A method of wireless communication by a first sidelink UE measures multiple reference signals periodically transmitted by a second sidelink UE using multiple receive beams corresponding to reference signals in response to a beam failure declared by the first UE. The method also selects one of the reference signals that satisfies a condition. The method further includes notifying the second sidelink UE of the selected reference signal using a beam corresponding to the selected reference signal. Another method of wireless communications by a first sidelink UE includes periodically transmitting, to a second sidelink UE, multiple beam failure recovery (BFR) reference signals across multiple transmit beams. The method also includes receiving, from the second sidelink UE, an indication of a selected beam for communications between the first sidelink UE and the second sidelink UE. The method notifies the second sidelink UE of successful beam failure recovery.