BMW E29 Headlight visibilty

[w0lfy 0]

Hi ,on my facelift 2001 E39's there seems to be a lack of forward headlight vision.

Reading some of the forums suggests this is a common problem.

The forward vision seems to be low on the road compared to other vehicle i drive which had a broad range.

I have had the lights angle tested from a mechanic which proved to be ok on my vehicle,What lamp improvements can be done to improve light throw.

Not sure what version of headlight i have ,but it is the standard BMW with the angle eyes,i think running a standard H7 halogen lamp.

Can anyone please help with lamp suggestions or anything else.

Thanks W0lfy

[Yuen 16]

It's surprising that you say that your mechanic has tested the angle and said it's OK. This sounds like a broken headlamp adjuster problem to me. The E39 headlights have 2 plastic adjusters in each headlight and they get brittle from heat and age and break. This causes the projector to lose support and point downwards so you get little usable light. On the pre-facelift lights the adjusters are available as a part from the dealer. However on the facelift (angel eyes) they are not. There are some aftermarket options available though but they are not cheap, but still much cheaper than new headlights.

To test if the adjusters are broken, try adjusting the projectors using the adjustment screws on the back of the headlights. If the beam does not move it means they are broken. When you are driving and hit bumps/potholes they will also flop around.

[allan 295]

Hi Wolfy, So I'm not on my own with this problem. As Yuen said check your adjusters I have had mine replaced by the dealer, as both were broke on mine. To replace them they had to separate the clear front lense from the rest of the head light or it was replace the whole headlight. Also make sure the headlights are clean as this also defuses the light. At present I have the stock H7 halogen 55 watt low and high beam but the low beam are shocking have had them checked for correct adjustment and still no improvement . To be honest my 95 nissan sentra has a better low beam set up than the beamer does but the high beam on her is brilliant. Have been checking out the pro and cons of going to Xenon as a possible remedy.

Allan

[w0lfy 0]

It's surprising that you say that your mechanic has tested the angle and said it's OK. This sounds like a broken headlamp adjuster problem to me. The E39 headlights have 2 plastic adjusters in each headlight and they get brittle from heat and age and break. This causes the projector to lose support and point downwards so you get little usable light. On the pre-facelift lights the adjusters are available as a part from the dealer. However on the facelift (angel eyes) they are not. There are some aftermarket options available though but they are not cheap, but still much cheaper than new headlights.

To test if the adjusters are broken, try adjusting the projectors using the adjustment screws on the back of the headlights. If the beam does not move it means they are broken. When you are driving and hit bumps/potholes they will also flop around.

Yes the adjustments are working and you can see them move on his marker board he uses for WOF checks,thay are definatley ponting to the correct height..it is going in again on tuesday 28th August and while its there will get it double checked,i dont think the mechanic is stupid but it may just be the projected light difference compared to Jap cars that may take getting used too.

Thanks for your time to reply Yuen.

Wolfy.

[w0lfy 0]

Hi Wolfy, So I'm not on my own with this problem. As Yuen said check your adjusters I have had mine replaced by the dealer, as both were broke on mine. To replace them they had to separate the clear front lense from the rest of the head light or it was replace the whole headlight. Also make sure the headlights are clean as this also defuses the light. At present I have the stock H7 halogen 55 watt low and high beam but the low beam are shocking have had them checked for correct adjustment and still no improvement . To be honest my 95 nissan sentra has a better low beam set up than the beamer does but the high beam on her is brilliant. Have been checking out the pro and cons of going to Xenon as a possible remedy.

Allan

Thanks for your reply Alan,yes i would agree that your sentra would have better low beam,is frustrating to have a bright light about 5 metres in front of your that does not shine up the cats eyes in the road (or signage at 100metres say).What your next step to improvement,would you go for Artic white lamps or similar as sold in Repco? or remoce and place Xenon type as Yeun suggested..but at what cost?.

Thanks Wolfy.

[Yuen 16]

You're welcome. Can you take a picture of your lights? It can only be the bulb, the projector, or the glass (or was it plastic on the E39 ones, I can't remember).

