Those running HIDs in E34s

[crashnburn80]

I was looking at possibly picking up an HID conversion this week since one of my silverstars burned out after less than 2 months. I have seen that some of you guys are running HIDs and I was wondering what you bought and where you bought it. And what you think of them as well. Thanks.

[Kalevera]

Before you do any of that, read this site:

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/home.html

...esp on the non euro SILVERSTARs...

Best, whit

[Mobius]

US-market Silverstars are shitty bulbs. They are an incredible waste of money.

Your average halogen headlamp bulb has a rated life of around 1,000 hours.
By Sylvania's own numbers, a Silverstar bulb has a rated life of 150 hours.

Click here (http://www.sylvaniaautocatalog.com/sylvania/ProductBrowse_Highp_SilverStar.asp?BepartNo=&BatchId=70&ProductNumber=9007%20ST&PartNo=%20ST,%20%20ST) if you don't believe me.

Personally I think HID 'conversions' are.. Well, they're 100% illegal and I agree with the sentiment behind that.

If you want to run a 'better' bulb, order a set of Osram (not Sylvania - Osram is Sylvania outside the US) Silverstars. GE Nighthawks are reportedly decent, too.

[BigKriss]

i run the euro lamps with osram silver starts +50. Over normal my normal H1 bulbs there is a slight increase in light. I have yet to clean the reflectos and glass inside. This is probabky decreasing some light output.

[Jon K]

I am running euro projectors with H1 based 6000k Phillips HID bulbs and ballasts... light output is MUCH improved. I get in non-HID equipped cars (sisters E34) and wonder if my lights are actually on.

[bahnstormer]

did u fail inspection for having those lights?

[Jon K]

did u fail inspection for having those lights?

No. Everything safety and drive-worthy passed on my car. the only thing that failed was emissions. This weekend I am going to Competition Exhaust and getting the M5 B&B Triflo welded up to a Magnaflow Hi-Flow catalyst.

[rockyfeller]

Silverstars are the best (better than PIAAs IMHO) but NOTHING can beat HIDs...Sure the aftermarket ones are illegal and hard to find retail but you can pick them up on Ebay. Lots of cheapo brands out there but I spent the extra $100 to get a kit with Hella ballansts. The quality was excellent and install was easy. If you're really chicken of what's illegal or not you shouldn't drive faster than 55 mph and never crawl at a stop sign. C'mon gimmie a break. My opinion is the law is just a "recommendation" If you have good common sense you know how to speed safetly, how to customize your car reasonably etc. Headlights shouldn't blind oncoming drivers, that's bad. Being BMWs most cops won't even notice that you have aftermarket HIDs they'll assume they're factory. (As long as you stay away from those super purple/garnet/yellow 10,000k+ kits). A 5-8000k kit is perfect. Too much color cuts down the light output. If your HID install is clean you'll see little evidence on inspection to find out if it is aftermarket except by bad luck they were under your hood specifically looking for it. Just do your mods low-profile with a factory look and you'll never go wrong.

[cary]

It's been posted before, but since nobody seems to ever remember.

1) Silverstars have no increase in light output over stock.

2) There is a great upgrade available called Halogen Infra Red Bulbs (HIR), which were devoloped by GE for John Deere. They are now made by Toshiba/Harrison and sold by www.danielsternlighting.com and www.hirheadlights.com.

Stock 9006 low beams = 1000 lumens output
Toshiba HIR 9012 low beam replacement= 1875 lumens output.

Both lamps draw 55 watts so no issues with overwatt bulbs.

[Patrick]

I had the anemic non-ellipsoid halogens that came standard in 1992 (and 1991 I think). I installed a misterjung's 5200K HID kit into euro-ellipsoids (search under my name or HID for more info). Properly aligned, this setup is a great upgrade from what I had -and nobody ever flashes their brights at me. The cutoff is extreme.
Alan Jung (of misterjungs) was a pain to deal with but finally came through. The kit is solid, instructions clear, and the ballasts are Hella.
I would have liked to have seen the difference 100w bulbs in the euro-ellipsoids but skipped that step.
Hth.

[crashnburn80]

Anyone running higher wattage bulbs? I have projectors that use H1 bulbs so finding higher wattage bulbs seems to be difficult. Can the cars wiring handle the higher wattage without modification? Where can you buy higher than 55 watt H1 bulbs?

[Mobius]

Anyone running higher wattage bulbs? I have projectors that use H1 bulbs so finding higher wattage bulbs seems to be difficult. Can the cars wiring handle the higher wattage without modification? Where can you buy higher than 55 watt H1 bulbs?
NO

A thousand times NO.

