Old vs. new...

Just wanted to show how different the new parts will be compared to what will be taken out.

Euro style will be the lighting theme, the main difference being white lenses in place of amber. But turn lights are legally required to be flashed in amber as a safety measure, so amber bulbs will go in instead of clear. The picture below shows the new white side markers with the packing box they were shipped in. On the old amber lenses, cracks can be seen on both their bottom edges.


The front foglamps were pretty well beaten up but this is not surprising considering the fact that they are located underneath the bumper and constantly subjected to road debris. The lenses were both cracked and sandblasted so nothing was salvageable except for the bulbs. Or so I thought. When I removed the bulbs, I found out that they were the 100W type instead of the specified 55W. In theory, light output will be greater but after a while, the housing gets damaged from the higher heat generated and subsequently affects the structure of the reflectors. Light is not transmitted as designed with the end result being poorer illumination from a scattered beam. No wonder the plastic case was particularly brittle and the wire insulation starting to peel off. Given a bit more time, this could have led to heavy electrical damage. The xenon bulbs which were installed are actually good so I will keep them for future use. I considered getting a pair of JDM Yellow bulbs but I thought they were too expensive so I am sticking to stock Bosch H1s.

Various warnings about a tailight failure keep coming up on the dashboard computer everytime the engine is switched on or off.  A visual check showed all the lights to be working properly so I could not find any reason for them.  While swapping out the bulbs, I noticed that one was in particularly bad shape and in which even the holder was very much corroded.  I am guessing that this was the source as a resulting short circuit would have been highly likely.  The only time I can find out if it is indeed the case is when I get back the car with the lights back in place.

As far as I can tell, the lights I am discarding are still the factory installed originals. All are marked with the logos of Hella and BMW, not just Hella as my new ones are. Whatever flaws are the result of 17 years of wear and tear. An inspection of the mounting points in the car's body still shows no sign of any accident damage and remains consistent with previous observations that such is the case.

Another great sign...