Updating Lighting on my Pre Facelift. Held off long enough. LCM 4, G4 Bi-Xenon, etc.

[philly98540]

I fixed attachments. Any suggestions on the boot?

[cnsorial]

I'd go with a 90 mm TRS boot and cut a little notch for the wire from the igniter. I bought 90 mm trs boots but haven't installed them yet. Waiting for xb35 bulbs to come in so I only have to take the headlight out once.


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[philly98540]

I bought the 90mm boots from TRS. Maybe they will do ok.

I was hoping someone that tried the oem hid boots would advise if they could be trimmed to fit good between the igniter and bulb and also be abe to fit the 90mm housing opening. I like OEM boots better.

[auaq]

I bought the 90mm boots from TRS. Maybe they will do ok.

I was hoping someone that tried the oem hid boots would advise if they could be trimmed to fit good between the igniter and bulb and also be abe to fit the 90mm housing opening. I like OEM boots better.

I think Paul used the OEM boot and had it trimmed slightly to fit good enough.

Still no success in thread revival yet?

[cnsorial]

I tried trimming my oem boots but just couldn't get them to fit around the bulb holder. They wouldn't stay put and eventually I ripped it trying to make it work. I think the trs boots with 1 small hole for the wire to pass through will actually seal better


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[Mpowered02]

I was planning on trying to make the boots from an E38 with Xenons work. They have a hole already for the wire and igniter. They look like this (I pulled these off at a pick-n-pull recently):




The opening is slightly smaller than the back of the E39 HL, but it should be able to fit the opening and seal well. The problem is, it doesn't look like BMW sells the boots separately. Based on the ETK, they only come as part of the E38 Xenon Ballasts. So, you'd either have to use the E38 ballasts, or pull them off and hope you can stretch the rubber enough to get them over the igniter. Not sure how well that would work since you'd likely tear the boot trying to get the igniter through that little hole...

[auaq]

Interesting.

[philly98540]

Yeah, a 90mm one of those should work pretty good. What dia is it? I could unpin the morimoto ignitor connector and fish the wire through that hole, then reconnect the connector.

[Mpowered02]

Good question...will run out and measure it's diameter real quick...

[cnsorial]

I like that boot a lot. Wth didn't e39s come with this?


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[Mpowered02]

Ok, so the E38 Xenon boots measure about 85-86mm in diameter ID, but thy definitely can stretch a little to fit over the E39 headlight opening. I test fitted them on my spare facelift headlights...






If you can unpin the Morimoto igniter safely then this might work for you. Just have to find em at a pick-n-pull and cut the ballast cable to get them off (what I did since I didn't want the ballasts)...

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I like that boot a lot. Wth didn't e39s come with this?

Right?! Not sure why they went with that weird boot that has a hole that seals with the back of the bulb carrier and leaves the igniter kinda exposed...

[philly98540]

Damn that things perfect! I see some part numbers on it. Any chance you caN post a pic of the part numbers. Maybe worth a Google search.

[auaq]

I like it, but what's the ID of the hole where the wire goes through?

[Mpowered02]

Damn that things perfect! I see some part numbers on it. Any chance you caN post a pic of the part numbers. Maybe worth a Google search.

Yeah, when I first picked them up (before the winter) I did a quick Google search on the numbers on there. Nothing came up at the time. But the Hella part number on the boot is 148765.00


Maybe you can try contacting Hella directly? Also, it's worth noting that during my regular jaunts over to the local pick-n-pulls I have come across a few VW's and Audi's that had similar boots on them...don't recall what models off the top of my head though...

I like it, but what's the ID of the hole where the wire goes through?

With the Igniter wire pulled out of there, I measured the hole at approx 8-9mm ID...

[philly98540]

Google came up blank on it. Pick N pull here I come... thanks for getting info!

[auaq]

I see. Fitment looks good around the igniter wire. This will help me by running G4's two wires and one side AE wires too and still have a good seal. Will have to look out for E38's at the local yards. Or any german cars.

[philly98540]

Some updates on facelifting the rear lights.

