Pre 2001 Angel eye headlight conversion?

I have a 1998 528i, and was thinking of replacing the headlights with the newer angel eyes.

I checked eBay and some Web sites, and they all say their lights work with 96-00 E39s. But, I called my local dealer for their price, and they say it needs to be one built after 9-98 to work.

I'm not sure, but I think my car was made before then.

Anyone know who is correct?

Check with www.bmwtips.com for all relavent information. I have a 97 528i halogen and converted to euro spec (clear corner) angel eye xenon 2 years ago (summer of 02). I believe making a harness (get the the proper wiring) is the biggest issue. If you have basic electrical wiring knowledge, you should be fine. I had purchased mine from Evosports. Good service but it was 1400 for the pair. Then I had to order a pair of resistor adaptors from Evosports (but was shipped from Bekkers, $120?) that would get rid of the error broken headlight read-out. I think a lot of people are buying from Pavrac from ebay and they have good experience with them. If you buy the ones from BMW, that would be US DOT approved (not clear corner, rather it's amber), of course they are all made by Hella, except the onces through the dealer have BMW part numbers. I think the retrofit ones from dealear became available last year, but I also think theirs cost more. But I can't say that with certainty, since I did my conversion back in 02 and back then it costed more. Here is a link to Pavrac's ebay auction.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...ayphotohosting

be ware of cheap chinese knock-offs. Their's may be cheaper, but not much and probably not as quality assured like Hella's.

I recently bought a set of halogen angel eyes from Pavrac for my 1997 528i. They fit perfectly and the installation was straightforward. They truly improve the appearance of the front end of the car, I think. The ones that Pavrac sells have the clear (reflector?) corners that I think look good on my Canyon Red car. Pictures soon...

As Zoich said, the only moderately difficult thing that you have to do is to rewire the Hella harnesses that come with the lights. If you are familiar with splicing and soldering wires, it's trivial. There are complete instructions for changing the wiring on www.bmwtip.com.

Good Luck - John

Great, thanks for the advice

Originally Posted by 528i

Great, thanks for the advice

I was thinking of doing mine soon too. We can trade install stories later