higher wattage full beam bulbs

[dan0235]

can a 94 525td handle higher wattage (100 to 130w) bulbs in the full beam, or am i gonna fry the wiring,
i do a lot of country road driving, on the way back from work, and don't want to upgrade my driving lights (i don't like getting flashed all the time by oncomming trafic who think i've got full beam on around town) but for the amount of traffic i see on these country roads, i think going bongo on the full beam would be ok,
anyone have any ideas
thanks, dan

[Brandon J]

You can put slightly higher wattage bulbs, but 100+ watts is too much. If you are in need of good low or high beams, there are some very reasonable HID kits out there like the 6k or 5k kit from here: http://motors.search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZzgperformance

Don't worry I have no affiliation with him, just purchased this kit earlier this year and it is great. I have heard from other e34 owners that have used this kit with good results. After the price of some bulbs out there, the price can run over $100 for both bulbs. Then they have a lower service life. This might be a bery good option, no cutting or splicing, no check light as it has a relay, you can get replacement bulbs, compared to halogen longer service life, and if they do go bad, it is very easy to use the regular bulbs as all you do is unplug the HID kit.

Just a word of advice for you or anyone out there, pitted headlights do emit a lot of less light and focused light. Sometimes all you need is a new plastic headlight for the brighter results you need. If you or anyone do decide on using HIDs, they also perform very well with new headlights/lenses.

Good luck.

[Qube]

Avoid McCulloch kits. They are actually quite poor quality compared to others of the same price. Trust me. I bought a batch of McCulloch (and other brands) to test. Furthermore, the McCulloch kits have the ballast and ignitor separate. Anyway... It's your money but do go do some research and decide for yourself :)

Oh, and if you DO go HID for the high beams, you'll lose the ability to 'flash' people. Well technically you can, but it's harsh on the bulbs.

[Brandon J]

So, then what are the suggestions? What is your experience?



Avoid McCulloch kits. They are actually quite poor quality compared to others of the same price. Trust me. I bought a batch of McCulloch (and other brands) to test. Furthermore, the McCulloch kits have the ballast and ignitor separate. Anyway... It's your money but do go do some research and decide for yourself :)

Oh, and if you DO go HID for the high beams, you'll lose the ability to 'flash' people. Well technically you can, but it's harsh on the bulbs.

[Eric540i]

I replaced the standard 55watters with some 100watters but kept blowing fuses. I 'upgraded' the fuses from 7.5amp to 10amp and this appeared to solve the problem but I wasn't comfortable with the idea so I pulled out the 100w bulbs and returned everything to stock.
Regardless I noted very little difference in brightness between the stock 55w setup and 100w alternatives - despite trying both some 'conventional' and 'Xenon' effect 100w bulbs bought on eBay.

I've noted that 55w 'Super White Xenon' or 'Cool Blue' H1 bulbs made by Phillips and Osram that claim 30-50% more brightness (and are road legal - in Europe) can be had for as little as €13 (in Germany).

[Zeuk in Oz]

I use a 55 W Phillips bulb in my E34 and they are great.

I had a problem with my F250 as its stock lights were terrible. My auto sparkie rewired the lights and installed relays so that I now run 90/100 W headlights. What a difference !

He explained that just adding higher wattage bulbs wouldn't have helped as the wiring was too thin - needed beefing up first.

[shogun]

can a 94 525td handle higher wattage (100 to 130w) bulbs

Yes, maybe 5 minutes, then your wires are melted and maybe the reflectors too. I had 100 W bulbs inside and they melted wires and reflectors.

[Jon K]

I have Phillips HIDs from www.lavalighting.com I have H1 euro projectors with 6000k bulbs.

[Chris'91'525i]

I use a 55 W Phillips bulb in my E34 and they are great.
I had a problem with my F250 as its stock lights were terrible. My auto sparkie rewired the lights and installed relays so that I now run 90/100 W headlights. What a difference !
He explained that just adding higher wattage bulbs wouldn't have helped as the wiring was too thin - needed beefing up first.

Good move on the relays. They are mandatory if using higher than stock bulbs. With the stock wiring and light switch trying to carry the increased load, bad things will happen.

Just adding relays with stock bulbs will have a noticable increase in light output, as the bulbs get full voltage from the battery with no volt drop, as you would get in the stock headlight curcuit.
The relays carry the load , and the stock headlight curcuit is now just basically a switching curcuit to the relays. The headlight switch can now be just a switch and not carry all the Amperage it would with no relays.
I did it to my BMW motorcycle, and was amazed at what just the relays did with the stock H4 bulb. Switched to a Osram Silverstar and boosted up light output even higher.
I'll get around to doing it on the 525i, one of these days.

[Dash01]

Assuming you wanted to stay with the stock fuses and wiring (to avoid overload problems and melting), but just wanted more light to see, what are the best 55W bulbs to use?

Specifically, what street legal bulbs put out the most/best light in 55w capacity?

[Alexlind123]

I have Phillips HIDs from www.lavalighting.com I
have H1 euro projectors with 6000k bulbs.

Why did you choose 6000k over 5000k?

