Upgrading Halogen to Xenon or LED - can it be done?

[BenB91]

Hi all

I have a 2011 F11 535i with Halogen headlights. I've tried upgraded LED bulbs which are very bright but offer a poor spread of light. Ideally i'd like to upgrade to factory Xenons or LEDS - can this be done?

I understand it's more than just a case of installing the new headlights as there is coding and electrics to consider.

Has anyone managed to switch from Halogens to Xenons or LEDs?

Is there someone who is known for taking on this work?

Many thanks

[Fiedka]

I briefly considered this in my e90.
It is a world of pain. New lights, ride height sensors, coding are obvious areas.
Do you have washer jets? In my case I had them but gave up nonetheless.

[d_a_n1979]

BenB91 said:

Hi all

I have a 2011 F11 535i with Halogen headlights. I've tried upgraded LED bulbs which are very bright but offer a poor spread of light. Ideally i'd like to upgrade to factory Xenons or LEDS - can this be done?

I understand it's more than just a case of installing the new headlights as there is coding and electrics to consider.

Has anyone managed to switch from Halogens to Xenons or LEDs?

Is there someone who is known for taking on this work?

Many thanks

It's a lot of work. Looked into it for my FiL's 2011 F10 530D and it was going to be expensive and faffy... Left it be

[curvature]

Not sure if this would work with a modern BMW but have you considered higher wattage halogen bulbs fed directly from the battery using relays to switch them?

This was a big thing on 80’s/90’s VW’s and I think is still done on some of the T5 vans. I had this on a MkII Scirocco so on full beam had 400W lights.

[Aluminati]

You will need the headlights complete, and the light control module, and some coding.

[bmwmike]

Chuck some HID in there are move the car on imo. The f10 halogens are beyond awful.

[BenB91]

Thanks for all your comments.

Seems like an impossible task.

The car is perpect other than the headlights for me.

I've been looking online at alternative cars and can't figure out what else I would buy.

[P700DEE]

Xenon lights were an option for F10/F11 so you can just buy a set of lights (£400-1000) but no doubt they will need coding. you could get a Xenon upgrade kit and fit it to the existing lights not technically legal but unlikely to be picked up.. Or just get decent bulbs for your Halogens. I lived with standard cheap bulbs in my F11 and they worked fine, better than my 98 XKR even with Xenons. Admittedly not as good as the Bi Xenons in the 2011 XKR or the LEDs in the G31 5 series

[ChocolateFrog]

When you tried LED bulbs did you try the proper Philips ones?

IIRC they're not cheap at around £130 a pair but will be much better than cheapo Amazon ones.

[d_a_n1979]

BenB91 said:

Thanks for all your comments.

Seems like an impossible task.

The car is perpect other than the headlights for me.

I've been looking online at alternative cars and can't figure out what else I would buy.

The conversion isn't impossible; just expensive to get all the parts and faffy re install/coding etc

As others have said; look at HID kits if you need to; but they're not MOT friendly and will fail an MOT if they're strict

But getting a HID kitted and then ensuring the light beam/scatter/cut off is as it should be will be a much easier task

[BenB91]

ChocolateFrog said:

When you tried LED bulbs did you try the proper Philips ones?

IIRC they're not cheap at around £130 a pair but will be much better than cheapo Amazon ones.

I bought Philips Ultinon Pro9100 LED and they were rubbish.

I'm currently using Philips Racing Vision GT200 H7, which are average at best.

All previous cars had Xenons so I've been spoilt with good headlights.

My weekend car is a R172 SLK55 with Xenons and they are brilliant.

[ChocolateFrog]

d_a_n1979 said:

BenB91 said:

Thanks for all your comments.

Seems like an impossible task.

The car is perpect other than the headlights for me.

I've been looking online at alternative cars and can't figure out what else I would buy.

The conversion isn't impossible; just expensive to get all the parts and faffy re install/coding etc

As others have said; look at HID kits if you need to; but they're not MOT friendly and will fail an MOT if they're strict

But getting a HID kitted and then ensuring the light beam/scatter/cut off is as it should be will be a much easier task

They're direct replacements for the halogen originals.

[ChocolateFrog]

BenB91 said:

I bought Philips Ultinon Pro9100 LED and they were rubbish.

I'm currently using Philips Racing Vision GT200 H7, which are average at best.

All previous cars had Xenons so I've been spoilt with good headlights.

My weekend car is a R172 SLK55 with Xenons and they are brilliant.

In what way we're they rubbish? My car has LED dipped as standard but halogen high beams and was considering upgrading.

[d_a_n1979]

ChocolateFrog said:

d_a_n1979 said:

BenB91 said:

Thanks for all your comments.

Seems like an impossible task.

The car is perpect other than the headlights for me.

I've been looking online at alternative cars and can't figure out what else I would buy.

The conversion isn't impossible; just expensive to get all the parts and faffy re install/coding etc

As others have said; look at HID kits if you need to; but they're not MOT friendly and will fail an MOT if they're strict

But getting a HID kitted and then ensuring the light beam/scatter/cut off is as it should be will be a much easier task

They're direct replacements for the halogen originals.

Still an MOT fail IIRC

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/special...

[BenB91]

ChocolateFrog said:

BenB91 said:

I bought Philips Ultinon Pro9100 LED and they were rubbish.

I'm currently using Philips Racing Vision GT200 H7, which are average at best.

All previous cars had Xenons so I've been spoilt with good headlights.

My weekend car is a R172 SLK55 with Xenons and they are brilliant.

In what way we're they rubbish? My car has LED dipped as standard but halogen high beams and was considering upgrading.

Poor spread of light pattern.

[Hammersia]

BenB91 said:

ChocolateFrog said:

When you tried LED bulbs did you try the proper Philips ones?

IIRC they're not cheap at around £130 a pair but will be much better than cheapo Amazon ones.

I bought Philips Ultinon Pro9100 LED and they were rubbish.

I'm currently using Philips Racing Vision GT200 H7, which are average at best.

All previous cars had Xenons so I've been spoilt with good headlights.

My weekend car is a R172 SLK55 with Xenons and they are brilliant.

As above, all MOT fails.

The Philips packaging states not road legal. Many previous threads on this.

Only OE fit (ie previously optional for that model) headlights are legal, or entire aftermarket lamps eg Hella 90mm but they would have to be installed without any of the existing headlamp lenses, obviously no one does this.