X5SND, I've got no side marker lights at night, but now the car looks just like the new Bimmers where they just have lowbeam and angel eyes on the front, so its odd to see, but its what BMW is doing to their new model from factory.
I've thought about the sidemarkers at night and wondered if it a problem, but look at it like this, when you are driving at night and you see oncoming traffic, you rarely ever see their signal lights anyhow cause you're blinded by the lowbeam. And since I drive with lights ON at night, the lowbeams will tell a vehicle that I'm "there", of course. Its just a sleeker look, in my opinion.

Or have the best of both worlds. Turn off the DRLs then wire the AEs to be on when ignition is powered.

http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...eyes-drls.html

that would be cool, but i don't think i have the guts to start messing around with the wiring...want to make a road trip to canada and help me? :rofl:

just kidding

oh a serious note, you've a lot of documentation on your DIY, i might actually do it! Thanks for the link!

Definitely Looks like the most promising bulb swap solution so far! Maybe it's just me, but that pic on the driveway looks more like overcast than true "day light" (aka a sunny day)....its rather dark, and the number of clouds reflected on the front window look to confirm this. I'm optimistic, just not sold on these. :)

First bold section: Even the new BM's have amber front corner ID (aka side marker) lights somewhere in the headlamp housing. They may have crystal (white) corners in the housing, but when the lights are on, there will be a light marking the corner which will be amber. Take a read through the FMVSS 108/ CMVSS 108 (.1) and you see why.;)

Second bold section: The side markers aren't so much for seeing oncoming traffic at a distance (that's what headlights are for) as they are to clearly identify the corner of a vehicle in close proximity.

I think there are some laws around having amber side markers...

Neither am i... sounds like there might be some overheating issues with the ballasts...i am going to wait and see how it pans out...it's still better then any other light bulb solution out there...I think your retrofit is the best one when it comes to results, though...:thumbup:

Its actually pretty simple but I probably made it look harder than it is. :D

Basically there's a positive & negative on each side. You keep the negative stock wiring. Just add wiring from the positive of the angel eyes to a power source - in my case to the ECU box under the hood.

That's pretty much it! :rofl:

these are in the US... i had OE euro headlight assemblies on my E39, and there was not a provision for a sidemarker light shining to the side - if you look at the US facelifted E39s, you will see yellow LED shining to the side of the road from the headlight... on euro version, there was not even a place to install yellow, blue or green anything...

i did not mess with the headlights of E53, as that car had to be back to the US and the Customs and border would not let the car back in with clear corners and no yellow in the front quaters of the car...


once i get the XP machine fixed (waiting on new hard drive, and a set of XP Pro disks, as my back up turned to be Vista), i will try to see if the side turn signal markers can be programmed to be lit at all the times, thus, satisfying the law man!!!

Ha, when you put it like that - makes it sound a lot more simpler... similar in some respect to the e46 retrofit that i did before...if that's what it is - its not that bad then... i'll have to see if i can find lights bright enough that i can ran as DRLs...Are you running AEs as DRLs? if yes, what kind?

I have the discontinued AngeliBrights and they are not that bright. With those 25w I will reserve my opinion until others chime in.

From my experience, any AE replacement bulbs always look super bright in pics but not in real life. Look at my avatar. Does that look super bright to you?

Guess what, in real life they are NOT even close to being that bright. :rofl: