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BMW 3-Series (E90 E92) Forum > BMW E90/E92/E93 3-series General Forums > Regional Forums > Europe (Continental) > US signal light modification



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      06-08-2009, 01:20 PM   #1
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US signal light modification

Hi,
I've lived in the US and when I moved back to Denmark og brought my '06 BMW 325i.

As you probably know, US cars have a constant orange light in the frontlight.
(signal)

This needs to be changed in order to get it on danish plates.

Does anybody know how to do that or someone who can assist, as dealers I have spoken with can't help.

Thanks in advance.

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      06-08-2009, 01:26 PM   #2
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You need to do a full headlight swap (US spec to Euro spec). Check with your local dealers for parts and labor.
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      06-09-2009, 02:09 AM   #3
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It can be done without the expensive swap. The US headlights have two filament bulb for parking light and signal light. You have to cut the wire for parking light and connect to angel eyes. If you don’t have EA you can install white LED for parking lights. You also have to modify light switch to activate rear fog light.
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      06-09-2009, 04:06 PM   #4
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You can't just cut wires and connect them elsewhere because the orange light that stays on is also the signal light. In fact you won't even be able to fix this problem with a headlight swap. You need the EU spec module which will not leave the signal lights running permanently. Good luck arguing with BMW.
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      06-09-2009, 04:56 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hanmaas View Post
You can't just cut wires and connect them elsewhere because the orange light that stays on is also the signal light. In fact you won't even be able to fix this problem with a headlight swap. You need the EU spec module which will not leave the signal lights running permanently. Good luck arguing with BMW.
Yes you can cut the wire because the amber bulb has two filaments. You have to cut wire to the filament for parking light. Of course you can’t cut the ground wire and wire to the signal filament.
It works I’ve done it.
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      06-10-2009, 02:21 AM   #6
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This is how it’s done:
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      06-10-2009, 04:06 AM   #7
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Oh, we're talking E90 here. Sorry, I thought the OP had an E92. I suppose its different on the E90 then. The next question is whether the OP has Xenons or halogens. If he has halogens he will still need to swap them due to the different US DOT beam pattern which will not pass European inspections (in Germany at least).
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      06-10-2009, 08:10 AM   #8
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The car conversion to European standards is theoretically simple. That’s what I thought but it took lots of running around and lots of hustle. The question is if it’s worthy. Last year I was thinking of bringing another car from Canada but with the experience I had I decided to by the car locally.
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      06-10-2009, 09:13 AM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BudVlad View Post
but with the experience I had I decided to by the car locally.
+1. I also took a US spec into Europe and had similar experiences...which is what BMW wants . I think I saw your postings before in other conversion threads.
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      07-02-2009, 10:10 AM   #10
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When I was stationed in Germany, a freind of mine (German) had an E46 sedan and he could switch between having the orange lights on or off. He said that the Local dealer could do it using the computer to change between U.S. spec or Euro spec lighting. Thats what makes the lights come on or off.
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      07-02-2009, 10:28 AM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by smack View Post
When I was stationed in Germany, a freind of mine (German) had an E46 sedan and he could switch between having the orange lights on or off. He said that the Local dealer could do it using the computer to change between U.S. spec or Euro spec lighting. Thats what makes the lights come on or off.
Theoretically yes, but I've not seen a confirmation on the E9X platform. There has been discussions on this even on the pre-N54 era...
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      07-02-2009, 03:17 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by smack View Post
When I was stationed in Germany, a freind of mine (German) had an E46 sedan and he could switch between having the orange lights on or off.
This is not possible on the E9x platform anymore.
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      07-04-2009, 08:53 AM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BudVlad View Post
The car conversion to European standards is theoretically simple. That’s what I thought but it took lots of running around and lots of hustle. The question is if it’s worthy. Last year I was thinking of bringing another car from Canada but with the experience I had I decided to by the car locally.
Well from my point of view, I bought a fully specced out 2008 335i in the US. It cost me around 50k USD. I shipped it here and that cost around 1500 EUR. I got the conversion and TUV approval by a specialist firm and that cost me I think just under 900EUR. Now ok, I do still have my US spec adaptive xenons - the conversion guy got that by the TUV and saved me a packet(advantage of having a specialist take care of it all). And ok, my BMW assist doesn't work, which i expected and my RTTI isn't working, which i didn't expect. BUT....

In all, I bought the car in the US when the exchange rate was close to 1 EUR = 1.50 USD. So I have a fully specced out 335i for under 40k EUR that if I was to buy here, it would cost me over 80k EUR. Is BMW assist and RTTI worth 40k EUR??? I think not.
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      07-05-2009, 09:35 AM   #14
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I my case the problems with the registration wasn’t the only reason for not importing the car. I was getting 08 model and at that time I couldn’t get the M packet in Canada. The other reason was N52 engine on the 328 compared to the N53 with a direct injection. In my case the saving wasn’t worthy.
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      07-06-2009, 12:05 AM   #15
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Easy answer, check on www.ebay.de
You should be able to find a few available, sometimes in pairs. Im not sure how it works in Denmark but here in Germany the lights have to have the TUV sticker on the top of the housing or they wont accept it.
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