Hey guys,
Thanks for checkin out my post! As some of you know I am the proud new owner of a 04 330ci with SMG.. So far, ive put about 400miles on it and I love it.
Anyway, now the "brand spankin new" feeling is slowly starting to leave me, its time to mod!
First thing is I drive a lot at night, and my stock halogens aren't going to cut it for me. My previous Audi has stock Bixenons and my beater (nissan pathfinder) has aftermarket HIDs, so this one will need get some.
I did a quick search on this forum and others, and found that there are some troubles with HID kits on our e46's.... especially the facelifted coupes??.... Someone mentioned he needed to buy "adaptors" to get them to fit, another one said they had to cut the housing in order to get the bulb in!
Now I dont mind getting my hands dirty, but I dont wanna mess up my headlights by cutting them, that just sounds way to sketch. So what are my options? I have posted a pic of my headlights below so you can see what im working with. Also, I found this website (link below) that sells the HID kit for our e46's for like $30! True HID with ballast bulbs, and wiring! Has anyone bought and tried these?
Do I need to buy 35w or 55w HIDs? Will my error lights turn on with HIDs? Do I need to run a relay wire to them?
looks like you have projector style halgoens, if so I think you can put a hid kit in its place.
you can do 35w or 55w... 55w is brighter of course. I would recommend 5000k color 55W hid kit, very bright white.
when you switch from halogen to xenon, you need to reporgram the LCM (computer) to accept them. Otherwise you will get bulb out errors and the lights wont work.
Some people have used workarounds such as 'error cancelling ballasts' and the like, but that seems to be hit or miss.
So im good in that I have the projector already, so I just need a standard HID kit.. What size bulb do I need for the low beam?? H1? H7? etc...
Personally, I would rather get the computer re-programmed, but how does one go on by doing that?? My Audi had a program called Vag-Com which I could program the cars ECU with, does BMW have something like that in order to program the LCM?
I would go with a 35w kit for the headlights, I find 55w to be overly bright and cause glare. Check out Bimmian's kits, they have a solid setup. There are cheap kits out there but IMO it's worth it to pay for a quality setup.
You can have the computer re-programmed. IMHO it's the "cleaner" option.
Your only problem will be that you will have no "permanent" high beam. When you pull backwards on the stalk, the inner beam will flash, but when you push it forward you are not going to have any high beams because the computer is sending power to an empty pin (which in a factory bixenon car is sending power to the high beam solenoid which your car doesn' have).
"when you switch from halogen to xenon, you need to reporgram the LCM (computer) to accept them. Otherwise you will get bulb out errors and the lights wont work."
Please expand on this, I just ordered a pair of hid lights myself, I was unaware of the need to reprogram the computer. How would I go about doing this?
"when you switch from halogen to xenon, you need to reporgram the LCM (computer) to accept them. Otherwise you will get bulb out errors and the lights wont work."
Please expand on this, I just ordered a pair of hid lights myself, I was unaware of the need to reprogram the computer. How would I go about doing this?
But it actually says xenon engraved around the low beam? Does that change anything? Why would it say xenon if they're halogen.... well either way ill find out i guess when the lights come in and i replace them
:dunno: Oh boy :dunno: How about because I don't know anything. I bought the car recently, never had hid lights before, one light was out, it cost 75 bucks to replace it (one bulb) at the store and my buddy said he could order me a new pair for 120 so I said okay. I didn't understand until now when I feel like a doofus that xenon and hid are the same thing. That's why I confused yall, because I am confused. My apologies.
yeah, I didn't know it was a halogen car until I already owned it. When I went to the dealer to get it, I saw the projectors and since it was 2pm I never bothered to ask or turn them on.
So now im going to turn them into HIDs and get that downfall fixed. Also im kinda on the brink of buying angel eyes, but stupid eBay sellers have "projector" and "non projector" kits and some that "fit all e46". So I dont know what to order.. Not to mention one of my college buddies has a 645i and he has changed out 2 sets of angel eyes because they burn out, and one time they damaged his headlight because they got too hot.
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