My 2001 740i M Sport

[a777fan]

Yes to this entire very specific discussion on this very specific detail.

Always amazed by how many people over look this v. Critical detail. As Clark noted, even dealers with new cars ship stuff out with hardware that will turn to rust streaks in no time.

Poor license plate mounting is indicative of someone who isn’t paying attention to the little things IMHO.

[Btkeenan]

Sometimes it can seem like you are talking to yourself on these build threads but people do follow, and may not comment all the time. Any time I have had a build thread there has been sparse response.

As far as license plate sticklers, my pet peeve is crappy screws to hold the plates on. Even new car dealers can use crappy screws. I like to use stainless steel screws and washers so no rusty stains, in particular on the winter car.

Yes to this entire very specific discussion on this very specific detail.

Always amazed by how many people over look this v. Critical detail. As Clark noted, even dealers with new cars ship stuff out with hardware that will turn to rust streaks in no time.

Poor license plate mounting is indicative of someone who isn’t paying attention to the little things IMHO.

I'm glad I'm in good company then haha. My experience with vehicles that are maintained vs well maintained has been all about the little things. May seem a bit OCD but I figure if you are going to do it, do it right and do it once (hopefully). Yea the dealers seem to... selectively care on getting cars prepped for sale largely without concern to the repercussions their choices make to the end owner (ie drilling front license plate holes into the front bumpers).

[Staszek]

I'm glad I'm in good company then haha. My experience with vehicles that are maintained vs well maintained has been all about the little things. May seem a bit OCD but I figure if you are going to do it, do it right and do it once (hopefully). Yea the dealers seem to... selectively care on getting cars prepped for sale largely without concern to the repercussions their choices make to the end owner (ie drilling front license plate holes into the front bumpers).

Agreed! I am spending money on stupid stuff, but those little details count. You can tell when you buy a car from someone if those mattered. If I see the little things done, usually I am more confident in the rest of the car being solid.

- - - Updated - - -

I'm glad I'm in good company then haha. My experience with vehicles that are maintained vs well maintained has been all about the little things. May seem a bit OCD but I figure if you are going to do it, do it right and do it once (hopefully). Yea the dealers seem to... selectively care on getting cars prepped for sale largely without concern to the repercussions their choices make to the end owner (ie drilling front license plate holes into the front bumpers).

Agreed! I am spending money on stupid stuff, but those little details count. You can tell when you buy a car from someone if those mattered. If I see the little things done, usually I am more confident in the rest of the car being solid.

[Btkeenan]

Agreed! I am spending money on stupid stuff, but those little details count. You can tell when you buy a car from someone if those mattered. If I see the little things done, usually I am more confident in the rest of the car being solid.

Definitely! You’re buying into the PO as much as the car. Your cars going to look awesome when done and should be drive like a new one, just file the expenses away in a binder not to be seen again

[Staszek]

Definitely! You’re buying into the PO as much as the car. Your cars going to look awesome when done and should be drive like a new one, just file the expenses away in a binder not to be seen again

Haha yea I already spent more then the car cost. I did the same thing with my E30, although with the market now if I sold I would make quite a bit of profit on it. Dont think that will happen with this car, but its for me so I don't care. I do think I could come close in the future to a wash we will see. These cars seem to be on a slight upswing, and cars in top shape will be hard to come by, although I have a mileage detractor. Yours should be work some money

[Btkeenan]

Haha yea I already spent more then the car cost. I did the same thing with my E30, although with the market now if I sold I would make quite a bit of profit on it. Dont think that will happen with this car, but its for me so I don't care. I do think I could come close in the future to a wash we will see. These cars seem to be on a slight upswing, and cars in top shape will be hard to come by, although I have a mileage detractor. Yours should be work some money

Haha absolutely. While I don’t think cars should ever be considered an “investment” (unless something truly rare and unique) it’s hard for me to show restraint when getting this as close back to OEM/OEM+ as possible on something I’ve dreamed of owning since I was a kid.

I have found it interesting that even clean examples run into the same issues as ones with 100s of thousands of miles on them.

