E39: facelift and non-facelift question.

When I was picking up my wheels yesterday from the parts department, I hassled my guy there a bit about a possible Xenon retro-fit.

I am not unhappy with my H7 lighting, especially with the VisionPlus bulbs. However, I do have to drive a lot in the fall/winter on unlit roads - a rather common thing here in the sparsely populated swamps of north eastern Europe. Xenons would be a nice upgrade ...

... Or so I thought until my parts guy told me the cost.

2300 EUR + 3 hours of labor!

My Style 32 wheels + Dunlops didn't cost that much!

However, a friend of mine with a non-facelift, 1998 523iAT is interested to buy my H7 AE assemblies for his E39. My parts guy could not tell me if the swap is a matter or removing his H7 assemblies and installing mine. Greco just did this swap on his 540, so is it that simple as removal and re-installation?

Being able to sell my used lights would help to off set the cost of the Xenons, so I would be interested to know!

Your friend would need to replace his lower brackets with those that fit the AE assemblies. Those pn# are 63 12 6 904 043 and 044 respectively. They'll also need to make wiring harness for the AE's to light up.


You on the other hand would require a resistor pack to stop the annoying "Check Headlight" messages. Otherwise its a straight swap for you.

As for 3 hours, I'm nopt a BMW mechanic, heck I'm not even a mechanic, and it took me about an hour. It would have been less but I encountered the fitting issue w/ the passenger headlight.

Originally posted by Greco
Your friend would need to replace his lower brackets with those that fit the AE assemblies. Those pn# are 63 12 6 904 043 and 044 respectively. They'll also need to make wiring harness for the AE's to light up.

You on the other hand would require a resistor pack to stop the annoying "Check Headlight" messages. Otherwise its a straight swap for you.

As for 3 hours, I'm nopt a BMW mechanic, heck I'm not even a mechanic, and it took me about an hour. It would have been less but I encountered the fitting issue w/ the passenger headlight.

Thanks Greco. It would be great to see a DIY here (or somewhere else) for the non-facelift owners.

I noticed from bimmerforums.com that you bought your AE Xenons from someone in Finland! Small world ... I wonder if the same guy has another set!

I will show this to my parts guy for sure: he was thoroughly stumped by the idea of retro-fitting my headlights onto an older E39. "Not possible", he said.