Dillion,

Miniz gave some great advice, the housings he posted even with halogen bulbs in it will put better light output on the road than that cheap Chinese junk you posted.

I saw an x on the road with those lights once and almost threw up. You could also spend 350 on the depo set from eBay, I will post a link but dtmDan has them on his e53 and they are great quality.

It all depends on what you are after, if you are installing hid, etc. if you just want to have new headlights for the look and nothing else, don't want to mess with swapping projectors etc, and would like ease of install, probably the Depos for 350 will be your best bet, the angel eyes are hooked up easily and they drop right in.

The ones miniz posted are phenomenal looking housings, however you need to wire the angel eyes up yourself (they don't come with a wire harness)

Enough said!
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/n...psebd35fbe.jpg
I like to show off the old girl once in awhile :D

<3 tmv

She is the reason I sprung for the projector fog housings and inspired me to get a set of those headlights for my X!

Wow, tmv, that looks great! Did you build those?

I don't see any depo lights on eBay for $350, most are $600+, maybe I'm just not looking at the right thing? HIDs would be nice, but mostly I'm just after the look. I want my X to look a little more "modern" basically. If that comes with a brighter light output, then great! If not, no worries, the factory ones are adequate when it comes to output, if you ask me. I'm handy with wiring (as long as there are instructions / wiring diagrams), and wouldn't mind building something custom, if it's worth it. I'd probably have to see comparison pictures.

Edit: I'm still sorta confused about why the ones I posted are junk, and the black ones aren't. Is it just the bulb (H1 vs. H7)?

Dillon, the ones tmv had on the old 3.0 were the exact same housings as these, no modifications. They come with CCFL angel eye rings, just need to wire them up to whatever circuit you want (most do them as DRL, but you also can wire them to function as parking lights). He added an H7 HID kit to the lowbeam projector but that's it.

Black 01 03 BMW E53 x5 Halo Projector Headlights Lamp Pair Lights Left Right Set | eBay

Miniz built a set of these, disassembled them and put RS6 projectors in, along with other mods, here is his build thread:

http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...black-eye.html

He was selling the entire setup a while back as well, for about 400-450 or so if I recall correctly. However, he might be keeping them now, I think he is going to college soon, but he did an awesome job on his.


As I am trying to be the guy to give you all the answers young Padawan, here are the Depo "modernized" headlights, which also have a projector which accepts an H7 bulb. Currently these versions are on ebay which is $430 and has LED amber blinkers, it looks okay, but the other version with "crystal clear" corners pops up from time to time, its $350, can be found in the below links.

00 03 BMW E53 x5 Angel Eye Projector Headlights Black | eBay

Depo 00 03 BMW E53 x5 Halo Halogen Ellipsoid Headlamps LED Corner Signal Lamps | eBay


Now, the bulb type does not really matter H1 or H7, its the optics of the projector, the quality of bulbs being used, etc. I will post up pics of the housings you posted and you already see above on the black ones that tmv used to have and Miniz Guy used for their setups, and you tell me that the first ones you posted don't look like crap, wayyyyyy too busy with the turn signal section, the 3 dots above the turn signal, the strip above the low/high beams, and the chrome just screams aftermarket. tmv and miniz have used a quality looking aftermarket set which can be had for around $210, or you could go up to Depo's which are $350 and $430 respectively.

All while staying within my original title of the thread which was what alternatives do we have instead of paying 600 for Depo sets with LED angel eye rings.



http://i.ebayimg.com/t/01-03-BMW-X5-...LPg~~60_12.JPG

RB gave you all the answer you need, DillionInCO. I was in your shoes when trying to find a more updated headlights for the pre-facelift model. I'm not after the greatest light output. Aftermarket HID kit in a projector (even Halogen projectors) is good enough for me.
I wouldn't even glance at those aftermarkets like the one in quote. Yuck! ;puke; Can't scream aftermarket "RICE" any louder than those.
Depo headlights are overpriced, IMO. Plus, I don't like those lines around the projectors at all. I was very excited when I found the ones I had on the old SAV. They look 95% stock with AEs and clear corner.

Keep it classy.

+1000 !!!

RB and tmv are the headlight masters... :bow::bow::bow::bow:

Awesome info, thanks guys!! Truth be told I just pulled one of the random eBay auctions, I didn't notice the LED strip at the top or the picture of them on the car (yuck). Those black ones look like the way to go. Although it's odd to me that they're also the cheapest.

^Because there're more "ricers" out there :bustingup

I see a lot of mention of my lights now. This is how they looked right before I took the X5 to college for this year. I removed the yellow tint on the AE's and removed the amber tint on the corner lens. I did burn out one inner AE so I unplugged both inner ones and just have the outer ones on for now.

No leaks. I didn't even use extra butyl glue on the housing for the 3 or so times I've baked these lights. I will be opening them up again and throwing working AE's on next summer back from college.

If you guys have any questions, just ask me here. I'm still around now that I've sold the M5 and am driving the X5 again.

Really, to complete my look requires a $20 set of clear sidemarkers and aggressive wheels. I won't do the wheels as the 17's are comfortable and tires are cheaper.