Hopefully the design direction BMW keeps pushing towards makes people appreciate our cars more and want to relive the “glory days”

[Btkeenan]

Decided to take the plunge and start the headliner replacement process. Found a shop nearby that said they could strip and cover the A/B/C pillars, sunroof cover, front panel, ultrasonic cover, and headliner and queued them up to take delivery early next week.

Did a bunch of research online and here are some of the resources I used to prepare myself for this undertaking in no particular order.

Bimmerboard 1

Bimmerforums 1 (Post 1)

Bimmerforums 2 (post 15)

Bimmerforums 3 (post 71)

YouTube Link 1

YouTube Link 2

YouTube Link 3

Some tools used:
#2 Phillips (assorted fasteners)
Plastic pry tools
T10 (for sunroof fastener)
T20 (assorted)
T50 (for bottom seatbelt bolt)
8mm (C pillar bolts)
Small pick
Tools.jpg

Other useful items:
1.88 inch wide painter's tape

Disposable plastic seat covers

Disposable steering wheel cover


Now onto the disassembly...

-General prep, I covered the steering wheel and front seats with plastic covers to help protect from the dreaded orange goo. I also used the wide painter's tape to tape up the fuzzy weather stripping because I read that it is a mess to get off of this. I was debating on getting the 1.88" or the 2.83" scotch tape given the almost double price delta, go with the 2.83" haha. The 1.88 is just not wide enough to wrap the weather stripping and some of the goo did get on the interior side and yes, it is a mess to get it off.
Prep work.jpg

-Roof grab handles, take the pick tool and you'll see a small cutout when you lower the handle, insert and twist and the whole cover will flip down. Unscrew fasteners and remove all 4.
-Sun visors, on the part that clamps to the sunvisor, I used a plastic pry tool to insert it into the little slot and then gently pushed down and out from the middle until the little tab clears the middle post. Once you relieve pressure, it will hinge away from the middle. They look easy to break but I took my time and did not break any. Remove the fasteners and disconnect wiring.
-Sunvisor lights, use a pry tool and insert at the front of it and pry it away from the headliner. Disconnect wiring
-Top light and button assemblies, the tutorials are sort of vague as to how to get these away from the headliner, but I found it easiest to insert a pry tool on the right-hand side of the light and wedge it away from the headliner. The two clip tabs holding it in place disengaged and I was able to lower it away and unplug without issue. I noticed when I tried to do it from the back of the assembly (facing the rear of the car), the faceplate that covers the light and the assembly holding the bulbs and such are two pieces. I remember reading that if you separate this, you are SOL as the unit is one intented to be one piece so be cognizant of that lol. The sunroof/homelink/microphone panel is easy to remove by reaching your fingers around the front and pushing down. It did not give much resistance to being removed. The plugs going into each of the items in that piece are a PITA to get unplugged, so I pushed the various switched through the panel to separate it to get a better grip. Not sure why some BMW clips are so easy to disengage, and others are near impossible but just be weary.
-Fuzzy weather stripping, I pulled it away from every door about halfway down on both sides. Not very difficult but requires more force to pull away than you would think as the innermost part that holds it onto the door frame is rubber with internal metal clips that hold it in place.
-A pillar, make sure to disconnect the battery if you have a newer E38 as there is an airbag here. Pop the cover and unscrew the torx bit. The angle is a bit weird as mine were both screwed in at a bit of an angle, as if they installed them prior to installing the windshield. You can then grip near the top and pull with equal pressure away from the pillar to pop it out. Three tabs were already broken and the other one is on its way out.
-B pillar, the lower portion pulls out pretty easy and the whole panel slide down and out. On the driver's side, the bottom side tabs that go under the sill trim pieces were a little broken. I used some plastic adhesive to readhere them and they should function normally again. The upper portion I found it easiest to reach up behind the panel with my hand and pop each side gently away. You can feel the 4-way post and then just use two fingers to pull it away. The whole panel then slides down and away. The T50 is used to remove the fastener for the seatbelt attached to the seat rail on both sides.
-C pillar, the lighting panel pops out relatively easy from the top middle and then essentially folds down and out. Unplug this small connector without breaking the light and set it aside. There are 3 8mm bolts on each side, two near the front 1/3 and one near the rear 1/3. 2/6 plastic tabs were broken, one will be able to be readhered while the other one shattered.
-Sunroof, as denoted by the tutorials, open the sunroof and there will be 9 T10 fasteners holding the headliner in place, what they do not tell you is that there are actually 14 T10 fasteners that go around the entire perimeter of the trim piece that holds in the headliner (more on that later). I originally did not want to remove the sunroof because it seemed unnecessary, and a bit of a pain so opted to take the "shortcut route" and not but did remove the suggested fasteners as denoted in the bimmerboard post DIY linked above. I was able to get 1/5 metal brackets to disengage off of the metal posts but could hear the other 4 peeling away from the headliner so thought better and changed the strategy. Found the video (#3) linked above and took some of his steps to start taking the sunroof out. First taking off the side accordian baffles, I tilted my sunroof up and then used my fingers to reach around at the widest part and pulled it forward at the top detaching it from the rail. I was unable to get it off of the bottom so took my rachet and took the 3 Torx fasteners out. With the baffle still attached, you have to pull it down and out of the way to reach the first fastener. The rear two are a bit easier. Once these 6 are out, the sunroof can be lifted off the car. Next up was the palstic guides and baffles which prohibit the removal of the sunroof shade which is not shown on any of the guides. The baffle can be removed from the plastic guide by removing the black fastener at the front of the guide and then pressing out the 3 tabs (I pressed the middle one first and then the rear popped out followed by the front one). Take caution on the front of the baffle as it clips into a guide on the rail. After getting this all disconnected, you can push the plastic guides towards the back of the car into the sunroof cassette and leaves room for the removal of the headliner. To do this, remove the other 5 rear mounted fasteners which are just like the other 9. Once the last one was out, the whole headliner fell down.
Baffle removal
Baffle.jpg
Baffle Removal.jpg

