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The lamp is sealed, but its opening turned out to be relatively easy. I slipped a rounded knife between the plastic parts of the housing and moved it along the circumference with the glue relieving the two parts without any breakage. The interior looked grim. One of the standlight capacitor tabs was detached from the capacitor and from the PCB board. Prior to breaking off the board, that tab seems to have corroded through. One connection between the two sides of the PCB was also corroded through and not connecting. Signs of corrosion were evident in different places. The basic issue was that, while a soldermask was applied, there was no coating of any sort applied thereafter - all solder joints and component terminals were left exposed.
After I fixed everything, I could see that the circuitry operated fine when immersed under water. Still coating is needed to ensure durability. I thought that the sealed housing was there to protect the interior, but apparently water has no problem getting in. In addition the capacitor tabs seem to be too feeble to hold the capacitor in long term under typical bike conditions. I expected better from B&M. I will be applying coating before putting the lamp together.
That's a shame. I've heard other stories of B&M headlights not being sealed well. For a society that tends to use their bikes in all sorts of weather, it is odd that their German customers haven't demanded better quality.
Any chance that you've got pictures of the board or the failure?? I'm always curious about this stuff.
A bit of conformal coating on the board and solder joints can only help. Maybe a bit of RTV to seal up the housing will help too?
Steve in Peoria