BMW E39 Xenon Adjusters

[bmw098342]

Hello friendly and helpful BMW people. Friend told me to post here with an MOT annoyance.

2003 E39 540 sailed through MOT apart from broken headlight adjusters on one side - lighting itself/electrics no problems. I understand the adjusters can be brittle and are a weak point on the E39s.

Garage is quoting £600 for an entire new unit + labour - saying the unit can't be taken apart and the plastic adjusters replaced only.

Googling tells me that :
pre facelift the unit could be opened and new adjusters installed
2001 onwards the light unit was sealed with some kind of epoxy which can be baked in the oven to soften..then opened and new adjusters installed
but in 2003 a new kind of epoxy was used which is impossible to open.

One creative solution is to dremel into the light unit but installing the adjusters through a small hole is nigh on impossible.

Any other bright ideas or am I stuffed for an entire new headlight unit?

Cheers

[Depthhoar]

Cutting an access hole and fitting new adjusters is a little awkward, not impossible.

There's a lot of useful info over on the BMW5 forum on this exact subject including one of my posts showing how I approached cutting an access hole.

Anyone with opposable thumbs can do it. I know this because I managed it!

[E-bmw]

I have personally successfully done this on the pre-f/l lights & once they are opened it is a doddle to do, so if the adjusters are available & would go for the Dremel option if they were mine and re-seal with epoxy/silicone on completion.

Alternatively I had an extremely similar (but not broken) issue with other lights on current Mini & did that one through the opening given by removing the bulb holder.

Simple answer is only you know what you are capable of & what you are willing to try, so have a close look & see, nothing to lose.

[d_a_n1979]

You can replace the adjusters, but they're a sod to do, more so on the un-splittable headlights that you have, so it will involve cutting and patience with small fiddly bits

Something I'm not good with at all

Both my OEM xenon Hella headlights were in great nick, but with busted adjusters.

I've replaced them with OEM Hella halogen headlights and retrofitted the xenons too them (it's all plug n play, you just need H7 to D2S adapters off ebay) and the headlights, both, we're £550 via Eurocarparts using their current discount code...

Worth bearing in mind as it's 4 bolts to remove both, refit the new ones, fit all the bulbs again and then take your car to an MOT station to get the beams aligned properly...

[DVandrews]

Did the adjusters on my 2001 E39 M5 with some aluminium replacements from EBay, I used a heat gun (very carefully) to remove the lenses and apart from that the job was a carrot. It can be done via a cut hatch but it is fiddly.

Dave

[d_a_n1979]

DVandrews said:

Did the adjusters on my 2001 E39 M5 with some aluminium replacements from EBay, I used a heat gun (very carefully) to remove the lenses and apart from that the job was a carrot. It can be done via a cut hatch but it is fiddly.

Dave

Yours will have baked apart, as they're early face-lift. Unfortunately the mid to late 2002 onwards E39s won't bake apart and it's either dremmel time to remove the lenses, port hole fix as suggested or replacement (easy, but not cheap).

IMO of the cars got decent value (M5, young low mileage 540i or 530i etc) replacing IMO is a decent option

[bmw098342]

Thanks for all replies. Seems like baking is out.

I'll investigate dremel..

d_a_n1979 said:

IMO of the cars got decent value (M5, young low mileage 540i or 530i etc) replacing IMO is a decent option

2003 540 Auto 45k miles...

[seiben]

I had to do this on my FL E39. It’s a bit of a ball-ache, but you CAN do it without opening the light up. Here’s the vid I followed:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JnRPg5o45Ik&t=2s

Couple of hints I learnt:

1 - get the right torx drive as a single unit. If you use a generic socket driver with a torx bit it may be too fat to reach the internal bits you need.

2 - make use of the RHD/LHD beam adjuster under the plastic cover. The above vid is from the US where they didn’t have these, and taking it off gives you much better access to one of the adjusters.

From memory it took me about an hour all in, and wasn’t really that bad. Just be methodical.

[Eddieslofart]

Chuck em in the oven, they split fine. Easy fix. You Tube it.

[d_a_n1979]

Eddieslofart said:

Chuck em in the oven, they split fine. Easy fix. You Tube it.

They don't, that's the issue. The later E39 headlights won't come apart, even if backed. That's why the port hole fixes are suggested, or even more vicious, the dremmel comes out to get them separated

They used a different type of bonding that doesn't loosen upon heat unfortunately

[naturalaspiration]

Options are heating plus solvents plus tools (Google permaseal removal tool)

[wolfie1978]

I've done this on my old e39 facelift, both sides on mine were broken. Take the headlight unit out and leave somewhere warm for a few hours an airing cupboard is ideal if you have one. Once warmed up the bonding will soften and you can pull them apart just don't break the tabs off, there is no need to attack them with a dremmel

[d_a_n1979]

wolfie1978 said:

I've done this on my old e39 facelift, both sides on mine were broken. Take the headlight unit out and leave somewhere warm for a few hours an airing cupboard is ideal if you have one. Once warmed up the bonding will soften and you can pull them apart just don't break the tabs off, there is no need to attack them with a dremmel

Again; the OPs headlights cannot be baked apart; in the later E39s (very late 2002 to the 2003 models) BMW used a different bonding type which cannot be baked apart; your headlights were probably the softer bonding used in the earlier facelift headlights.

There is lots of info re these headlights via Google on Bimmerforums.com and such like; well worth reading