Xenon lights?
 

CAn you retro fit xenon headlights to a 2001 x5?

Yep! I've done the retro-fit on my 2002 X5. Good luck. :thumbup:

is it hard to do? and how much does it cost?

Should be no problem. Like the M3 in your sig, beautiful color.

What do you need to do this mod:?

Obviously....1) Xenon Headlight Assembly
2) Bulbs (sometimes on ebay these are missing)
3) Ballast ( I see this as part of the description on ebay items but I don't know what it does/is)

There won't be a issue w/ the higher temp bulbs or anything w/in the vehicles computer system...since the xenons weren't OEM.

Someone that's done this..chime in.....I think there's a lot of us that want this upgrade but aren't sure how to go about buying parts etc...

Plus I've got DDE's waiting to go in and I'd rather have them in some Xenon's than Halogens. :)

The ballast is the unit that provides the starting voltage and current for the HID lamps. They're actually arc lamps not filament lamps so need several thousands of volts to make them work. There is a very good tutorial about them on this site. I've put the link in here:

http://www.intellexual.net/hid.html

and more info (also from this site) here:

http://www.bmwmotorsports.org/pdf/xenonretroinstall.pdf

Check http://www.xoutpost.com/

Most, if not all the info is here.

If you have all the parts including the relay packs it takes 20 minutes a side. PM me if you need more.

There are two ways of doing it:

1.) Fit an aftermarket Xenon HID kit into your existing (Halogen) headlamps.
The kit comes with 2 x ballasts and 2x bulbs (H7 for dipped beam). You can also choose the colour temperature of the bulbs. OEM is 4300k (white light with a hint of yellow) but most people choose 6000k (pure white) or even 8000k which I personally think is too blue.

Benefits of this is that you don't have to replace your existing headlamp units.
Depending upon the type of ballasts used, you may need to fit resistors in the lighting harness as detailed elsewhere in the articles to stop the bulb alarm/ Xenons shutting down when you start the car.

2.) Replace the Halogen headlamps with Xenon headlamp units which contain Xenon projectors. These are glass lenses which focus the beam of light on the road. The bulb fittings is different with these, D2S as opposed to H7.
You will need ballasts as above but with D2S connectors as opposed to H7 ones. With this route you will need to make sure your halogen units have self leveling as all Xenon units require self leveling and you can just plug the self leveling harness into the Xenon headlamp units. Retrofitting the parts/harness is quite a big job I think.

Depending upon how much you get the parts for this can work out about the same price as buying the HID kit in 1.)

I'm in the process of sourcing parts to do 2.) . I'm lucky to have self leveling on my halogen headlamps so it should (he says now :confused: ) be a straightforward job to replace with Xenon units.

staffop...great info...I'm becomming very knowledgeable after reading those sources....

How do you know if your X comes w/ Self Leveling helogen's???

I'll be interested in hearing what you find for solution #2

Halogen does not come with self leveling in US spec. vehicles. The retro for that involves a lot of time (dealer or otherwise) and a BMW kit. NOT CHEAP!
I'm working on my own "self leveler" circuit. I already have a manual one I built to adjust the dip (via the stepper motors) without adjusting the high beam. Now all I need to do is find time and patience to write the program for a PIC.