Smashed the light buckets with some wood scraps and a heavy hammer. I pretty much followed mattmarindrifts thread here, but used wood to reduce denting.: http://www.m5board.com/vbulletin/e39...lasts-diy.html

Basically the facelift Celis lights are deeper in the brake bulb area (lower/outer), so you have to move the prefacelift metal light buckets inward in the lower outer zones. I would bang some, test fit, and then bang some more till I got a good fit. You really have to hit it pretty hard, so its a bit disconcerting actually. New lower bolt holes (I used a step drill, but forgot how big I went) need to be drilled 20mm below the original holes. After bashing and smoothing things out, the paint was chipping off in spots, so I sanded and added a couple coats of Rustoleum topside marine paint. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Its all hidden, so I did not care on the finish and that paint is very durable and will prevent rust. It dries very slow, so I had some work lights pointed at the buckets to dry it overnight.

20170425_183649_1493295232865_resized (1).jpg


The Celis light sealing gasket does not match perfectly at the two outer rectangular holes, so it wont seal perfectly as is. No threads mention this that I saw, but I think there a good chance to get some leaks and it needs to be addressed. I added a perimeter seal of butyl cord sealant to the foam gasket across the top and sides to improve things. After getting the sealant where I wanted it and fully stuck to the foam, I added a thin layer of silicone grease to the light buckets where the butyl will sit. This prevents the butyl from sticking to the car, so the light can be removed later. I can't see this leaking now. Sorry forgot pics on this.

Here are the facelift left and right wiring connectors connected to the prefacelift wiring. I got the facelift connectors with the lights I bought, so this made things easier. I got copies of the WDS (wiring diagrams) for pre and post facelift to confirm everything, but basically all the colors match right up exact. The only difference is the facelift light uses one less tail light wire, so these wires are just capped and not used.


Prefacelift taillight wiring

Tail Lights.pdf



Facelift- you can see pins 5 and 13 are no longer used. So those wires get capped.

Tail Lights Facelift.pdf


I did not post the wiring diagrams for the brakes, turns, and reverse light as they all just match up.



Left side connector. Grey/Green wire is unused and capped. All others match up.

20170424_203635_1493295234890_resized (1).jpg


Right side- White/Brown not used.

20170424_211719_1493295233154_resized (1).jpg


After testing, I finished off the wiring by wrapping with tape. The lights worked perfectly on first try, but I got an error as expected for "check tail lights". More later on the programming.

[philly98540]

Next I fired up PA Soft 1.4 to do some programming to prevent the "check tail lights" error message. I turned off cold check, hot check, and BC messages for tail lights in the coding section for the LCM (I wont get into details of setting of PA Soft, as there are other threads on this). After the change, the error message goes away. This pic below is what shows up when you go to the coding section of PA Soft when you have an LCM 4. I don't fully understand what the PWM value is for if you running incandescent bulbs. Is it just ignored? I'm a bit lost as the bulbs all look normal brightness.

LCM Config.jpg


After clearing all errors, I still see an error in the LCM. I think this is because I no longer have that extra tail light bulb connected, but Im not sure?? The Celis light only has the single tail light wire in use. This LCM is from an X5, so the lighting config must be a little different. The error does not show up on the cluster, just here.

LCM Faults.jpg


All lights work as they should, but this makes me think this LCM is not configured for the LED tail light option. I cannot see anywhere is PA Soft to config for this, so I think I may need to use NCS expert to set this. Anyone know? I was trying to avoid NCS, as I've never used it, but I may need to use it now. I measured the voltage being delivered to the Celis tails, and its around 13 or so volts while running. I think they are supposed to be regulated down to like 10 or so volts if the LCM is set up for LED tails properly. I hope I don't ruin these lights in the meantime. Any help from the experts would be appreciated.

[cnsorial]

Thank you for that post, philly. Helps a lot for when I finally get some Celis tails for my car. Did you have any problems with paint flaking from bashing the lights in or is that just the glare in the photo?

[amancuso]

Some updates on facelifting the rear lights.

Smashed the light buckets with some wood scraps and a heavy hammer. I pretty much followed mattmarindrifts thread here, but used wood to reduce denting.: http://www.m5board.com/vbulletin/e39...lasts-diy.html

Basically the facelift Celis lights are deeper in the brake bulb area (lower/outer), so you have to move the prefacelift metal light buckets inward in the lower outer zones. I would bang some, test fit, and then bang some more till I got a good fit. You really have to hit it pretty hard, so its a bit disconcerting actually. New lower bolt holes (I used a step drill, but forgot how big I went) need to be drilled 20mm below the original holes. After bashing and smoothing things out, the paint was chipping off in spots, so I sanded and added a couple coats of Rustoleum topside marine paint. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Its all hidden, so I did not care on the finish and that paint is very durable and will prevent rust. It dries very slow, so I had some work lights pointed at the buckets to dry it overnight.

