BMW Lighting – Easy and Safe
One of the modifications that you can make to your BMW that will provide you with an almost immediate and noticeable effect is to improve or upgrade your car or SUV’s lighting system. There are a number of different ways that you can improve the safety of your vehicle by adding a much brighter and clearer lighting system. Better still, many of these options also convey a unique and attractive look to your vehicle that sets it apart from other stock rides. Lighting upgrades truly offer the best of both worlds when it comes to stretching your modification buck as far as possible.
Let’s take a look at some of the most popular and most effective lighting upgrades available on the market.
Corner Lenses and Turn Signals
Your BMW was designed in Europe by German engineers. This means that the European influence is easy to see in almost every area of its look – including the lights. Unlike North America, most countries in the E.U. have never required amber-colored turn signal lenses, either on the front or the rear of the car. These were added on to all BMW’s destined to be shipped across the Atlantic to the United States, in order to meet the regulations imposed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
If you own a BMW hailing from the 1990’s – specifically, a E30, E34, E36, E39 or even an E46 – you might have seen a car just like yours in a tuner magazine that swapped out the clunky orange turn signals and installed Euro clear lenses. You may also have seen some cars with darker paint schemes that make use of smoked or almost completely blacked-out taillights and turn signals.
There is no doubt that this retrofitted Euro look adds a serious dose of style to a BMW, one that is far more true to the original design of the vehicle. You may have been tempted to have this particular modification done to your own vehicle, but have held back because you weren’t sure how expensive or difficult it was to perform.
If you fall into the category of drivers who secretly crave Euro corner lenses on their car, you are in luck – this modification is one of the least expensive and easiest to perform out of all lighting upgrades. In the vast majority of cases, it’s as simple as undoing a few screws holding in each light and then pulling it off the side of your car and replacing it with the clear or smoked version. That’s it. For BMW’s, the modification is almost completely plug and play.
There are a couple of things to watch out for when performing this type of installation. The first is to be aware of your local laws regarding turn signals – most states have no issue with a clear corner lens as long as the bulb inside is amber when it illuminates. You also want to make sure that you don’t go for the lowest of the low priced lenses. Some of the cheaper models won’t fit properly due to poor quality control. No one wants an ugly, ill-fitting light hanging off the front or back of their car.
Stealth Bulbs
Now that you’ve got clear or smoked corner lenses on your car, let’s talk about a certain styling issue that is commonly associated with this lighting modification: the egg yolk look. There’s no denying that clear lenses look great, but if the bulb hiding behind that lens is bright orange, it definitely dilutes some of the cool factor.
Since amber turn signals are the law in almost all parts of the country, how can you get around this particular fashion faux pas? The answer is surprisingly simple: Stealth Bulbs. Manufactured by Stealth Auto, these legendary turn signal bulbs are a perfect match for any clear or smoked corner lens thanks to an ingenious design that renders them almost completely invisible when not lit.
That’s right – “Stealth” isn’t just a brand name in this case, it’s an accurate description of exactly how the product works. Stealth Bulbs use a silver coating that helps to hide the bulb in the fixture when it isn’t in use. When it’s time to flick on your turn signals, the bulb glows bright amber, meeting all applicable laws. How does it work? A special metallic coating is applied to the bulb itself that hides the amber color from the outside, but lets light shine through when the filament is activated. This bulb is so advanced that it takes a specially hired NASA contractor to correctly apply the coating.
Stealth Bulbs are a great and inexpensive way to dress up your BMW and take full advantage of your Euro styling.
Angel Eyes / Halo’s
One of BMW’s primary styling tools for years was the use of four round headlights on almost every one of their vehicles. In the 1990’s, the company switched to round lamps enclosed behind rectangular housings, and then after the dawn of the new millennium more sculpted, body-integrated headlight housings came into favor.
Despite this design evolution, the company decided to pay tribute to its heritage by installing glowing round rings – two to a side – around each of the headlights on select editions of its cars. Called Angel Eyes or Halo’s by the aftermarket community, the effect was stunning especially at twilight: a gentle illumination that accented the natural beauty of BMW’s light design.
It wasn’t long before owners of new BMW’s that didn’t offer this feature, as well as those who owned older models that predated Angel Eyes began to clamor for the ability to install a similar set of lights in their cars. In short order, an entire range of replacement Halo lights became available for almost every model built by BMW in the past 25 years.
Installing Angel Eyes is a bit more involved than the other modifications mentioned in this chapter. You will have to remove your current set of headlights and replace them entirely with new ones that feature the Halo look. Depending upon which BMW you own, this can be a fairly complicated procedure that might entail disassembling some of the front body trim and removing the grille. If you are uncomfortable with the idea of removing that many parts from your car, you can usually have these lights installed by a local mechanic or independent BMW shop for a very reasonable price. After all, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t enjoy the same hot look enjoyed by newer BMW’s at a fraction of the cost.
HID’s – High Intensity Discharge Lights
The ultimate lighting modification that you can make to your ultimate driving machine is to replace your standard headlights with an HID system. High Intensity Discharge lights differ from standard headlights in that they use an arc of electricity sealed in an ionized gas – usually xenon – instead of a filament to produce a very bright and natural looking light. If that sounds a bit complicated, don’t worry – you are already familiar with HID lights. They are the bright, white-looking headlights you come across in the other lane when driving at night, the ones that outperform the standard bulbs in your car by a fair margin.
Installing HID lights makes sense both aesthetically and from a safety point of view – not only do they look great, but they provide a much greater cone of visibility in the darkness, which lets you drive with increased peace of mind. Many BMW’s came with HID’s right from the factory, but for those that didn’t there are a number of kits available to retrofit them into almost any model.
Installing an HID kit is not an easy task. If you are comfortable with removing and installing the headlight assembly in your car, and you are comfortable adding in some extra wiring to your headlight harness, then you will probably be ok to tackle this type of job. If not, then it’s always a better idea to let a professional handle the installation and keep your headaches to a minimum.
Don’t be fooled by some of the “discount” packages out there - true HID lights are more than just a bulb. Many BMW’s already have stock projector lights, which means that they can accept HID kits that include bulbs, relays, a wiring harness and ballasts. Each BMW’s headlight wiring is a bit different, so you will need to make sure that you have the correct instructions for installing the kit you purchase in your specific car.
Keep in mind that you will need to find a safe place to mount both the relays and the ballasts. The ballasts, which are used to ignite and power xenon HID’s must be installed somewhere near your headlights in your engine bay. Another important consideration when installing HID’s in a BMW is that it might cause an error with your LKM module – the computer that controls and checks the status of your lighting system. Since HID bulbs don’t have a filament, they can often confuse the LKM into thinking that your headlights are actually burnt out, which leads to an error message being displayed on your car’s check control screen. Depending upon which BMW you install your lights in, there are a number of different wiring workarounds that can fool the LKM into thinking everything is working properly, such as installing special anti-flicker capacitors which are designed to help even out the current being provided by your stock headlight electrical system. You may also have to install larger light fuses to handle the extra draw of the HID ballasts.
After performing any headlight work – be it Angel Eyes installation or HID upgrade – make sure to double-check the aim of your lights so that they strike a nice balance between providing excellent, far-reaching illumination while still avoiding blinding the sightlines of other drivers. |