XSeries-forum

A fresh general question, or two.

Are LED main beam legal
Are yellow fog lights legal.

If the criteria is only replace as fitted new with the vehicle, the answer is obviously no. But main beams are obviously quickly switchable and yellow fogs were once the norm, as accessories.

I fitted LED's to my mains 5 years ago but nothing said at mot time.

I have already done it (non BMW) but got to wondering what the rules actually are?

If theres a list of do's and dont's I'd be pleased to read it.

MOT Manual Section 4.1 says the headlamp bulbs can be conventional, HID or LED. It also states that OEM HID headlamp units are marked ‘DCR’. Any headlamp fitted with HID/LED bulbs where the lamp unit is not marked DCR is an automatic fail.

4.5.1 states front fog lights must be white.

The problem that you are most like to have trouble with is the beam pattern. Non OEM LED light sources tend to mimic a conventional bulb but can’t match the pattern so you either get uneven light or glare. OEM LED lights use a flat ‘plate’ of LEDs facing forward into a lens.

The beam checkers only look at dip beam, main beam just has to work. The E71 only has a single headlight (the inner pair are fake for show, they only hold the Angel eyes), so you could end up with an issue. On my HID equipped car, it’s just a mechanical shutter that moves out of the way when main bean is on.

I should explain, i ask some questions here as the membership is so well informed. My E71 has bi-xenon, i dont plan to make any changes on it.

My question is general and relates to another vehicle with four individual bulb units. Dipped are projector lenses so the bulbs are not visible. Against a white wall, the cut-off line is clearly visible the car has a brand new (local) MOT. The main beams illuminate well, but there's no way to measure or determine accuracy that i know of? Bulbs in this situation are Philips Ultinon, not nasty cheapies and much is made of the chip positioning and their fitment to match the halogens they replace. The dipped beam are crisp white with great illumination, I'm very happy withn this "investment". I would comfortably pit the H7 Ultinons against BMWs HIDs.

White only fogs is a surprise. Rules change of course but i remember copying my father and fitting Lucas fog and spots on my '64 Cortina. Admittedly this was a while ago

That was probably back in the days of needing yellow lights if travelling to ‘Le Continent’ and I remember many French imports into the 80s having yellow fogs as standard. I fitted Hella spots & fogs to my ‘78 Mk1 Cavalier (with 100W halogen bulbs). That could boil eyeballs at a mile . Not as classy as a Mk1 Cortina though.

The MOT Manual only refers to HIDs being fitted to non-HID lamp units. No mention of MOT failures for LEDs being transposed with normal bulbs. I believe the real ‘challenge’ is with cheap far-Eastern attempts at high quality bulbs. Philips Ultinon have a good rep, and if the pattern looks fine then jobs a good-un.

I agree that LED are superior to HID and even after upgrading the HIDs in my X6 to Osram Nightbreaker Ultimate, they still aren’t a patch on the LEDs that were in our now returned 2-series Gran Tourer. My i4 has both quad-LED and laser main-beam but I haven’t tried them out yet. Laser lights are allegedly good for 1/2 mile.

Wonder if these are any good?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/325610205872 ... media=COPY

I dont recall now how easy or how much of a pita accessing these is. Not looking for aggravation for sure.