Strange behavior of my lightbulb?

[DanoG80Cx]

So I was driving home from work the other night and pulled up at a red light and noticed in my headlight reflection on the car in front of me that the inner most bulb to the grille had come on, the one next to the xenon. Now here is the odd part, my headlights were set to automatic and shortly after I noticed it it turned itself off...oh and it was only on the driver side.

same thing happened again the following day so I called my BMW dealer and asked them about it. they have no idea either so they asked me to bring it in for service.

anybody know what that light bulb even is for? from my understanding the daytime running lights only consist of the 2 halos and the led strip above them. ive tried flashing the high beams and turning them on, but thats not it either and the manual is rather vague...and most of all, why would only the driver side come on and turn itself off?

[1SerieStud]

Oh damn, not another one of these! Adaptive Headlight System.

[DanoG80Cx]

I did read the manual and if that's what was causing only 1 of the light bulbs to turn on, why wouldn't the service manager at my dealership be able to tell me that?

i also just double checked the manual "In tight curves such as on switchbacks or when turning, at speeds up to approx. 40 mph/70 km/h, an additional, cornering light is switched on that lights up the area inside the curve.". there is no additional information on this, when i noticed the light being on, i was not turning, but stopped at a red light. also, there is no description of this light, reading that, i would have thought it was talking about side markers or the amber corner lights not a light in almost the center of the car.

[1speedbike]

^The light also turns on if you have your turn signal on, anticipating a turn. It doesn't always do this for me, and I'm not sure how the car "calculates" when to do it, but I've had it come on from just turning my directional on. It's the light in the center of the inner corona rings. I know it turns on to illuminate what's ahead of you as the adaptive light swivels the low beam to light what's around the turn. Were you making a turn at the light?

[DanoG80Cx]

Originally Posted by 1speedbike

^The light also turns on if you have your turn signal on, anticipating a turn. It doesn't always do this for me, and I'm not sure how the car "calculates" when to do it, but I've had it come on from just turning my directional on. It's the light in the center of the inner corona rings. I know it turns on to illuminate what's ahead of you as the adaptive light swivels the low beam to light what's around the turn. Were you making a turn at the light?

I was, and that clears it all up. Cancelled my appointment. Thanks for the response.

[1speedbike]

No problem, glad I saved you a trip

[1SerieStud]

Originally Posted by Dano135i

why wouldn't the service manager at my dealership be able to tell me that?

This was going to be my question to you...time to change dealers. There are several circumstances under which your cornering lights turn on, and they have been covered so I don't want to be redundant.