I am so upset you cannot imagine. I asked a few people, even called the dealership to ask if this was a straight swap or a retrofit, and they told me it was a straight plug and play. Then the connects didn't fit-- 60 dollars in special ordered parts, and now, they are saying that they flat out don't fit the car. WTF!? Is there a way to make them fit, or do I need to go throw the worst hissy fit in the history of hissy fits to the parts department at the dealership now for flat out LYING to me?

Please help :help :(

i believe hella sells a retrofit kit.

http://www.bmwdiy.info/celis-rear/index.html

just get the fakes.

Well, I showed the retrofit page to my dad (who owns the car) and he said forget about it. I'm trying to return the parts right now, and I spoke with the parts manager at Irvine BMW. I pretty much told him to tell his guys not to offer advice unless they are completely sure of the answer, because now we are about 400 dollars out, with some special order parts that might be impossible to return. What is the real kicker is he put me on hold to find the real answer and in 30 seconds came back to tell me, yeah, they don't work, you need to go after market. Fucking employee, "Yeah, it'll work. Yeah, should fit right in. No problems" if only I remembered his name!

Serves me right for trusting a f'ing dealership. Huh?

get some clears from www.procarparts.com and be done with it.

I hope you can get your money back, if not.. then definitely park your car in front of the dealership with your for sale sign on.

lol that website has SO much rice! They dont' have anything for the 2000 year E39s either. We'll have to stick with OEM/

I can't put my car in front of the dealership, its no parking :( knowing them, they'll tow me.

lots of rice, but also cheap stuff. Forgot it's for your pops. maybe bavauto.com has some better quality stuff.

Bav auto is over priced. I get whole sale parts through BMA, because my boyfriend has an account with them.

It makes me sad, I bought him those lights as a gift :( he was so excited to put them on.

boy i can't win with you :laugh

Put on the celis lights and have them non functional. Done.

the dealership is not always very smart. i think if you argue with them long enough, they'll probably take the special order stuff back.

if your dad just wants those style lights, but doesn't want to deal with the retrofit, you could always get these, which look like the celis lights, but just use regular bulbs.

http://www.procarparts.com/store-detail.asp?sku=BM9739%2D6884TLX&dbname=onlinestoreDB

Rob, those lights only fit through 98. :az

does anyone have a picture of the celis lights? I went to the hella site and they seem to have orange on the top, unlike the clear OEM 2001+ rears.

...as the Hella retrofit kit with one exception, the reflector on the sides is a little different. If you bought them from the dealer, you may/may not have purchased the ballasts required to power the LED lights.

The OEM lights and Hella kit require you to drill into the body to make them fit as well as to wire the ballasts and bolt them under the spare tire.

If you want regular OEM red-clear lights like ones that came on european models or the 2000 //M5, you can buy them at the dealer or other vendors like Evosport (www.evosport.com) or Turner Motorsport (www.turnermotorsport.com).

On ebay, there are a number of aftermarket lights that have the CELIS LED "look" but are bolt-on rears that use regular bulbs. They call them "jewel" lights I think.

In any case, you have plenty of options. Any mechanic can install the CELIS lights with the instructions.

Rob

Rob, those lights only fit through 98. :az

does anyone have a picture of the celis lights? I went to the hella site and they seem to have orange on the top, unlike the clear OEM 2001+ rears.
2001+ euro e39's came with orange/red celis tails. i believe the ones with sport package came with clear/red celis tails, unlike the states where all 2001+ e39's came with clear/red celis tails. you can even find pics of e65's with orange/red tails.

as for the celis look-a-like tails, i believe the ones on ebay say 1997-2000. so i'm not sure.