Bad headlight indicator (Xenon)

[solanog]

My father's X5 has Xenon lights installed, they are original BMW installed at the dealer. When lights are on it works O.K but when they are off a chime sounds and the bad headlight lights come on on the dash.
Why is this happening, headlights are working fine.

[325isBaby]

If the vehicle didn't originally come with Xenon Headlights (even if they are installed at the dealer) this will happen...the reason is on the Halogen system the vehicle tries to do a "cold check" on the bulbs, since the Xenon is totally different the car thinks the bulb is bad when it tries to do the "cold check"

[solanog]

I noticed, under the hood, the car has a small bulb on each side. It is connected to a pair of wires and when lights are on this bulbs also turn on and bad indicator lights go off as if everything is O.K. It seems to me that they were installed to fool the system so it detects a working headlight.
So, if they can "emulate" bulbs when the lights are on, why won't they work when lights are off?

Thanks

[LOS]

Solanog, what year is the X5?

Most of us in the 5 series forum have upgraded our lighting to xenon type. We do get the error you're talking about. The reason is because the regular lights use more power while xenon headlights draw less current/power. If it bothers you that much, bavauto.com has a kit (two resistors) for $120 to takes care of this issue.
LOS

[solanog]

It's a 2002 or 2003.