First of all, the video was not made by me. It was done by Ali, who is a long time lurker, lol. We got together a little before the end of the year and retrofitted LCI tails and brake effects for his pre-LCI car.

The retrofit was done to convert pre-LCI tails to LCI tails using BMW's harness (without Bruce's Cables), and headlights were left as pre-LCI.

Additionally, Ali wanted to do the brake effects as he thought the stock LCI tails' brake appearance was "weak"


Anyway, I thought I would put it out there that I can do pre-LCI to LCI tails without Bruce's cable for people, and share this video at the same time


Enjoy the video, Ali did a superb job demo'ing the brake effects.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SQokwJOa5s

 

Nice!!!! but now I'm thinking which I should do first LCI headlights or tails

 

Well, for headlights if you want to do the proper method including coding, you would have to do both together. Tails, on the other hand, can be done on its own.

The reason is that LCI headlights' functions are not entirely the same as pre-LCI.

 

dang

 

Can you email the cost of labor and parts to do this. Wondering the price difference over using Bruce's cables.

 

I really think that should've come stock

 

I don't think it's as safe as stock. Especially at night. Cool mod though!

 

I'd add that however, during the daytime, that should be stock.

 

It's pretty damn bright I would say. Due to how I do the mod, the brake light is actually outputting at something like 50w, as opposed to the two bulbs each outputting less than 22w or so each. The only other argument would be the area lit, though I think that's kind of a moot point. You look at many other vehicles on the road now, and many have brake lights that are even harder to discern.

 

That's true. However, I think BMW designed the LCI to function way it is so that it would be easier to discern for safety's sake. Here's a scenario. Picture some guy driving on the freeway in mild traffic behind that E60 and thinks "Cool angel wings lights on that car.". He turns away to chat with a buddy next to him. Meanwhile the E60 slams on his brakes because the car in front of him suddenly stopped. The driver looks back at the road to see the same "angel wings" and thinks..."Cool wings...hey, it's getting closer...WTF!" ...BLAM!!! He didn't know the E60's tails got brighter. The only clue he probably had was that the car is coming closer fast and maybe the 3rd red light strip at the top of the rear windshield.

I do like the function for daytime or when the lights are off. Is it possible to have that for day but at night when the lights are on to have it function like stock?