It appears that my headlights are taking a crap on me. The cheaply made connections on the back have fallen off and one of my headlights is now out. I tried to glue it back on and it was great for a while, 'till it fell right off again. The terminal is all glued and soldered and impossible to remove (my attempts to fix it) and I figure it's just a lot less headache to get a set of OEM-style Euro smiley lights that I like and install those. Does anyone have any they're willing to sell? Or, what does everyone think of these: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/_Car-Truck-Parts-Accessories__BMW-E30-SMILEY-ELLIPSOID-PROJECTOR-EURO-Headlights-M3_W0QQitemZ200285646194QQadiZ2865QQadnZCarQ20Q26Q20TruckQ20PartsQ20Q26Q20AccessoriesQQcmdZViewItemQQptZMotors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories?hash=item200285646194&_trksid=p4506.c0.m245&_trkparms=72%3A543|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318 The lense is glass, which is similar to my headlights, and doesn't look entirely OEM but instead OEM-style aftermarkets. I know they're not OEM, but would this be a good set to throw in there?
Lol, I love how they say you can see the "quality" (his quotes) in the pictures. They do look good on a car and I have had my hands on a pair of originals before. They look OK from here, but I would be worried that you will end up with the same "quality" that you have now.
Well, my current headlights are from the same seller, only I have the Angel Eyes version. But, the problems I have right now are the result of my idiot brother not using the connectors that came with the kit. Noooo, instead he decided to hook up the wires directly to the pin connectors instead of using the ready-made connectors that come with the kit. Now, because of his foolishness, the wires have bent enough to put stress on the connector and the wires fell out of their crimped connectors and it's almost impossible to put them back now that I have tried to "repair" it. So at the moment I have hooked up, as a temporary solution, alligator clips that connect the pins and the wires. Let's see how temporary that will be. In essence, the failure of my wiring is my brother's fault.
Those made by Depo? I have seen less than quality stuff from them (the wiring harnesses look very familiar.) Anyhow, the smileys do look good on the cars. Why didn't they just give them to us?
Either buy true Hella smileys preferable the smoked ones or Hella H4/H1s. A place called Abraham Motorsports use to sell them (Smoked Smileys). But I can't seem to find them on the web any more. Their site was http://www.abrahammotorsports.com/ For the best bang for your buck. Get Hella H4/H1s. They will plug and play with your original connectors and they produce great light. BMPDesign and BavAuto sells them. But you can get them cheaper if you Google in the shopping section. They are glass and are very high quality. No disappointments. They are basically what came on the early E30s and all older than 87 BMWs. You can then upgrade with these bulbs. http://www.autolamps-online.com/halogen/visionplus1.htm This is the set up I run in both my E30s. GR
Sorry for the late reply. I wanted to make a thread about this but remembered that I already did... Yes, the lights I linked to on eBay are made by Depo, or I assume they are as the angel eye lights I bought from the same seller were made by Depo. I believe this is their site: http://www.abrahamsmotorsport.com/ But their prices are absolutely horrendous. I think the units are new and that's fine, but I'm not going to pay almost $500 for a pair of headlights. BavAuto doesn't sell the smileys, or at least they don't show up when I enter any year E30. I didn't see any on BMP's site either, but their site is horrible to browse. It isn't very well organized. The ONLY source that I can find for the smileys are on eBay, and those are the Depo units; new, but not OEM. Other than that, there is only one set of smiley's I see for sale, but the owner is 1) asking a bit higher than what I'm willing to pay for them 2) aren't in perfect condition for the price he's asking 3) is only selling to local people and will not ship and 4) are smoked. Once again, does anyone on here have a pair of smileys for sale?
I have, but there aren't too many for sale on their either. There were 0 auctions that had any English in them, so I assume none of them were willing to ship to the USA. I did find one, but those are yellow and I don't want the yellow ones.
