Do I have xenon's?

R

RickyG512

Member
 Heathrow/Kingston/Croydon
Hi guys,

Just purchased a 2003 Z4 3.0i. Will be making a larger post in the noobie section. I plan to be very active on the forum with loads of heavy modding to the Zed lol. But as a quick question, does anyone know if my model has the xenon's (D2S) headlights (picture attached) as one of the bulbs has just got out and need to replace asap. It has the glass ball looking thing but still not sure if it's H7 or D2S. I'm not even sure what Bi-Xenon's are?

Thanks =)
 

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Will do first thing in the morning.

But does that mean then you can still have the glass ball and still have a halogen H7 bulb behind it?
 
Firstly welcome to the forum - what good taste you have! Looking forward to some pictures in the Newbies thread!

Anyway from what I have read on here, if you have the thumbwheel next to the light switch to adjust the headlight beam height then you don't have Xenons.

Another clue is headlight washers - apparently they are "compulsory" with Xenons, so if you don't have headlight washers then you don't have Xenons.

Final clue is to drive an unlit single-carriageway at night - if all looks good you either have Xenons or great eyesight! If it all looks a bit invisible you probably don't have Xenons (or have terrible eye-sight)!

I won't say the difference is like night and day (oops, just did!) but changing from one with them to one without you really do appreciate how good they are (even if they are expensive to replace)!
 
Stick the last 7 digits of your vin in here - http://www.bmwvin.com/ - it'll tell you everything your car left the factory with.

The yellow warning sticker and non adjustable lights (xenons are self levelling) are also obvious tells, as already mentioned.

Bi-xenons I believe are only on facelift models (clear indicators rather than orange) and are just a different design, so your wont have bi-xenons, just xenons.

Welcome BTW - look forward to hearing about the mods.
 
If you can see the road at night you have Xenons, if not, Halogen!

You could have a H7 bulb behind the lens. Lots of tell tale signs given above, don't rely on one and check both lamps.

If you do have Halogen and want to see consider putting a HID kit in. Huge difference.
 
If you do find all the indications are that they are halogen, given so many people have replaced halogens with aftermarket HID's then I would just open the inspection cover on the rear of the headlight and look at the bulb to be certain of exactly what you have and even if basic halogen the make and type of bulb.

You'll be upset if you buy and it's not right or odd colours
 
For those off us without :(,
What's the best upgrade route.
Hids?
Is it possible to upgrade to factory xenon?
Cheers.
 
Upgrading to oem xenon would be very difficult as you'd need the headlights themselves which are rare and expensive, different LCM (light switch) or recode it and ideally the suspension sensors to level the lights.

Most fit aftermarket HID kits, which while technically could be illegal and could fail and MOT (but worries seem to have faded over the last year)

LED replacements are appearing but I have no experience of them.

You could try better halogen bulbs available from Philips, Osram, etc. but they are still just halogen bulbs
 
shiuld have no adjustment wheel inside, should have water jets and when ya turn on the lights aim at a wall if you hear them go "vrrr errrr" and they move up and down self adjusting then yes

bixenons means use one bulb for both the normal dipped beam, and fullbeam with a shutter that kicks in to engage it, none facelifts don't have it no idea if facelifts or later models do
 
mr nurburgring said:
If you look on the headlight lens it says D2S.
And you have washers so if it's original bumper I would say you do have xenon
Click to expand...

Mine have D2S on the plastic cover and have washer jets, yet I have halogens, so these are not good indicators.

As said, thumbwheel on the light switch, stickers under the bonnet warning of high voltage (I think) and actually being able to see down a country lane at night are the best indicators.
 
ben g said:
mr nurburgring said:
If you look on the headlight lens it says D2S.
And you have washers so if it's original bumper I would say you do have xenon
Click to expand...

Mine have D2S on the plastic cover and have washer jets, yet I have halogens, so these are not good indicators.

As said, thumbwheel on the light switch, stickers under the bonnet warning of high voltage (I think) and actually being able to see down a country lane at night are the best indicators.
Click to expand...

That's strange as the marking on the lens indicate what bulbs should be fitted. Unless someone before swapped the light covers or something.
 
mr nurburgring said:
ben g said:
mr nurburgring said:
If you look on the headlight lens it says D2S.
And you have washers so if it's original bumper I would say you do have xenon
Click to expand...

Mine have D2S on the plastic cover and have washer jets, yet I have halogens, so these are not good indicators.

As said, thumbwheel on the light switch, stickers under the bonnet warning of high voltage (I think) and actually being able to see down a country lane at night are the best indicators.
Click to expand...

That's strange as the marking on the lens indicate what bulbs should be fitted. Unless someone before swapped the light covers or something.
Click to expand...

The covers say H7 D2S on in very small text. I also have spares which say the same. Would be interested to see whether it's a universal thing across all Z4's.
 
My lenses also say D2S/H7 and they were halogen... Not any more.

I think it's because the housings are identical, the internals are interchangeable.

Mike
 
Ant said:
shiuld have no adjustment wheel inside, should have water jets and when ya turn on the lights aim at a wall if you hear them go "vrrr errrr" and they move up and down self adjusting then yes

bixenons means use one bulb for both the normal dipped beam, and fullbeam with a shutter that kicks in to engage it, none facelifts don't have it no idea if facelifts or later models do
Click to expand...

This is weird

I DO have an adjustment wheel
I DO have washer jets
I DO see them go up/down with the the vrrr
I DONT see any yellow stickers

What the hells going on lol?

Well the bulbs blown what ever bulb it is, so I'm gonna actually take apart the wheel arch cover and try remove the bulb and find out
 

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RickyG512 said:
Ant said:
shiuld have no adjustment wheel inside, should have water jets and when ya turn on the lights aim at a wall if you hear them go "vrrr errrr" and they move up and down self adjusting then yes

bixenons means use one bulb for both the normal dipped beam, and fullbeam with a shutter that kicks in to engage it, none facelifts don't have it no idea if facelifts or later models do
Click to expand...

This is weird

I DO have an adjustment wheel
I DO have washer jets
I DO see them go up/down with the the vrrr
I DONT see any yellow stickers

What the hells going on lol?

Well the bulbs blown what ever bulb it is, so I'm gonna actually take apart the wheel arch cover and try remove the bulb and find out
Click to expand...
Cool! Take a pic of your bulb and post it up!
 
The headlight adjuster is a good indicator, washers and levelling noise on both.

All of this aside the one thing nobody has pointed out yet is that halogens have a reflector type light on the inside but xenons are projector type on both. Reflector is the shiny multi-faceted light and projector is the cloudy looking dome shaped one. So yes 100% halogens.
 
Yes - that all say the same on the lens. The basic mouldings are identical just the internals and ancills are changed
 
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