Full beams - life of their own?

Starfury wrote: OK tonight I happen to go check on my car and its locked and the lights are on (the main beams (outside pair) not the full beams). The controls for all lights are off and the ignition is off and the keys are nowhere near the ignition barrel.... wtf? Is this a known problem or is this a rare occurance?

A couple of things first:
1. There is a comfort option in all E46's where the lights can be left on for a short time to "get you in the door" so to speak. To operate it - turn off your lights, turn off the ignition and pull the stalk for "flasher". Get out of the car and lock it. The DIP or LOW beams will stay on for approx 60 seconds and then go off...
2. Ensure that this is not what is happening with your car.

To diagnose this you really need to interrogate what's commonly called the Light Control Module (LKM) or more correctly, in an E46, the Light Switching Centre.

Check for fault codes first - probably will not show any relevant codes to your problem. Then look at datastream values and check the relevant inputs, in particular the stalk positions and the rotary switch positions. If there is something showing faulty here then you have your culprit.

If that shows nothing wrong, then you are looking at an internal error with the LCM. This is the complete rotary switch assembly. They are coded & programmed with the car options, mileage & chassis number. You can buy a new one and get it coded by a dealer or get a secondhand one... Don't attempt to fit the s/h one yourself - you will have a clash with the cluster and the mileage and/or manipulation dot may change. Get a specialist with the correct equipment to do the job in that scenario. Dealers in my experience will not have anything to do with secondhand modules...

Regards,
BMWcare
bmwcare@eircom.net

OK tonight I happen to go check on my car and its locked and the lights are on (the main beams (outside pair) not the full beams). The controls for all lights are off and the ignition is off and the keys are nowhere near the ignition barrel.... wtf? Is this a known problem or is this a rare occurance?

Sounds like a loose connection at the bulb or at the stalk. I had a similar problem (high beams wouldn't come on or would turn on and off) on my old 1986 Patrol years ago and it turned out to be a loose wire at the stalk.

Just gone and driven the car again now and the last paragraph is all OK...