-Headliner, removing it was actually fairly easy, removed it through the passenger rear door with the front passenger seat forward and tilted back as far as it would go. I was able to squeeze it through the opening, but it does get caught on the bulges for the grab handles. I had to slightly taco the headliner to get it through the opening but hopefully this will not be an issue during the reinstall.
Headliner Removal.jpg

-Motion sensor cover, use a pry tool to seperate it from the mount on the headliner. None of the tabs broke on mine when removing it.
Once the panels were out of the car, I wrapped the edges in more blue painter's tape to keep the goo contained for when I transport it down to the shop. I would rather not have to clean that out of my truck

A couple general points on this whole ordeal:
-The plastic tabs, of the A/B/C panels and 12 plastic tabs, two are still intact. The design on these is in my opinion, single use and poorly constructed, and the fact that the entire pillar has to be scrapped is ridiculous. I will have to try printing some of these out and seeing if they will work on the B pillars but still. Poor design BMW. Some of the tabs have been captured in the metal housing they fit into, so I was able to recover a good amount of them. TBD if I am able to reattach some of them with plastic adhesive.
-The orange goo, if your headliner and pillars are original it will have this. No matter the age/mileage/condition, if it's original, it's going to get goo'd. I did my best to mitigate any miscellaneous goo in the interior and it worked pretty well. Any of the fragments of the foam fell onto the front seat covers and blue tape on the weather stripping. There was a spot on the rear passenger door weatherstripping that got a little of the goo, but it mostly came out with an alcohol wipe (if the tape was wider, it would not have been an issue).

In hindsight, I was quoted $600 to remove, recover, and install the new headliner. There is no way they would have known the intracacies of how to get this out without breaking many things. So, I am glad I did the removal myself and do not think the reinstall will be much worse (famous last words), but I will categorize this is another thing I would rather not want to do again.

[a777fan]

Thanks for the detailed notes. Just about to head into this myself!

[Staszek]

That’s a lot of work! At one time I thought about redoing it myself, I’m glad I changed my mind. Kudos to you man!

BTW why do my posts keep doubling?

