Hello and welcome back to my second official install guide/tutorial write up.
So there was always one thing about my M3 that I wanted to change and that was my headlights. I fricken love the LCI headlights and think they are genuinely one of the best looking lights ever made. However, after a quick google I realised that those mfs genuine are selling for 6 bands!
Now I'm no genius, but for 6 bands I can buy me a whole other car. So then I left that thought. Then someone hit me up saying they can get me reps for like $1200 or so. It got me thinking, I'm getting reps, which are probably made in China and still paying over a grand. Must be outta my mind. That was when I made the decision to go straight to the supplier. I saw a random post on my IG a while back from vetted suppliers and he apparently does like verification and all trying to make sure that the supplier is the most legit. So I kind of trusted his word and got in contact with the supplier (shoutout Vivian from SJC Auto on alibaba).
After a bit of talks and somewhat verifying the lights are the right ones, I took the risk and bought em. (Keep reading to find the price at the end, or u can just scroll all the way down and see it anyways if ur attention span is not good enough to read).
After a patient month of waiting and hoping the ship with my lights doesn't sink, I got news that they were in Melbourne and passed customs. A day or two later they were at my house. Straight up, I was expecting the worst. I didn't even think they would arrive lol.
After a couple days working hard at my 9-5 #stuckintheratrace, it was a Friday night and I thought, let's do it, how long can it take. (Oh boy). So I get to removing my fender liner first by doing Pilates with my hands because I didn't want to remove the wheel (take the wheel off, trust me), then disconnected my lip and undertray from the bumper. A solid 10 screws. Then, I moved on to disconnecting the screws on the top of the bumper and gave it a little tug. Until it slightly popped off and realised I forgot to unplug my cameras/sensors and the headlight washer unit.
The plugs came out nice and easy but the headlight water unit was a drag, and then when I disconnect the dog, it started leaking the blinker fluid everywhere. There was no way to stop it so I filled up my bucket lmao. After a while it was empty so I removed my bumper fully. Now you would think that all that is left is the lights so should be quick 10 mins. No. I have no idea why BMW decided to put loctite, RED loctite on the rubbish as torx head bolts.
It took me a a whole hour just on one side after I broke my bracket to try access the nut on the back and they hold it and somehow get the rubbish as bolt off. Now, because I had no faith in the lights, I thought let me chuck one on to see if it even works. Simple enough I connect a wire and turn it lights on to see if it works. The wire didn't reach. For some reason, the headlights I bought, or maybe it'd all IKON lights have the headlight plug at a lower and further towards the front of the car position.
Now it's like 11pm and I'm stressing. Wtf am I going to do. I couldn't leave my car like that in case I needed it the next day, and I don't have a proper shed where I can leave it in pulled apart like that. So I take some videos of the issue and send to my g Vivian and got to putting the car back together.
Its late and I'm feeling defeated so I go on the forums and ask some people if they knew how I could extend this cable (I was thisss close to chopping my look and extending it, but my brother said ur crazy, just by an extension one. Thank god he stopped me). Now some people said they have done this before and there is just enough slack u can get if you slice the cover and disconnect some zip ties etc. I honestly could not see how would get it to reach so I did some analysis. Even after that I wasn't convinced but though stuff let's try it.
So the next day, I pulled the car apart again and got rid of all the loom tape and zip ties, separated the headlight wires from the rest of it and re-routed it from under my air box and somehow it actually reached. You do not understand how relieved I was.
I'm back in a good mood and said let's fricken get this finished up, so I wrap up the right side and it's time for the left. You won't believe it. The mf bolt was seized on this side too! So another hour of hacking at my headlight brackets and putting my arm in angles it ain't meant to be, I got it free. And then similar thing on this side, u gotta cut one zip tie, and then the look reaches. It's a lot easier as you do not need to open up any loom tape, etc.
Finally got both sides on and was cheesing until I go to put the bumper back on. Shit doesn't fit. The headlights are in the way. However, I used my engineering brain to come to the conclusion that they need to be adjusted. For some reason, not a single install video had this part covered. Nor does mine but that is why im saying it here ahahah. It was a pain and I just wanted it on so I forgot about even recording.
The best way to do it is leave all the bolts on the headlight loose, put ur bumper on and bolt it in where it needs to be, and then tighten all the headlight bolts and screws. It took a couple tries and a couple adjustments but it worked (ish). Not the most perfect fitment, but it was a best as I could get it and was good enough in my opinion. Then finally I just reverse the order of what I did while dismantling, put everything back on close the hood and realise I have a weird gap from my bumper and hood. It's late, I can't be stuffed, so I just thought, she'll be right and just enjoyed the new look. Eventually I will fix the bumper with some washers to space it up or so, but for now I have worked enough on this car ahaha.
So yeah, that is it. A proper (maybe) installation guide on how to fit LCI headlights onto your BMW F80 M3. (Word of wisdom: Take off your wheels, because if you don't, you will still need to in order to get to the inside headlight bolt).
Oh also, apparently you need to have a seperate ground or something, mine already had it as they were the xenon, adaptive lights (I think) so it was pretty much a plug and play for me :)
Thank you for reading. If you are going to try this, drop a comment below how it goes. I wish you the best of luck. You will need it.
0 comments