My hologen lights are so poor on my e61 I want to fit a retrofit Xenon headlight (are they also called HID kits ???).

How easy or difficult is it to do this for someone like me with basic / intermediaet skills. And what kind of cost involved for the kits.

My car is a European model without self leveling lights. I have a knurled wheel next the light switch to manually adjust the light level / range

Thanks

 

Do you have projectors? If so, you could find a HID kit that is direct plug and play.

Otherwise, you could probably find an entire housing kit that comes with the bulbs and ballast.

Either way, you'll probably need the dealer to code your car for HID/Xenon lights otherwise you'll get an "light out" error.

 

It depends on what sort of retrofit you want:

1. You can swap out the entire light fitting and put in a Xenon headlight unit, but as 3series says you will need to reprogramme the car and this is not something easily done - there are some examples here but the guys who have done it have a higher than average electrical knowledge. Most will use an independent / dealer and the cost of the labour / headlight units is very high.

2. You can buy some plug and play Xenon bulbs from places like www.Hids4u.co.uk I did this and the effect is dramatic - much brighter than the dull halogens. The bulbs need an electronic ballast to stop the error messages and a different clip to mount them in the halogen lamps but these come supplied with the kit. The only downside is that you keep the standard headlight lens rather then installing the projector lenses to make best use of the xenon light. In this case, you will have to loosen the nuts around the headlight to make the bulb change or else you need witches fingers.

3. Hybrid - put the Xenon bulbs / ballasts in a refurbished / new projector lens headlight. This removes the need for reprogramming as the aftermarket bulb / ballast units do this already and adds the projector lenses to your car. You can buy and use the xenon bulbs first and then when you are ready swap out headlamp units for projector ones.

Good luck, whichever route you take.

 

You could also do a bi-xenon retrofit. This is something I am currently
looking to do once I get the kit together. I believe you need bi-xenon headlights complete with bulbs and ballasts. You can then use a capacitor, which means no reprogramming is needed.

Do a search ''bi-xenon retrofit''

 

I might try the plug and play option of installing the Xenon bulbs in the existing lenses first to see if that makes any difference (as Stike outlines above)as my main problem is light hitting the road, so this might do the trick. I guess there is no extra heat generated by fitting the Xenon bulb that might melt the lenses etc ?

Then fit the lenses later. Taking out the whole headlamp assembly sounds like a big job.

Thanks for the help / advice

 

No heat problems on the Xenon bulbs into Halogen lenses.

Jas, let us know how the Bi-Xenon retrofit goes...It is easier to get hold of the headlamps without the ballasts so I may try and fit my current aftermarket Xenons into the Bi-Xenon headlamp units. This should also remove the need to fit a capacitor.

 

I have been looking for a while for projector headlights - any recommendations on were to get them from

 

Jas do you have normal xenon headlights or like mine below..??

Let me know and i'll try and fish around for you as well and see if i can get hold of my style headlight's

 

I have managed to find some projector style bi-xenon headlights but even following the bi-xenon retrofit threads the low beam has not worked yet.

 

i have the HID conversion kit from brabusw209amg, consists of xenon bulbls, ballasts, cables and ballast holders. plug and play kit straight into your halogen deflectors.
They work a treat, nice and bright.