BMW Headlight Help?

Help / advice needed – new job means more night drives in my 2013 BMW 520d but the lights are standard halogen and terrible warm brown light – upgraded to brighter Philips bulbs but still struggle compare to all the bright white light out there. Anyone know if there is anything to be done ? I have seen some hid conversion kits but would want to ensure put in by a reputable independents garage who offered guarantee, anyone know a good one north of Leeds ?

Been searching bimmer forums etc but getting lost in the detail ?

If anyone out there knows the holy grail solution I salute you !

If you slow down a bit you’ll find your lights will be perfectly ok 🙂

HID conversions are now illegal to do unless it’s a factory fit job for your car. You can do it but you risk an MOT fail and a big fine if you get caught.

If they haven’t always been that bad then you can try the basics: checking the power is getting through fully, cleaning the inside of the light (reflector, lens) and trying different bulbs.
The modern LED lights are too bright IMO, the manufacturers are actually trying to find a way around it as the cut-off from them is far too severe on some designs. When everyone had standard halogen bulbs we all could see ok as long as we all drove to what we could see. The modern lights are an arms race to see who can blind the most traffic!

Not sure what forums you’ve tried but for 5 series stuff this used to be a great source of information when I had a 5 series in the past:
http://forum.bmw5.co.uk

Pretty sure Osram night breaker were often the go to bulbs.

Some of the guys on the uk f30post site have been buying and fitting depo units sourced from eurowagens in Germany. Obviously the f30 is a 3 series, but I thought I’d post it so you could get some ideas / background into fitting aftermarket HID units.

I don’t think I could be bothered with the faff myself. The f30 light installation is a bumper off job

I’m pretty sure there’s a power issue when fitting more powerful headlights on BMWs. It seems to reduce power to the indicators.

Isn’t there a higher spec 5 series that had xenon / hid headlights? Could you try and pick up some 2nd hand ones from a breakers to fit?

I had this issue.

Just go to Halfords and get the brightest bulbs they sell, they’ll also fit them.

Does transform the car at night.

My 5 Series has HID lamps but they also ‘steer’ with the wheels (I assume to reduce issues with oncoming drivers on left hand bends) – I can’t imagine a retrofit being either easy or cheap.

It seems to reduce power to the indicators

Only if they were selected from the ‘options’ list..

I can’t imagine a retrofit being either easy or cheap.

That’s because you’re not spamming posts with links to ” Solar Series Platinum Xenon-Enhanced Halogen Headlight bulbs“!

had same issue with mine – 2013 520d estate, lights were pretty poor.

I bought an Audi with xenon ones 🙂

A bit extreme going for a downgrade just for headlamps ^^

😀

….gone off the RS4 idea then ?….

Isn’t there a higher spec 5 series that had xenon / hid headlights? Could you try and pick up some 2nd hand ones from a breakers to fit?

Yes. It’s a factory option. I drove a couple before mine with the standard halogen lights & they wern’t great, not bad enough for me not to want to buy one, but I ended up with a car with the Xenon’s which do make a big difference.

To retrofit them however, you are going to be reamed out thousands. The lights are ~£1k each side, and fitting them is a total sh*t too. You need a few extra modules to talk to the iDrive system properly.

….gone off the RS4 idea then ?….

That could have a Kia badge on it and I’d want one, its not about the marque…

course it isn’t…… 🙂

Do your existing lights have the reflector bowl design (ie real old style ) or are they the projector lens type (ie look like hid but just have a halogen bulb in them) ?

If the former then hid kits are a real no go. Just stick with the best bulbs you can buy … osram or Philips vision plus efforts. Yes they are expensive but worth it.

If the latter then hid conversion kits would in reality probably work quite well. I did that to a car I used to have and it passed mots fine…. but only cause it had the projector lens setup. Go for 4300k colour… 6000k is too blue and not as bright.

There used to be a time when people fitted auxiliary driving lights to come on with the main beam but it doesn’t seem to happen much nowadays.

You shouldn’t have to upgrade the dipped beam, and really you shouldn’t, as you will blind anyone driving towards you. Main beams in most cars are a bit patchy I find so if you are using them a lot some extra driving lights may be a good idea.

If you slow down a bit you’ll find your lights will be perfectly ok

This 100 times over.

Modern car lights are just ridiculously bright enough as they are…I have no idea why people are constantly upping their lumen output it’s like an arms race of who can blind who the most!

It is a fact that many modern headlights are actually worse than good ones from 80-90s. A local magazine just published results, I think it was 90’s Saab had best ones and currently car with best lights (length of beam, light distribution) is Alfa Romeo Giulietta which has Xenon with auxiliary halogen for high beam. No laser lights were tested though 😀

With xenons you may think that you have fantastic lights if you judge by bright spot near the car when the beam range might actually be too short.

I can’t help OP though, sorry.

As it’s a BMW surely you just drive it with the lights on full blast like everyone else who drives a tw*t German car?

How about the Phillips zes led headlight bulbs? I’m considering some for my roomster which has poor headlights. The only thing that is slowing down the process is the fitting of the new bulbs as the bumper need to be removed to gain access to the bulbs.

Lights on my old e39 5 series were woeful, think they were about 1 candle power. Seems with most BMWs the standard halogen lights are very poor. I upgraded to after market HIDs from these people. https://www.hids4u.co.uk
Whilst still not brilliant they were much better.

I know that potentially they may fail an MOT since the government changed the law but you could just swap back to halogen bulbs for MOT leaving the ballasts in situ then plug the xenon lights back up after.

The Halfords bulbs are brighter but the working life on them is very short on the brightest version due to the gas mix in them.

I’d try the 90% brighter bulbs if you do a lot of driving in the dark.