Lights upgrade for a 2002 525i

[jochen 4]

I must admit that I really cannot understand this fascination with indicator bulbs that have no orange colour in them

Given that they have to illuminate orange, why do people get in such a bother to try and get rid of all orange colour when they are off?

What is the driving factor here?

I've had cars with orange indicator lights all my life and they've always looked good.

In fact, I think a bit of colour in the tail and headlights looks nice....

[Yuen 16]

The absence of the amber a more unified look to cars that already have clear lights when they aren't illuminated so the car looks that little bit better. Though nowadays it's so common that it's refreshing to see a good looking car with the amber lights still on, provides some contrast and a bit of an 'old school' feel.

[elmarco 56]

Hi Avenged.SSE,

Lighting 101: a bulb filament produces white light, and you need to filter that to give an amber signal (white light is all colours combined). In the case of the OEM indicators on your 525, the amber lens filters the white light to amber. Changing this to a clear lens means you need an amber bulb (the glass of the bulb is amber and doing the filtering). What makes this difficult is amber bulbs use a different coding pattern than white bulbs - so changing may require not only new lenses and bulbs but a new wiring harness as well.

Sanding the lens will do nothing except ruin a perfectly good lamp - the plastic is amber all the way through. It is not a coating. Indicators must be amber (by law) - using a white P21W bulb with a clear lens is actually illegal...

Xenon lamps must have a washer system and Yuen is 100% correct in the reason for this is to ensure the glare to other drivers is minimised (Xenon lamps have incredible intensity although they are only 35W - the light is much the same as an arc welder). Likewise for the self leveling system, although I'm not sure if the standard sensors will operate Xenon lamps (if your car even has them). In NZ you need to conform to the Australian Design Rules (ADR's), which for most applications are the same as the ECE (European) regulations – requiring washer systems and self leveling.

The OEM lamps (Hella I believe) are pretty damn good as standard - not like the dark ages of the 70's, 80's and early 90's. And as Allan says, Xenon is kind of pricey if you are after aesthetics alone - not only are the bulbs super expensive, but so are the ballasts and they are all computer controlled (not only in the vehicle’s body computer, but they have their own smarts as well). If you are dead set on changing the headlamps, call Hella and ask them what’s available - they specialise in automotive lighting. And if you need more high beam herbs on the open road, fit some aftermarket driving lights (Hella should be able to help out with that too)....