[E92M3_AW23]

Hi guys first post. Wife and I just picked up 07 328xi. Car only had 60k, one owner. Car will be primarily used by my wife.

So now onto the first mod. Car currently has pre lci halogen head lights. I want to swap the halogen bulbs for something brighter. I don't want to just throw in a hid kit and blind everyone. I have used piaa bulbs in the past with great success and would recommended them. I have started to see many aftermarket led bulbs that can be used in headlights and fog lights. I was curious to know if anyone has uses them? Im attaching a link for gtr lighting h7 bulbs. I have also read about beyond driven automotive lighting I think is the company. But any suggestions or ideas greatly appreciated. I look forward to roaming the boards and molding my wife's e90.

Thanks

Alex




http://www.headlightrevolution.com/m...ctCode=7010306

[VTECaddict]

They are terrible. They might look brighter because they do output more light onto the foreground, but light dispersion is bad and can even be worse than halogen. So they will shine brightly like 15 feet in front of the car, but will not have much distance or width to the light beam. They can even glare more than HID kits in a halogen setup.

Stick with halogens if you're not going to upgrade the housing. You can retrofit OEM HID headlights, or do an HID projector retrofit in either the OEM halogen or an aftermarket headlight if you want better lighting.

[E92M3_AW23]

Yea that's what I almost figured. I know I can search some but if you don't mind what are my options on where to buy pre lci xenon lights? I have read that going from halogen pre lci to lci is a bit tough.

Has anyone doing mini h1 into halogen housing

Thanks in advance.

[Zack77]

Originally Posted by E92M3_AW23

Yea that's what I almost figured. I know I can search some but if you don't mind what are my options on where to buy pre lci xenon lights? I have read that going from halogen pre lci to lci is a bit tough.

Has anyone doing mini h1 into halogen housing

Thanks in advance.

Were you referring to prelci to LCI halogen or LCI HID when you said it was tough?
LCI halogen from prelci halogen is plug and play and extremely easy. They also obviously look much better appearance wise. Add a decent set of halogen bulbs and have them properly aligned and you should end up with pretty good light output-mine improved drastically. This way would also be relatively cheap.

Pre-lci to LCI xenon on the other hand is a bit tougher and much more expensive. To my recollection you'll need the housings, wiring harness, ballasts, bulbs, FRM module and coding. I've managed to find all of these relatively cheap if purchased overtime on eBay individually-but still a big investment.

Otherwise there's also the option of getting aftermarket projector housings such as DEPO and then either purchase a "universal" hid kit which would be pretty cost efficient-or purchase the OEM hardware/components, which wouldn't be a very great option.

[Wilt]

LEDs in the headlight position MUST be approved by NHTSA for use on a specific year and model of car!!! It is not a case of 'universal' replacement of a specific LED for an H7 halogen.

[VTECaddict]

ebay or here on the forums are probably the best bet for used housings. Or you can try your luck at a junk yard.

[amullo]

Your best option is to get high quality halogen H7 bulbs for the housings you have unless you plan on retrofitting xenon housings. I´d recommend Osram Nighbreaker unlimited or Phillips Xtreme vision bulbs in halogen H7 if your looking for maximal lightouput on the housings you have. If you want a "whiter" light like xenon, then god for Osram Cool Blue Intense or Phillips Whitevision bulbs instead.
I had the Nightbreakers in my old E46 and they added about 20 yards lowbeam and maybe 60-70 yards of highbeam. The phillips xtrem vision is suppose to be even better.

Do get fooled into retrofitting xenon bulbs in H7 or even H7R. They will glare and blind oncoming traffic and may also cause problems with blinking/flickering aswell as radiodisturbances. In any case its not a good thing to do since the bulb itself isnt designed to handle the type of arc that a xenon bulb produces.

The LED bulbs you link to suck. They dont have nearly the dispersal you need in a reflector housing. Granted, they might look cool, but your first nighttime drive will have you stuffing them in the garbage. Trust me, been there, done that, got the bill to prove it. LED replacemements are fine for stuff like numberplate, reverse and angeleye lights, but not for projecting light in a housing its not designed for.

[E92M3_AW23]

Thanks for all the replies. Ive concluded I'm either going to upgrade to halogen lci with better bulbs or just go with better halogen bulbs in the housing I have now.

I knew the leds were to good to be true.