Lighting/Wattage Inquiry

[shadoww93]

I want to do fog light HID conversion on my '04 X5, in addition to the HIDs i want to mount some off road baja lights on my two front tow hook eyes. Out of convenience i want to splice the wiring of the off road lights with the HID fog lights so they both come on at the same time. Now for the plan:

I have 6ohm 50w resistors to protect the ballast and make splicing a simple task as my hid kit is 35 watts. Since the oem lights are 55w, to my knowledge the max wattage i can put in the off road lights is 20w to bring the total wattage to 55 (i plan to splice them in parallel if that adds any info). However the lowest wattage bulbs i can find is 25w bringing the total wattage of the lights to 60

My question: Will i have any problems or dangers (wires melting, etc.) by drawing 60w out of a 55w system?

P.S. the off road lights are just for show so an alternative is putting leds in them sine i do not need the light output but i would prefer the halogen look.

[X5SND]

If Im understanding this right, you want to convert the existing fogs to HID and then mount additional off road HID lights to the tow hook points?

The conversion of the fogs is no big deal. I would highly recommend using a relay harness on the additional lights though. Ballasts for HID lighting have a high initial current draw which tapers off.....That high initial current draw from all 4 lights may 'overload' the LCM and cause it to cut power to the lights (fail to ignite).

[shadoww93]

yea you got your facts right. thanks for pointing out the initial current draw i forgot to consider that. i just did some research (35/50/55 watt HIDs) and it basically gives me no option but to go with leds haha

[TerminatorX5]

Originally Posted by X5SND

If Im understanding this right, you want to convert the existing fogs to HID and then mount additional off road HID lights to the tow hook points?

The conversion of the fogs is no big deal. I would highly recommend using a relay harness on the additional lights though. Ballasts for HID lighting have a high initial current draw which tapers off.....That high initial current draw from all 4 lights may 'overload' the LCM and cause it to cut power to the lights (fail to ignite).

right on the money