Early E39 HID Conversion

[camera doctor 25]

I have an ex Japan 1996 E39 540i and find that the factory low beams are dangerously dim.

Has anybody gone down the upgrade route on one of these?

A quick look on ebay UK shows Blue Xenon bulbs and HID kits as the common options.

Seems the HID kits that are listed as 'Quality, no ECU errors' are around 75 - 100 UK Pounds.

There are some on Trademe for NZ $230 ish, but I wonder if they are cheap and nasty?

Any experience with these would be appreciated.

Thanks

[kiwi535 538]

factory hid would be plug and play but muchos dollars!....

[camera doctor 25]

factory hid would be plug and play but muchos dollars!....

A couple of the UK ebay sellers list theirs as Plug'n'Play. But we all know how well that sometimes goes!

[kiwi535 538]

like you the low beams of my e 34 are hopeless.I ahve considered a hid kit,but i am dubious about the kits that put a hid bulb into the std housing,the light source and shape is completely from the H1 bulb it replaces.Most hid kits push the long HID bulbs out the back of the housing.If like me you have limited room behind the headlights I dont know that they would fit.I know this isnt specific help but hopefully will put you in a position to ask some pertinnent questions.Will they let you return them?less P and P of course!

[Yuen 16]

camera doctor, did you ask some questions about your headlight awhile back when you first joined? I'm assuming you didn't have much success cleaning the light so you're posting this now.

There are two ways to get HID:

1. Do it the right way by getting headlights made for HID bulbs. Such headlights were designed with the HID bulbs in mind. The projector will be different and will take HID bulbs only. HID bulbs come in a few types, for example reflector headlights usually take D2R while projector headlights like the E39 take D2S. A headlight designed for HID will not cause glare if aimed properly. If you drive a car that has proper HID headlights, you'll notice the beam pattern is even.

2. Do it the wrong way, like you said - get an aftermarket kit that uses a halogen base, ie: H1, H3, H7 etc and plug it into a halogen headlight. These kits are rebased - they take the bulb and install it on to the halogen base of your choice. You can then plug it into your headlights. But note when they rebase bulbs it could result in the bulb being a different length to normal halogen bulbs. This will result in improper light output. It's not to say that ALL halogen headlights with HID kits put out a bad beam pattern, some are better than others. But you can safely say that an E39 HID headlight will put out a better beam pattern than a E39 Halogen headlight with a HID kit.

Aftermarket HID kits are what give HID a bad name. Look at the amount of cars on our roads using kits and causing glare to other drivers, now the average person thinks HID are stupid and cause glare when they are actually a superior light technology and improve safety. Once you have driven a car with PROPER HIDs you won't want to go back to halogen. Also note that OEM (ie: Philips, Osram) HID bulbs are around 4300k in temperature. They are a bit of a warm white and put the most lumens on the road compared to other lights. If you go aftermarket you will almost never see 4300k bulbs, instead you'll see 5000k, 6000k, sometimes past 10,000k. The higher the kelvin the less lumens. You might have seen people on the road with literally purple headlights (really high kelvin)- they think they're cool but they cause fatigue to their own eyes and others on the road. HID bulbs do go up in colour temperature through time - so OEM do sell ~5000k bulbs to match any old ones if one dies.

So please do it the right way and get a proper pair of HID headlights if you want to go HID. To be honest I am still surprised your E39 headlights are not good enough, are they aimed correctly, do they have broken adjusters, is the glass hazy? Have you cleaned them from the inside? If the light housing is already bad, putting a HID kit inside it won't help.

You may want to take this opportunity to upgrade to facelift headlights (angel eyes) with xenon. Hella sells a conversion kit for this purpose. It's not cheap, but it might be worth your while... try taking an E39 with xenon for a test drive. A cheaper option would be to get pre-facelift headlights with xenon, you'll also need a conversion kit but I'd imagine it would be cheaper. Proper E39 HID headlights will have brackets to mount the ballasts, while if you go with a halogen headlight and an aftermarket kit, you'll have to mount the ballasts somewhere in the engine bay, usually using double sided tape.

kiwi535: Have you tried cleaning your E34's headlights?

[kiwi535 538]

kiwi535: Have you tried cleaning your E34's headlights?

cleaning the INSIDE of my headlights.....no.But i beleive it improves things.Have you?How I have heard different techniques.I beleive i have metal/glass units.

[Yuen 16]

cleaning the INSIDE of my headlights.....no.But i beleive it improves things.Have you?How I have heard different techniques.I beleive i have metal/glass units.

