[Frobius]

Hi,

So I was fitting my lci lights yesterday and I managed to break the tab that the scrappy so kindly repaired. Oops! Guess they weren't that well fixed after all.

Rather than take the whole thing out to get the tab (which fell into the engine bay and I now can't find) plastic welded back on, I did a bit of searching.

It seems that these tabs are meant to break off easily to comply with crash regs or some such and so BMW have created a tab repair kit rather than have people fork it hundreds for new light housings. The kit says its for the E92 lights but there's no mention of a set for the E90/91. But then I found this thread:

*http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=523073

It shows a tab kit being used on lci lights.

This thread shows the part number but as I said, it seems to only be for e92 lights.

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=370095

Anyone used one of these kits before and if so can you confirm if the E92 kit will work on the E90 kit and if so, do the headlights need to be removed?

Ta.

[makkan00]

I am intereted to know this aswell.
My LCI headlight are here, but waiting for LED halo upgrade bulbs.

If you broke the lug, then it is very likely that I may suffer from the same issue....

[Frobius]

Well I took the car round to the local garage that does my MOTs and asked them to have a look at the headlight alignment. It was spot on and the tester reckoned that unless the lug meant that the headlamp wasn't secure, it wouldn't be a problem come MOT time.

I think for now, I will leave the broken lug as the headlamp is secure.

He also took the undertray off my car and found the broken lug, screwed it back in place so at least the light has something else to rest on. All is well!

What a shitter of a job swapping the lights over though.

I think one of mine is sitting slightly high (2mm maybe) but I'm damned if I am going through taking the bumper off and putting it on again any time soon!

[makkan00]

Frobious which lug did you break?

Also just wondering, how much they check to see the alignment of the beam?

The one I bought comes with two repaired lugs (both top one) and I am going to be very careful after reading your situation.

What about angel eye upgrade? Did you go for it?
Also I looked at transparent indicator bulbs, and they are damn expensive.

[Dr Dave]

Thats useful to know that a repair solution is available for this common problem

[Frobius]

Originally Posted by makkan00

Frobious which lug did you break?

Also just wondering, how much they check to see the alignment of the beam?

The one I bought comes with two repaired lugs (both top one) and I am going to be very careful after reading your situation.

What about angel eye upgrade? Did you go for it?
Also I looked at transparent indicator bulbs, and they are damn expensive.

Broke the near side top inner lug. It was broken when I got it and I broke the repair. I took it in specifically to check the alignment as they are a decent garage and I knew they wouldn't try and fuck me over.

I haven't bothered with the angel eye led conversion as I don't like the white rings. Even with the upgrade they don't look as good as LCI E92 angels. It's a lot of money to pay just to make them white. I actually like the yellow halogen light of the angels, it has nice contrast to the much whiter light of the .philips extreme vision headlights.

I was looking at silver bulbs too. If you look at MEGA's thread, the silver ones only came on the M3. All the other cars had orange. As such, the bulbs are hard to get without an M3 chassis number and they are 5 times the price. I think I'll stick with the orange ones for now.

When you're doing your lights, give yourself a good amount of time. I started at 3 pm and by the time I finished.. Around 6, it was bloody dark and now one of my headlights is a touch higher than I want it to be, leaving a couple millimetres extra gap underneath. The amount of work involved to fix it outweighs the look right now for me though. It can stay where it is!

[makkan00]

Thanks for your advice.
Will keep couple of hours for it.
How did you remove the hex screw underneath the headlight?
Did you take out the wheel arch as well?

[Frobius]

Depends which one you mean.

There are two next to the grille, easy, two on top, easy, one on the outer side, easy, one underneath and behind. Fucking nightmare.

I couldn't get it out at all, without pulling enough of the wheel well liner out that I could ge to the back screw attached to the headlight mount, further up in the wheel well than the two screws you remove to take the number off. Once that one was out,I could move the headlight enough to get a screwdriver behind the light and remove the back hex bolt.

This said, I have headlight washers and they really get in the way. I've got TIS and I had the bumper removal guide.. Should have looked up the headlight removal guide, but I'd put money in having to remove the washers.

[makkan00]

Originally Posted by Frobius

one underneath and behind. Fucking nightmare.

That is the one I asked for.
I was doing another job couple of weeks ago and since LCI light were on my list, therefore thought to remove the headlights.

All screws were taken out expect the underneath and behind one.

Could not figure out how should I undo it, because if I approached it from the back, and there was not enough space from the back...

Will try on monday or tuesday.

Thanks.