Alternative to Pre-Facelift Depo lights on Ebay for 600 bucks?

[Ricky Bobby]

Originally Posted by X5SND

Glad I could help!

I was just checking out the shrouds TRS has to offer... I think for the sake of (relatively) ease of installation and clean lines, you'd be best to stick to the E-55, Iris or either of the E-46 shrouds.

The other option that Ill throw out there is this: If you could figure out a way to put the Panamera shroud over your projectors, you could hide a XbA ring behind it and use just the outer sockets as your DRL....the highbeams reflectors would remain as is. It wouldn't have the traditional "4-ring" BMW look, but still think it would look great!
Here's the set I did for my sisters jeep with the ring behind the Panamera shroud for a DRL:

Check your PM, I have some interesting research I did, and although the Panamera idea is great I'm still going for an OEM+ look, so that may not work (although the above looks fantastic, I want to hire you to do mine!)

[powers1]

Originally Posted by Ricky Bobby

Just browsing Ebay.de today and if you look up "e53 xenon scheinwerfer" you come up with results like these, anywhere from 260-280 Euro:

BMW X5 E53 XENON SCHEINWERFER ANGEL EYES SCHWARZ D2S/H7+WEISSE BLINKER NEU 99-03 | eBay

These are basically the same as the Depo units sold on American ebay right? At 260 euro thats about 330, so almost 300 cheaper than what we can find in the states.

Only thing is they are standard angel eye rings (no LED xenon look) but those should have small LED's which might be removable and switchable for a crisp white version?


Now I'm not even really considering these, since my factory xenon are in mint shape and I have repair items and others to consider before I considered swapping my headlights, just wanted to hear what others thought and why the sold in America Depo P53 headlights range from 550-700 bucks? Is it because sellers are paying enormous fees to import them?

Just thought I would just answer your initial questions ,as Mrbmwx5,our headlight +++ specialist seems to be on holiday or just bored with 100s of posts on the subject
Those lights on your Ebay link are in fact Depos but for the European market where they have the yellow bulbs ,6 per AE and yes they do look like dots in broad daylight but look quite good and convincing otherwise and at dawn do have the OE yellow look.This is the only difference between the US Depo version.If you prefer the white AEs look ,buy AEs ON eBAY ,then open the Depos and swap the AEs.All for less than 300.00 euros.The Depos are very easy to open,I done some!
Going back to the Ebay link,its misleading how they are selling e53 pre-facelift Depos and then have a photo of facelift E53 with photochopped Depos from a pre-facelift ,blacked out

[Ricky Bobby]

Originally Posted by powers1

Just thought I would just answer your initial questions ,as Mrbmwx5,our headlight +++ specialist seems to be on holiday or just bored with 100s of posts on the subject
Those lights on your Ebay link are in fact Depos but for the European market where they have the yellow bulbs ,6 per AE and yes they do look like dots in broad daylight but look quite good and convincing otherwise and at dawn do have the OE yellow look.This is the only difference between the US Depo version.If you prefer the white AEs look ,buy AEs ON eBAY ,then open the Depos and swap the AEs.All for less than 300.00 euros.The Depos are very easy to open,I done some!
Going back to the Ebay link,its misleading how they are selling e53 pre-facelift Depos and then have a photo of facelift E53 with photochopped Depos from a pre-facelift ,blacked out

Thanks for the input, yes I saw those and they are for sale on US ebay for 350 delivered in USD, which is quite good. I would consider those as well as opening them up, putting in different angel eye rings, and swapping in a better projector.


Waiting to hear back from mrbmwx5 he was supposed to let me know what kind of headlights he had in storage that i could buy from him for a retrofit project!

