Z4M radster - Custom Headlights

I had some custom headlights done for my 2006 BMW Z4M radster. I spent a lot more time and money on this than I planned. I’ll eventually write a blog post about all the mistakes I made, but this post will focus on the parts I used.

2006 BMW Z4M radster with custom headlights

What I set out to achieve

One of my headlights died. I took this as an opportunity to update the look of the headlights with the following in mind:

1. Angel Eye halos on all 4 lights

2. RGB settings controlled by an app on my iPhone

3. A diffuser on the halos so you don’t see the individual LEDs

4. Get rid of the orange strip at the bottom of the headlights

5. Black interior lining on the headlights

6. Retain all the original factory capabilities and settings

RGB LED Halos set to BMW Blue

The original BMW Z4M headlights

My car is a 2006 BMW Z4M radster with Bi-Xenon headlights.

The part numbers for these are:

BMW Z4M Bi-Xenon headlight left (silver lining): 63-12-7-162-721

BMW Z4M Bi-Xenon headlight right (silver lining): 63-12-7-162-722

The original Z4M headlights with the anemic halos

The installer I used

I was not going to do this on my own, so I tracked down a local installer. I had a great experience with Jay at Kars Kustoms in New Westminster, BC, Canada. I left them a 5-star review on Google, as have many other patrons.

Opening old Z4 lights is nearly impossible

Some people have had success opening the BMW Z4M headlights. However, from what I could gather most of these were done many years ago. Now that these cars are hitting 15+ years old, the plastic is getting really brittle. Jay from Kars Kustoms said he would likely end up destroying the headlights if he opened them. I decided to bite the bullet and buy a set of brand new BMW headlights for this project.

New BMW Bi-Xenon headlight part numbers

The Z4 3.0si came with Bi-Xenon headlights that had a black interior lining. These are the lights I ordered:

BMW Z4 3.0si Bi-Xenon headlight left (black lining): 63-12-7-162-727

BMW Z4 3.0si Bi-Xenon headlight right (black lining): 63-12-7-162-728

BMW Z4 3.0si headlight with black lining

Finding Angel Eyes with a diffuser

I actually bought a different set of aftermarket headlights (another story) and was super disappointed with the look of the halos without a diffuser. I learned a lesson that I wanted the halos with a diffuser.

The halo without the diffuser shows the LEDs, especially when lit

Parts from The Retrofit Source

RGB Halos

I bought 2 sets (a pair in each set) of 80mm Profile Prism RGB Halos.

Bluetooth Controller

I bought one Morimoto RGBW Bluetooth controller.

Other Parts

I bought two splitters so that I could put all 4 halos on one controller channel. This is only necessary if you are planning on adding more RGB devices to the controller. You don’t need to do this if you are just doing the halos. The specific ones I bought are the JST 4P M —> 2x JST 4P F two way splitters.

I bought some Demon Eyes and a pair of Mini D2S 3.0 v1 mounting brackets for them. I wouldn’t bother as these are barely visible due to the design of the Z4M headlights.

You can see the Demon Eyes are barely visible (red glow, inside light)

I wish these were available when I did this

I don’t mind the look of the white rings on the headlights, but I probably would have purchased the new 80mm “smoke rings” that black out the halo if they were available when I was doing this upgrade. Probably too much hassle to open up the headlights just for this, but I think the lights would look cool totally blacked out.

Smoke rings are a new product to black out the halos

You can see the white halo rings even when not lit

The Morimoto XBT app

This app is required for the Bluetooth controller. It is available for Android and iPhone. The reviews are poor to mediocre and these accurately reflect the app. It is the bare minimum required to control the lights, is slow to start up, and has a clumsy interface. It does work though.

NOTE: It is theoretically possible to use a different controller and app with these halos, but I have not tried this so won’t go into much detail. A well-reviewed and supposedly compatible controller is the XKGLOW XK-Chrome Bluetooth Controller. The corresponding app allows you to sync lights to music and road speed. I might try this controller and app one day!

Getting rid of the Orange glow

I followed a guide I found online and converted most of my bulbs to LEDs. By replacing the large orange coloured incandescent bulbs with LEDs, you eliminate the orange glow inside the headlight. There are three bulbs inside each headlight assembly you need to replace with links below to purchase them. There are two turn signals per headlight and one Parking Light. I couldn’t find the Turn Signals anywhere other than Ali Express; you may have better luck.

Parking Light: https://amzn.to/3rvctNc

Turn Signal: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32848684131.html

Pixellated zoom, but you can see there is no orange glow

Custom Programming

I used Carly to set the parking lights not to come on as daytime running lights. I also programmed the Halos to be the daytime running lights. I can’t recall exactly how I programmed this, but it’s quite simple with the Carly app.

Parts List Summary

Two sets of 80mm Profile Prism RGB Halos

One Morimoto RGBW Bluetooth controller

Two Parking Lights https://amzn.to/3rvctNc

Four Turn Signals https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32848684131.html

BMW Z4 3.0si Bi-Xenon headlight left (black lining): 63-12-7-162-727

BMW Z4 3.0si Bi-Xenon headlight right (black lining): 63-12-7-162-728

The halos are very bright

I'm happy with how these turned out