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Thread: E39 Headlight Assembly

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2014
    Location
    Las Vegas NV
    Posts
    31
    My Cars
    1997 BMW 540i Turbo

    E39 Headlight Assembly

    I'll start off by admitting I've got almost no knowledge when it comes to headlights or electronics. So my current 97 540i has HID headlights with ballasts and whatnot, and the Halo rings and parking lamp recently stopped working on the driver side. The covers are also very pitted and spiderwebbed and the halo rings were pretty dim in the first place. I'd also like to maybe switch to LED so I have less mess in the bay. That being said instead of tracking down the current problem I figured I'd just buy an all new assembly. I bought a new assembly once before for a previous 540i. About 240 dollars for both and they were absolute garbage. Halos so dim you couldn't see em, the adjusters didn't work at all so both headlights were at different levels. And just cheap quality overall. So after that long tirade, my question is what brand should I go with? And how do I make sure that I don't end up with that same problem again. I had to change out the Halos for aftermarket ones and I'm not interested in doing that this time. I'd like to buy an assembly pair but I would like everything to just work the first time. Sorry for being so long winded.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2004
    Location
    Milwaukee, WI
    Posts
    1,333
    My Cars
    '01 525i, 93 MX-5 autox
    Are you just trying to get away from the current headlights because of the one side giving you grief? Based on the year you should not have factory halo / Angel eyes, so my guess is that they are already aftermarket or they are from an 01-03 model year. You should be able to see in the corner of the lens or on the housing the brand Hella, that would be OEM. Otherwise you have the pre-facelift regular 97-99 headlights with aftermarket halos in them.

    Seeing as you have a marker light out ( the amber corner light ) that leads me to believe that you either have a 97-99 OEM headlight with aftermarket halos as the 01-03 didn't have marker lights per-se, the Halos acted as them, so I think that makes more sense, or they are some sort of aftermarket housing.

    That being said, I'd guess that the marker lights are wired in WITH the halos, and I'm leaning towards aftermarket and they are grounded out on a piece of metal or a connector is loose at the plug itself.

    I know you stated you aren't really electrical savvy, but maybe these will help with identifying what's going on.

    https://www.pelicanparts.com/BMW/tec...eplacement.htm
    https://blog.bavauto.com/1835/bmw-e3...ace-adjusters/

    AS WELL, not sure you even want to keep these but you might be able to limp around until some better funds are ready, I believe the brand of choice is DEPO for aftermarket.

    Feel free to post some pics of the lights and the connections, I may be able to help further.
    KEVIN
    BMW CCA # 416146

    Current 2001 525i-5 / 225,000 Miles
    ///M Weighted Shift knob.
    CD43 with AUX retrofit + Bluebus
    Auto Dimming Mirror upgrade
    H&R Sport / Koni STR.T
    OEM Xenon HID Retrofit


    The Ex- 2000 540i-6 / 82,xxx miles to 186,xxx miles
    CDV Free, 545i Shifter and ///M Weighted Shift knob.
    Member of DSC Module Failure Club $$

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