kigerka

I want to put the Euro spec headlights on my car. However, they are toooooo expensive for me to buy. So here is my question:
Is thre any Euro spec guys out there with Xenons and adaptive headlights that would like to swap out for US spec headlights?
Thought I would ask since there are people around here that like US spec stuff for their cars. My reason is that I think they look better and are different. I am also getting Euro mirrors on my car to get rid of blind spots. The dealer here didn't believe I had different glass. Now he does.

zippers525

I want the euro headlights too. i was going to try and remove the yellow tint maybe? I was wondering if there was a way to remove the yellow

spec33

try www.ebay.de, They have alot of Germany items for the E60 and it don't have to be mailed across the world. Just need to be able to read German.

kigerka

Even if you removed the yellow tint you still have the yellow LED's. That is why I want to swap while here in Germany.
Thanks for the idea Spec. Will give it a try.

alohalc

zippers525, i also want the euro headlights. please let me know if you could remove the yellow tint. please show us the instructions and post some pics if possible. thanks in advance.

kigerka, i'm not too worried about the led cuz i can always buy aftermarket bulbs.

zippers525

Do you think its possible? I wish the auto repair center gave me the broken one for the accident i had. It would be nice to experiment first.

kigerka

I have already tried to mess with the lights and as far as I could tell you could not get into the unit and change out the LED's. It actually looks easier to swap out the whole unit. so that is why I am looking for someone to swap with. I found one on ebay but it was just the right side and did not say weather it was adaptive headlights or not.

I could be wrong, I didn't have that much time to look around the headlights.

rodybmw

Kigerka,

The 5 LED's (as well as the "eyebrow") are yellow on both the US and European models. Even though I live in the US I have seen E60's in Europe and taken some pictures that show that even though the yellow reflector is not on Euro headlights the yellow LED's are still there. This is the first time that I have seen Euro headlights with yellow side lights that turn on with the headlights, most of the time Euro headlights don't have any side lights other than the turn signal. The first picture is one that I took myself in Europe and it shows the yellow LED's lit. The second picture is a BMW publicity photo that also shows the yellow LED's as well as the yellow eyebrow.

So the real difference visually between the Euro and the US headlights is the yellow reflector. However, even if you can open up the headlight and remove the yellow plastic piece (which is probably glued or fused to its surrounding area), you don't know what is gonna appear underneath it. The Euro version does NOT have a clear version of the yellow reflector, instead it has a triangular piece with horizontal lines on it. It would have been nice if that triangular piece were there under the yellow reflector on US headlights (so that removing the yellow reflector would expose it, but I doubt that is the case).

Since BMW does not list the front plastic cover/lens as a distinct part, you can only get it with a Euro headlight as a complete headlight unit. As you mentioned this is really expensive. Bekkers Import sells a set (left & right) Euro Xenons for $1980. However, they also sell the Euro Halogens for $598. I was thinking that IF the front cover/lens of the Euro Halogen (which includes the clear side section instead of the Yellow reflector) has the same mounting/attachment points as the US Xenons then we could buy the Euro Halogens for about 1/4 the price of the Xenons and then swap the covers with the US headlights. I wrote the owner of Bekkers and asked him if this swap can be done. I told him if this can be done then it would be worthwhile for him to advertise it on his website, he may lose some Xenon sales but that would be more than made up for by the increase in th halogen sales. After all I don't think that many of us would be willing to spend $2000 to basically get rid of the yellow reflector in favor of the clear Euro version, but many of us (including me) would be willing to spend less than $600 on the Euro Halogens and use the cover/lens from it on our US headlights to get the Euro look.

He said that he liked the idea and would check to see if the Euro halogen cover would fit the US Xenons and get back to me. That was about a month ago and I have not heard from him yet, so I don't know the definitive answer on whether it will work. But then again I am not in any hurry because I won't be ordering my car for at least a few months.

Kigerka.......since you are in Germany and have access to German model E60's at the dealer maybe you could check if the mounting tabs and/or points of the front cover/lens are the same on the Euro Halogens and the US Xenons. If they are then this may be the cheapest way to achieve the desired result. Here are a couple of pics showing that the Euro lights have yellow LED's as well, and one showing the clear triangular piece with the horizontal lines. Note that the car in the middle picture (even though it is a Euro model) does not have the triangular piece with the horizontal lines. This car is one of the pre-production prototypes used for the initial set of publicity photos and those cars had a clear lens similar to that of the turn signal section. But some of the later prototypes as well as all production cars do have the piece with the horizontal lines.


rodybmw


EDITED JAN. 29, 2008: I wrote the above post 3.5 years ago and since then I have been able to experiment with removing the front cover (lens) of the headlights and can say that the lenses will not come off. Even though the front cover has clips that make it look like it can be removed it is actually glued on to the rest of the headlight and CAN'T be removed. I even tried some people's suggestion of putting the headlight in the oven for ten minutes on a relatively low heat setting in order to melt the glue and remove the cover, but it did not work. I did not want to try heating it to a higher temperature or a longer time because I didn't want to risk any of the plastic parts of the headlight melting. So my idea above about buying the Euro Halogens and swapping the cover with the US headlight will not work.

Here's how I finally decided to deal with the amber reflectors on the US headlights......>>>>>Click Here<<<<<...........not as nice as Euro Headlights, but it's OK......and it's much cheaper.

kigerka

Thank you for the very informative reply. I never realized until now that I have never seen a Euro model at night with lights on. I assumed that since it didn't have the yellow tint to it that it was all clear or white. I do not want to give up my Xenons though. I guess this is one option I will keep. I am however going to get the Euro mirrors becuase they are safer and better.

zippers525

Can the lense be removed? I havn't really looked at them yet. If they can then im sure the yellow piece can be removed/replaced. Has anyone tried removing the lense yet?