Help with aftermarket headlight issue

[eggman51]

Hi Folks,

I have a 2006 Z4M Roadster with Xenon lights. I really wanted black housing on the headlights, and one of my ballasts died, so I decided to purchase some headlights from Umnitza. I will hold off on expressing my experience with them as a vendor until the issue I have encountered is resolved (one way or another).

I bought their ProjectorZ4 headlights, which are Spyder headlights, custom ordered with a Bi-Xenon projector, Orion v2 RGB Angel Eyes, and LED high beam bulbs, assembled by Umnitza. I had these installed by my mechanic. There are some issues.

At first when the headlights were installed ALL the bulbs in the headlamp assembly lit up regardless of the light switch position - parking lights, low beam, high beam, turn signals. Effectively everything was set as the DRL. This was not the case with my factory headlights, so I am assuming this is not the LCM.

I was able to use iCarly to set the DRLs to just be the low beam lamps, so at least the car can be driven at night (it was not safe to drive with the high beams on all the time). And at least the programming of the lights was effective, so at least that is known to be working correctly.

However, when the light switch is in the parking lights position (position 1), or the fully on position (position 2), all the bulbs in the housing are lit up. The bi-xenon high beams are not operable, using the high beam switch does nothing with the bi-xenon "shutter".

I needed to get the car out of my reputable indy's shop so I took it home as it was.

I am going to try and get some help from Umnitza, and possibly from my mechanic, but I am wondering if anyone here has encountered anything like this and can provide some guidance or troubleshooting tips.

Thank you
Eamonn aka eggman

[RossBMWZseries]

Ümnitza... ohh where to start...

I’m a 3 time buyer from this company. Had their headlights on my Z3, then bought headlights multicolored halos for my Z4, then a different set (non multi colored) for the Z4. I think this last set was Orion V2, or whichever has the 120 LED’s on each halo.

I can’t emphasize enough on how HORRIBLE Umnitza’s service is, but just know you’re wasting your time trying to contact them. When you call and place your order (or even if submitted online), they don’t pay attention to detail as to what you order in your lights. Once you get your lights at home, you realize how bad they mess up; either your turn signals aren’t LED’s as you ordered and paid more $ for or the wiring is somehow not correct. Matt and everyone else there really don’t care even if you’re a 3 time customer. They talk amongst each other while they have you on hold and you can literally hear them talking $hi+ about customers. Matt even talked about me to one of his workers while I could hear everything, and he knew I could hear him as he acknowledged.


A friend of mine and I installed this last set but the high beams wouldn’t come on. The technician apparently always does this incorrectly. I took my car to an electrician that opened a shop for custom tail/headlights here locally. He saved my lights. For $30, he rewired the back of the headlights and made the shutter work properly when flashing the stalk into high beams. Before this electrician fixed this issue, Matt from umnitza wanted pictures of how everything was wired to see if the mistake was on my end or theirs. After countless pictures and contact with them, they admitted their tech made a mistake and asked me to ship them my headlights and I’d have to pay for shipping. That’s when I found this other electrician and luckily I didn’t have to deal with umnitza any longer.

The lights look good, but I’ll never do business with umnitza ever again due to Their lack of attention to detail, lack of professionalism and lack of respect. Not worth it!

[eggman51]

At this stage I am regretting the purchase. They asked me to drive 800 miles down to their shop so they could install them properly because they think my local shop don't know what they are doing.

I'm ~ 1 year new to this car and as a result had to shop around a bit for an indy I liked, but my experiences have all been excellent with my chosen shop The Speed Syndicate. I've had quite a bit of work done by them on the car and never had a problem until I asked them to install these Umnitza lights.

I am able to control DRL settings via Carly. I can get each individual bulb to come on based on the DRL config I set in Carly, so this gives me hope. But I am supposed to have Bi Xenon and LED high beams and the high beam stalk does not control either of these.

