has any one tried this kit yet?

http://www.bimmian.com/HIR/M7

any reviews?

any thoughts?

 

Looks like any ebay kit out there IMO. Looks like the E46 BMW needs a special adaptor for the light to fit. Mini's do not have that problem.

If you have a 2007 through 2010 your bulb is H13 which has a dual filament. This requires a bixenon kit which has high and low beams. Because those models also monitor bulbout conditions this adds another level of complexity to the kit that most vendors do not understand. A bixenon kit needs a special harness to handle the high beam (because the ignitor is the same as a single filament system). The harness can sometimes be powered by the battery direct and this causes the bulbout warning. There are at least two vendors that have Mini specific H13 kits that are powered from the stock H13 sockets. I only used one of them and did not have a good experience. I know others that used the same vendor and had great results so it is kind of a crap shoot. I ended up getting a refund for the first DOA H13 powered system and went with a local vendor which had a little better quality equipment, although a much more bulky (battery powered) harness. I got around the bulbout warning by using resistors to fake out the computer. There are a few recent threads on this subject with really good pictures and descriptions.

As far as light pattern goes the 2007-2010 halogen housing is extremely good compared to other housings. The cutoff is relatively sharp on top, nearly comparable to the mini projectors (see my gallery). It is also comparable for hotspots to the mini projectors. They are bright enough that at a stop light if you are behind a white or gray car you will be reaching for sunglasses at night from the reflected light. They even reflect back to you brightly on a wet road (where you would be checking to see if your halogens are even on). I never get flashed because the light is aimed properly and the upper cutoff is clean. When you are done and you compare the $500.00+ factory option to what you have ($160.00) you will not be disappointed (no way are the mini projectors 3+ times better). This is not to say that there are some projectors on the market that are 3x better but the Mini projectors IMO are definitely not in that group.

Good luck with your project!

 

It's blinding and illegal in many states/places to put HID lights into a housing that was designed for halogens. MINIs make factory HIDs in proper projectors, why didn't you just get your MINI with that option? Or, why don't you consider retrofitting that into your car without HID?

 

i was intending on installing this kit into the fog light housing, not the main head lights, is there still an issue of the car throwing codes?

 

Probably, but you can get around it with resistors (6 ohm 50 watt) across the 12V input. You may get lucky and not need them.

In your area is this a common mod? Where I am 20 year old Toyota Corrola's have HID's, It is pretty common so the risk is low for me. On the other hand, I just got back from Washington state. Most of the cars with HID were either stock or from out of state so I guess I may be a bit jaded here in SOCAL. Take that into account when you make your decision. However I have to disagree with the above post in this application, my pattern is no worse than any other OEM HID reflector on the market (remember not all OEM HID's are projector). Is it better than projector HID? I never said they were. But they are better than the H13 halogen in this application and in my opinion a better value when comparing performance vs price paid to Mini Projectors which do not have the sharpest cutoff or any prismatic effect and they contain hotspots (My other car is a 05MCS with factory HID projectors). And I dont think anyone would say you have never been bothered by projector lights before. While I agree in general it is a crapshoot if an HID kit will have a good pattern in a retrofit installation, but in this case at least in my installation (and I tried at least 5 kits in my housings before settling on these) the pattern is clean (was clean on all 5). I think the H13 reflectors on the Mini are well designed for such a retrofit.

Hey, in my state that Limotint on all windows would definitely attract a lot of law enforcement attention as would the lack of a front license plate and I know of places where having your car lowered and even your tire selection would also attract some attention. We all have our pet peeves (including the cops!), so I guess to each his own when you mod a car. I got my JCW off the showroom floor so it was too late to check any box and it appears retrofitting anything via the stealer will be roughly 2 times the sticker price (please someone correct me if I am wrong). Taking everything into consideration comparing apples to apples, I am happy with my choice.

 

Well, it is just plain illegal for aftermarket HIDs in California.

Also, you may want to research stock OEM reflector HIDs versus halogen lights with HID kits and see that in fact they are not the same, OEM reflector HIDs do not produce the same glare.

You do not get hotspots on OEM projector lights, that's the point on the projector. You do however get hotspots on cheap aftermarket projectors or just by putting an HID kit in your halogen designed housing.

 

My R56 is in my gallery with this shot. Granted there is a little bleed over in the middle (some of that is the LED eyelids actually) but the sides where oncoming traffic is coming is nearly perfect. If I compare that to my Armada it is night and day, it has a lot of bleed through everywhere and I still do not get flashed because they too are aimed properly (when I first put them in they were not aimed correctly and several people let me know! I just completed a 2000 mile flash free road trip last weekend in the rain most of the time too). My point, not all reflectors are the same, some take the mod much better and the R56 appears to be one that works pretty good, much better than average.