Don't go for Arctic White lamps or whatever they call those things nowadays. Any halogen bulb with any form of tint on it (Arctic White is blue tinted to give out white light IIRC) will have decreased output due to the tint not letting 100% of light through. Your eyes may perceive them to be brighter due to them being more white, but if you look at the road surface you will see less output. There are halogen bulbs out there that are not tinted and claim to put out more light, such as Osram Silverstar, and they actually do... but the increase is quite marginal and is not worth the premium you pay to buy them.

The only way to get a significant increase in lumens now is to go for HIDs, but beware of putting HIDs in a halogen headlight because the headlight was not made for that - the beam may be funny (certain headlights work better than others, I'm sure you've seen plenty of older cars with HID kits stuck in the halogen headlights and glaring the hell out of other drivers). That's how HID got a bad name.

H7 puts out more lumens than H1 bulbs and my E36 has H1, and is putting out plenty of light. I have taken the lights apart before and cleaned the projector and the outside glass. I'm not sure if you've owned the E39 from new, but if you have, perhaps you recall it putting out great light back then? Those lights are good if aimed correctly.

Glass can be a problem if it is dirty or scratched (while plastic lenses will go hazy with age), and block a lot of output and could also cause glare.

Post up some good pics of both headlights and we'll see

[allan 295]

Have to agree with Yuen on the HID item these need to be fitted with the proper components for them to work correctly. One needs to be careful also as you can run into W.O.F trouble fitting HID kits something I read on the land transport site about it. As regards my problem in the process of checking with a few other forums at the moment about the pros and cons of Xenon,s etc. If I decide to go Xenon will replace the headlights completely have seen some hella's for around $900.00 US

If yours is the face lift it should have some thing like this fitted

I had to get stuck into my left head light as it had some scratches's and a little cloudy after doing that it did improve the light quality. Found this a while back are you game to try it cheers Allan

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=2485084

[Yuen 16]

By the way, the July issue of Total BMW has an article about replacing broken adjusters in the E39 headlights, have a look. It also mentions that the facelift Angel Eyes lights do not have replacement adjusters from BMW, but CA Automotive in the UK sells metal versions of them for 42 pounds per set in the UK. Someone mentioned to me before that the metal ones have led to too much head conduction and making the plastic bits that join up to the metal adjusters go bad, I don't know if that's true though. If you want to go with plastic, go for the ones sold at Odometergears.com:

http://www.odometergears.com/subpages/bmw.html

It's a little more pricey, but hey, I guess it's closer to the originals if you are more comfortable with that. As far as I'm aware, these are the only 2 aftermarket producers of the facelift adjusters.

[w0lfy 0]

You're welcome. Can you take a picture of your lights? It can only be the bulb, the projector, or the glass (or was it plastic on the E39 ones, I can't remember).

Don't go for Arctic White lamps or whatever they call those things nowadays. Any halogen bulb with any form of tint on it (Arctic White is blue tinted to give out white light IIRC) will have decreased output due to the tint not letting 100% of light through. Your eyes may perceive them to be brighter due to them being more white, but if you look at the road surface you will see less output. There are halogen bulbs out there that are not tinted and claim to put out more light, such as Osram Silverstar, and they actually do... but the increase is quite marginal and is not worth the premium you pay to buy them.

The only way to get a significant increase in lumens now is to go for HIDs, but beware of putting HIDs in a halogen headlight because the headlight was not made for that - the beam may be funny (certain headlights work better than others, I'm sure you've seen plenty of older cars with HID kits stuck in the halogen headlights and glaring the hell out of other drivers). That's how HID got a bad name.

H7 puts out more lumens than H1 bulbs and my E36 has H1, and is putting out plenty of light. I have taken the lights apart before and cleaned the projector and the outside glass. I'm not sure if you've owned the E39 from new, but if you have, perhaps you recall it putting out great light back then? Those lights are good if aimed correctly.

Glass can be a problem if it is dirty or scratched (while plastic lenses will go hazy with age), and block a lot of output and could also cause glare.

Post up some good pics of both headlights and we'll see

Hi Yeun,sorry for late reply,the lights look exactly like the ones in the picture below that Alan has posted.

[Yuen 16]

hey w0lfy, I know that's what they look like but thought maybe I could spot any problems with your actual headlights through some close-up pictures

[jochen 4]

Hi ,on my facelift 2001 E39's there seems to be a lack of forward headlight vision.

