Headlamp upgrade for non-HID's.
 

Hi all,

Not been doing a lot to the car recently what with the nasty weather and all but it has prompted me to take a look at the headlamps. The car does not have the HID's and I just cannot warrant the expense and work involved upgrading the lamps to Angel Eyes with HID's just for a fashion statement so I researched into upgraded halogen lamps. I could not believe that a bulb design from 1879 and with Halogen since 1959 could not be better.

I finally found that in Professional Motorsport, they do not use bulbs from your local Halfords or motor factors but use various combinations including Platinum and Plasma Ion and also available in rough useage such as Rallying. I purchased a pair of normal duty Platinum H7's in 4000k temperature and replaced my dip beam lamps. The bulbs are designed to draw a normal 55W but produce the equivelent of 110w of light.

WOW, what a difference. Focus and throw are unaffected but brightness and colour rendition are transformed, easily to HID levels but without the extra throw of an HID. They took 5 mins to fit and the pic I took shows an upgraded bulb in the drivers side and standard in the passenger side. A very difficult thing to show on a photo but by eye, the new lamp is pure white, not yellow and noticeably brighter. A pic of the beam on a white flat surface would be better but I did the best I could.

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/k.../Headlamps.jpg

In conclusion, HID's are still better but this comes close at a fraction of the hassle and cost and with proper Professional spec bulbs, not these so called uprated hi-wattage bulbs with poor focus and extra heat issues, and if you are not a slave to fashion, and can do without Angel Eyes too, I really recommend this mod. Will be doing the hi-beams next now I have seen the results.

X5Girl, xxx

I would be interested to see night shots, maybe against a wall if possible.

Also, do you know if those bulbs were marked "DOT compliant"? In the states, lots of 'rallying' or 'offroad' or whatever marketing speak bulbs available are not DOT (Department of Transportation) compliant, the fitting of which brings the outside chance that you could be issued a citation, but more importantly, fail inspection if the inspector checks them.

Here in the states, just about the best you can do without upgrading to HIDs is Sylvania Silver Star ultras, which are high grade bulbs that just swap in like the ones you found.

interesting..i might do that for the high beams.

if you decide to go to HIDs, I have my old projector set for sale with xenon bulbs, not the ballasts anymore because they have sold, but you could always get those.. check em out..

http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-items...est-offer.html