Lotus99

I've done it on my 3 series, and I'm guessing it's pretty much the same, but wasn't sure if with our cars there's anything special you can point me to.

Came across this guide, as a starter.

PS I have a 2010 E61 wagon.
.
.
.

Trinity Autosport

Trinity Autosport : Installing Angel Eyes - $0.00

You can do it w/o removing your headlights as well. Just open the hood and take off the headlight cover and it'll expose the oem h8 bulb...twist and install new ae.

Lotus99

I see your guide suggests to remove headlights whereas Lux's does not. Is that that much harder to do so if you don't remove headlights? I'd rather not, as I'm afraid I'd mess up the light alignment potentially, especially if it is not needed.

nomis_nehc

Don't need to for LCI's, should be plenty of room. But yes, removing headlight does make it so much easier.

And you don't have to worry about alignment, it's self leveling and adjusts. Plus you can't really mess that up unless you mess with the white hex on top anyway.

Lotus99

Great. Thx.

When I did the AE's on my 3 series, it was a real pain I recall, and scraped up my knuckles real good... We'll see how this compares!

One odd thing I noted on the Lux guide is it says:

Note: the LUX H8 may not twist fully into place and it was designed this way.

The AE's I'm going to install in mine aren't the Lux brand, so it makes me wonder if their instructions pertain to all aftermarket AE bulbs, or just theirs for some reason? That same "warning" is not there on their 3 series guide.

nomis_nehc

Nah. That's almost like a bs that they put in there just to get people off their back. The H8s should all screw in tightly.

Lotus99

I'm going to write my experience with my 3 series, and ask a question about my 5, which I'll be doing next...

So last night I went to install a set of AE's into my 3 series (LUX brand) and after an hour of screaming and cussing, got them in there... The biggest pain was trying to get the bulbs in the hole at first, then I figured I'd lower them in with the heatsink first, then pull the bulb into the hole, rather than like you do with the H8 bulb, just try to go with the bulb tip first.

Then of course there was the major PITA of rotating them into place... The LUX lights heatsink has a flat bottom on one side, so it makes it easier to orient and rotate I found:


.
.
.
Now onto my question for my 5 series (LCI E61):

Given my trials with my 3 series, and the OP's comment above about how much of a PITA it was to install his, how is it going to be in my LCI? You're saying I think there should be room in there? I'm not concerned about room to put stuff as much as to just install the freakin' thing, as the set I'm going to put into my E61 has a round heatsink, which makes it harder to rotate IMO as well as to orient the 3 tabs:


.
.
.
So I'm wondering if the headlight removal process will be a lot less painful and I should attempt it? On the 3 series, I looked it up (I had almost given up on doing it by hand), and it looked like a lot of work, with taking the bumper cover off first, then a bunch of bolts (5 IIRC) with one being really hard to find / get at.

Thoughts from the headlight master? (I saw all your amazing headlight work!)

Is pulling the headlights out as easy as the Trinity link's description? Seems like half hour of work? No bumper removal required?
.
.
.

nomis_nehc

Honestly, you're overthinking this. The time it took you to write this, you most likely could've done the install already. The E60's LCI opening and access to the angel eye bulb is pretty accessible. Unless you have big hands, it is safe to say that most can do the install without taking out the headlight.

Having said that, removing the headlight on the E60 is a lot easier than other cars. No front bumper removal is necessary. Typically it takes me about 5 minutes to take out both headlights. But of course, I have done it so many times.

Lotus99

OK, will give it a shot tonight hopefully and report back!

In my 3, it was a real b!tch to do it...

Lotus99

Nomis - you were right! LOL...

It was SO much easier than doing it on my 3 series.... OMG. I cursed and yelled when doing it on my 3, it was so frickin' tight in there and it took me like an hour for each side.

But with this car, it literally took 5 minutes per side!

I'm really happy with the results too. Went with these bulbs:

BMWLED Angel Eyes H8 40Watts

The guy was really great to deal with actually in terms of communication and service.

Here are the results:
.
.
.