Lotus99

During the winters, we go up the mountains for skiing, and it's usually when it's dark out. The HID high beams are already pretty good I have to say, but I would still like to have more light farther down the road if possible.

Does anyone know the high beams' specs? Aux lights seem to be rated by 1 LUX at a certain distance, like the chart below shows. How would I find that out for our high beams?


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I'm toying with getting a pair of discreet LED lights, but I'm wondering if they're too small to really achieve anything more than I already have. Their specs sound good, but in reality, I don't know, and they don't say the 600 m of distance is at 1 Lux or not, to be apples to apples with other ones I've looked at.

Was going to get the Hyper version of these:

Fenix F4



Or maybe from these guys:

Optimus Series - LED Lighting

But I wonder if these little 3" lights can realistically put out more light than our larger reflectors? I'm having doubts... 6" rally lights would work better I'm sure, but not the right look for the car!

And then, I wonder if I could simply tap into the high beam wires, so they fire up when I use the high beams, or if the fancy electronics of the car and CANBUS would have issues with that? They only draw 1.5 amps each.

I was going to mount them above the license plate, using this Rigid Industries mount:

rice_rocket88

I've seen the Fenix lights, and boy are they bright. I would imagine adding absolutely any actual auxiliary DRIVING lights that are aimed much higher will work fine. I'm new to BMW myself, so I don't yet quite understand the power draw requirements and error codes. What I would do is wire a switch/relay that is controlled, and have the power come directly from the battery. A switched relay only needs power to "switch" so if you either 1) wired it to the high beam or 2) wired you own switch.. then it would be fine.

RIHI

You could also install 55W HIDs in the fog lights have the fog lights coded so they do not turn off when you put on your high beams.

Lotus99

That won't fix my problem, which is getting more distance. I've since decided to most likely go with these instead, as it's a simpler solution, though probably not as powerful still as standalone lights.

Philips makes these HID bulbs that are 50% more light supposedly and on the HID forums, they say they are brighter for sure. They're called X-Treme Vision.

They put out 3200 ±450 lumens or so, and they claim to have 50% more light.

http://www.mea.philips.com/c/car-lam...85415xvs1/prd/
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RIHI

Let me know how those work out. What do they cost, if you don't mind me asking?

rice_rocket88

Wow that looks cool! I did use the Xtreme vision NORMAL halogen bulbs in my wife's CRV. Although the light output was indeed better.. you could really see spots in the front. It was not a significant enough upgrade for me. I put in some 35w HID lights and it was significantly better, although the pattern wasn't as sharp as I'd like it. Plus the idea that it was not in a proper projector housing didn't help a ton. When upgrading on my Subaru between 35w and 55w there was also not a humongous difference in distance/intensity for my detection. Although the higher power washed out the lights to a lower kelvin rating which I liked (more white than blue tinted).

I'm skeptical that the bulb upgrade is going to be enough for you. I'd still vote for aiming a Fenix aux light where you want it, and switch it on and off. After-all.. there's a reason why trucks etc have the high mounted lights.. it throws just that much more blinding light

I think the idea is you need the angle higher to throw the light further. Increasing power of the headlights or foglights is still just aimed in the same place.

Lotus99

Besides the Philips bulbs, there are the Osram versions of extra light, which claim to have 70% more light, so I might get those if I go the bulb route:

XENARC NIGHT BREAKER UNLIMITED | OSRAM
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Otherwise, yeah, I think the lights above the license plate might be a bit too low. I was toying with doing what this guy did with his 3 series wagon, and he tapped the wire signal for his high beams, like I was thinking, so they come on when he flicks his high beams, rather than a manual separate switch. He put halogen Hella FF200 lights in there (a lot cheaper than going HID, even though he also has bixenon lights, but went with the blue tine lens to give it a whiter look), and used 100W bulbs too. He says it gives him almost 50% more distance than his regular high beams!

RIHI

It is the beam pattern giving out the better lighting conditions. The extra lights within the grille is a great idea, I just hope it doesn't starve the engine compartment of incoming air. The high beams on the Bi-Xenon headlights seems to be too high, and it doesn't illuminate a lot of the road ahead but quite a bit of the area above the road.