[Btkeenan]

Thanks for the detailed notes. Just about to head into this myself!

GL! I have more photos I can DM you if you have any questions when you do yours.

That’s a lot of work! At one time I thought about redoing it myself, I’m glad I changed my mind. Kudos to you man!

BTW why do my posts keep doubling?

Yea it is lol more than I was expecting at least. Started around 11:30 and didn't wrap up until around 2:30 or so.

I noticed that the other day also. When posting a quick reply, it seems to port you over to the advanced post page even though it has posted the comment already. Then when posting again on the advanced page it would double post. I thought they were doing maintenance on the forum because I noticed it to be a bit slower than usual when posting.

[Btkeenan]

After some inspiration from @a777fan, I decided to bite the bullet and take the rear speaker shelf and sunshade shelf out because how hard can it be right?

Similar tools from part 1 are needed in this removal.

-Headrests, pull up until you hear 3 distinct clicks and then I gripped one metal post at a time and pushed up until I could feel it disengage. Once both are done you are free to pull it out without much issue (no need to use a hammer as some other videos have shown)
-Rear seat bench, grip in the center of each seating position on each side at a time and pull up until you hear a pop. Once both are up, you can tilt up and away from the back rest. (Probably the easiest thing about this whole ordeal)
-Backrests, you will clearly see 2 10mm bolts, one under each seat, and then I had 2 more when you folded down the center armrest. Once those are out, I removed the 2 side seatbelt holders that are 17mm bolts and washers (one was a lock washer and one was a standard washer). This gains you access to the outerside panel which is another 10mm bolt that holds in the side of the backrest as well as the sill trim piece. Remove that on both sides and the back rests should be able to be pulled towards the front of the car (to clear the posts that the 10mm bolts were attached to) and then push it up to clear the rear seat clamp. They should now fold forward. Be careful of the outer edge metal bracket that fastens to the outer edge trim because I was not paying attention and scuffed up one of the sill plates. Luckily mine are already scuffed up and need to be replaced but I would be annoyed if they were mint. Some tape would nicely to protect it. In a lot of videos, it shows two backrests essentially, the passengerside and middle as one and then the driver's side as the other. Mine was 3 distinct ones (passenger, drivers, middle) and to remove the middle one it is a similar process but take note of the metal bracket at the top that will make contact with the seatbelt retraction carrier. To continue the disassembly, I was able to lay them flat as shown below.
Rear Seats Removed.jpg

-Speaker shelf, remove the speaker grills and remove the 4 T10 fasteners in the corners. They are silver and the ones in the speakers should be black. Take note of the washers that are a part of the assembly. Pop the plastic caps off the rear child seat tiedowns and use a 13mm to remove the bolt. Mine were fairly difficult to remove and I thought I was stripping the head off of the bolt, but they did come out eventually. There is another nut on each holding the metal assembly to the speaker assembly (17mm?) that had the same issue. Once those are out, remove the front speaker box fasteners, 2 8mm on the outer edges and a plastic rivet in the middle. Once those are out, the whole box is free to be removed from the car after disconnecting the power/data connector on the driver's side rear.
-Sunshade shelf, I tried to "pull it out" as other people have done in videos but this was a no go for me. I did not see anything glaringly obvious but remembered someone posting about some trunk bolts that held in the rear deck. Sure enough there were 3 10mm nuts in the trunk. Once removed the shelf slid out without issue. The wiring goes down the passenger side to the main wiring harness and can be disconnected from there and then removed from the car.

Trunk nuts, not to be confused with truck nuts
Trunk Nuts.jpg

As a777fan stated, the rear shade is a bit of an odd one to remove from the actual cardboard panel. There are 6 obvious nuts with integrated washers (10mm?) that have to be removed but the sunshade is still held in by the side plastic pieces. I stuck a plastic pry tool to try and separate the outer shell from the inner shell. The front post popped out fairly easily, but the rear post did not and actually snapped off on both the left and right side while still captured in the visor assembly. When examining the part more closely, it appears there is a metal retaining piece on all 4 of the corners that grips it in place. Replacements will have to be ordered but for reference it is the first two of #4 on the diagram in realoem though the part numbers on mine are different.
Now that ALL of the panels are out, everything should match nicely
Rear Shelf Panels.jpg

