BMW E36 Blog

Replacing BMW E36 Headlights … DIY

11th June 2012

Replacing BMW E36 Headlights … DIY

 

Hello,

If you’ve seen my BMW E36 pictures before, you’d know that I have low quality Chinese headlights. When I bought the car, I knew these headlights are not the best (lighting-wise), but I kinda liked the way they looked and of course the angel eyes with blue circles added to that look. So, I thought that I can’t replace them easily while keeping the car looking as good as it looked back then.

With time, these headlights started to show the marks of age and since they’re made of plastic, they were deteriorating fast. A month or may be 2 ago when I showed you that BMW E36 Headlights Guide, I thought to myself that may be it’s time that I replace those old-dusty-looking headlights with some original ones that are made of glass (this was my top priority). Headlights can be of huge effect on whether the car looks nice or looks old. Since glass headlights are not affected by time (at least, they are better at that than plastic), I made up my mind to get those glass headlights.

Replacing the old headlights with the new stock ones was very easy. If you care to learn how to do it, the most important thing is to keep in mind that there are 5 screws that will hold a headlight in place in BMW E36 cars.

Take a look at this picture. 3 screws at the top and 2 at the sides (bottom).

Lucky me, I found that my old headlights were using only 2 of the top screws to hold the headlight and the two at the sides were missing. So, I removed the 2 screws and the old headlights came out right away.


There was one catch here which made me realize how lucky I am, otherwise, this replacement task would’ve become a nightmare. The guy who changed the old stock headlights with these one-piece headlights was smart enough not to cut the sockets that were designed to plug into the original stock headlights. Instead, he scratched the wires and used auxiliary wires to connect the headlight wires with the old one-piece headlights. So, this meant that in order to restore everything to its original shape, I had to remove those auxiliary wires and tape the scratched wires. After that, I’ll just plug the sockets into the stock headlights and I’m done.

That’s exactly what I did. Then, I put the headlight in the correct place and slide it there carefully.

Before each headlight sits perfectly in its position, I connected the sockets to the the headlight.

Installing the turn signals was very easy too. The signal light with its socket will fit into the new stock turn signals perfectly. I didn’t have to do anything in there. Just plug them and you’re good to go.

Notice that you’ll have to be extra careful when sliding the turn signals to the side of the headlight. Never ever try to force it into position. If you’ve installed everything correctly, the turn signals will slide in perfectly with small pushing power.

Next, I’ll post about delensing my headlights, but for now, I’ll leave you with these two pictures of the new stock headlights

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posted in Do It Yourself, Electrical, Exterior, Photos, Technical Info, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

25th April 2012

BMW E36 with Corvette Engine – Art

 
Hi Guys,

I’ve found some beautiful pictures of a BMW E36 that’s being modified to install a Corvette engine as a replacement of the original engine. The images have been modified by Captain Kimo here and those are the resulting images. Very cool:-




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posted in Photos, Uncategorized | Comments Off on BMW E36 with Corvette Engine – Art

14th January 2009

Miss January 2009 . . . Great!

 

Hello guys,

Jeremiah was very kind to send me some pictures of his 1999 BMW E36 M3 with its hardtop on. Honestly, this is a very nice car indeed and as he said in his own words about the hardtop:

I think it makes the car look really low and aggressive and I love how much it improves the overall handling / stiffness of the drive.

With that being said, I decided to feature it as Miss January 2009 as it’s a very good example of how a well-maintained BMW E36 (M3) should look like. I hope you like it:




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posted in E36 M3, Exterior, Models, Photos, Uncategorized | 7 Comments

30th December 2008

Miss December 2008 . . . Great!

 

Hello guys,

It’s time for a new model for the month of December 2008. I believe I’m a little bit late with this post as I decided long time ago to make these posts in the beginning of the month or at least in the middle but not at the end. I guess this month is a special case and I hope you’ll forgive me for that. Take a look at this cool car. It’s really nice and I’m sure many will kill just to get one with such clean exterior and interior. Take a look… Can you beat that?


   



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posted in Exterior, Interior, Models, Photos, Tips & Tricks, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

21st December 2008

BMW E36 Collection . . . Cool!

 

Hi Guys,

I’ve found this video for a nice collection of BMW E36 cars with various exterior modifications. So, for those of you who want to modify their cars, I guess, you can steel some ideas from this video. I hope you find it useful.

Take a look:-




 

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posted in Exterior, Photos, Tips & Tricks, Uncategorized, Videos | Comments Off on BMW E36 Collection . . . Cool!