This guide will show you how to modify your stock E53 Pre-Facelift headlights and add the well-known Angel eyes / Halo's most of us love.
It's not very hard and can be done in 1 or 2 days depending on skill.
I used the Cotton LED Rings of Ebay, when ordering please pay attention because they sell two kinds of LED Rings, either the Cotton ones or just the regular SMD Led Rings. Both will function the same but will appear a little bit different when on and off.
Parts Used:
E53 Cotton LED Rings (
Link to exact item I used)
Window sealant about (310 ml / 9.8 oz)
Tools:
Flashlight
Philips head screwdriver
6 or 8mm socket
Gloves
Multimeter
Extra Tip: This is the moment when you can check or fix your automatic headlight levelling motors. Mine were loose or broken.
Your headlight rubber seal to the hood might crumble off, part number 5 in below picture. OEM nr 63128386711 + 63128386712
Step 1:
Open the hood / bonnet. Remove 2x 8mm bolt screws holding in the top part of the headlight. Now use a flashlight and look straight down and locate bolt screw no. 8 in below picture. Do the same for the other headlight.
Step 2:
Unclip the wires and now you should be able to remove the headlight
Step 3:
Remove these two screws
Step 4:
Use a heatgun around the edge of the plastic lens to soften up the glue and carefully try to take off the lens. A little force might be needed.
Optional:
The amber reflector can either stay or be removed based on your local laws. I deleted them. They are held on with glue and can be broken off very easy.
Step 5:
Remove the black plastic piece. There are many small torq screws hidden inside the glue. To remove the black plastic you must take them all off. Reheating the glue will make this easier.
Optional:
Remove the 2 torq screws to take off the indicator reflector.
Optional:
The inner lenses on the black piece can be taken out or stay, depending on what you like better. I removed them, they are just held on by the metal clips.
I painted the black piece to get it looking even darker.
Step 6:
Now grab your Halo kit and get them taped in the correct positions. If you chose to keep the inner lenses you can use the adhesive backing of the Halo's and stick them on.
Step 7:
Once the Halo's are in the correct position use window sealant or some kind of strong adhesive to secure them fully to the back edge. Windscreen sealant will work good here. It's the same stuff we need later to seal the lens back on.
Optional:
I decided to paint the reflective side of the indicator lens black, otherwise there would be too much chrome for my liking.
Step 8: If you haven't already, take a look at your headlight levelling motors and check if they are still connected. Both of mine were disconnected so there was no levelling at all. Now is the time to fix this.
Step 9:
Put the indicator lens back in and put the black piece with the halo's back in. Make sure you feed the wires through a hole. I deleted the parking lights so I used this hole but you can make a new hole too. When the wires are in their correct position make sure you seal the hole so water wont get in.
Step 10:
Time to get the lens back on. First heat up the outside of the housing to get the glue soft again, now use a black or clear window sealant in the crevice where the lens will sit. Warning: if you use too much sealant it might make it's way inside the lens. Make sure the inside of the lens is clean because you don't want to take it off again.
Now put the lens back on and put the screws back in behind the indicator. To make sure you have a good seal use your finger to even out the sealant.
Step 11: Give the sealant some time to dry and after a while put the headlights back in it's place and connect the original wiring.
Step 12:
Wiring. The kit comes complete with wiring and instructions. It's not very hard but a multimeter will be very usefull to make sure you have the correct wire.
I recommend to take off your wipers and cowl to gain access to the fuse box on the left side of the engine bay. You can place the relay in there and tap in a + wire for constant 12v from inside the fuse box(Should be red/yellow or red/white, please use a multimeter to make sure).
Ground wire, speaks for itself, bolted to the chassis. Will probably bolt up to a location that is already used as a ground.
If you want them to turn on when unlocking your car with the key you can connect the other red wire to a dome light wire. This wire is located inside the car and should be blue&red. For instance you can use the wire that powers the passenger footwell light.
The last wire (color might vary) can be either wired to the parking lights(might throw a bulb out warning on the dash because of LEDs) or to a ignition switched wire(this is how I did it). If you wire them to the ignition they will be permanently turned on when the engine is running.
Note: The relay that I got with my kit was not working, I had to replace it with a new one.
I think this covers all steps and optional steps. If you have any questions please ask!
I can do this mod for you if you don't want to do it yourself. I'm in The Netherlands.
Results:
My rubber seals crumbled off so I had to order new ones. This part will hide the sealant edge so everything will look OEM once in place. OEM nr 63128386711 + 63128386712.