Reading some of the forums suggests this is a common problem.

The forward vision seems to be low on the road compared to other vehicle i drive which had a broad range.

I have had the lights angle tested from a mechanic which proved to be ok on my vehicle,What lamp improvements can be done to improve light throw.

Hi Willi

Similar issue with my 1997 E39.

Here's what I did

a) fit new front glase, as the old one was crazed and no longer clear

fix the broken headlight adjusters :-)

c) align the lights myself

d) get a WOF - and the lights got re-aligned. I watched what he did - he aligns on low beam only, and it's a rather rough and ready alignment, because his initial height reference is very coarse

e) decided the alignment was crap (too low), so compared to my Honda Odyssey. Realigned vertical height and horizontal direction so that the beams were parallel, and the low beam was pointing as far as the Odyssey

f) now its much much better :-)

[w0lfy 0]

Hi Willi

Similar issue with my 1997 E39.

Here's what I did

a) fit new front glase, as the old one was crazed and no longer clear

fix the broken headlight adjusters :-)

c) align the lights myself

d) get a WOF - and the lights got re-aligned. I watched what he did - he aligns on low beam only, and it's a rather rough and ready alignment, because his initial height reference is very coarse

e) decided the alignment was crap (too low), so compared to my Honda Odyssey. Realigned vertical height and horizontal direction so that the beams were parallel, and the low beam was pointing as far as the Odyssey

f) now its much much better :-)

Cheers for that,just had mine realigned and its made a difference,the mechanic raised them slightly above WOF level but not as far as to shine in oncoming traffic,alot better.Thanks for your reply.

Wolfy.

[aliluya 0]

Hey just wondering, does the high beams have their own adjusters also?

I have the facelift E39 and the low beams are perfectly fine but i find the high beams to be pretty CRAP.

Any way i can improve this?

Would installing HID in the high beams be a good idea?

I'm not talking about the fact that they are illegal, but performance, upside and downsides.

Also how are those Philips 50% brighter/further bulbs at repco? On special at the moment for $50 instead of $85.

Thanks

[Yuen 16]

IIRC, the 2 adjusters are for adjusting the whole chrome reflector so any adjustment will affect both low and high beam. Hence why there's only 2 adjustment screws - one for vertical and one for horizontal adjustment. Been a while since I've looked at the E39 lights though so that's based off memory.

As for putting HIDs in high beam, no that would not be good, because the ballast will likely die prematurely due to being turned on and off constantly from 'flash to pass'. But if your use of high beam is on back roads where you can turn them on for extended periods of time, then no problem. Cars that do use xenon for the high beam have bi-xenon where the same projector is used for both high and low beam.

[aliluya 0]

IIRC, the 2 adjusters are for adjusting the whole chrome reflector so any adjustment will affect both low and high beam. Hence why there's only 2 adjustment screws - one for vertical and one for horizontal adjustment. Been a while since I've looked at the E39 lights though so that's based off memory.

As for putting HIDs in high beam, no that would not be good, because the ballast will likely die prematurely due to being turned on and off constantly from 'flash to pass'. But if your use of high beam is on back roads where you can turn them on for extended periods of time, then no problem. Cars that do use xenon for the high beam have bi-xenon where the same projector is used for both high and low beam.

Yeah i know, i had bi-xenon's in my last car. And it was great, but in the E39 the high beams are crappy halogen bulbs that seems to point tooo low, or is only focusing in one point, it's pretty crap anyway.

[mtk540 3]

Here's what I did

a) fit new front glase, as the old one was crazed and no longer clear

Hi Jochen

I'm going crazy trying to clean my polycarb units as they are scratched and hazy.

Did you just replace the lens with glass ones? Where did you get them from and is it an easy job for someone thats not very DIY (!) I'd rather replace the lens cover than spend $450 - $750 on new units.

Mike

[camera doctor 25]

By the way, the July issue of Total BMW has an article about replacing broken adjusters in the E39 headlights, have a look.

Any chance of you posting a scan of his article?

[Yuen 16]

Sorry, didn't buy it - saw it when I was browsing at the bookshop.

[camera doctor 25]

Looking at getting a set of 'Xenon' LowBeams from www.jimmy540i.com - anybody used these - are they worth it? High beam is fine, just lowbeam is dangerously dim!