Well that was fun. If you didn’t skate with the headlamp assemblies for free, you lucky dog, you’ve just trashed $400 to $1500 worth of 5 series headlamps. Now that will make you stop and think, won’t it? No, I won’t tell your wife, if you don’t tell mine.

Never fear bucko, we only have a set of European Ellipsoids valued at a measley $400 left to cut to shreds. This chapter will show the intrepid (stupid) home mechanic how to disassemble the Euro Ellipsoids and modify them so that you can stuff those rings into them. Now I know some of you less fortunate (not filthy rich) guys out there are going to use neon rope or Twizzler candy sticks or something else ricey to try and avoid the cost of doing this right. Fine by me, you can dress Christina Applegate up pretty good, but she still won’t be Grace Kelly. So don’t write and ask me how to do it with some other parts you’ve cobbled together. I ain’t doing it that way, you’re on your own.

Enough!

Now where did I put that chainsaw…

Now, unlike those nasty 5 Series lamps, the Euro lense will let you take the outer protective glass lense off without using dynamite.

There are 4 metal clips to pry off….

And 2 plastic clips to open on each end of the assembly.

Pry the 4 metal clips off with a screwdriver. Do it on the back side, away from the glass that you can’t replace if you chip or crack it.

I have to tell you everything, don’t I?

Now carefully pull the outer lense away from the main lamp assembly. Don’t be sticking your fingers all over the reflectors and bulbs. Set the main assembly aside where you won’t get dust, debris and beer all over it.

This is where we will spend much of our time in Chapter II. Modifying the outer lense cover to accept the rings.

Then we do the really hard part…… You’ve been warned.

Ok. Time for a little break to discuss things. We need to be doing some Dremeling to remove plastic in the next steps. Now in Chapter I, we took the Dremel saw to the 5 Series headlamps and hacked them up pretty good. No biggie. I don’t own a 5 Series so I didn’t flinch about wrecking perfectly good parts. But in this chapter, we are going to be using the Dremel on parts we want to put back in the car. So neatness counts. If you were out of control, letting that Dremel skate all over in Chapter I, I suggest you pause and think this through. Goof up here and it will come out like crap. Ready? Sure you are! I love it when people don’t know enough to quit while they’re ahead

First we have to release the individual lense catches to remove them. The rings go in between the individual lamp lenses and the outer glass housing cover. There are several places where the factory put small dribbles of black silicone on the glass to prevent rattling and help retain the lense. Release the lense catch on one side and lift the lense out on one side, pulling it free of the silicone and latch on the opposite side.

Once we have the individual lamp lenses out, we can examine the outer housing to see how the rings will be installed.

The rings have to fit on the outside of the individual lenses. The receptors for the light source will not clear on the top without removing the plastic for clearance. Dremel it out. You can cut small areas until it just clears or remove the entire top section.

Removing this section is invisible once the modification is complete.

I chose to remove the top section as shown. It won’t show at all from the outside when you’re done.

The halo ring has a mounting tab on the bottom edge. Remember releasing it when we disassembled the 5 Series lights?

This is another good reason to use a very small Dremel saw blade. We have to cut a slot into the bottom of the lense housing to accept the tab on the halo ring. You have to test fit this several times and examine one of the unopened headlights to see exactly how far in or out to cut the tab slot. Good luck.

Remember to wash everything well before reassembly. Watch for fingerprints.

So far so good? We are almost done with the Euro Ellipsoid physical mods. Unfortunately the hardest part of all is before us. Look at the next picture and then think, how the hell am I going to get those individual glass lenses back in there with the rings in the way? Good question. And as soon as I get the modification done in the next several hours, I’ll show you.

The rings are in, ready to reinstall the lenses but there still isn’t enough room at the top of the lense. And the receptors for the fiber optics won’t clear the reflector housings when you try and slide the entire lense assembly back together with the base.

So what to do? You can put a diamond grit wheel in your Dremel and grind the glass to clear the halos. Or you can get a hot sand bath (bucket-o-sand on a hot plate) and heat the halos until they are semi-pliable and try to bend them to fit the narrow opening. Or you can modify the rings themselves. Only one method will let everything fit together.

Put away that grinder! I’m using the solution below. As you can see, I’m abandoning the fiber optic solution. While it would have been very cool, it was also very much an impossibility without very heavy modifications to the lamp housings. Instead, I’m going to go with LEDs mounted into the rings. Look below.

Update I: This modification was done to a set of ZKW Euro Ellipsoids. I have seen pictures of this modification done to Hella lamps that did not require cutting the rings. If you are going to buy Euro’s to do this modification, buy Hellas. If you have Hellas, try to do this without cutting. Please realize I have only seen closeup pictures of the outside front of this on Hellas. I cannot help you with them further. Good luck!

Update II: Added schematic for wiring each headlight.

Here’s a typical White LED. With the car started, and a healthy alternator, they seem to be bright enough even when four of them are wired in series. I wired them all in series to avoid having to wire up a Zenor diode to adjust the voltage.

I decided on the modified ring approach. In this picture I have not end-drilled the rings yet to accept the 5mm LED.

While this appears to be an approach of no return, I can actually make several solutions work with the rings modified in this way. All except the fiber optic harness, of course.

Here are the rings, lightly attached, with silicone for testing. I have also done a series of three increasing diameter end-drills to accept the LEDs which you can see with their leads sticking out. To get the best light output, after you drill the holes in the ends, polish the interior of the hole. How? Put a drop of paint polishing compound in the hole and run the drill in reverse. Really. Wash it out with Q-tips and alcohol.

Here I’ve laid out the rings, series wired all of the LEDs (4), and connected them up to the battery and ground. They are noticeably brighter with the car running and the higher output of the alternator available. This is just a test. The LEDs will not be wired in series when the lamp is assembled. But test the LEDs. You’d hate to get the whole thing together and find a dim or dead LED. It can happen.

Then it was time to reassemble them. This was a bit of trial and error. And due to the thickness of the lenses now, with the rings attached, I had to lightly clamp them while the new silicone sealer setup on the lenses. Remember we had to take it off initially? I assume it is for vibration damping. It wasn’t enough to really hold the lenses in their clips mechanically. What the heck, I installed it all the way along on both sides. They won’t be coming out. Then after installing wiring harnesses to the LEDs, I ran the wiring to the low beam/HID side of the Euro lense and cut the wiring to the City Lights. It just didn’t look right with both. I ran the City Light wiring to the series wired LEDs and soldered and heat shrinked it all watertight. Installation of the headlamp assemblies is the reverse of removal. Here’s how it all turned out.