[glhx]

Those are 2.5 single xenon projectors.
I thought they were only produced by zkw for that year but they say bosch on the lens.
Look at the headlight housing
AL is bosch
Zkw is .....zkw

If they are zkw then the glass lenses are clear already.
If they are zkw the bowls in the projectors might be burned.....brown yellow color

Your bulbs were $20
Phillips are $130 or so....
Osram cbi are $185 and well worth it.
Why the cbi instead of the night breaker. For me I wanted white light with a bluish tint. The 5000k provided this. I wasn't after the warm white more yellow color as factory was. My lights were very dim to start with. My rav 4 was way better. Now my rav 4 looks dim compared to these.
Your bulbs are a big problem

The projector bulbs factory have a ten year life span and are the Phillips for $135. They don't burn out as much as they just wear out and get dim. You need to drop some cash on good bulbs. Get the osram.

If your projector bowls are burned...then nothing you can do will fix that.
I don't think anyone has tried painting them with high temp chrom paint. Because of rumors of reflection problems. I think it would be fine.

The plastic cover over your headlights are clear coated from the factory. Wet sand them with 1500 and polish them......or......just polish them and that will bring the clear back out. They don't look bad.

Do not touch the part that says xenon with your hands. The coating will come off from finger prints.
Ise zip lock plastic to handle them if you have to touch them.


I like umnitzas Angel eyes so far......I hate dealing win them when There is a problem.


These are the bixenon but very similar.....same disassembly. Shows all the projectors taken apart and put together.. These are bosch AL -

 

[glhx]

Solid jake has a you tube video I think.
There are good ones out there.

It all comes apart from the back of the headlight.
Nothing in this headlight can come out from the front. I have detailed pictures and can walk you through it if needed over text messAging. It's easy to break the parts taking it apart.

The plastic lens may be Bosch but the light might be zkw.

The light will say al if it's Bosch . It won't say Bosch .

It will be good for you to know which brand it is.

 

[glhx]

Mountain is al. Look at the letters

Stands for automotive lighting

It's bosch lighting grand

 

[glhx]

I think they are both bosch headlights. I'm not sure though
I was thinking zkw made all the projectors for that year.....I could be wrong. I do know they are 2.5 single xenon because the notches go all the way around the lens on that silver shroud.

The bixenon stop at the top and don't make a complete circle.

You hope they are bosch AL. ZKW BOWLS burn up due to cheap plastic that can't take the heat.

 

[glhx]

You hope they are bosch because bosch don't burn the reflective coating off the projector bowls
Zkw burns the silver coating off the bowls and they don't reflect anymore......your new light bulbs won't reflect because the mirror shine to reflect from is gone. Then your forced into retrofitting your lights or getting the bowls re coated.....either is a pain to deal with.

Bi xenon have a split across the middle of the lens for the bosch al brand. The projector bezel is also 3"
Zkw bixenon have no line across the lense.....still 3" and .....like the bosch.....have notches all the way around the bezel. Look at my picture of the headlight taken apart. Look at the bezel shroud. It's different than yours. The bi xenon started in 2002

Single ran from 99-2001. Halogen was used for brights. This is what you have

...meaning you have the single xenon projector lighting assembly
I have the bixenon.....my brights and dims both come from the projector.....my halogens are not used.


What's confusing me is that I thought all early e46 used zkw....but yours says bosch al
I think in 99 they used bosch and 2000 and 2001 it was zkw.

Your car has no year next to the description. Is it a 99? All this is coming from memory of research I did 2 months ago.

 

[glhx]

1. You need to know for sure which brand of light you have

If you have zkw.....you need to know if the bowls are burned up and coating is gone
First find that out.

If they are bosch and the bowls are not burned.....
...........clean you headlight lens......polish plastic cover......replace bulbs with $185 osram2

You probanly don't need retrofit projectors but you won't know until you know what brand and if they are burned or not.

Google search zkw burned projector.....look at images. When my lights said bosch al I took a sigh of relief.

 

[glhx]

Don't get any lighting stuff from ebay. Go with one of our vendors

 

[glhx]

He's right. You really need to figure out what you have.

I'm thinking you need bulbs......and that's it

So.....let's say you have zkw......and let's say you have burned bulbs.
Then your looking at something like this
http://www.theretrofitsource.com/co...tem-bmw-e46-zkw-lights-only.html#.VE2G4N08KK0
And making sure the diameter is correct. These are 3" bi xenon.
This is what I would do if I found I have zkw on my own car. I also do have the 3" bi xenon.

You would need a kit like this one for 2.5 single xenon.......and all this is.......if the bowls are zkw and if the bowls are burned to non reflection status.

Either way.....your replacing the bulbs. So you might as well figure out which kelvin rating you want

You also should read and study this thread.
http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=804583

I'm also seeing conflicting information. The fort time I saw that zkw was 99-01.
I then saw bosch was 99 to 2000 and zkw was 2001
Then I saw on the coupe that al of them are bosch
Then later I read it was a toss up and on the sedan....zkw and bosch was a crap shoot

My belief is.
Coupe.....all bosch
Sedan......bosch was 99-00...............zkw was 2001 only. I would like to confirm this.

 

[glhx]

I meant.....your bulbs were basically junk and either way (no matter what you do) you needed bulbs.

Figuring out which kelvins rating you want depends on what color light you want.
Kelvin rating is k rating. It represents warm and cool.
Warm being yellow
Cool being white with a blue tint to it.

The higher you go in the k rating the more white the light becomes.
A 6000k light is going to be bluish white
A 4300k rating is going to be a more traditional warm yellow

You got the cbi which are in the 5000 range.....these will be more white color. You will not be disappointed in these bulbs. They make the halogens look dim.