[RossBMWZseries]

Yea I live in Deep South Texas and they asked me to drive all the way to their shop as well, yea right! They like to place blame on Indy shops but can’t accept responsibility themselves. You probably DO have bi xenons but the shutter isn’t being activated. The electrician that fixed my lights had to swap around some of Umnitza’s wiring behind the relay of the lights, not sure which wires. As for the LED high beams, I ordered the same and they sent me halogen bulbs. I complained so they sent me LED bulbs that didn’t even fit in the housing. And to be honest, the LED high beam bulbs looked crappy. Autozone’s bulbs look a lot better.

[nate96]

I purchased a used set from RossBMWZseries. I had to rewire it to get them to work properly or at least how I wanted. I was also able to get the quad hi beam functioning and with just the Halo on as DRL. I know I wrote everything down when I did it but that was almost a year ago. I'll have a look to see if I still have it though.

[eggman51]

That would be super helpful Nate.. sounds like our setups and intentions are the same. Thanks.

[RossBMWZseries]

Originally Posted by nate96

I purchased a used set from RossBMWZseries. I had to rewire it to get them to work properly or at least how I wanted. I was also able to get the quad hi beam functioning and with just the Halo on as DRL. I know I wrote everything down when I did it but that was almost a year ago. I'll have a look to see if I still have it though.

I'm glad you were able to figure that out Nate! I gave up with Umnitza at that point and never used the high beams.

[nate96]

I found the crude sketches I had and just used paint so you see what needs to be done. These may not be 100% accurate but should give you an idea on what needs to be done.

On the ones that I had when you pulled the stalk for high beams it activated the relay turning off the low beams and created a short from the low beam side to the side lights which is shown in the first sketch. The second sketch is how I wired mine and they are working.

I used the eyebrow connection for the halo. I forget what the RT113 connection is.

[eggman51]

Brilliant! Thank you!

[Huz-Z]

Originally Posted by nate96

I purchased a used set from RossBMWZseries. I had to rewire it to get them to work properly or at least how I wanted. I was also able to get the quad hi beam functioning and with just the Halo on as DRL. I know I wrote everything down when I did it but that was almost a year ago. I'll have a look to see if I still have it though.

That should be programmable if you select the US spec DRL. My car was imported from the US and before it was shipped to Canada, I had a BMW dealer in Florida program the seat memory positions to each key, the doors to lock at 10 mph, and set up the daytime running lights (DRL). However, instead of picking the Canadian setting where the main headlights come on with the headlight switch OFF, they selected the US setting where the halos are on with the headlight switch OFF.

[MPowerZ32]

OP, I had the Spyder headlights on my Z4M that I sold a while back. The set was not customized so the high beams were the inner lights. It's been a while and my memory isn't fresh on this. But I had similar issues with high beam always on. It turned out the light's internal modules were compatible with European non-xenon pre-face lift models. I had to code with BMW coding tool to such mode to get the lights to be fully operable with the light switch. It took me weeks of head scratching. But after the coding all worked perfectly with the light switch. I was also able to quick flash the inner highbeam with the turn signal stalk.

Check out https://www.bimmergeeks.net/downloads . They package all the coding tools in a simple download. The tools are in German. So i had to look at a bunch of tutorials. But nothing too difficult to use.

[Track_junky]

I have the same exact issue right now, i bought new headlights from vipmotoz,.
thought they are designed as a replacement to my factory zenon lights still they are NOT a direct replacement although its mentioned in his ebay listing.
I tried communicating with and still he dodges the question on how to rectify the fault of the product. i need anyone to advise me what to do and how this rewiring can be done

[Talcas]

Originally Posted by MPowerZ32

OP, I had the Spyder headlights on my Z4M that I sold a while back. The set was not customized so the high beams were the inner lights. It's been a while and my memory isn't fresh on this. But I had similar issues with high beam always on. It turned out the light's internal modules were compatible with European non-xenon pre-face lift models. I had to code with BMW coding tool to such mode to get the lights to be fully operable with the light switch. It took me weeks of head scratching. But after the coding all worked perfectly with the light switch. I was also able to quick flash the inner highbeam with the turn signal stalk.