I've cleaned my E36 headlights. There are two layers of glass - the outside rectangular one and the two round glass lenses inside that resemble the E34 ellipsoids. I have not done an E34 before but it should be similar, get the lights out, take off the lenses and clean the reflector (preferably with a good microfibre cloth or something that will not scratch, the reflector is very delicate and the chrome scratches easily and will come off if you rub too hard). If possible test a non-visible surface first. Then go for the projector lense itself - for the E36 it was hard to clean the inside of the lense, but I managed to do it bending my fingers inside and doing a little bit at a time. I used newspaper to clean the glass lenses. There will be dust and what seems to be oil build-up through time. I used Mr. Muscle glass cleaner on both - not sure if that's the best option but it has seemed to work fine. A few weeks after I cleaned mine one of them fogged up one night when left out in the cold but it rarely happens. I'm not sure if it had anything to do with the Mr. Muscle. Maybe you could try washing the lenses with dishwashing liquid and dry them with newspaper.

Here's my write up for the E36, you can see the difference cleaning makes.

DIY Write-up: Cleaning E36 Bosch Ellipsoid Lenses

[kiwi535 538]

i have neard that just washing the whole assembly in a solution with detergent and kerosene works,or even putting them in a dishwasher!

[Yuen 16]

i have neard that just washing the whole assembly in a solution with detergent and kerosene works,or even putting them in a dishwasher!

I really don't see how that would work, but you could try

[hotwire 352]

Yuen - HID's well described

I have had E34 projector lamps apart before & cleaned the inside of the glass & the projector lens itself - on the beamsetter I noticed a big difference in light output -before to after.

Customer who was complaining of crap low beam lights was amazed at the improvement at night too.

Camera Doctor - I too remember you talking of this problem in your E39 earlier. Did you try & clean the inside?

Mine being a Jap import looked to have a slight film build up on the inside when I bought the car into NZ. When I fitted the angel eye rings I cleaned the inside at the same time & they came up as new (lenses are not discoloured at all)

I find the lights brilliant in factory form although I have upgraded to the "cool blue" zenon bulb which is a slightly better output.

If yours are as bad as you say then it must be the lamp/lens discoloured or dirty unless there is a voltage/drop issue - which I would think unlikely

[Yuen 16]

Cheers Grant. It's good to hear you've had success with cleaning the lights. Brand new they are great lights, and that shouldn't change other than possible plastic hazing (not a problem on our glass ones of course) or deterioration of the reflector surface. You brought up a good point, deteriorated wiring could be a cause but not likely, would be a last resort I suppose.

What brand/model are the cool blue bulbs you bought? I have always been against any halogen bulbs with any form of tint as it would reduce light output. So am quite interested to know what they are, are they 55w like normal ones?

[hotwire 352]

Cheers Grant. It's good to hear you've had success with cleaning the lights. Brand new they are great lights, and that shouldn't change other than possible plastic hazing (not a problem on our glass ones of course) or deterioration of the reflector surface. You brought up a good point, deteriorated wiring could be a cause but not likely, would be a last resort I suppose.

What brand/model are the cool blue bulbs you bought? I have always been against any halogen bulbs with any form of tint as it would reduce light output. So am quite interested to know what they are, are they 55w like normal ones?

Hi again. My E39 uses HB3 & HB4 bulbs - I used Hella packaged -Sylvania brand (Hella package bulbs using several different top brand maufacturers -Sylvania, Philips, Osram for a few) Thinking now - cant remember whether they are cool blue or ultra - both are similar in their slightly whiter/bluer light to the standard bulb, not a big difference though but certainly a little more effective over the standard.

Still the same wattage, infact there is only one wattage available for these & anyway - very unwise to increase bulb wattage in a modern car with polycarbonate lenses let alone late BMW's with complex lighting controls.

Mine have no hazing whatsoever nor did have & anyone who has driven the car at night has commented on the efficiency of the lights in it so to be a problem in others I would suggest probably indicates dirty/hazed lenses

[Yuen 16]

I see, those are all good brands. I looked into these awhile back and eventually settled on Osram Silverstars (European branch of Sylvania I believe), I went for them over the Sylvania Silverstars (blue tinted so put out a whitish light, I think similar to Cool Blue) because they didn't have any tint on them, and put out more light, which was also slightly less yellow. Output was slightly better than normal halogen (have used Narva, Philips, Osram) and the light was a little more white but definitely not worth the price premium - they didn't even come close to HIDs. People who tested them said the Sylvania Silverstars did not put out as much light as the Osram Silverstars, but the light was more whitish.

Since then I've decided if I'm going to stick with halogen I'm not buying any 'extra bright' ones - halogen is halogen and if I'm going to pay a premium for better lighting, it will be for HID.

Totally agree on the wattage thing, also I think the factory wiring wouldn't be suited to 100W bulbs you see being sold in the aftermarket, especially in the long term.

[kiwi535 538]

the e34 ue h1 bulbs so the units arent sealed...the washing described above cleans the reflectors and the projectors

[allan 295]

Hate to be a joy germ you may need to read this from LTS on HID kits first

http://www.landtransport.govt.nz/vehicles/...ghts-right.html