Components

Exterior Lighting Components

The external lighting system consists of the following components:

- Front headlight assemblies (parking, Low beam, high beam, turn indicators)
- Fog lights
- Tail light assemblies (tail light, brake lights, turn indicators, reverse lights and license plate lights)

Front Headlight Assemblies

The new headlights with integral turn indicators are in the BMW tradition of being four round lights. The turn signal indicators are now above the lights, giving them the appearance of "eye brows".

The E65/E66 is equipped with new "Bi-Xenon" lamps as standard equipment. The inboard lamps are conventional halogen bulbs.

A sidemarker (U.S. version) is integrated into the turn signal indicator.







The parking light is an optical-wave guide ring around each high-beam and low-beam headlight, similar to the 2001 E39.

The headlight assemblies are a sealed integral unit. The replacement of the bi-xenon bulb and the control unit require that the headlight assembly be removed from the vehicle.

All other bulbs can be replaced without removing the headlights.

In order to remove the front headlight assemblies, the front bumper must first be removed.









There are holes for easy access to the screws for height adjustment and lateral adjustment of the low-beam and high-beam headlights.

The outer adjusting screw (1) is for lateral adjustment of both lights. The inner adjusting screw (2) is for vertical adjustment of the high-beam and low-beam headlights.

Bi-Xenon Lights

"Bi-xenon" means that the xenon lights can be switched over from low-beam to high-beam.

When the low beams are "on", the lower part of the light beam is blocked by a shutter that is directly in front of the reflector.




When high beams are switched "on", in addition to the high-beam halogen lights being illuminated, an electro-magnet is energized by the LM. The electro-magnet "flips" the shutter open, allowing the entire beam of light generated by the xenon bulb to be part of the highbeam.

Fog Lights




The fog lights of the E65/E66 are small ellipsoid lights similar to the E39.

A single screw secures each fog light in position. The snap-fit horizontal grille insert has to be removed in order to gain access to this screw. The
screw for vertical adjustment is freely accessible. The fog light has to be removed in order for the bulb to be replaced.




Tail Light Assemblies




The rear light assemblies are integrated into the rear quarter panels and into the luggage compartment lid.

The tail light, brake light and turn indicator lights are located in the rear quarter panels.

An additional tail light is integrated into the luggage compartment lid, along with the rear fog light, reverse light and license plate light.

Tail lights and brake lights are 3D brilliant type (light sources are LED illuminated).

The third brake light below the rear shelf is also an LED assembly that can only be replaced as a complete unit.




Incandescent bulbs are used for the turn indicators (2).The brake lights and tail lights are lit by LEDs.

In the US. version, the tail lights light up along with the brake lights when the brakes are applied.

If a tail light or brake light fails, the entire rear light assembly has to be removed so that the LED controller (1) can be replaced.

A three-part light assembly is integrated into the luggage compartment lid.




These three lights are secured to the rear lid trim panel on the luggage compartment lid by screws.

There is a non-reflective design area between the two reversing lights.

The reverse lights, the rear fog lights and the license plate lights all have incandescent bulbs, whereas the tail lights, like those in the side panels, are LED lights.




The interior trim of the luggage compartment lid behind the light clusters has to be removed to replace the bulbs.