[Ricky Bobby]

Bumping this thread,

I heard back from Spyder Auto yesterday, looks like those old popular headlights in black are out of stock with no expected ETA (the headlights guys used to use for retrofitting stock D2S system, look like facelift lights)

Only options I have for my project are to:

1) Get chrome version on ebay for 200 bucks, spray paint shroud black, do retrofit of choice

2) Mrbmwx5 has a set he would sell to me in black, but CCFL rings are broken on one headlight. I wouldn't mind sourcing LED rings, but does anyone who had the ebay headlights at one time or another (miniz guy would know) gotten a chance to measure the diameter of the angel eye rings so I can source a replacement?

[Ricky Bobby]

Bumping this thread,

I heard back from Spyder Auto yesterday, looks like those old popular headlights in black are out of stock with no expected ETA (the headlights guys used to use for retrofitting stock D2S system, look like facelift lights)

Only options I have for my project are to:

1) Get chrome version on ebay for 200 bucks, spray paint shroud black, do retrofit of choice

2) Mrbmwx5 has a set he would sell to me in black, but CCFL rings are broken on one headlight. I wouldn't mind sourcing LED rings, but does anyone who had the ebay headlights at one time or another (miniz guy would know) gotten a chance to measure the diameter of the angel eye rings so I can source a replacement?


For example I have found these LED rings, 2 of the 131mm and 2 of 145 mm in the E46-non HID package, I'd like someone to confirm the diameter of the rings on the spyder lights so I know whether I could use these?

LED BMW Angel Eyes Halo Ring For BMW E46 3 Series Non-HID headlights

[X5SND]

I'd say option 1. Albeit probably the more expensive route; at least you would have the same exact starting point for each housing. There's plenty of variables you can eliminate by doing it yourself start to finish. Especially when it comes to areas like the headlight----areas everyone see's!

[///M3Fresh]

X5SND just a quick question, I have plenty of experience in retrofitting fx-r's s2k's hella projectors etc. on different cars but I wanted to know about taking the headlight lenses off.

Mine is a build date of 6/03 and the lights have a date of 02-03/03. So I'm trying to verify that my lights are the permasealed ones? And if they are what has been the best way of taking them apart thus far? I was planning on using a heat gun and using a execto knife and working it off?

[Ricky Bobby]

Originally Posted by ///M3Fresh

X5SND just a quick question, I have plenty of experience in retrofitting fx-r's s2k's hella projectors etc. on different cars but I wanted to know about taking the headlight lenses off.

Mine is a build date of 6/03 and the lights have a date of 02-03/03. So I'm trying to verify that my lights are the permasealed ones? And if they are what has been the best way of taking them apart thus far? I was planning on using a heat gun and using a execto knife and working it off?

they are permaseals, 10/02 or so was the cutoff.

No one has documented opening pre-facelift permasealed lights yet, Spencer (X5SND) has done the facelifts though.


You could use a dremel with cut off wheel carefully, but you'd probably want to use a more permanent adhesive when resealing. The method known to work thus far is a lot of time, patience, heating, picking and prying.

[Ricky Bobby]

put a bid on these today:

Black 01 03 BMW E53 x5 CCFL Halo Projector Headlights Lights Left Right | eBay


It's the black version so I wouldn't have to paint, seller says minor scuffs and scratches on the lens (nothing plastX couldn't fix), and halos don't power up (maybe faulty ballasts?)

Either way they are getting opened up if I win them so minor scuffs aren't a big deal, I just emailed the seller to make sure there weren't any cracks or breaks inside the lens, and if the CCFL rings were intact. If so I'd try to get those working, if not I'll source an LED equivalent ring.

[fmugur]

Did you end up buying the lights?

How bad would these look on?
Depo 00 03 BMW E53 x5 D2S Xenon HID Headlight LED Angel Halo LED Corner Signal | eBay
First time they came out I really hated them but I am not sure anymore. I never seen an X with them. What do you guys think?

I know a few guys got the original depo lights but I am not a big fan of the corner plastic texture in there. It might be just me or the way it looks in the pictures.

Depo 2000 03 BMW E53 x5 UHP LED Halo Xenon HID D2S Headlight Auto Level CCFL | eBay

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