[Alexlind123]

Avoid McCulloch kits. They are actually quite poor quality compared to others of the same price. Trust me. I bought a batch of McCulloch (and other brands) to test. Furthermore, the McCulloch kits have the ballast and ignitor separate. Anyway... It's your money but do go do some research and decide for yourself :)

Oh, and if you DO go HID for the high beams, you'll lose the ability to 'flash' people. Well technically you can, but it's harsh on the bulbs.

It seems as if you have already done extensive research. What would you recommend?

[Scott H]

A majority of the E34 M5 guys on the yahoo group have raved about this setup. Most of the people on that group are pretty critical and technical, in fact, one of the guys is an aircraft engineer and he had nothing bad to say about the kit. It also comes with a separate relay and subsequently none of them have gotten the Low Beam check control message which is a Major plus when it comes to E34 people doing the conversion. They didn't mention anything about having the ballast and ignitor separate either.


Avoid McCulloch kits. They are actually quite poor quality compared to others of the same price. Trust me. I bought a batch of McCulloch (and other brands) to test. Furthermore, the McCulloch kits have the ballast and ignitor separate. Anyway... It's your money but do go do some research and decide for yourself :)

Oh, and if you DO go HID for the high beams, you'll lose the ability to 'flash' people. Well technically you can, but it's harsh on the bulbs.

[SnakeyesTx]

I hear a lot of good things about the Sylvania Silver stars, but they're pricey compared to standard lights.

[DallasBill]

I run xtec HID-match halogens after reading about them here about 6 months ago. For $35/pair with free lifetime replacement, and a 30 second swap out, they are GREAT!

http://www.xenonexpert.com/xtechalogenbulbs.html

[jgardia]

Hi
I'm using Osram silverstars, and they are great! you get much more illumination and they use the same 55w. They are not cheap, but I think they worth it.

Cheers,

Jose


can a 94 525td handle higher wattage (100 to 130w) bulbs in the full beam, or am i gonna fry the wiring,
i do a lot of country road driving, on the way back from work, and don't want to upgrade my driving lights (i don't like getting flashed all the time by oncomming trafic who think i've got full beam on around town) but for the amount of traffic i see on these country roads, i think going bongo on the full beam would be ok,
anyone have any ideas
thanks, dan

[Qube]

A majority of the E34 M5 guys on the yahoo group have raved about this setup. Most of the people on that group are pretty critical and technical, in fact, one of the guys is an aircraft engineer and he had nothing bad to say about the kit. It also comes with a separate relay and subsequently none of them have gotten the Low Beam check control message which is a Major plus when it comes to E34 people doing the conversion. They didn't mention anything about having the ballast and ignitor separate either.

I have quite a few of the McCulloch kits on hand (newer ones), and they all have the ignitor and ballast separate... though inline of course.

The quality, especially of the bulbs, is even visually lesser than others. Combine anedcotal evidence (you can do that research :) ) and the cracking, bubbling, poor insulation on the bulbs and one ballast... you'll see these rebrands aren't up to par. When you have a lot to compare with, you see differences. Sometimes these are gaping differences... just like when I compare the 5-6 halo projectors out there. Sure, one looks good... maybe even so if you compare it to one other, but when you have a mess of them, it shows.

EDIT: well I didnt have to take pics of my kits on hand as the net has plenty. see for yourself regarding the ignitors...

EDIT2: on the note of low beam error, I've not once gotten that error having tested four HID kits on the car (two 900x and two H1). This may be due to the fact it's a 89 but who knows...

http://www.importparts.com/shop/images/lighting/hidkit.jpg

http://www.fjrtech.com/Mods/H4_HID/LoBeamHarness2.jpg

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e183/The_One_The_Only_SaGe69/8.jpg

[Scott H]

and Xtec 5000k H1 rebased bulbs in my M5 and I get the error immediately. When I had the same kit in my 11/88 535, I would rarely get the error. I cannot explain the difference. All I know is that the error has never come about with the McCulloch kits that others have installed.

Why don't you prioritize your list of tested options. After all, that is the benefit of the board....you've benefitted from prior experience of people as far as suspension, maintenance, etc. How about a write up summary of your findings so we can avoid searching through 30 threads on HID kits and *sigh* angel eye kits.


EDIT2: on the note of low beam error, I've not once gotten that error having tested four HID kits on the car (two 900x and two H1). This may be due to the fact it's a 89 but who knows...

[Qube]

Exactly. Perhaps the older builds are not prone to this. The only time I've gotten the error was went one of the cheap ballasts went. On the noted of tests, I'm working on a write up for both which will be put on bmwe34.net. The short subframe bushing writeup will also be updated on there as well soon ;) I'd think bmwe34.net should be turned into a wiki so we can put our collective experiences into it... such as your HIDs as well, then we can have a good picture of it all. Hmmm... I'll ping Bruno on that.

[Jon K]

Horrible idea because then we'd have, "I don't use spring pads and I'm fine.." to "I torqued my headbolts to 120ft lbs and its fine"

[dan0235]

i'm gonna go philips vision plus all round, got nervous about frying wires and fuses etc, trying to nogotiate with a seller on ebay!! to knock £ of if i buy 2 sets ha ha.
thanks for the help guys
dan

[Qube]

Horrible idea because then we'd have, "I don't use spring pads and I'm fine.." to "I torqued my headbolts to 120ft lbs and its fine"

You missed one oldie... I used green coolant and I am fine... except at stoplights heh.