The Headlight fiasco

When I first decided to get an M135i to repair, I wanted to change the front end to a 2 series front end. I just preferred the look of that than the pre-LCI front of the F20 1 series.


Pre LCI

 LCI

 2 series

As the only difference between these is the headlights, bumper and brackets and seeing how my car was in need of all three, this was a good opportunity.

Swapped

Nice right?

This plan was put in check but the fact that my car was built with adaptive headlights. For those who don't know, adaptive headlights basically turn left or right depending on the direction of steering. The idea is to improve visibility whilst cornering.

BMW Adaptive headlights demo


As good as all that sounds, it becomes a royal pain when trying to find a replacement. As you can imagine they would be quite rare as not a commonly specified option (across the 3 front ends above).

Part numbers

So it would be challenging....

No, it would be more than that. The headlights used on most modern BMWs are made under license by Hella. And in the almighty wisdom of both companies the BMW part number is not stamped/printed on the headlight (anywhere).

Above is the label on the remnant of the driver's headlight on my car. The BMW part number for the driver's side adaptive headlight is 63 11 7 296 908. This is nowhere to be found. The 1ZS number is the Hella part number but it does not appear on their system as they are BMW OEM parts. The lower number on the right is the part number everyone else seems to use 7229694-11.

Searching the breakers & eBay gives you loads of headlights with 7229688-11 which is the standard BMW Xenon headlight - BMW part number 63 11 7 296 912 (not what I want).

FUN FACT: BMW headlight a steering side specific. The RL designates right hand drive. LL would be Left hand drive. Separate parts for each. Certain countries also have specific headlight requirements also and will also get their own part.

Because of this confusing setup many people are selling Xenon headlights as adaptive (also they think their adaptive due to the light auto levelling). I've seen a few incorrectly advertised.

Brand new the AHLs are £634 each without any modules. I managed to confirm the correct part numbers with the help of the guys on the owners group on facebook, so at least know what to look for.

As of writing this I found an single AHL advertised incorrectly going cheap so snapped that up. Just need the passenger side.

Modules

The other part of this are the various modules connected to the headlight in order to make them work.

• Driver module
• Xenon control unit (ballast)
• Xenon Bulb with igniter
• LED modules

Across the different front ends i considered, not all of these parts were shared i.e. the LED modules. All the parts i salvaged from my headlights appear to be in good working order. So with that in mine it would make sense to put the intended headlights back on the car to keep costs down.