BMW E36 - CCFL Angel Eyes DIY

Seen these bad boys online over the last few months always wanted some. You can buy complete new headlight units, but they often look shit and cost anywhere between £150-300. Also half of these aren't very bright so during the daytime you can't see the Angel Eyes.

The ones I bought, are an upgrade to standard BMW E36 headlights. They're normally about £50 but I got them for £25 with free delivery on Ebay! They're called CCFL (cold cathode fluorescent lamps) and are brigher than LED's meaning that they show up in daylight and are Xenon bright at night. The basis is that you place the CCFL Rings inside your sidelight/full beam lens, and attach them to your sidelight wiring. Sounds easy, but its a complicated and risky task, as if it goes wrong worst case scenario is that you end up with needed a new headlight unit (£50!)

Me and James H carried out this upgrade just over a week ago on my Beamer and think the end result was fantastic, but it was a bit scary seeing the car without any headlight units in place!

Here's how its done.

First, you need to remove your headlight units from your car, consult your BMW manual for this, or have a look here

After doing this, you need to remove the lense cover from your headlight unit.

Use a flat blade screwdrive and remove the 4 metal clips on the top and also the two smaller clips, one on top and one on bottom. Then you'll have this

Carefully place the CCFL rings inside the lenses, they will need to be very lightly pressed and maybe slightly bent, but be very careful as they're made of glass.

Then place masking tape in a few places to hold the rings in place. Follow this by putting silicon adhesive in the places shown below, then leave to dry for 45 minutes.

While the CCFL Angel Eye rings are setting into place, you can get on with the wiring. Remove the back covers on the headlight unit. Soldering in an option for connecting the new power invertor pack, or you can use bullet connectors. Basically anything that will hold 2 or 3 copper wires together securely.

Join the RED wire (positive) from the power pack to the GREY wire (positive) from the headlamp side light circuit.

Join the BROWN wire (earth) from the power pack to the BROWN wire (earth) from the headlamp side light circuit. Check that all connections are secure.

Next part is carefully putting the lens cover back onto the headlight unit.

You need to bring the wiring through the top of the headlight units so the wires come out of the back.

Now after double-checking the connections are all secure, you can slot the power packs inside the headlight unit.

Then put all the covers back on.

Re-assemble the headlights and indicators onto your car carefully, and you are done!

Thanks to the 'Eclipse' manual for some of the photos.