Spec me a bulb please

N43SP33D · 8 Feb 2011 at 22:19

Hey guys, not sure if you can remember but a couple of months ago i was looking at buying a 5 series...Well after months of looking i found a very good example. My only issue with it is that it does not have xenons, the standard lights are angel eyes but the head light is not very powerful, so rather than spending over a grand on xenons, is there a bulb available that can make my nights brighter?

thanks

Car Spec: BMW 5 Series 2007 E60 M Sport

Skilid · 8 Feb 2011 at 22:31

Theoretically, if you have projector lenses, you could get a Xenon/HID conversion kit for under £100 and have xenons, you just wouldn't have the auto levelling, which is of course and MOT failure, therefore illegal. But I doubt anyone would bat an eyelid at a 5 series tbh.

Westyfield2 · 8 Feb 2011 at 23:45

Is your car an LCI or Pre-LCI car?

If it's an LCI car, you'll have projector lenses for the low beam (but reflectors for the high beam) and you therefore could fit a HID kit for the low beam perfectly safely.

If it's a pre-LCI car then you won't have projectors and unless you want to change the light units (£££ I imagine!) you're best bet would be putting in Osram Night Breaker Plus bulbs

.

BlastRadius · 9 Feb 2011 at 10:58

Westyfield2 said:
Is your car an LCI or Pre-LCI car?

If it's an LCI car, you'll have projector lenses for the main beam (but reflectors for the full beam) and you therefore could fit a HID kit for the main beam perfectly safely.

If it's a pre-LCI car then you won't have projectors and unless you want to change the light units (£££ I imagine!) you're best bet would be putting in Osram Night Breaker Plus bulbs .

Osram Nightbreaker plus +1

Nice clean white light, so far have no failures after approx 100 hours.

N43SP33D · 9 Feb 2011 at 15:23

How do i know if its an LCI car or pre?

I have a picture of the car's head light

Skilid · 9 Feb 2011 at 18:44

Looks to me as though you have projector lights. You could easily put HID's in them. Search google/ebay for people that do them.

Westyfield2 · 9 Feb 2011 at 20:01

N43SP33D said:
How do i know if its an LCI car or pre?

Don't let [TW]Fox catch you saying that!

Yours has the LCI lights with a projector for low beam and a reflector for high beam. IIRC both have H7 bulbs inside them.

Consequently you can safely put HIDs in the low beams :cool:

. The only thing you need to be careful of is not triggering the bulb-out warnings. It would be worth you reading some relevant threads on 5series.net before buying, but I'd guess that something like this would be your best bet.

mjt · 9 Feb 2011 at 20:09

If you don't go down the HID route..
Philips X-Treme Power.
Nightbreakers don't last long at all in my experience. I think the Philips are brighter as well.

stylus pilot · 9 Feb 2011 at 20:57

mjt said:
If you don't go down the HID route..
Philips X-Treme Power.
Nightbreakers don't last long at all in my experience. I think the Philips are brighter as well.

The newer Night Breaker Plus seem to be lasting longer from what I've read. I certainly got through the originals quite quickly though on my old car.

fish · 9 Feb 2011 at 22:05

mjt said:
If you don't go down the HID route..
Philips X-Treme Power.
Nightbreakers don't last long at all in my experience. I think the Philips are brighter as well.

This, I have them on my bike and in my car, in my opinion they are superb.

N43SP33D · 9 Feb 2011 at 23:28

thanks for the advise guys, im gonna look into the HID conversion that Westyfield2 suggested and also change the main beams with the night breakers...unless the HID replaces this?

I am just a bit of a noob when it comes to installing things like this but im sure it'll be straight forward? :-S

Westyfield2 · 9 Feb 2011 at 23:45

Oops, just realised that I'd been using the terms Main/Full/Low/High beam incorrectly!

Gone back and edited it now

. Incase I've confused you I mean "Low Beam" to be the normal headlights and "High Beam" to be the lighting up the road further ahead that you do only when there's no other cars around. Though once you've got HIDs in the Low Beam you'll find you don't need to use the High Beam as much!

N43SP33D said:
thanks for the advise guys, im gonna look into the HID conversion that Westyfield2 suggested and also change the high beams with the night breakers...unless the HID replaces this?

I am just a bit of a noob when it comes to installing things like this but im sure it'll be straight forward? :-S

What I'd do is:

Read 5series.net first - there'll be some guides, people selling HID kits, etc. They'll know more than me! (Just remember that USA spec cars are slightly different to ours).
Buy a decent HID kit for the low beams - my suggestion is the HIDS4U H7 35w Ultimate Xenon HID Conversion Kit.
Buy some uprated bulbs for the high beams - Osram Night Breaker Plus are what I like.
Marvel at your new Xenon low beams that are correctly focused and high beams that match colour wise .