Does anyone have any experience of upgrading their headlights to Bi Xenon or HIDs?

What I am wondering is can I replace the whole headlight unit to a Bi-Xenon unit and will it work?
Car is a MKIV Mondeo.

Cheers

IIRC they require auto headlight adjust function for MOT & to be legal.

There are certainly plenty of “customisation” places which will do it, but the official channels are so eye wateringly expensive and the legality of any aftermarket fitting seemed a bit grey, I decided against it!

You need auto levelling, and headlamp washers I think.

Proper VW OEM ones were £1700 fitted when I looked, has to be about the only option which is actually more expensive after market!

Proper VW OEM ones were £1700 fitted when I looked, has to be about the only option which is actually more expensive after market!

Ha – go ask Audi to fit a tow bar!!!!!!

& yes, washers too.

njee20 – Member

You need auto levelling, and headlamp washers I think.

The above is correct, if you’re absolutely set on upgrading, the cheapest way would probably be to sell your car and buy another with them already fitted!

although on the mondeo I’m not sure I’d bother, have the bi-xenon as standard fit on my tit-x sport and they’re alright but certainly not in the same league as the VW/Audi set ups I’ve previously had (Octavia and A4)

I believe qwerty is correct.

I have a mk3 Mondeo, I’ve had aftermarket HID lamps on it since I bought it coming up six years ago. I do not have auto levelling, but there is manual remote levelling, and the car has headlamp washers. I’ve never had a problem at MOT time, and I have never had any problems with the police either.

If memory serves, the mk3 with factory Xenons had gubbins on the suspension to allow auto levelling, and a lighting switch without the manual level adjustment, so it’s not just a case of swapping lamp units. Mk4 will probably be similar.

Mk4 is full CANBUS too, so nothing is as easy as plugging in!

If you do go down the OEM route, be aware that there are 2 different types of xenon headlight. TitX sport uses a standard bi-xenon fixed beam (with auto levelling) where the titanium has adaptive lighting where the beams swivel in the direction of travel. Edit – on pre face lift cars anyway!

Momo is also correct. And devastatingly handsome.

I retrofitted genuine BMW Bi-Xenons to my E46 including the changes to the front and rear wiring harnesses and the level sensors on the front and rear axles. BMW did the recoding and signed off the work. All-up cost was ~£550 using second hand headlights.

They don’t need washers, the law stipulates that should washers be fitted, they must work.

Great – more badly aimed weirdly tinted overly bright light pollution in my rear view mirror

Hi Winston. Thanks for the implication, but mine are perfectly aimed.

Cheers folks, that’s what I assumed would be the case.

Winston, serves you right for stopping me making progress…

By all accounts swapping the factory kit into a mk4 is an absolute pain in the arse… You’d think it’d be a fairly simple job but from the sounds of it it’s intentionally engineered to prevent that.

I have a totally illegal HID retrofit with no levelling or washers in the motorbike, but it’s passed 4 MOTs and a couple of random roadside inspections without a batted eyelid. But they can function decently or badly in different headlights- in my case, the LHS lamp worked well but the RHS was glarey and couldn’t be set up to my satisfaction. So I ran one HID and one halogen. It’s not something I’d get into with a modern car persoanlly but my bike’s headlights were rubbish as standard.

I don’t find xenons to be all that when it comes to car headlamps. Dry roads they are better than standard halogen but in the wet they are terrible.

I had a mk4.5 Mondeo titanium x sport with the bi xenon headlight’s and quite frankly thought they were shite.

Correctly aimed but they used to make road signs glare like mad and didn’t really put much light up the road.

Not worth the cost for the benefits to be honest.

They don’t need washers, the law stipulates that should washers be fitted, they must work.

This ^ Got my old Clio through 3 or 4 MOTs with the washers blanked off. Which is a slightly bizarre rule, as xenons are meant to have washers for a reason….

but also….

Not worth the cost for the benefits to be honest.

BMW Halogen headlights are awful. The Xenons that replaced them are orders of magnitude better.

I sympathise with Daffy, BMW halogens are shockingly bad, so wish I had HIDS. The wife’s Aygo halogens on the other hand are brilliant..