Perhaps we had different search terms, but I searched for both "E30 smiley" and "E30 licht". The first one yielded a single auction for a pair of yellow smileys. They accept foreign bidders, but I don't want yellow ones. Besides, they cost too much (after shipping). The second search for "E30 licht" turned up only one pair again, being sold as separate left and right. This also would probably cost too much after you consider that their auction isn't in English and the shipping charges would rack up quite nicely per auction, making the shipping kill the deal. I only say some of the auctions are in English because there are those one or two sellers who realize there are lots of Americans wanting to buy stuff from Germany. I look for the auctions that say "Foreign bidders welcome" or something to that effect. After all, that is how I got my four Euroweaves; an auction that had someone say "Foreign bidders welcome" in English, meaning they speak English. Currently, there aren't any of those apart from the yellow ones, which I don't want.
In the mean time, you may be able to pick up a pair of ellipsoids (US) from a salvage yard. I realize that it's probably freezing where you're at now, but you never know what you could find on the cheap. I've come across many sets of stock ellips and one set of smileys, (although at the time I didn't know what they were so I didn't grab them). That's how I got rid of my old sealed beams, set me back about $25. Then you could just wait for a new set of smileys to come up on this side of the pond.
There's no point to spending money on Ellipsoids if I already have 'em. I have the ricey kind, the one with angel eyes built in. I want to get rid of the cheap-looking 'eyes (bad illumination, poor execution of a good idea, IMO) and get smileys with the city light instead, so I could still get away with driving for a while without my headlights on if possible, as long as it's not dark outside. I really like the look of smileys, and it would make the car that much more unique, as smileys are rare. I'm kind of Euro'izing my car, despite not having Euro bumpers, and I'm making an effort to turn this car into what I want it to be. I might go the eBay aftermarket smiley route. I know it's also made by the same people who made my angel-eye lights, but the angel eyes really are the only thing I don't like about my lights. Not because they're angel eyes, but because they're very badly made. Four obvious illumination points can be seen at night and they can't be seen at all when on during the day. So, since I've no complaints about the other aspects of the light, I'm thinking I can't go wrong with the new aftermarket ones I saw on eBay. The only difference between those and OEM is that the lenses are clear glass, so it doesn't look as factory as I'd like, but I think I can live with that... unless someone here wants to me sell me theirs? As far as the junkyards go around here, there are no E30's here where I live. There are maybe 3 or 4 running examples in the entire city that I've seen, but none of them are in decent condition because people just don't care about E30's here. As a result, there are no E30's in the junkyards either here. They're simply a rarity.
I just browsed eBay again and found something in this country: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...Track=true&ssPageName=VIP:Watchlink:middle:us Does anyone think these are the real deal? I know that the OEM smileys are Hella, but are these as close as it gets to OEM? These are slightly different from the one I was thinking of buying. These look closer to OEM but are also made by Depo. Paul, you said you didn't like Depo's that much? Are they all that bad?
Interesting, why would not want to drive with the headlights on as late as possible? I turn my headlights on day or night, regardless of time of day. There is a reason motorcycles have required daytime running lights for years and most new cars have running lights.
You might try out-of-State recyclers such as Double 02 Salvage (advertizes in Roundel, I think). I buy from them often. http://www.double02salvage.com/
It's one of those things that irritates me. I hate daytime running lights; if you can't see a car or motorcycle during the day, you shouldn't be driving. But, at the same time, I go nuts if there's no illumination on of any kind. I don't know, I'm strange like that, Point is, I'm not going to turn on my lights if it's not dark outside and if I'm just driving around. Makes no sense to me. See my first point. I will only turn it on when there's a need, for example, if I'm coming up quickly on people, it should draw attention. If I'm in a rush, having my lights on and approaching quickly usually lets people know to move the heck over because I'm late. And last but not least, I really like the look of the city lights, which is why I want the smileys. Nope. They don't have anything in their eBay store. They are online only, correct? I didn't see a way of looking up parts on their site...
I bicycle commute 12 months a year; I am sooo way past the idea that other drivers SHOULD be good drivers. They are not. Daytime running lights help them see you. You'll have to call them. Someone with a gruff voice will answer and put you on hold for 10 minutes while they rummage through old cardboard boxes to see if they have what you're looking for.
I agree that those type of people SHOULDN'T be driving, hell, I would say 75-85% of people on the road SHOULDN'T be driving. But they are.....coming from being on a sportbike for years, I'll take being visible over idealism.
