[CptSumTingWong]

I got the adaptive headlight broken warning light, scanned the car and got both 9CBD and 9CBE "Communication with step motor controller on left (and right) disrupted" Tried looking around but most people are reporting only 1 code at a time and to replace the AHL Module 63127189312.

I doubt both my adaptive headlight modules on both lights went out at the same time, not sure if there's something else i need to be checking?

On startup it does do a vertical movement to check the height of the headlights. It doesn't do any left right movement, but i don't think it normally does a left right check on startup?

Using protools trying to activate the lights to move left right just gives an error saying it can't accomplish the task.

It has been raining the last few days but there's no moisture in the headlight housing and it just popped up today.

[ky0u]

Did you recently do any work on the car?
You can try a soft reset by unplugging the battery (-) for a few minutes and see if that works

[CptSumTingWong]

Originally Posted by ky0u

Did you recently do any work on the car?
You can try a soft reset by unplugging the battery (-) for a few minutes and see if that works

No recent work. I'll try a soft reset see if it helps

[crashoverride]

These fail so often that they stopped using motors and now just have a light come on. The caps that go on the back of the headlight are supposed to keep the moisture out. They can both crack and the foam loses it's springiness compromising the water tightness especially when door is opened to replace light bulbs. Sadly those motors are Vin coded to your car and have to be recoded if replacing. Alas it appears you now have a new warning light to look at on your daily commute.

[CptSumTingWong]

Originally Posted by crashoverride

These fail so often that they stopped using motors and now just have a light come on. The caps that go on the back of the headlight are supposed to keep the moisture out. They can both crack and the foam loses it's springiness compromising the water tightness especially when door is opened to replace light bulbs. Sadly those motors are Vin coded to your car and have to be recoded if replacing. Alas it appears you now have a new warning light to look at on your daily commute.

Yeah, I'll probably just code out the adaptive headlight feature if I can't figure it out or it's too expensive to fix.

Don't think it's moisture though the headlights are completely dry inside and highly doubt they would both go out at the exact same time from moisture in each individual headlight housing

[crashoverride]

Sadly when one goes they both go. As in they talk to each other. When the one broken is fixed they both fix.

[sabino56]

You may not see moisture in the headlight. The module is placed such that it’s a low point and water gets into it. It’s not too hard to check. Remove the front inner fender and you can see it, remove it and check. Also can see the cover to check if it’s ok.

On this part, I bought a vaico and it’s been fine for many years since

[sgm330xi]

I had the same codes on my 2006 330xi with adaptive lights and hope this helps someone researching this issue in the future. My passenger side headlight was stuck looking right and would only auto level up and down a bit on start up. No movement left or right.

In my case the drivers side seemed fine. I pulled both lights out to inspect for physical and water damage.

None of the sockets that control vertical and side motion were out of place but water poured out the passenger side light. The passenger side SMC was fried with water in the connection. The car can throw codes for both headlights even if one is completely fine.

I ordered a cheap replacement SMC module that was delivered overnight and used Protool app to code it. It took 2 attempts to code the passenger SMC for some reason, but after the second attempt the passenger headlight was back to normal with both codes cleared.