A few weeks ago the off side headlight of my X5’s angel eyes bulb blew. After some extensive research, a lot of prodding around the engine bay and the help from the fine people of XDrivers.co.uk it soon became clear that this particular task was a biggie.
Suffice to say, as you will see from the picture below the bulb in question is hidden behind a panel, with no hope of access when the headlights are in place.
Rear panel for access to angel eye bulb:
This is a step-by-step guide that I hope will be useful to those who need to deal with this task. Please note that I am not a mechanic and should you choose to undertake this task with this guide you do so of your own volition.
Firstly you need to know that to remove the headlights you will need to remove the front wheels and the front half of the wheel arch liners so you will need the following:
- 2 tonne or more hydraulic car jack (I used a 2.5 tonnes jack to be sure)
- 2 tonne or more axle stands (I used 3 tonne ones)
- Wheel chocks x4
- Socket Set (8mm and 10mm)
- Torques socket set - 2.0mm and 2.5mm
- Philips screw driver
- Flathead screw driver
- End cutting pliers
- Plenty of containers to place the various bolts and screws so that they are neither lost or mixed together incorrectly
- A bucket
- Patience!
Position the car on a flat, even and strong surface with plenty of room for you to work in. Loosen slightly the bolts on the front wheels so that you can unscrew the bolts safely once the car is jacked up. Place wheel chocks on either side of the rear wheel s to help prevent the car from rolling forwards or backwards.
Jack up the car on jacking point 1 of the below illustration to a height that means the front wheels can rotate easily. Place your axel stands on jacking point 2 behind the front wheels. Have the axle stands set to a sufficient height to allow the front wheels to rotate and have enough clearance for the wheels to be removed. Be sure the axle stands are positioned correctly on the jacking points.
Step 2: Near side Headlight
- Remove the front wheel to gain access to the inner wheel arch lining.
- You will see that the lining is split in 2 halves (front and back. You will only need to remove the front half section.
- Firstly you will need to remove the front plastic wheel arch moulding that are held in place by plastic “bolts” as pictured below
- With the flat head screwdriver lift the plastic bolt and then remove by hand (these should be very easy to remove)
Once all the bolts are removed then pull the moulding out of its placement
Step 3:- This step is to remove the front inner wheel arch lining. You will need your 8mm socket 10mm socket, torques socket and end cutting pliers
- There are multiple 8mm bolts that you will need to undo inside the wheel arch and one 10mm bolt.
- You will also need to undo two 8mm bolts that hold the lower part of the Bumper/spoiler and the wheel arch lining.
- There is also a large Philips screw that will need undoing (the screw undoes but does not come out).
Next you will need to remove 3 plastic securing pins, 2 of which secure the lining around the brake duct, the other in located near the suspension joining the front and rear linings. You will need to use your end cutters very carefully as illustrated below:
Finally there is a 2.0mm torques screw to remove from the lining as seen here:
Step 4:
Now you should be ready to remove the wheel lining. This is a relatively easy task and should come out easily. If it doesn’t then you haven’t removed all the necessary bolts etc.
To remove the headlight you will need your torques set (2.0mm and 2.5mm). As shown below there are 4 connecting points where 4 long 2.0mm torques screws are located. Points 1 and 2 are easy to locate and remove however points 3 and 4 are more difficult to reach.
Once you have removed the 4 screws you will then need to remove a 2.5mm torques screw from underneath the light (located under the plastic connecting chassis arm). Next to that is another torques 2.5mm screw attaching the front wing to the plastic chassis connecting arm. You will need to remove this as well as you will need to have flexibility in the wing to get the headlight out (see below picture - note that is of the offside wing and not the nearside but you will need to do this with both wings).
You will now be able to remove the headlight, You need to be extremely careful as the space is limited and you can easily scratch the headlight lenses. As you will see from the picture below you will need to move the cabling attached to the chassis and remove bubl access caps for the main beam and high beam bulbs.
Your headlight is now removed!
Step 5:
Copy all the steps again for the offside headlight, however this is even harder. The reservoir for the water jets will be in the way as will the pipe for the headlight washer jets will be in the way (see pictures below).
To remove the washer jet pipe you will need to unclip it from the plastic chassis connecting arm.
Once you have unclipped the pipe you will need to disconnect it from the headlight washer jets pictured below. Make sure you have your bucket handy to enable you to drain the washer jet fluid cleanly and safely and make sure you have the pipe out the way like below.
Now you will need to unscrew 3 of the front wing screws as pictured below and position a tool like the wrench in the picture to help lift the wing up to aid the removal of the headlight.
You will then need to unscrew the 8mm bolt pictured in the next 2 pictures:
Removing all these bolts and screws means you have more flex in the wing allowing for the headlight to come out more easily.
Now you should be able to remove the second headlight!
Top tip is to make sure the bulbs you have replace work before you put everything back...
Good Luck!
Never anthropomorphise computers. They hate that.
)