Free Form to Ellipsoid Conversion
Free Form Headlight to Ellipsoid Conversion
BMW has used projector headlights (aka "ellipsoid headlights") in their cars for some time. The E34 5 Series cars are no different. Although initially offering the cars with ellipsoids, for whatever reason, in 1990, BMW built a series of E34s without ellipsoids before changing back to ellipsoids shortly thereafter. If you're like me, you got a car with the non-ellipsoids.
There are various reasons for why ellipsoids are better, the main reason is that it has a better beam pattern. The "free form" headlights project the light in a dispersed and scattered manner. The ellipsoids are more focused and provide a horizontal cut-off, which is supposed to help put more light on the road in front of you as well as keep you from blinding oncoming cars with your headlights. As a side benefit, this cut off will let you use upgraded bulbs without blinding oncoming traffic.
There's a difference between the European spec ellipsoids and the US spec ellipsoids and depending on who you ask, you'll get different opinions as to which ones are better. The European ones are E-code headlights and rather than a flat horizontal cut off, it rises at a 45 degree angle towards the passenger side of the vehicle. This is supposed to help illuminate roadsigns. I like E-code lights better. But, I wanted my car to look as OEM as possible, and that means US market OEM. If you search the net, you'll see that the European ellipsoids are different and have an extra front "city light" and a "smilie" that is supposed to help illuminate the ground directly in front of the car.
In any case, there seems to be a lot of conflicting information as to whether those E34 cars that came without ellipsoid headlights, can be converted to an ellipsoid set-up, without having to change the complete headlight buckets. After asking many people, I finally got a definitive answer from someone that just went out and did it. So, taking that person's word for it, I ordered the replacement ellipsoid headlights and did it myself. Now I'll confirm it also: I did not need to change the buckets, and the ellipsoids mount up just fine. What you will need, are 6 updated clips to hold the headlights in. I went to the local dealer and told them I needed the clips for a 1992 M5. They're about $1 each.
Tools for the conversion will consist of a phillips screwdriver, a flathead screwdriver and a towel, a small flathead screwdriver and a long thin rod or whatever tool that you can find that will let you access the "hidden hole" to release the front grill. I used a long
3/4 inch drill bit .
So, here are my step-by-step instructions on how I changed out my free form headlights to ellipsoid headlghts:
Here's what you start with, free form headlights:
The first thing you have to do is source your ellipsoids. If you search on EBay, there is usually someone selling new European ellipsoids in a kit that includes new buckets with high beams also. It sounds like a good deal, at a "Buy It Now" price of just over $200. I decided to get the US market OEM ellipsoids so I ordered mine from BMA, which is a BMW parts supplier who has great prices. They're very friendly and answered all my questions. They were just a tad cheaper than Pacific BMW who also has very good prices on OEM BMW parts. I ordered and paid over the phone and got two ellipsoid lights shipped to me in a few days. The part numbers are:
63 12 1 382 395
63 12 1 382 396
One is the passenger side and one is the driver's side. I don't know which is which.
I'm just going to go over the driver side removal, since the passenger side removal is the same thing. First thing you want to do is remove the kidney grill. The removal of the kidney grill will also result in a removal of the "wings" underneath the headlights because it's all one piece. See here.
Once the kidney grill is removed, you must remove the left and right, secondary grills. Each secondary grill is held in place by four phillip screws with tabs. You may want to remove the tabs as well, so you don't lose them when you pull the secondary grill off. I removed just the top two because I couldn't reach the bottom two:
There is also a fifth phillip screw on the side that must be removed:
Once removed, the secondary grill looks like this (again, passenger side is the same process):
Using a small flathead screwdriver, remove the free form headlight. If you pry at the clip you should be able to pull the headlight loose:
Here are some pictures of the free forms versus the ellipsoids.
The ellipsoid brackets are different than the free forms. Curiously, the high
beam brackets were the same as the ellipsoids though:
Here is a picture of the old tab with the new ellipsoid light, you can see that it will not clip on correctly.
Here's a close-up of the old retaining clip versus the new one:
Swap over the chrome vanity rings from the free form headlights onto the
ellipsoids. They just slide right off and on:
Insert the new retaining clips into the ellipsoid brackets. They snap into
place. Then, mount the ellipsoids by pushing it onto the supporting rods.
That's basically it. Go out and adjust your headlights now, while the grills
are off. My headlights were way off, after putting the ellipsoids on. Once
they're aimed right, you can put everything back together. Installation of
every is the reverse of removal. Here's the after picture:
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