Xenons

[Olliefrom83]

Hi guys, picked up a 2014 2.0d last week from main dealer, extremely happy with the car, it had everything I wanted except the xenon headlamps, it’s not a huge problem, but I started looking into a retrofit, has anyone managed to retrofit a set? Or is it just too complicated to go from halogen to xenon?

Or can anyone recommend decent bulbs to brighten up the front as at the moment I find them rather poor and yellowish

Cheers

Ollie

[X5Sport]

Have a look at places like HIDS Direct who do conversion kits.  That should give you some ideas as to what might be possible. 

Currently the best bulbs are the Osram Xenarc Nightbreaker series if the mount is available.  Chinese lamps have a tendency to be off axis for focus leading to badly formed beams and glare.

The challenge may be finding them in the right ‘mount’ and you need the ballasts and electronics to control them.  Some bulbholders need modifying which you may not want to do.

The E53 owners recommend 55W ballasts and lamps and staying below 6000°K for colour temp.

[Olliefrom83]

Thanks x5sport

Am I right in thinking I would need hid with reflector to go into the standard halogen unit?

I will have a look into the night breakers, we drive a lot down unlit country lanes so it was just for clearer vision, my wife’s 1 series has the led headlights and they are fantastic so that’s probably why the halogens in the x3 seem disappointing

Cheers

Ollie

[X5Sport]

If you have reflector type lamp units then an ‘R’ type bulb is needed.  ‘S’ type for projector units.

[grumpywurzel]

Just for info, my 55w HIDS only lasted just over a year before the units burnt out. Bought them from HIDS Direct,  I have replaced them with a set of 35w (from HIDS direct), slight dip in brilliance but still miles better than standard

[Olliefrom83]

I have seen a few complete bi-xenon units for sale on eBay, would it just be a matter of fitting them and coding to the car or is it more complicated than that

Cheers

[Horizon]

Jagr fitted some Bi Xenons projector Xenons to his X3 35 d and if I remember correctly had a mare of a job figuring/ finding out how to wire them up.

[Olliefrom83]

Thanks horizon

I think if it’s going to be a mate of a job I might just leave as is and just upgrade the bulbs as the others have suggested! Electrical stuff is no problem as I am an electrician however car electrics is not something I specialise in and don’t want to balls it up, thought if it was just coding I would give it a go

[Horizon]

This is the post I remembered reading, I fitted 55w HIDS ro mine which had halogen non projector headlights, they are as good of not better than my Xenons on the E93, no ones flashed me due to dazzling and it passed the MOT no problem ( HIDS direct )

http://xdrivers.co.uk/forum/index.php/t ... 784.0.html

[Olliefrom83]

Cheers horizon


Think that’s probably going to be the easy route


Ollie

[grumpywurzel]

The only bit of hassle you'll have is drilling a hole (24mm I think it was) into the back of the headlight unit. Once that's done it's all plug n play mate.

[Olliefrom83]

That shouldnt be a problem

Will update as to when I get around to doing it all


Ollie