Trying to retrofit E39 Angel Eyes into E38

[Rhein Amacher]

Hey so I went through the entire lighting section of RealOEM.com for facelift E39 headlights and could not find what the part number is for the actual physical angel eye lenses, not the actual lights. The only part number I could find relating to the angel eyes is part number is: 63126904048, but that is only for the angel eye light bulb. I am actually looking for the angel eye lense that attaches onto the headlight shroud, but cannot find that anywhere. I am wanting to retrofit my E38 headlights to include angel eyes but look as OEM as possible. Any suggestions?

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Yeah, stop looking for E39 angel eyes unless you are willing to buy whole E39 light housings to pull them out. You can’t buy just the angel eyes. But you can buy the led aftermarket rings off of eBay and retrofit them into the E38 housings.

[crdiscoverer]

E39 facelift headlights are sold as one piece from the factory. You may be used to seeing E39 pre-facelift or E38 headlights that can be disassembled and many parts bought separately. That's not the case with 2001+ E39 headlights. Some can be opened by baking the adhesive, but for the most part they are perma-sealed and you need to cut the open.

Like Snotty said, your options would be buying a set of very broken headlights for cheap off eBay or CL, scavenge the halos, bulb, etc. from them and ditch/resell the rest. You'd then need to fabricate a way to get the bulb and the halos to line up properly and be at the right distance from the light source as they are very sensitive to those things.

Interesting project for sure, but not sure if it's worth the hassle. I have pictures of the halos off the housings and isolated from the rest if you want to see what sort of challenge is in front of you.

[Rhein Amacher]

E39 facelift headlights are sold as one piece from the factory. You may be used to seeing E39 pre-facelift or E38 headlights that can be disassembled and many parts bought separately. That's not the case with 2001+ E39 headlights. Some can be opened by baking the adhesive, but for the most part they are perma-sealed and you need to cut the open.

Like Snotty said, your options would be buying a set of very broken headlights for cheap off eBay or CL, scavenge the halos, bulb, etc. from them and ditch/resell the rest. You'd then need to fabricate a way to get the bulb and the halos to line up properly and be at the right distance from the light source as they are very sensitive to those things.

Interesting project for sure, but not sure if it's worth the hassle. I have pictures of the halos off the housings and isolated from the rest if you want to see what sort of challenge is in front of you.

Hey Eric, I would very much like to take a look at all of your pictures of the halos or angel eye rings removed and isolated from the headlight housing. Would very much appreciate that! Also, I am considering retrofitting the 2001 OEM E38 7-Series crystal red/clear tail lights to include the CELIS 4 LED strips across the middle of the tail light. Basically would have to tear out and remove the entire OEM parking brake light assembly on the E38 or somehow modify it to accept 4 LED strips to mimic what the E39 CELIS LED tail lights look like. Not sure how I am going to proceed with this project, but I am very motivated to get it done. Another plus is I can purchase a pair of facelift E39 tail lights very cheap at the local junk yard or on eBay and even rip the LED strips out of those tail lights and apply them to the boring looking E38 tail lights.

[computiNATEor]

This video shows how the assembly goes together. IMO, you should really just find some aftermarket lights that meet your visual goals. They're very old at this point, and delicate/dim relative to new parts and LED tech.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUA3GtxCn4g

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Watch around the 7m10s part.