While I love this particular BMW and like working on it, the more I do, the more inconsistencies I find within the BMW production process. I understand subtle changes happen between each year model of production and are maybe not documented, but it seems like the way in which panels are installed, are reworked regularly for some reason (contrasted with a company like Ford that will use the same shell and interior setup for a decade and not change a thing). I am unsure if these are "improvements" or whether different plants/lines did things differently but very odd IMO that a higher standard to keep to the various production/engineering drawings is not held. These panels have never been removed as far as I can tell, and my car has never been crashed so everything appears to be original. Perhaps these other cars I'm seeing in videos are not in similar shape resulting in discrepancies but just an interesting observation I have noticed over the past few months doing research and wrenching on the car.

Hopeful that the whole reinstallation will go smoothly...

[a777fan]

Awesome stuff! You beat me to posting any pictures of those dang clips at the edge if the sunshade. Sorry to hear yours broke, but THANK YOU for finding them in realoem. As you’ve now noticed, the PN on the part doesn’t pull up anything in realoem or any dealer parts ordering website i’ve tried.

[Btkeenan]

Awesome stuff! You beat me to posting any pictures of those dang clips at the edge if the sunshade. Sorry to hear yours broke, but THANK YOU for finding them in realoem. As you’ve now noticed, the PN on the part doesn’t pull up anything in realoem or any dealer parts ordering website i’ve tried.

Haha yea. I can reglue one of them but on one of them, it took a part of the face of it when it was pulled out. Ordered two new ones… special order from Germany… should be here in 10-15 days (dealer quoted 4-6 weeks) lol. Also in realoem there are two PN for left and right but if you compare the photos of them on ECStuning, they have different designs. Mine were the the 959/960 parts.

[Btkeenan]

Feeling a bit like Pablo Escobar in Narcos sitting around twiddling my thumbs in the backyard waiting to put my car back together while the panels are being recovered at the upholstery shop so I decided to stay busy in preparation.
PE.jpg

I was super excited when another forum member had a Stealthone unit in storage. Received it and have been reading up on the install procedure from forum posts as well as from Jaric designs using the way back machine(their site has been dead since 2007) to download the old E38 installation manual. Seems pretty straightforward. Thought I had the hardwiring kit for my Valentine1 v1 in the box but can’t seem to find it so ordered another kit direct from them. Once that arrives, I’ll get the various wires mounted up from the V1 side and the S1 side so they can be hidden behind the headliner and pillar and once panels are installed it’s plug and play with the various control units.

Next was the rear quarter window weather stripping (the rubber between the roof and the black door trim above the door) that is getting all sticky and falling apart. Apparently buying the new OE piece is a pain to swap in and usually results in other broken tabs and trim so found a site that had a few goodies on it. I picked up the extra length door seals kit, headrest repair kit x2 (both of mine work fine currently but doesn’t hurt to have it just in case), BMW cotton tool cloth (NLA), and for fun the sticker visualization of the bodies in the trunk instead of golf clubs. The front door seals are in great shape, almost new, so not sure if PO replaced them and not the rears but will have to measure and cut accordingly. Also the cotton tool kit cloth looks identical to the OE pictures I have seen online. The sticker is funny but isn’t quite the right sizing for the rectangular golf club plaque as the sticker is ~10% smaller and has rounded edges and a white border around it. I may end up recreating it in photoshop and then sending it out for print but something for another day. Total came out to around $100 after conversion from polish zltoy (thanks Costco citi for no foreign transaction fee or currency conversion fee) and was worth it to me. He even included a spare cloth as a thank you for my order which was awesome and shipping was quicker than expected, ordered 7/29, shipped 8/1, delivered 8/8.

