How to convert the halogen BA9S bulbs to LED ba15s bulbs in your angel eyes.
This only works on the xenon headlamps, I believe. This was done on a 2006.
You will need:
- BA15S Bulbs
- BA15S Base (2) (be sure to get the one for ba15s, NOT ba15d)
- Some wire
- Power drill*
- Drill Bits for plastic
- heat shrink and torch
- 2 screws and a screwdriver
- a tough hand and a lot of patience
First, remove the panel covering the rear of the headlight assembly, This will be under the wheel well. To make your life easier, turn the steering wheel all the way toward the direction of the side that you will work on. The panel to remove is the large one on the top. Use a chisel or something to turn the plastic nuts to free the panel.
Now, there is a metal bar securing the hard plastic cover of the headlight panel. A lot of people say this is hard to remove, but if you just pull towards you and down and be firm with the pressure, the bar will move out of the way. Dont be afraid to get in there with a chisel to lift it a bit.
Now pull out the plastic piece. It will be difficult to remove. Try not to damage anything, but in my experience it does require some force, especially on the right side where the washer fluid tank is.
The bulb housing will be pretty deep in the headlight assembly. it is pretty far toward the center of the car too. Reach your hand in there and feel around for it.
You will rotate it counterclockwise to remove it. It should require no force to pull out. Once you get the housing freed, you disconnect the harness by simply pulling it off.
There are other threads on this forum describing the issue with the bulb housing. The bayonet bulb is secured into the housing by two small nubs on the bottom of the bulb.
The issue with the BMW ba9s housing is that near the upper neck of the base, there is no channel in the plastic to allow the nubs to pass through, so the bulb is stuck. We must drill holes in the plastic to allow removal of the bulb.
It is necessary to get rid of the plastic part that holds the original ba9s socket. It is pretty thick, and there is no easy way to get rid of it. If you have a dremel, use it. I didnt have access to one, so i used a large bit to drill out the center of the socket, and then drilled small holes around the perimeter of the base and got it out that way. You want to leave the mechanism that secures the housing into the headlight assembly. Only remove the ba9s chimney.
I ended up cracking the second housing I did, so use caution and go slow. Once you have a hole where the old ba9s holder was, you can put in the new ba15s socket in it's place. The one I bought only came with the pos wire, so I had to install a ground wire. I did this with some copper wire I had lying around. I used electrical tape to cover up the where I tied the wire to one of the socket screw holes. This method is not recommended, and in hindsight was a poor decision. If you can solder, do that instead.
Next, I drilled a hole in the base for the socket to be screwed into. Drill this hole on the flat plastic part that either says "open" or "close".
Screw in the socket and put the ba15s bulb into it.
Now, we need to get it wired back up. Go back to the car and cut the connector off of the wires coming from the headlight assembly. Use heat shrink tubing to secure the connections together. The positive wire goes with the black wire, and the ground goes to the brown wire. Check to make sure the LED turns on with your DRLs before putting it back.
Now, put the base back into the headlight assembly by reversing what you did before. Make sure to put excess wire into the assembly before trying to put the plastic shell back. When it comes to reinstalling the assembly backing, good luck to you. Put back the mud guard.
I am happy with the final results.
I will update this thread with more results photos later.