20170425_183649_1493295232865_resized (1).jpg


The Celis light sealing gasket does not match perfectly at the two outer rectangular holes, so it wont seal perfectly as is. No threads mention this that I saw, but I think there a good chance to get some leaks and it needs to be addressed. I added a perimeter seal of butyl cord sealant to the foam gasket across the top and sides to improve things. After getting the sealant where I wanted it and fully stuck to the foam, I added a thin layer of silicone grease to the light buckets where the butyl will sit. This prevents the butyl from sticking to the car, so the light can be removed later. I can't see this leaking now. Sorry forgot pics on this.

Here are the facelift left and right wiring connectors connected to the prefacelift wiring. I got the facelift connectors with the lights I bought, so this made things easier. I got copies of the WDS (wiring diagrams) for pre and post facelift to confirm everything, but basically all the colors match right up exact. The only difference is the facelift light uses one less tail light wire, so these wires are just capped and not used.


Prefacelift taillight wiring

Tail Lights.pdf



Facelift- you can see pins 5 and 13 are no longer used. So those wires get capped.

Tail Lights Facelift.pdf


I did not post the wiring diagrams for the brakes, turns, and reverse light as they all just match up.



Left side connector. Grey/Green wire is unused and capped. All others match up.

20170424_203635_1493295234890_resized (1).jpg


Right side- White/Brown not used.

20170424_211719_1493295233154_resized (1).jpg


After testing, I finished off the wiring by wrapping with tape. The lights worked perfectly on first try, but I got an error as expected for "check tail lights". More later on the programming.

Good job. I remember doing this on my old 540i. No matter what I did, I had trunk leaks. :-/ Thats why I swore I wasn't going to monkey with the 528's lighting.

[cnsorial]

I think you do need NCS or INPA to code the LED_CONFIG (I think that's how it's worded) option.


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[tmvE39E53Z32TT]

I used NCSExpert when coding the LED taillights on my 2000 M5.

[philly98540]

Thank you for that post, philly. Helps a lot for when I finally get some Celis tails for my car. Did you have any problems with paint flaking from bashing the lights in or is that just the glare in the photo?

Yeah, some paint did flake off during bashing. I sandedicated and painted as stated above. The glare makes it look bad, but it's all sound and solid whats in the pic.

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Good job. I remember doing this on my old 540i. No matter what I did, I had trunk leaks. :-/ Thats why I swore I wasn't going to monkey with the 528's lighting.

Thanks. Yeah, I think it would leak without some added sealant or something. I'm very surprised all the threads on this mod never mention this.

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I think you do need NCS or INPA to code the LED_CONFIG (I think that's how it's worded) option.


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Thanks. I was afraid of that. I don't think I'll have trouble, but it's just another thing I need to learn.

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I used NCSExpert when coding the LED taillights on my 2000 M5.

Thanks.

[Mpowered02]

Philly and auaq...hit 2 pick n pulls yesterday looking for a later BM53 to replace the one in my touring that cuts out intermittently. While I toured the yards, I was also keeping a look out for E38 boots for you guys since their website reported that there were 3 in the yards. Found all 3 but they were all missing their headlights. Sorry...I tried, but no joy. I go pretty regularly, so if I see any i'll grab em for you guys...
On the upside, I did find a functional, latest part number (ending in 275) BM53 out of an '06 X5 for my car for a measly $11...

[auaq]

Philly and auaq...hit 2 pick n pulls yesterday looking for a later BM53 to replace the one in my touring that cuts out intermittently. While I toured the yards, I was also keeping a look out for E38 boots for you guys since their website reported that there were 3 in the yards. Found all 3 but they were all missing their headlights. Sorry...I tried, but no joy. I go pretty regularly, so if I see any i'll grab em for you guys...
On the upside, I did find a functional, latest part number (ending in 275) BM53 out of an '06 X5 for my car for a measly $11...

I'm going to make a trip tomorrow and hope few of E38's still have its headlights on.