Upgrade to xenon

U

unRAPIDdan

Member
 Oxford(ish)
Hi all,

Does anyone have any experience/ views on the upgrade this company http://www.mstyle-online.co.uk/Z4-Lighting.htm offers to xenon?

Driving home this evening it struck me just how poor the standard headlamps are on my 2005 2.0. Is the upgrade as listed likely to be an upgrade to proper xenon - and either way are the headlamps likely to be improved drastically?

Any opinions welcomed,

D.
 
The top listing on that link probably refers to one of the HID retrofit kits as avilable on fleabay at under £100.

This will mean a xenon bulb and ballast will be fitted in your existing halogen housing to offer a similar lightout put to true OEM xenon. However, the lense in your light unit is not designed to emit xenon light so the beam will not be projected properly and there will subsequently be glare light emitted (which should instead be part of the light beam). This is a waste of light as the halogen unit is not designed to focus such light down the road. This waste light can be quite annoying to other drivers, especially in the rain or fog. :thumbsdown:

Basically, the kit will be better then the halogen but not as good as OEM. Nor will it offer BI-Xenon (as with OEM) where full beam is also xenon.

Why not buy on on fleabay for £100 and get someone to fit it for a fraction of the price mstyle charge. :thumbsup: I always find them expensive.

TBH, the kits IMO are naff, I cant described the hatred I feel for chavved up vauxhalls/fords/old toyotas with HID kits retrofitted in dodgy reflector based halogen housings chavving it about at night. I always blind the feckers with my Bi-Xenons. :evil: Youre ok as you have a projector lense. I'd push the boat out and get the proper thing if I were you, albeit your looking at the best part of £1000 on the mstyle website. :)
 
Have a read of this, should "illuminate" your grasp on the topic! :thumbsup:

http://www.tt-forum.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&p=1309072
 
unRAPIDdan
Since you pm'd me too I'll add my comments:
Firstly a search of the board will show this has been covered many times. Thehe are those who slot in a pair of aftermarket HID's and they give out more light, but as Dannyboy points out they are not appropriate to fit. The link to the Audi sight covers it well.

In the UK they should never be fitted as really you need headlight washers, self levelling, correct beam focus, etc. just to remain legal.

If you want to do it buy a set off Ebay and retrofit them with the self levelling kit. Get the LCM module programmed to operate them and you'll have a great result. If not then consider some of the many higher output halogens (although plenty of those are ilegal too.)
 
Thanks for the reply dannyboy and CJ' - the link to the TT article was helpful as are your comments generally.

As for going the ebay route - I haven't got the technical know-how or ability to be able to have a go at an upgrade myself, and I don't want to risk sticking some bulbs in that render the headlamps unroadworthy.

I have emailed mstyle and asked if they can supply and fit OEM xenon - albeit I know that this will cost significantly more. I certainly want to try and improve the current set-up on my Z4, whilst keeping everything legal and OEM is likely to prove to be the best way to go with regards to having a quality product.

I am still very much interested in anything those with more practicle/ technical knowledge have in terms of advice - so chip in if you can help.

Thanks again CJ' and dannyboy,

D.
 
chariszzzz said:
laws here are not that strict. does anybody know of a good/decent HID kit in the market?
Click to expand...


Aim :thumbsup: :wink: for something made by Phillips or Hella in both terms of ballasts and bulbs. Actually both are made by the same company and rebranded! Hella supply OEM parts BTW. :thumbsup:
 
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