Accessories.jpg
Sticker applied
Bodies.jpg

[a777fan]

Hah! The bodies sticker.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Btkeenan]

A few updates on my car:

To the left of the steering column there is a wood trim piece with a dimmer switch and a blank plastic cover (61318352423)(where the headlight control would go if optioned). On my car for whatever reason it is super faded plastic, almost white and my eyes gravitate to it when driving. Also the switch next to it still looks black which is weird. Tried cleaning it with a variety of solutions and no dice. Ordered one from BMW and it was a special order from Germany that took about a month to get here. Pull the trim panel out, squeeze one of the two tabs towards the center and the piece can be removed. Popped the new one in and good as new.

Cover.jpg

Some other users posted about waning inventory of the headlight top gaskets so decided to order some replacements from my local dealer. The ones listed as item 21 on realoem are the correct ones but the left one is NLA for some reason so instead went with the pn that supersedes it (63128361085 / 086) as they’re readily available. Slightly different design as shown in the photos below but appears to fit up the same and clicked in place without issue. I prefer the design of the parts with the two clips that you have to push together versus the single bar you push down but can’t be too picky about a part that is NLA (also doesn’t hurt that it’s half the price).

Old vs New
269384BB-91CF-4355-9D33-71F70718739D.jpeg

Clip design
586E6288-87D4-40D7-BFBA-53748D82D2F4.jpeg

I also ordered a new wiring harness for both headlights using the pn a777fan suggested (63128381467) and of course those were special order also. Dealership managed to invoice me for 2 but only order 1… so figured I’d wait before doing the swap on both. Looks like I’m going to have to take the headlight out and disassemble it slightly to get everything disconnected/reconnected which I wasn’t expecting but should give me a good look into what else I want to replace on the headlights (lenses, gaskets, etc).

Upholstery shop should be done with my headliner pieces this week which means I can finally put my car back together lol it’s been sitting in the garage with the plastic protectors on the seats and one over the sunroof since the 2nd.

[Staszek]

A few updates on my car:

To the left of the steering column there is a wood trim piece with a dimmer switch and a blank plastic cover (61318352423)(where the headlight control would go if optioned). On my car for whatever reason it is super faded plastic, almost white and my eyes gravitate to it when driving. Also the switch next to it still looks black which is weird. Tried cleaning it with a variety of solutions and no dice. Ordered one from BMW and it was a special order from Germany that took about a month to get here. Pull the trim panel out, squeeze one of the two tabs towards the center and the piece can be removed. Popped the new one in and good as new.

Some other users posted about waning inventory of the headlight top gaskets so decided to order some replacements from my local dealer. The ones listed as item 21 on realoem are the correct ones but the left one is NLA for some reason so instead went with the pn that supersedes it (63128361085 / 086) as they’re readily available. Slightly different design as shown in the photos below but appears to fit up the same and clicked in place without issue. I prefer the design of the parts with the two clips that you have to push together versus the single bar you push down but can’t be too picky about a part that is NLA (also doesn’t hurt that it’s half the price).

Old vs New
269384BB-91CF-4355-9D33-71F70718739D.jpeg

Clip design
586E6288-87D4-40D7-BFBA-53748D82D2F4.jpeg

I also ordered a new wiring harness for both headlights using the pn a777fan suggested (63128381467) and of course those were special order also. Dealership managed to invoice me for 2 but only order 1… so figured I’d wait before doing the swap on both. Looks like I’m going to have to take the headlight out and disassemble it slightly to get everything disconnected/reconnected which I wasn’t expecting but should give me a good look into what else I want to replace on the headlights (lenses, gaskets, etc).

Upholstery shop should be done with my headliner pieces this week which means I can finally put my car back together lol it’s been sitting in the garage with the plastic protectors on the seats and one over the sunroof since the 2nd.

I bought new gaskets as well. I have bixenon projectors I am putting in and plan to change the gaskets too. I did on the old car.

I had the same damn faded plastic part, I plan on ordering it as well, better get on that!

Why are you charging your headlight wiring harness? Is there something wrong with it?

[Btkeenan]

I bought new gaskets as well. I have bixenon projectors I am putting in and plan to change the gaskets too. I did on the old car.

I had the same damn faded plastic part, I plan on ordering it as well, better get on that!

Why are you charging your headlight wiring harness? Is there something wrong with it?

