E85 Aftermarket Headlights - A new option?

[Lucidnonsence]

Over the years and after owning 4 Z4's ( E85 & E86 ) angel eye headlights have have alwasy been something that everyone wanted.
Why oh why did'nt BMW do angel eyes from new? Anyway, I know they have been made for halogen cars for years, but recently a few have started to appear for factory Xenon cars? Is this a new thing or I am reading the product listing incorrectly?

Has anyone who has a 03-06 pre LCI E85 with factory xenons every tried these?

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006 ... ry_from%3A

[steve69]

I've not fitted, but i've got a set of 2Xcite's pre-facelift angel eye headlights on order right now: https://2xcite.co.uk/products/bmw-z4-an ... ghts-black

Looking at the listing and the photos of the back of the unit, I reckon you've found their Taiwanese supplier, they look identical to me! The images are at slightly different angles, but all the details are spot on the same I reckon.

They don't seem to have a xenon HID offering though, which is interesting..

S

[Lucidnonsence]

That's what I thought : the 2Xcite ones. But they were always only for halogen cars and NEVER for OEM Xenon

[steve69]

Purely hypothetical but I imagine BMW shipped a lot more halogen motors than xenon, I guess 2xcite may have decided only to import and brand halogen units to fit demand?

[Lucidnonsence]

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006 ... 21im%21%21

Been speaking to these guys about the headlights and they do offer a Xenon version! And they say they will fit! Not sure if these are the 2Xcite ones or not??

[solo_the_lad]

I built my own angel eyes/ brows which turned out pretty nice. You'll notice there is only a single ring on each side, which is because the high beam shroud area is not very accommodating for a halo because of its sloped shape. I also got some larger high quality halo's that are pretty thick, and they covered too much of the inside beam path of the high beams. After a ton of cutting and melting of plastic, reshaping, etc, I was able to get a single halo to fit straight and flush, on the low beams. It was a very involved job and these headlights are very difficult to remove the inside components, its like Tetris in there. They are hardwired to the battery, with a relay wired to a fuse tap to come on automatically. I hardwired them after originally attempting to wire them to the headlights themselves, which failed. They are switchback halo's technically, but the ECU did not like the new addition whatsoever, even after some programming attempts from a third party company. Thus I decided to bypass the switchback function and just use them as halo's

82F78CB1-BDCA-49E2-AB28-6790A8FE324C.jpg (38.45 KiB) Viewed 363 times

035DE2AB-E1CF-45E7-8937-579A1FD26522.jpeg (203.6 KiB) Viewed 363 times

[steve69]

Nice work on the lights. Since putting on the 2 xcite angel eyes i wish i went diy, quality is very 'cheap chinesey' imo.

That body kit looks mad! Is that a custom job? Looks like the Japanese e85 kit?

I reckon you've got to jump on modding up the foglights next

[solo_the_lad]

Nice work on the lights. Since putting on the 2 xcite angel eyes i wish i went diy, quality is very 'cheap chinesey' imo.

That body kit looks mad! Is that a custom job? Looks like the Japanese e85 kit?

I reckon you've got to jump on modding up the foglights next

Thanks mate, yeah I'm glad I went DIY, the goal was to keep it looking OEM as possible with the headlights. And yes its all a totally custom aero kit, mostly parts I make out of carbon, some retrofitted and modified, etc. Agreed on the foglight, not really sure what to do with them though. Considering just getting some yellow LED's...

[JulesW]

Just to chip in here, I ordered replacement lights from Spyder in the US (although I suspect all the various versions come out of the same factory). Having moved to France from the UK with my Z4M, I wanted to change my original Xenon lights which weren't in a great state for something more suitable for driving on the right in Europe. OEM Xenon replacements now seem to be 1000 GBP per side now, hence my reason for taking a punt on Spyder. Their website clearly states there are Xenon and Halogen compatible versions although all versions ultimately have a Halogen output regardless of the OEM spec and should be plug and play. However my Z4M is currently at the garage and the mechanic is saying these units definitelty won't work with the Xenon wiring loom in the car. I've double checked my order with Spyder and I definitely ordered the items than said they were for Xenon equipped cars, so maybe I got sent the wrong versions. In the meantime I would be interested to know of anyone who has successfully fitted any non OEM replacement units to a Xenon equipped car. As a temporary solution, my mechanic has restored my original OEM Xenon lights and refitted them, so not a complete bust, but the performance is really poor with the blanking plate down although interstingly ok to get through the French Controle Technique road worthiness test

[Lucidnonsence]

The spyder ones seem to be the same as the xcite and seem to be the same as the new ones i found on aliexpress. Interestimg that both Spyder & the ones on Ali BOTH say there are two versions: OEM xenon & OEM Halogen. So my question would be the same as JulesW above:

Has anyone replaced OEN xenons with anything other than OEM xenons?

[kis]

I've had aftermarket on the e46 and thought great, plug and play angel eyes, brand new etc. Lasted about a year, although I was doing circa 20k miles pa back then. As above, the quality isn't great considering what you pay for them.

Assuming yours are in bad shape, but still functional I'd recommend a cut & shut mod. James (IamOrion) did a post a few years back now. But that's the steps I've followed. I've seen halogen headlight prices drop recently on ebay to as little as £100 per unit. If you source good condition halogens you can transfer the internal xenon parts over. Or now you can even get new replacement lens units from ebay and the like. Worthwhile keeping OEM and modding/refurbishing - IMO.