[quadwiz]

Please bare with me since I'm a new owner of a f30 msport and am trying to get my head around xenons, halogens, LEDs etc. My F30 comes with standard halogens and while I would like to upgrade to Xenon I don't want to spend large amounts of money.

I was looking the dealership website and came across a couple of halogens and xenons, are these upgrades to the standard halogens and what difference would they make? Are they easy/cheap to install?

Halogens - BMW H7 blue halogen light bulbs

Xenon - BMW D1S blue xenon light bulbs

Thanks!

[GEP77]

Your Halogen headlights use H7 filaments. Your best bet (while keeping the cost down) is to install filaments like Philips xtreme (or Diamond) Vision or Osram Nightbreakers. Both of these will improve the light output and colour (slightly whiter).

You can't upgrade a halogen reflector light to OEM Xenon without significant expenditure (think thousands if you do it properly)

[simon the pieman]

As above. To upgrade to xenons you need the xenon headlight units the ballasts, control unit and coding at the very least. Xenons are self levelling also so you'd need to change the headlight control facia in the car to. It would be easier and cheaper to px to a car with them I think.
There probably is aftermarket xenon retro fits but I don't know much about these. Someone will pop up and mention them.

[teaston]

Why not join the list here and buy projector headlights that you can then fit xenons to: UK Group Buy, F30/F31 Projector Headlights UK Seller **NOVEMBER DELIVERY** http://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sho....php?t=1294714

[quadwiz]

thanks guys - so basically I will be unable to install the xenon light bulbs within further work to make them compatible?
Are the bmw halogen bulbs (BMW H7 blue halogen light bulbs) any better than the standard ones? Are they similar to the philips / osram mentioned above?
Finally what are these HID conversion kits? Would they be of any use to me?

[quadwiz]

Originally Posted by teaston

Why not join the list hair and buy projector headlights that you can then fit xenons to: UK Group Buy, F30/F31 Projector Headlights UK Seller **NOVEMBER DELIVERY** http://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sho....php?t=1294714

Teaston, how are these lights different from doing a complete OEM Xenon installation? I can see they have teh DRL but are the high and low beam xenon too? I'm a bit apprehensive signing up to buy them coz I need to figure out how to get them installed.

[teaston]

Originally Posted by quadwiz

thanks guys - so basically I will be unable to install the xenon light bulbs within further work to make them compatible?
Are the bmw halogen bulbs (BMW H7 blue halogen light bulbs) any better than the standard ones? Are they similar to the philips / osram mentioned above?
Finally what are these HID conversion kits? Would they be of any use to me?

The best H7 bulbs are Philip xtreme vision +130%, but they will still be quite yellow.

You can't safely fit HID conversion kits to reflector headlights, but you can to the projector headlights in the thread I posted above.

[BrennanF30]

Originally Posted by quadwiz

Teaston, how are these lights different from doing a complete OEM Xenon installation? I can see they have teh DRL but are the high and low beam xenon too? I'm a bit apprehensive signing up to buy them coz I need to figure out how to get them installed.

I am heading up the group buy on these headlights, they look almost identical to the factory xenon headlights, the only difference is, if you are fitting a hid xenon kit you will not have full beam xenon.

The DRL rings are identical to the genuine xenon lamps.

These are a fantastic upgrade for your standard halogen headlights and they will look a million times better.

[teaston]

Originally Posted by quadwiz

Teaston, how are these lights different from doing a complete OEM Xenon installation? I can see they have teh DRL but are the high and low beam xenon too? I'm a bit apprehensive signing up to buy them coz I need to figure out how to get them installed.

The main difference is they're £370 instead of over £1k, and they a simple plug and play whereas the oem xenons need a lot of rewiring and coding.

[CazuaLLUK]

Originally Posted by teaston

The main difference is they're £370 instead of over £1k, and they a simple plug and play whereas the oem xenons need a lot of rewiring and coding.

For OEM Xenon conversion BMW quoted me a few months back about £1400-1500 for parts and around £300 labour!

[amsbmw]

Originally Posted by CazuaLLUK

For OEM Xenon conversion BMW quoted me a few months back about £1400-1500 for parts and around £300 labour!

That sounds way to cheap,

My dealer quoted 3/4k just for the headlights + bulbs and stuff, I douby any dealer would actually retrofit this!

That £300 wouldve probs been to take the bumper off and replace the headlights (without wiring ) lol!

[Mr NSB]

I traded my previous F30 with uprated bulbs at the weekend for a newer shiny LCi version and have found the headlamps in the new car really poor. So tonight I have fitted Philips xtreme vision +130% bulbs and raised the lights a little and they have made quite an improvement. Obviously xenons they are not but for £36 for the 4 bulbs it might be worth a try.

[quadwiz]

Originally Posted by Mr NSB

I traded my previous F30 with uprated bulbs at the weekend for a newer shiny LCi version and have found the headlamps in the new car really poor. So tonight I have fitted Philips xtreme vision +130% bulbs and raised the lights a little and they have made quite an improvement. Obviously xenons they are not but for £36 for the 4 bulbs it might be worth a try.

I thought the new LCI versions came with the xenon lights as standard. I might give the philips xtremes a try...