Check out https://www.bimmergeeks.net/downloads . They package all the coding tools in a simple download. The tools are in German. So i had to look at a bunch of tutorials. But nothing too difficult to use.

MPowerZ32 - I know this is two years old now but I have the same issue with the high beams always on. Do you have any idea what coding you had to change and to what?

[Piper1]

Funny I just come across this. I got my spyder headlights years ago now from roadster solution. The ONLY issue I have is the passenger turn throws a code as if the bulb's bad so right side gets rapid flashing when using the turn signal. Clear the code and first time you use the right turn it'll come back. ALL lights work so I've just lived with the code and rapid flash. I've swapped driver side bulb with passenger and there's been no change.

[loukywells]

Did you ever find a solution for this? My high beams stay on all the time, but temporarily disconnected them so I could drive it. Spyder is trying to locate a solution. I had to purchase another complete headlight set (which did the exact same thing) and they tried to forward more relay's, which they sent the wrong ones.

Originally Posted by Piper1

Funny I just come across this. I got my spyder headlights years ago now from roadster solution. The ONLY issue I have is the passenger turn throws a code as if the bulb's bad so right side gets rapid flashing when using the turn signal. Clear the code and first time you use the right turn it'll come back. ALL lights work so I've just lived with the code and rapid flash. I've swapped driver side bulb with passenger and there's been no change.

[Beedub]

i tinted the whole lot using a 3d scanner, put it on my machines and actually cut it out of tinted PPF. looks so cool! If you want to see my z4 with these fitted go to the Last 20 seconds of this video, inch perfect machine cut corners, total PITA to fit however.

[tomjonesBT33]

Originally Posted by Piper1

Funny I just come across this. I got my spyder headlights years ago now from roadster solution. The ONLY issue I have is the passenger turn throws a code as if the bulb's bad so right side gets rapid flashing when using the turn signal. Clear the code and first time you use the right turn it'll come back. ALL lights work so I've just lived with the code and rapid flash. I've swapped driver side bulb with passenger and there's been no change.

Originally Posted by loukywells

Did you ever find a solution for this? My high beams stay on all the time, but temporarily disconnected them so I could drive it. Spyder is trying to locate a solution. I had to purchase another complete headlight set (which did the exact same thing) and they tried to forward more relay's, which they sent the wrong ones

I recently bought a Z4MR that has SONAR lights which are the original manufacturer of the Spyder lights. Had the same issue that high beams were always on. I fixed mine a couple of weeks ago by rewiring the lights similar to the post by Nate above (though I had not seen his post until today).

The relay is not wired properly for our cars. If you use a multimeter you can map out the function for each of the connectors on the OEM side of the 8-pin block connector and which colors these correspond to on the aftermarket side. You'll see that the 12V lead for high beams is red on the Spyder side. Then look at the port the red is connected to in the relay. It's never triggered by the control signal. The low beams are…

I ended rewiring such that my low beams are always on (if the lights are on) and the high beams come on with the stalk pushed forward as you'd expect. So my high beam setting has all 4 headlights lit up. If you want the high to only have the two inner lights on and the outer lights off, you would need to add an additional relay in the mix.

I'll try to get a picture of how I rewired things sometime soon.

[jp_haus]

Hi All, I recently purchased a z4 with the Sonar headlights already installed. Currently have rapid flashing on the passenger side but hazards flash at a normal pace. Investigating the issue further after fresh bulbs didn't work, I found that both connections to my harness has corrosion and has a couple of the pins even chipped away a bit. Not having much luck finding either the male or the female connection piece to swap out. The plan would be to snip off and crimp the new connector piece in so I have a fresh connection point.

Will this work? Any advice on this or direction to finding either side connection?
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