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Like many of you I installed the LUX 180 LED bulbs, but because of a botched first attempt to install without getting an Adaptive Headlight error (I tried to put them where everyone indicated they should go, and secured with Velcro, but I still got the error. This, combined with the fact I was just generally annoyed by the fact I had to use Velcro at all, led me down this rabbit hole of over engineering.) I went a different direction and wanted to share.
Basically what I did was create an exterior housing for the LUX black box that attaches to the back side of the headlight housing covers for my 2008 135. (Same cover as other years and models? probably.) The housing was 3D printed, sealed with epoxy (printer I used was a Fused Deposition Modeling printer which, even when printed solid is not water tight), spray painted and bolted to the cover sealed with a layer of permatex gasket maker. I also used a strip of of foam mounting tape on the top of the black box.
I bought two headlight housing covers from ECS for like 35 bucks each so I could work through how I would do this, but I suppose this is not absolutely necessary. The housings are designed to capture M5 nuts to make assembly a little easier.
I had no CAD of the headlight housing cover so I did my best to model the side I would be mounting to so I could design the housing. The resulting model took a little filing and sanding to make it sit right on the cover but not bad. Once positioned correctly on the cover I drilled two of the holes, bolted it on and drilled the rest of the holes. Then, using a Dremel, I cut the hole for the black box to slide through. I used a thin epoxy for plastic to seal the entire surface of the housing and painted it black once the epoxy was fully cured. I used permatex to seal the housing to the headlight cover but I'm sure any silicone sealant would work too (maybe better?).
Installation to me was only slightly more annoying with this new bulge on the headlight cover. Driver side was no different, but passenger side required me to move one of the black plastic vacuum chamber things (one nut using 13mm socket) temporarily during installation. There is plenty of length in the wires and had no problems with reach and because of the way the wires come out of the black box, I'm sure the wires will never get tangled into where they shouldn't be.
All in all I'd say It was definitely worth it, at least for me, to not have to mess with positioning that black box at all, not to mention that I'm extremely happy with the way the LUX 180s look. Attached are the pictures of the build as well as obligatory before/after pictures, if you haven't seen enough of those yet.
If anyone is interested, I can share the solid models of the housings I designed if you want to print some yourself/modify my cad
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