It's plug and play headlight if your car is factory halogen headlights.

 

The more I look into it, the more I feel like trying to make this work with factory xenon cars wouldn't be worth it. Rewiring and recoding for halogen Depo Headlights hurts your resale value so much, whereas the time, effort and money could be better spent just doing the LCI retrofit which would be great for resale value. Keep in mind I have no idea how much or how little work a xenon -> halogen fitment would require, so maybe I'm totally wrong.

I asked my local BMW what they thought, and the rep told me they had no interest in doing a factory adaptive xenon -> halogen aftermarket headlight retrofit, for liability purposes. In other words they don't want to risk screwing something up. He also mentioned xenon -> halogen just isn't something anybody ever wants or pursues; which if you think about it, is correct. He was aware it wold be the same process as oem halogen headlights, but he isn't willing to do that retrofit either.

So the only option in my mind is to wait and see if somebody can make a factory xenon plug and play headlight. If it turns out nobody is going to do that (considering all "U ring" depo headlights are currently halogen models only, it seems unlikely a xenon one is planned for whatever reason) I'll just be doing the LCI retrofit rather than a halogen downgrade. Maybe some of you have more open minded BMW dealers, though. Mine is never willing to do anything, in fact I don't even know if they'd do the LCI retrofit coding/wiring.

 

Just saw this ad in craigslist. Seems it's what you guys are looking for.

Bmw 5 Series LCI U-Style Angel Eyes Headlights

 

It's literally the same thing on USR...

 

I will now attempt to merge item number one with item number two. The lens, eyebrow, shroud, corona rings and necessary pieces/electronics with a crummy spare factory adaptive xenon unit with shifted parts.

It looks like it may work. The only concern I have is whether or not the auto adjusting/adaptive units will have enough room to move... we'll see. I'll update in a few days or a week if anybody is interested. This place needs more DIY anyways

Edit: Well, that didn't work. Don't try this. Unfortunately almost nothing from the depo fits the xenon unit. With that said, if anybody wants a pair of these Depo headlights for half price PM me. Passenger side is literally untouched, still in its box. Driver's side had the lens cut off but aside from that is still unused. Will be properly resealed when I get a chance, likely going to throw it up on ebay too. Selling headlights is a real pita.

Oh and if anybody is curious, here is a picture of the rings in peak daylight, the sun was glaring down on me. I'd say simply because of the optic setup, these are about twice as bright as any LED bulb you can get. (Source: I've tried them. mtec v3 for example) Obviously not as bright as Orions but they have the advantage of looking OEM as opposed to LEDs on a ring shaped pad.

 

so we can all agree that these looks great, my concern is how well is their light output and spread? any night shots? can we see a cut off angle shot? thank you Essa!

 

Hey Justa - by any chance did you get a look at the shields for the light patterns - does it look like they can be flipped around to reverse the pattern for us RHD guys? And if so could this be done without needed to remove the lens cover?

Thanks! W

 

You're going to have to remove the plastic lens cover to muck around with those plates. As for whether or not they can be swapped, I didn't really think to look but I assume they could be. Unfortunately I just finished sealing the headlight this morning so i can't check

Cutting the lens is pretty easy, I've done it three times now. (Once on the Depo unit and twice on pre lci units) You just have to be careful not to cut too deep. The other thing is debris flies everywhere, so you'll need a can or two of compressed air to clean out the inside.