You are right theoretically speaking, projectors are supposed to eliminate hotspots, but unfortunately all projectors are not created equal. Get the cheap aftermarket projectors out of the equation, I don't have them, that is not what we are discussing. I am talking about the hotspots in the factory Mini projectors, the fuzzy cutoff (as distance increases) and no prismatic effect seen on your higher end BMW and Porsche and yes even the Honda S2000 examples. I can't economically add those higher end projectors in my mini and as far as my budget goes retro fitting Mini projectors is not very economical either but is the closest alternative. So when we compare not a theoretical projector, but the one we have available to this specific application, what are the actual differences?



I am bummed about my camera or I would have already taken a picture to compare the two side by side in the same photo (see update below camera found and 05 projector pic added to my gallery). I know for a fact my 2005 MCS factory HIDs and the 2009 style projectors I have seen on the road exhibit the problems I have outlined. So when you compare to a reflector retro fit in this application (to a 2009 H13 bi-xenon mini reflector), it is not a night and day difference. It is not one will blind all oncoming drivers and the other is 100% non-offensive. Once the car leaves the factory, who is calibrating the light adjustments? It is largely uncontrolled, so in practice there is a gray area in which we all operate and depends on how we individually adjust and maintain our cars that keep us off the radar.

update: My friend got a Mazda 6 over the weekend and he let me drive it. One thing that caught my eye relating to this discussion, his HID projectors have an on-board level adjustment on the dashboard. In 10 feet they can be adjusted up and down almost a foot which is pretty much the usable adjustment we have with our screw drivers on our mini's. Bottom line, we have the responsibility to aim our headlights, it is not automatic because of our equipment and it is unrealistic to assume any adjustment we make with a plastic set screw is permanent.

I drove both my mini's last night back to back. I concede the 05 pattern is definitely better. The light pattern is more even and lights up the near field better than the reflector pattern. But there are 2 hotspots that look like flashlights front and center, the cutoff is fuzzy in the majority of the field on the left, a little more crisp on the right. I would go out on a limb and say when I drive next to a wall on the left (like a center divider) the reflector pattern is actually cleaner than the projector and this is where on coming traffic would be mostly affected. The reflector does have hot spots but they are much larger and they actually blend and disappear on the road so you don't notice the flashlight effect. I am going off memory but I think the Halogen pattern was very similar so it would be unrealistic to think the pattern would improve, correct? The 05 lights seem to be getting dimmer, or I am used to the 09 reflectors. There are halogen systems that are brighter. The 05 beam is nearly level, the 09 is pointing down tangent to the field of view. If I can adjust the 05 down, I may be able to pick up a little brightness but the self leveling feature will probably undo whatever adjustment I make. Below Michele r53 is doing a projector retrofit. Could be promising if the price is right. Again in a perfect world with a money tree in the back yard, sign me up for the best projectors out there, they are better there is no dispute. Meanwhile I have two kids to put through college so compromises must me made right now. Everything I have done so far is 100% reversible. HID with a slightly more fuzzy cutoff (remember, it is no more fuzzy than the stock halogen pattern), not quite as good near field (the stock halogen pattern is the same, I was reaching for the fogs on the way home from the dealer on day one), and a couple of hotspots that you don't really notice while driving (halogen pattern is the same or very similar) and a package that is brighter than stock (My Nokia hyper yellow fogs are much brighter than the stock halogen headlights), no bulbout warnings, judge the pattern for yourself in my gallery. I am $132.00 into this project total, a projector retrofit in parts alone is nearly $1000.00. I ask you to be honest and ask yourself, is the projector really 8 times better?

update: my gallery has be updated with an 05 projector pic. The hot spots, ghosted cutoff and the pattern to the left (that on coming traffic would see at closest range) that I have been complaining about is clearly illustrated.

update: I did an unofficial HID count on my last road trip. As I approached LA (between the Grapevine and Magic Mountain), out of every 10 cars that approached 3 had HID. It was amazingly consistent for miles. It seemed to increase the closer I got to downtown.

 

Im working on a mod right now I took a HID kit and retro-fit it to OEM HID assemblies. The harness that feeds the light assemblies are the same minus the the headlight washer system. All you have to do is in the inside of the housing cut the 2 wires that feed the ballast and swing them up to the low beam and splice it to your HID bulb.

 

Nice,

Where did you get the housings and how much did it run?

 

Dart auto online they were 456 each. Pm me for more advise

 

Check out this thread R53 guys. It pretty much mirrors everything I have stated above, actually a little scary how close, I swear I just found this thread today. This guy shows his very elaborate update and the full path he took to get there. With time and fab skills and the money some day I'd like to try this but for now . . you guys know my position.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...right-way.html

 

Finished the retrofit worked like a charm beats BMW price lol

 

Where did you buy your HID kit? Any bulb out error?

Can you upload some pictures%%%%

 

I got them from sharphid.com they r 55 watt 6000k. Which would you like pics of. The retro of the oem assemblies

 

Opps u need bulb out warning resistors

 

did you use 35w or 55w?

 

I used 55watt kits