Sorry was not able to make the original post clearer. Being in the new topic page seems to close my browser for some reason.

Aftermarket HID ballasts incorporate the igniter and ballast itself in one package, as opposed to the BMW OEM Hella system where the ballast is under the headlight assembly and the igniter is behind the bulb. It is not going to be a plug and play job, at the very least it would entail a bit of splicing.

I lost light on one side recently and traced it to the ballast. Ordered a used OEM one off of Ebay and replaced it. Afterwards a friend theorized on the possibility of replacing the OEM separate ballast/igniter with an integrated ballast/igniter as found in most HID conversion kits, which are a lot cheaper.

Wondering if anyone has tried that. I have adaptive headlights too, would that be affected by any conversion?

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04 X5 3.0i auto
03 X5 4.6is