Originally Posted by glocati

On the 97-00, there is no need for the oven/heating treatment. 4 bolts hold the whole assembly in, and as bimmerdOOd notes, there are 5 plastic clip that hold the 2 halves together. release those and carefully pry the front outer lense off. You then have access to the inner glass lenses which are held on by 2 metal slide on clips. Actually the whole removal is really easy, but do watchout for those clips. i was actually able to do it without breaking any of them, so it is possible.