Advice needed on headlights please

[drex]

no problem! thank you all for being our X5 brothers and sisters across the pond and being part of our community!

[staffop]

You can retrofit Xenons in an X5 with halogens. You just need a Xenon HID kit which is basically the bulbs, holders, ballasts and associated wiring. Am going to be doing this mod on my 2003 X in the new year (that's if I can prise the headlamps apart). The lenses don't need to be changed but I'm hoping to reproduce the 'OEM euro clear with Xenons look' which is basically the halogen unit without the clear/amber plastic side diffuser and plastic front lenses but with the addition of projectors for the dipped (xenon) bulbs.
I have adaptive lights so this mod would be cheeper than replacing the complete units with adaptive stock xenon units.

[AndyP]

Did about 90 mins of night driving tonight. Huge improvement. Nothing like as good as it would be with xenon's but the realignment has certainly helped.

Now off to see which PIAA bulbs we're gonna stick in there.

[Titanium]

Hey Staffop, do you have instructions on how to perform that mod? I'm interested in what you described in your post about the xenon retrofit w/ clear corners and angel eyes. Your input would be much appreciated.

[staffop]

Originally Posted by Titanium

Hey Staffop, do you have instructions on how to perform that mod? I'm interested in what you described in your post about the xenon retrofit w/ clear corners and angel eyes. Your input would be much appreciated.

From the research I've done so far, the Xenons are a straight swap with the old bulbs. They have a ballast unit for each bulb which plugs into the existing wiring loom for the old bulbs. A cable then goes from the ballast box to each Xenon bulb. The ballast boxes can be secured just behind the headlamp unit.

As for the clear corners/angel eyes. There are articles on this forum about them. HERE

I still haven't found anything about retrofitting the Xenon projectors into halogen units so would appreciate anyone who has info on that.

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by AndyP

Did about 90 mins of night driving tonight. Huge improvement. Nothing like as good as it would be with xenon's but the realignment has certainly helped.

Now off to see which PIAA bulbs we're gonna stick in there.

See I told you so. :p

[laserneedle]

Phillips Vision Plus for low beams and fog lights. Polarg Spec-R HIR for your high beams.