Oh nice. Are the bixenons from the e60? Do you have a pn?

It’s so weird on that plastic piece, it’s like they used a separate type of plastic that deteriorates quicker than the other plastics. Other cars I have not seen the same level of degradation.

The coating surrounding the wiring for the harnesses are shot. They crumble in your hand which exposes the bare wire. Getting ahead of the inevitable burnt out bulb/projector if I ever take it in the rain in SoCal/when it ever rains here

[Staszek]

I didn’t go OEM, went with this company that has a complete upgrade kit with detailed instructions. They ship to the US, once I pull the old ones I will do a write up and comparison.

https://retrofitlab.com/collections/...non-headlights

[a777fan]

I didn’t go OEM, went with this company that has a complete upgrade kit with detailed instructions. They ship to the US, once I pull the old ones I will do a write up and comparison.

https://retrofitlab.com/collections/...non-headlights

Can’t recommend these guys enough.

My kit wasn’t completely plug and play though, and some trimming was required. Hit me up if you want additional details/pictures on what I needed to do.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[a777fan]

A few updates on my car:

To the left of the steering column there is a wood trim piece with a dimmer switch and a blank plastic cover (61318352423)(where the headlight control would go if optioned). On my car for whatever reason it is super faded plastic, almost white and my eyes gravitate to it when driving. Also the switch next to it still looks black which is weird. Tried cleaning it with a variety of solutions and no dice. Ordered one from BMW and it was a special order from Germany that took about a month to get here. Pull the trim panel out, squeeze one of the two tabs towards the center and the piece can be removed. Popped the new one in and good as new.

Some other users posted about waning inventory of the headlight top gaskets so decided to order some replacements from my local dealer. The ones listed as item 21 on realoem are the correct ones but the left one is NLA for some reason so instead went with the pn that supersedes it (63128361085 / 086) as they’re readily available. Slightly different design as shown in the photos below but appears to fit up the same and clicked in place without issue. I prefer the design of the parts with the two clips that you have to push together versus the single bar you push down but can’t be too picky about a part that is NLA (also doesn’t hurt that it’s half the price).

Old vs New
269384BB-91CF-4355-9D33-71F70718739D.jpeg

Clip design
586E6288-87D4-40D7-BFBA-53748D82D2F4.jpeg

I also ordered a new wiring harness for both headlights using the pn a777fan suggested (63128381467) and of course those were special order also. Dealership managed to invoice me for 2 but only order 1… so figured I’d wait before doing the swap on both. Looks like I’m going to have to take the headlight out and disassemble it slightly to get everything disconnected/reconnected which I wasn’t expecting but should give me a good look into what else I want to replace on the headlights (lenses, gaskets, etc).

Upholstery shop should be done with my headliner pieces this week which means I can finally put my car back together lol it’s been sitting in the garage with the plastic protectors on the seats and one over the sunroof since the 2nd.

Nice! I didn’t realize there was an alternative gasket available! On my way to order some now. Thx!

[Manny G.]

Very nice E38 and nice work, love following along the progress too, keep it coming

[Btkeenan]

I didn’t go OEM, went with this company that has a complete upgrade kit with detailed instructions. They ship to the US, once I pull the old ones I will do a write up and comparison.

https://retrofitlab.com/collections/...non-headlights

Oh I remember reading about this kit on a777fan's thread and added it to the list of potential upgrades for down the line hah. The headlights still work as intended so will probably table it for the time being but looking forward to hearing how your install goes.

Very nice E38 and nice work, love following along the progress too, keep it coming

Thanks!

[purplecty]

https://www.theretrofitsource.com/

This company offers some nice bi-xebin options also. I have OE E60 E55 bi-xenons in mine that Nordman (Max) installed for me. Make sure you get some good quality OSRAM bulbs

[Btkeenan]

https://www.theretrofitsource.com/

This company offers some nice bi-xebin options also. I have OE E60 E55 bi-xenons in mine that Nordman (Max) installed for me. Make sure you get some good quality OSRAM bulbs

Oh nice! How much did your OE setup run you?