Need advice: E39 Hella headlight

[ARR]

Seeking for advice from knowledgeable forummers. Suspect faulty vertical and horizontal adjustment of my E39 Hella headlight with angel eyes. Nothing happens when I turn the 2 screws meant for adjusting the height and spread on each side of the headlight. As a result the low beam is too low. Though the vertical adjustment from inside the car works, it will only make the beam lower as the default setting is already low. Given the heat generated and assuming those vertical/horizontal adjustment parts are made of plastic which may become brittle after a while, am wondering whether they are broken? If so, are these serviceable parts, i.e. repair kit available?

 

[eddiefiola]

arr, if the adjustment screw (especially the vertical one) has broken, u have to change the entire headlight. u cannot replace the vertical or horizontal adjustment screws. that's the bad thing about e39 headlights (with angel eyes).

but if your headlight is without angel eyes (the one using hb4 bulb for low beam), u can replace the adjustment screw if it is broken.

u can still use the headlights (with adjustment screw broken) but u can never get good coverage of your low beam lights.

 

[ARR]

eddiefiola;

Thks for sharing. This confirms my suspicion that the angel eyed hella can't be repaired. Looks like I have to consider forking out a couple of grand for a new pair of hellas. By the way, is the "depo" one worth considering?

 

[BMWE39KL]

Check For Sale Section - Depo RM400 - roland1888

Hi Arr,

There is a set of DEPO Angeleyes projector E39 second hand in the classified section for sale by roland1888.

Check with roland1888 if it is still available - I think it was for RM400 which is a good price.

Depo brand new at Damansara Uptown is ~RM1500 vs Hella OEM RM1950 per pair - so I would go for Hella if buying brand new. Both have 1 year warranty according to the shop.

Good luck - my original units suffered same problem where alignment cannot be made - original BMW is RM3500!!! from AB.

 

[ARR]

BMWE39KL;

So, did you change yours? Frankly, I will not spend money on the Depo as I have had bad experience with the Depo for E30 where water was seeping in from day 1 and the build quality was quite shoddy. Reason I asked was to find out whether the E39 Depo unit is of better quality.

 

[BMWE39KL]

I ended changing my lights - with AB as that was where I bought the car from a few days earlier - after a lot of discussion I paid RM1500/= while AB absorb the rest of the cost as the car was under warranty - 1 week warranty as it was a used BM over 4 years with ~123,000km.

It is certainly better now - if AB had not agreed to cover part of the cost of replacement I would get the OEM - Hella units which is RM1950/= that was the best price I could get from this shop link attached:-

http://www.spareparts.com.my/bomin/

The owner of this store has a brother who is a BM mechanic (ex AB Sg Besi I am told) that is convinently located next door so you can get him to change it for a fee - dont know what is the charge, or do it yourself.

I have read in the internet that you can try to dismantle the lights and replace the broken plastic holder so you may want to give it a try to save some money.

I have also upgraded my lights from standard Halogen bulb to Xenon HID 4300K OEM color which is brighter but I dont think as bright as Philips system.

Mine is a China made unit but quality of the unit seems pretty decent for the price. Beware as the standard halogen H7 bulb when retrofit with Xenon H7 base needs you to modify the bulb holder as well as building another relay/resistor pack to remove the "Headlight warning" on the dash.

Good luck!

 

[Victor320]

From personal experience, I have opened up the E39 (angel eyes) headlights to get to the broken adjusters. It's true that there BMW does not sell replacement plastic adjusters, which is really dumb. CA Automotive in the UK does a pair of metal ones (they look like the plastic ones, but they made a mold and cast them from metal) for about 40 pounds each side, so you're looking at around RM500. Way cheaper than buying a new set of lights.

I've heard that Depo isn't that bad. Personally if the RM400 Depo E39 lights were in good condition they are a bloody good deal.