Olly & I have had a play with the new lights I collected today with varying results. We started with the tail lights, which rumour had it are significantly harder to fit than the head lamps. Here’s Olly modelling one of the new units:

We immediately tore out a lamp to check the connections – all was fine.

First things first, it’s important to point out that the Cellis lamp units aren’t direct replacements for the standard pre-facelift units. The mounting points aren’t all the same, so I had to measure and drill a couple of holes on each side.

I’d called Adam Tier who has performed this process a few times, and he explained that as well as drilling new mounting points, it’s necessary to enlarge one of the bulb holes to accommodate the larger rear of the units. Here’s the car mounting face before I abused it:

Adam sagely advised chiselling or filing the lower right hole there to accommodate the new unit. I chose to ignore his advice and took a lump hammer to the car, giving entirely satisfactory and swift results! Olly seemed amused by my willingness to drill and hammer the car into shape, but I took due care, and remembered to lacquer over the new holes to prevent rust. Sadly I only had a spray can of lacquer where a touch up stick was needed, and neither did I have a brush. I did however have a used fake moustache to hand, so I sprayed it thick with lacquer and used it to apply to the car.

This done, it was just a case of bolting it in and connecting it up.

Then it was just a case of repeating the process on the other side. By this time it was more or less dark, so here are some with and without flash photos.

I’m really pleased with the look of the back of the car now. Much as I dislike the plate, the fact that it doesn’t necessarily reflect the age of the car, combined with the newer style lights mean that the car has shrugged off years.

So, tails held high, off we trotted to do the fronts. A head lamp was whipped out, and a new unit offered up.

The main xenon unit worked no problem but – and I’m kicking myself for this – I failed to grab the sidelight connector adapters from the 528i. Bollocks!! So, for the sake of a couple of adaptors, which I must have handled to remove the units this morning but left behind, I can’t put the facelift front lights on the car.

Access to the 528i is very restricted, so it could be some time before this stage of the project is complete, but I am pleased with the rear of the car, and I’m also pleased to note that the xenons worked on the new units. In the meantime I’ve had some kind offers of standard units to replenish the 528i with illumination, so with luck this will soon reach a happy conclusion.