Back in the old days when headlights were round or square I always replaced them with non sealed beam Hella or Cibe' lamps. This always required relays. I am interested in changing the OEM 55W H7 Hi-Beam part of the Xenon with Osram 100W bulbs. Do I need any mods to do this or is it simply plug and play?

 

I did the bulb change "back in the day" on everything I drove, & mototcycles...

Will also be watching for any nifo ...

 

I would definitely use relays any time you go from 55W bulbs to 100W bulbs. I doubt that the MINI engineers included a safety margin of almost 100% when they spec'd the wiring for the lights.

 

It's not just the wiring that you have to worry about, it's also the plastics in the housing and lens. 100w is a big step up. While it might be alright if you just use the highs for 30 seconds or so, you could encounter problems as the housings heat up. If you want to be able to reliably run 100w bulbs with the high beams, go for an aftermarket kit that is rated ad 100w. Cibie has some.

 

You need brighter lights with your xenon's? The low beams are plenty bright, I've never used my brights since I've owned the vehicle, the lows seem to be just fine. I could understand you wanting to do this with the regular lights but not with the xenons.

 

The beam is plenty bright, thats not the issue. It's how far the beam is projected. Here in TX there are many 2 lanes that have 70mph speed limits and I find I am overdriving the lights at that speed at night. I could slow down, ya right. I could add driving lights, but that would take away from the look of my Mini.

Kapps thought about overheating worries me as I've painted the headlight interior and don't want to ruin that.

I think I'm going to have to look into the possibility of mounting some very high powered driving lights behind the lower grill or cut out the grill to accomidate them. I'll have to see how much it might cover the radiator, I want to be sure and not block any airflow, sure is hot in TX.

 

Besides any legality issues, I dont see any reason for a relay. Your just swapping one bulb for another. However, as others mentioned, it may fry a lot of things as well as blow the fuse.

 

The relay is to protect the factory wiring. Instead of having the factory headlamp wires provide power for the new bulbs (which will probably draw more current than the factory wiring is rated for), you run separate heavy-gauge power and ground wires to a relay, and power the new bulbs from the relay. With this setup, the factory headlamp wiring is only used to turn the relay on and off, and the current required to turn the relay on and off is only a few milliamps.

This why aftermarket driving lights come with relays. The switch that comes with the light kit can't handle all of the current required to power the lights, so the relays are used to actually power the lights (via their own heavy-gauge connections), and the switch is just used to turn the relays on and off.

 

+1 ^

 

I'm running the 65w Osram bulbs from danielsternlighting.com - they're significantly brighter than my OEM high beams (2100 lumens for the 65w vs. about 1500 lumens OEM). These are "good enough" for me for most purposes (I DO have rally lights for special occasions) and I don't fear melting anything as I would with 100's - though I know some people have done 100s without problems...

 

100w bulbs will melt the housings....I should know....

 

plug and play and smoke.

 

And smoke is only standard on old Mini's with Lucas electrical systems...

 

I presumed he was using the factory wiring but that is another way of doing it

 

I know this is probably a dumb suggestion but, have you tried adjusting the headlights? Mine xenons were way too low from the factory, I was over driving the lights at about 40mph, after adjusting them I can see much better while not blinding the cars in front of me.

 

GNATSTER,

Would you like to try a set of these, free of charge, just let us know how they perform.

PIAA H7 Xtreme white bulbs
The very popular Xtreme White Plus technology is now available in H7 style bulbs. Rated at 4000K and providing 110watts worth of light from only 55watts these bulbs will provide a brilliant Xtreme cool white light that will light up road hazards and street signs long before a normal halogen bulb.


Victor

 

This H7 is the high beam section of the Xenon headlamp?

If so, sure, send me a set, you should have my address on file.

 

PIAA H7 bulbs on the way....USPS priority, should be there before the Friday.

 

I was just liking into new bulbs last night myself. Actually I ran across those PIAA bulbs. So they are 55watts but put out the same amount of light as a 110watt?

 

That is correct, that way, there is no risk to fry your wiring.

One more thing, these bulbs are expensive, not to be compared with the cheap ones out there,

I have a set of these on my other car, installed in 1999, still working.

 

how much do they usually run?

 

ive run PIAA's in the past on various cars. they dim in about a year's
use. for DRL's they do fine. after spending literally hundreds of dollars
on PIAA's (various cars), i just went back to stock bulbs. stock bulbs
are not white but they actually make it easier to see than PIAA's super
white beam.

i have my DRL's turned on and run Polarg H7's in there because i want
a whiter light. Ive had them since 2003, no issues.

 

Bulbs arrived from Mini Works after I had left early for a long weekend away. Have not had a chance in to swap them out. I intend on taking a photo both before and after to show any differences.

 

You can't change the laws of physics because of marketing. Read http://danielsternlighting.com/tech/...uperwhite.html

If you dont believe Daniel Stern, read the bulb FAQs found elsewhere on the net.

 

Well, you can have one 55W bulb that's significantly brighter than another 55W bulb without violating the laws of physics (although not twice as bright, unless you're comparing flourescent to incandescent).

I just wish automotive bulb manufacturers would start labeling their bulbs like household bulbs - listing both power consumption (watts) AND brightness (lumens).

Since auto bulbs are only marked with their power consumption (wattage), people try to use wattage as an indicator of brightness, and that's both incorrect and misleading.