Post
by MarshMA10 » Mon Jan 08, 2024 3:05 pm
Well, the weekend saw a test fit / trial run of the Chinese lights. I'm busy with a lot of DIY for the house at the moment--but found an hour or two...........outside, at 2 degrees C!
Installation of lights
Firstly I'd say - it's extremely easy removing and refitting the lights. With the roof in service mode you can have the plastics, carpets and light itself out within 10 minutes I'd say. Swapping lights should not be a task anyone has any concerns about doing at home. All you need is a screwdriver and an 8mm socket. The first investigation will take a bit longer as you work out where the various fixings are but the 2nd installation is a zip.
Discoveries on my car
I discovered someone has tried to silicone the old lights into this car, quite unsuccessfully, as the silicone detached from the flexible rubber grommet/seals. My car, being fairly old, has the 3-bolt pattern lights which the new lights do not offer, and I gather BMW recommend refitting your lights with only 2 bolts now to reduce lens cracking/separation, even when using standard lights.
Review of new lights
The new lights are very well manufactured and fit in easily. The locating pins at the rear-wheel end of the light fit snuggly and as OEM. The bolts line up with the bodywork 100% and the threads are identical to stock. Captive nuts from existing light work well.
The finished look is superb, and modern factory looking. I suspect 90% of road users would not know these were aftermarket. The turn signals are sequential, the DRLs are enormous, and the rear fog and brake lights look excellent. They are very 'OEM+' looking. I have not yet had a chance to test the reverse light in the darkness (will try it this evening).
There is a setting on the lights to switch on/off the 'start up animation', which is a sort of sweep illumination in the DRLs. It's very modern-looking but possibly a bit cheesy/chintzy. For now I've left it on. Initial impression is that I'd leave it on. It doesn't look out of place for the car, in my view. I'll try to upload a video soon.
Downsides
As the photos will show, there is a bit of a risk with water ingress from the new light fittings. The (very brief) instruction A4 says you should, "remove the original lamp baffle and install it on the modified lamp", which I attempted numerous times, both retaining and removing the factory supplied foam on the new light rear side. The modified lamps rear casing is not the same as the standard lights rear casing, i.e. nowhere for the original seals to clip in to, and some different angles in the plastics. The only way to make this work would be by modifying the standard seal piece with some cutting. Even so, I do not think it would form a watertight seal. That being said it does not need to, as the modified lamp is fully watertight on its own. I am going to contact the sellers via AliExpress and see what they say - they have already replied to one message, so let's see.
The question that remains is how well (if at all) the new lights seal the holes in the bodywork. I suspect they do not seal it meaningfully. There are a number of potential solutions to this. Off the top of my head, I could:
- butcher the original lights rear plastic pieces, by cutting the rubber element out of the plastic element, and compressing it between new lamp and bodywork to achieve a seal. I'd probably want some broken standard lights to butcher for this purpose rather than my own.
- utilise a simple rubber tube/hose piece around the edge of the bodywork hole, compressed by the light fitting. This would likely yield a decent seal but is imprecise.
Next Steps
I'll test them for better or worse in a week or two's weather, and enjoy indicating left like the good ole days, and I am interested to see if the reverse lights on these are actually meaningful lights (which will really help, where I live, which has no street lighting)
In the mean time I'll send my stock lights off to Clive for disassembly and refurbishment, so that I have options.
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Attachments
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- New lights, switched off
- IMG_3523.JPEG (258.57 KiB) Viewed 235 times
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- Compressing original seal to new light
- IMG_3519.JPEG (254.74 KiB) Viewed 235 times
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- Original seal inside
- IMG_3515.JPEG (170.14 KiB) Viewed 235 times
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- Original seal detached
- IMG_3514.JPEG (218.73 KiB) Viewed 235 times
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- New and old lights and seals
- IMG_3513.JPEG (320.85 KiB) Viewed 235 times
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- Interior with new light fitted
- IMG_3511.JPEG (177 KiB) Viewed 235 times
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- Exterior with old light removed
- IMG_3505.JPEG (158.03 KiB) Viewed 235 times
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- Interior with old light
- IMG_3499.JPEG (172.09 KiB) Viewed 235 times
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- Roof in service mode
- IMG_3498.JPEG (268.18 KiB) Viewed 235 times
Last edited by
MarshMA10 on Mon Jan 08, 2024 3:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
