 4 others, not counting the Adv riders group - a lot of whom have GS's.

Besides that, why not just phone a highly regarded BMW dealership like Max BMW in New Hampshire? I test rode an ST1300 there and was impressed by everybody's friendliness. Back around 2013 it had a great reputation.
 
Mophead said:
It's strange that the adaptive headlight failure only pops up during dawn, dusk, or very cloudy conditions. Normal light will not make the message pop up and if I stop the bike, ignition off, and restart there is no message and no warning light. Like it never happened.
Click to expand...
Does your bike have a photocell like a lot of newer cars? On our Toyota, low beams come on at dusk - they are brighter than running lights when the light switch is turned to 'auto'. That might explain the warning at dusk.
 
Well if you have to bring it back to Okc, I am only about 5 miles away from Eurotech. You have a place to stay if needed. Or go get meal.
 
I think I would be more concerned than you, but that's just me.
In the UK, if this message showed at test time it would fail, or at least that's my understanding.
Plus what if you want to sell the bike on, I wouldn't be comfortable buying a bike with a fault. Why wud ya, there's plenty more.
Unfortunately it's common place on modern vehicles of all types, that faults can show and the dealers haven't got a clue.
Upt.
 
Tom, completely agree with ignoring. Bike runs great and the failure message is zapped at the wonder wheel. Obo found a thread I had not seen. Another guy on BMW Sport touring asked some buddies and had a guy with the same thing and no fix for him also. At least some backup so folks don't think I am crazy. Well on that item anyway.
 
Mophead said:
I did try covering the headlight with a towel to recreate darkness and could not get the message to appear.
Click to expand...
That it only comes out at night (dawn/dusk/etc) seems to indicate there's some photoelectric activity involved and that's the only time there's a problem. You've been riding when the message appears and presumably have noticed no problems with your lighting. Your use case makes it easy to ignore. I'd be more annoyed/curious than concerned - my riding habits being similar.
 
Sorry if I missed it, but what model/year are you having the issue with? I have a 2020 R1250 GS Adventure with an adaptive light.

What I know... There is a photocell in my TFT that determines the amount of sunlight and turns the headlight on at dusk or cloudiness depending on the amount of ambient light which would correlate to the timing of your error.

What I surmise... These bikes are incredibly sensitive to battery voltage level and even a slight drop in voltage throws various error messages. I had a few different ones myself. Even though the battery I had in it appeared good, once I replaced it all of the weird gremlins went away completely. I replaced the old battery with a NOCO lithium which seems to produce more CCA and the voltage rarely dips below 14.3 v. I do know that the starter does spin faster with the new battery. You might want to try a new battery. Of course, YMMV.
 
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