High Beam "Holder"

[John Stewart]

This weekend I got the R1150RT running for the season and was working on replacing the high beam, which died last fall. This is my first time replacing this light on this model of bike; the low beam I did in the fall, but this is the first time I've tried replacing the high beam.

 

I got the unit out, and noticed that the black plastic piece which mates with the metal bracket seems like it's melted! I can't even get them to connect back together. Attaching a photo.

 

This is, uh, bad, right? And I need to buy a new part? I guess the bulb just got too hot at some point? It all seems very weird.

 

I can get the bulb itself anywhere, right? It's a standard "H3"?

[dirtrider]

Quote

 

This weekend I got the R1150RT running for the season and was working on replacing the high beam, which died last fall. This is my first time replacing this light on this model of bike; the low beam I did in the fall, but this is the first time I've tried replacing the high beam.

 

I got the unit out, and noticed that the black plastic piece which mates with the metal bracket seems like it's melted! I can't even get them to connect back together. Attaching a photo.

 

This is, uh, bad, right? And I need to buy a new part? I guess the bulb just got too hot at some point? It all seems very weird.

 

I can get the bulb itself anywhere, right? It's a standard "H3"?

 

Afternoon John

 

I don't believe that BMW services that part separately. You might try to file or grind that burnt blob off then see if you can salvage it. 

 

Otherwise maybe keep trying E-Bay to see if something pops up, or find a BMW breaking business to see if they can salvage you one.  

[RogerC60]

I went looking for that part when I was converting the high beam on my '03 R1150RT to LED. Oddly enough, the BMW parts fiche (on the MAX BMW website) doesn't even show the high beam bulb or holder for the R1150RT. But the K1200LT 99-04 appears to use the very same parts for its H3 high beam. MAX BMW Motorcycles - BMW Parts & Technical Diagrams - K1200LT 99-04 (89V3), look at diagram #63. I can't be sure it's exactly the same, but from the pictures it is very close.

 

Oh, and the diagram in the parts fiche seems to show them in the wrong order. The glass envelop of the H3 bulb should protrude through part #4, with part #3 fitting into the rear and holding the bulb in place and also holding the entire assembly in the headlamp housing.

[John Stewart]

Awesome; thank you @RogerC60. 

 

Also, can you tell me more about converting to LED? How'd you go about that (I actually have some H3 LEDs but haven't started tackling how I would mount).

[Lowndes]

The LED bulbs should fit just like the OEM bulb did.  They are "plug and play" now.  An H3 bulb base is an H3 bulb base.  Unless you have a canbus system there isn't anything else to do.  If you have a canbus system you buy a canbus compatible bulb. 

 

I've replaced all of the OEM incandesent bulbs on 4 BMW's, a Honda ST1300, and a Suzuki SV650S, from dash lights to headlights.  Fiddling with the BMW bulb mount clips is by far the most difficult part.

 

Suggestion on the LED bub purchasing and install, if I may:

 

https://www.superbrightleds.com/  has some very good info on LED's, types of bulb bases, on and on, plus very good bulbs.   And good customer service.  They also have a very good "BULB FINDER" that includes bikes:  https://www.superbrightleds.com/vehicle

 

For headlights, brake/tail lights, and turn signal bulbs, get the brightest, highest lumin-meter (lm) output you can find.  For brake/tail lights get RED LED bulbs, regardless of the lens cover color.  Likewise for the trun signals, get amber LED bulbs.

 

DO get the fan cooled LED headlight bulbs.  The non-fan cooled headlight LED bulbs don't last long inside the shell and behind a cover.  The fans last a long time.  Usually.  The fans have all fit under the OEM covers, even on the '00 K1200RS where I would have bet the house they wouldn't.  If you know the bulb (H3 and H7 for your '04 R1150RT) and you look at the H3 on Amazon, most will be sold in pairs for cars and the advertised lumins will be for the total of the pair.  It's good to have a spare anyway.  

 

Some LED bulbs have a small box on the wires.  Just put it inside the housing.

[John Stewart]

I think I put it in wrong.

[John Stewart]

So, this was me being a dumb*** and when I parked the bike the other night, I apparently didn't have the kickstand fully down, UGH. It fell into my other bike, the glass taking the bring (HECK of a sound!). The lights actually still work, amazingly.

 

I found a new headlight assembly on ebay... supposed to arrive this weekend. I'm now trying to find any instructions I can on how I might replace, but everything seems to be about the BULBS, not the glass/assembly itself. 

 

If anyone has suggestions on where to look, I'd appreciate it!

[Lowndes]

Clymer, #M503-3, page 664??

 

PM sent.

[BABABeemer]

On 4/14/2023 at 10:12 AM, John Stewart said:

So, this was me being a dumb*** and when I parked the bike the other night, I apparently didn't have the kickstand fully down, UGH. It fell into my other bike, the glass taking the bring (HECK of a sound!). The lights actually still work, amazingly.

 

I found a new headlight assembly on ebay... supposed to arrive this weekend. I'm now trying to find any instructions I can on how I might replace, but everything seems to be about the BULBS, not the glass/assembly itself. 

 

If anyone has suggestions on where to look, I'd appreciate it!

I hope you have better luck with your eBay buy than me. My replacement lense arrived broken! At least I got a refund. I think you have to pull the whole front fairing to replace the headlight. Good luck.

[RogerC60]

On 4/11/2023 at 5:28 PM, John Stewart said:

Awesome; thank you @RogerC60. 

 

Also, can you tell me more about converting to LED? How'd you go about that (I actually have some H3 LEDs but haven't started tackling how I would mount).

I found two kinds of LED H3 bulbs. One kind is the standard H3 form factor, but those bulbs are all intended for running light or fog light application and output 600 or so lumens at best, not enough to serve as a headlight. The other kind has sufficiently high output, but the back end is much larger than the standard H3 and won't fit into the high beam holder in your RT.

 

The plastic part of that holder has some cross members that hold the bulb up inside the metal part. It also has a metal strip that makes the ground connection between the bulb flange and the spring clip that secures the holder assembly into the headlight housing.

 

I dremel'd out the cross members so the larger LED H3 bulb would fit. I cut/bent/reshaped the metal ground strip so that it fit snug across the LED H3 bulb's base to secure it in the holder, and to provide the ground connection.

 

I'm typing this on my phone. I'll go grab a picture of the LED bulb I used and post it in a followup.

[RogerC60]

Here's a link to the H3 bulb on Amazon. Apparently it's no longer available, but this might give you some ideas.

VehiCode H3 LED Headlight Bulbs... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07P9Y6JP6

[John Stewart]

I finally had a chance to dig into this headlight replacement on Saturday. Took me all day, but I got it done!

 

It turned out I actually have a copy of the BMW official manual, which while definitely brief, was super-helpful, especially the diagrams.

 

For anyone who finds this thread in the future, the process is:

 

- Remove seat, tupperware, mirrors.

- Remove inner trim of fairing (I left it hooked up to cables and draped over handlebars).

- Remove windshield and unhook the windscreen adjuster (ditto).

- I took out the speaker boxes and left them out... I weighed and these came to 2.1kg (almost 5lbs). I didn't have the radio in anyway since I like to use that space as a glove box instead.

- Remove upper fairing. Once on the bench, this has the headlight in it and is easy enough to extract.

- Put it all back

 

I also used this as an opportunity to fix a big crack in the tupperware. This Plastifix works great for this; I've now repaired 3 cracks in the tupperware with this stuff.

 

It's been raining since Saturday so I've not had a chance to take a test ride, but I think it's gonna be good!