DIY: Yellow BMW High Beam Housings - e36/e46/e39

Builds
1

Ok, to preface this, I love the way yellow highs look especially on e34’s and e30’s. However I cannot stand fully yellow laminX headlights on e39’s, I personally just don’t think it looks good. Anyway I got a little bored tonight so I pulled the e39 headlights out and got to work. You need to remove them from the car (which I’m not going to cover here), and get them onto a table/bench/whatever and start taking them apart (this write up can also be used for e36/e46). There are a series of plastic clips around the headlight housing, stick a small flat blade screw driver underneath them and pry GENTLY upwards while pulling forward on the glass lens. It will come loose, be careful not to lose the rubber gasket that fits on the lens. Also please be aware if you have angle eyes they are wired into the front section of the lens you are removing, you need to reach in and carefully disconnect them before separating the two halves completely. (pictured below)

http://www.mturck.com/e39/DSCF6271.jpg

Next up you need to clean the high beam reflector. I used a diluted bit of 3M Brake clean and then very very lightly went over the reflector with a touch of FINE steel wool. Then mask of the high beam reflector and get ready to paint.

http://www.mturck.com/e39/DSCF6274.jpg

I prefer 3M painters tape (I’m a bit of a 3M product whore), tape off the housing really well, you definitely do not want over-spray on the low or the other reflector parts. Also remember to put some behind the housing where the bulb mounts to keep paint off of the electrical connections etc.

http://www.mturck.com/e39/DSCF6282.jpg

Apply several light coats of translucent yellow spray paint (I got mine in the toys/models department at “Michael’s craft store”) till desired color.

As they say in most of the horrible factory manual’s, installation is the reverse of removal:

http://www.mturck.com/e39/DSCF6286.jpg

More photos in the car with light output tomorrow.

2

Awesome, looks way better:tup:

3

will that not bake/fade/discolor from the bulb heat?

4

I’ve tested it once before on Lexan and it worked fine in close proximity to HID’s.

5

One more before going to sleep, new photos during the day and tomorrow evening.

http://www.mturck.com/e39/DSCF6296.jpg

Please excuse how dirty the car is, it’s winter in WNY after all and even washing it once a week it still looks like crap more often than not.

6

ooh, purty

7

what is the point of this other than aesthetics

8

I <3 my 3000k (yellow) HID fogs… sooo much better night visability

9

^ I understand fogs but, IDK how this helps the High Beams?

10

I liked the silver a lot better, but as long as you like it :tup:

11

Wow. That looks better than I thought it would. Nice job!

12

like stretched tires/rusted hoods… its a euro thing… :banghead:

13

^ Oh its a ricer mod

14

Clean looking “install”, if you can call it that. Nice job.

15

nice writeup Mike

16

Yellow has been proven to increase visible contrast to the eye when lights are needed. However yeah, I did it purely for aesthetics.

17

out of curiosity, how green do your 3000k hids look? a lot of people complain that when you’re looking at them they end up looking green because it’s almost impossible to get 3k from an HID. I’m looking to get some HID fogs, but I’m scared they’ll look too green.

example of 3k looking a little greenish:

18

mine are retardly yellow…

i bought them on ebay… as 6k HIDS, but they showed up mislabeled… i didnt notice until i installed them and had a WTF moment…

they look exactly like the lexus yellow …

and i have them in projector foglight housings, so i have a nice cutoff

19

Not only that, but yellow light produces less backscatter when shone on snow as compared to “white” light… less snowblindness. :smiley:

I have a set of amber Hellas that are finding their way on to my Legacy soon.

20

nice, what’s the brand?