E39 LED low beam and high beam and fogs

[mossline 15]

Morning everyone.

I wondered who has done an LED low beam, high beam and front fog LED upgrade on their E39 or other models?

[Eagle 1679]

By upgrade do you mean new housing replacements or just plugging in LED's into the factory stuff?

[mossline 15]

Plug and play or as best as into factory stuff

[mossline 15]

But that works and not proper bodge jobs

[Eagle 1679]

You'd have to replace your projectors\reflectors in headlight assembly with units designed for LED for it to be legal (assuming they meet the a recognized standards here in NZ)

Replacing existing bulbs in headlights and fogs with LED's is a bodge job because it's likely going to blind oncoming traffic, which is why its a WOF failure.

 

[allan 295]

To do this correctly it is not a cheap exercise have done it. Apart from the headlights being upgraded you will also have to obtain the sensors, linkage and wiring looms, control module. These signal suspension movement to the control module and the headlight motors to lower raise the light housing to avoid blinding any on coming vehicles. Around 4200 lumens is the temperture range from memeory in their xenon light set up. 

[Kiwi_BMW 89]

Retrofit the xenon factory lights, far superior to the factory halogen lights and it's plug and play for the lights, just code the light module accordingly.

[BreakMyWindow 1878]

On 10/23/2020 at 11:10 AM, Kiwi_BMW said:

Retrofit the xenon factory lights, far superior to the factory halogen lights and it's plug and play for the lights, just code the light module accordingly.

Not quite, i think you need the levelling sensor setup that connects to the lower front control arm. Plenty of scrapped E39's around though to be able to find all the parts.

[Eagle 1679]

Never had one in my old car. Just set mine to manual mode and adjusted them with the level control on 0. 

[Kiwi_BMW 89]

There are a number of vehicle fitted with xenon lights with no auto level adjusting as OEM equipment.

I was talking to someone the other day who imported a set of headlights from the USA and fitted them and they thought that was OK

[adro 1084]

On 10/30/2020 at 10:16 AM, Eagle said:

Never had one in my old car. Just set mine to manual mode and adjusted them with the level control on 0. 

I did the same although when coded as manual adjustment I’m pretty sure I lost the use of that dip knob to the left of the steering wheel. 

[Eagle 1679]

On 11/5/2020 at 3:31 PM, adro said:

I did the same although when coded as manual adjustment I’m pretty sure I lost the use of that dip knob to the left of the steering wheel. 

Cant recall if mine worked after, it well have. One of those features ive never used anyway.

[BreakMyWindow 1878]

Pretty sure in Europe if cars had xenons they needed automatic beam dip control hence to make it work nice and proper you'd want to retrofit the associated bits.

[freaknout 47]

57 minutes ago, BreakMyWindow said:

Pretty sure in Europe if cars had xenons they needed automatic beam dip control hence to make it work nice and proper you'd want to retrofit the associated bits.

Not sure about that. I believe what they require is auto-levelling and headlight washing.

[BreakMyWindow 1878]

5 hours ago, freaknout said:

Not sure about that. I believe what they require is auto-levelling and headlight washing.

Auto levelling is what i meant

[Kiwi_BMW 89]

On 11/10/2020 at 11:02 AM, BreakMyWindow said:

Pretty sure in Europe if cars had xenons they needed automatic beam dip control hence to make it work nice and proper you'd want to retrofit the associated bits.

Yes but I don't think NZ requires that.......or do they?

[Eagle 1679]

NZ is set and forget. You can fail for headlight adjustment being incorrect, get them aligned with low tyre pressures, go home pump them up, load up the family, chuck on the boat and be on your way.

Dont recall the self leveling retro fit being that simple wiring wise. I dont know how good the E39 system is reaction wise if its working correctly, having a load is one thing but going over undulating road it maybe useless.

[BreakMyWindow 1878]

7 hours ago, Kiwi_BMW said:

Yes but I don't think NZ requires that.......or do they?

Not required so long as they’re aimed properly for wof. It’s just if you wanted to do it nice and properly then fit the auto leveling system.

[Allanw 1072]

I fitted a genuine Xenon retrofit kit to our old E39... it came with a simplified levelling system, but I never fitted it ?

If you can find the bits, it was one sensor on the rear suspension and all the wiring and diagrams required. The factory fitted Xennons used 2 levelling sensors (one front, one rear), and isn't as easy to retrofit, because the LCM is different for levelling or not.