The housings can NOT take the heat, and the wiring can NOT handle the load. There have been numerous posts here and on other boards where people who have run overwattage bulbs have completely destroyed not just headlamp housings, but entire wiring harnesses.

Over wattage bulbs are NOT an option.

Sorry for being blunt. ;)

Edit: As has also been mentioned before; HIR bulbs are an option, as they make much more light without any extra heat or power consumption.

[Paul in NZ]

you can try the PLUS type h1 bulbs which have a different mix of gases invoving xenon while still maintaining modest wattagesYou will find more h1 options in the uk the bulbs are the same its the housings and lenses which are driver side specific

[e34it]

I use the PIAA extreme super white H1 in my euro spec 520 they are an improvement over stock, but still not up to snuff IMO.

[rockyfeller]

Been hearing a lot on the forum about the HIR bulbs and I'm sure they're a vast improvement over stock but I'm telling you HID is the way to go. $350 sounds steep until you have them on your car and then you'll never want to go back. You really won't know till you live with em. We're talking about safety here (Just as good quality tires and brakes are important) and my old stock ellipsoid setup was downright dangerous....Luckily last time I only hit a deer and I didn't see it for a second, I ran right through him...Now what if that was a person?? I can't say for sure if that accident could have been prevented with the better output of my HIDs but since I've had them I've been able to avoid things on many ocassions because of improved clarity in night driving on my twisty unlit backroads.

[Mobius]

HID...We're talking about safety hereOh god, I'm sorry - I can't let this go. Any claim of 'safety' gained after hacking a HID capsule into a halogen-designed fixture is based on a lot of marketing and placebo. Importantly, a housing and lens designed for a HID bulb will properly deal with and filter out the undesirable, excess blue frequencies, and send them off to the sides outside the driver's field of vision. Since your lamps don't do that, your visibility in wet conditions is thrown out the window because of a greatly increased amount of backdazzle caused by water's love to scatter blue light.

Once again.. http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/bulbs/Hid/conversions/conversions.html

God help me this is going to start a huge argument, but I just can't let "increased safty" claims slide.

[BigKriss]

is this still too much over the stock 55w bulbs. Is there too much heat. Will the reflectors will melt? How hard / easy are light wiring harness upgrades?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=72235&item=7952767892

[Mobius]

is this still too much over the stock 55w bulbs. Is there too much heat. Will the reflectors will melt? How hard / easy are light wiring harness upgrades?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=72235&item=7952767892Who knows. Search around. Most of the "omg I melted my headlamps" threads had 100w bulbs; but that doesn't mean it won't happen at 80.

It doesn't matter anyways; the bulbs you linked would be hard pressed to put out even the slightest bit more light than the bulbs you have now - they're painted blue. That retarded blue coating blocks out 2/3rds of the usable light spectrum. The blue coating also causes the bulbs to run much hotter, and in some occasions, will cause them to run hot enough to explode.

Really. Read this. All of it. http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/bulbs/blue/blue.html

[BigKriss]

thanks for your input Mobius :)

[rockyfeller]

Read that link a long time ago and I agree; there's a lot of complex engineering put into assemblies and reflectors designed for incadescent vs. HID lamps....accepted..OK no need for arguement. All I have to say (and have I seen my share of hilarious arguements nit-picking over some ridiculously overly-complicated details of things that hardly make a difference. Hey but freedom of speech, all are welcome to their $.02) is that reading this type of detail turns into blah, blah, blah to me after a certain point. Not that I disagree or wish to remain ignorant. It makes interesting scientific reading but I'm a guy impressed by results not specs. Bottomline from what I see? HID lets me see better than before. This is not just my opinion. Ask anyone else with HIDs on this board. The light has a sharp cut-off and dosen't blind on-coming drivers with our type of ellipsoid housing. I've seen light scatter more readily out of Japanese car composite headlamps. There is a very rare factory option of HID in late E34/E32s that were produced; I wonder if the housing was the same or significantly different. Never seen an E34 with HIRs so I can't judge here about them. One thing I will agree with is that in wet conditions the actual blacktop is harder to see, since the light is bluer and has a harder time reflecting off of the black road, but anything on the road stands out like neon even when it's wet. But though science can't back me up here, I am HID all the way. And oh, HIDs have that "real" blue hue that just looks gorgeous. Always get compliments.

[bahnstormer]

i'm running 80 watts in my fogs...

[Paul in NZ]

kris look into the plus type bulbs...they perform like 80's plus 30 and plus 50 are available here,I would love HIDS but i am not sure that the conversion kits are good or not,there is no doubt they produce lots of light but that aint always desireable for1)other road users2)in rain or fog or worse in rain at night..i need to find a wrecked e 32 with hids........SHOGUN!!!!!!!!!