I totally disagree, I have them, so do a ton of Mad Modders on the board. I think they look much better than the OEM 1980's rippled glass look. I say the halo lenses on the GP, and my car, are the hawtness

and they would match the lights from ebay...just wonder about the washers and the quality of the lens on something like that....cheap means cheap....and when it comes to headlights, I want to see WELL at night.

 

Burley - I appreciate you continued dedication to figure all this out. It's nice to have help. Those eBay lights are for Coopers only, not the Cooper S. Either way, I have a pair that I know work, I just can't figure out whats going on with my car. Have we determined if anyone with an 05+ has gone from 05+ halogens to 05+ projectors? I think mine might have come from Canada...but I am not sure, will that have any effect?

03Indigo - Great pictures. Just curious, how did get power to the xenons on the wall to make them work outside the vehicle? Very creative way of storing an extra pair of lights. lol.

 

there is NO difference between the wiring harness of the MC and MCS. When you order the lights from a dealer, they are the same part numbers, so why would there be a difference from an aftermarket product on eBay. Personally, that is the first set of aftermarket lights I have seen for the MINIs...I would question the manufacture of them, the lens integrity to rock chips, etc. But that is just me. At least there are options.

as far as power to the lights, they are wired into the garage door opener. I removed the ballasts, ignitors and bulbs. I retrofitted power to a standard desk lamp bulb set up...and converted it later to an LED set up. Uses standard house voltage. I am not powering the ballasts or xenons. With all the on/off that it would see with the garage door going up and down, it would for sure blow the ballasts, bulbs and ignitors. I did not see reason to destroy those, so they are sitting in sealed freezer bags in a box in the garage.

 

LOL......don't worry buddy. They actually look great in person.

 

In person they look incredibly blue too, my buddy has them and even he laughed when he saw how blue they were on his car.....if you want the headlights to match better, i would actually look at changing the ring color first. It would be easier and cheaper.....and look ten times better.

Besides maybe msfitoy, gnatster, and indigo (and maybe a few others)....i would never follow the mad modders. Modding for the sake of modding gets you an ugly car

 

First off, , thanks for the compliment Rally....second off, yeah, modding for the sake of modding does yield an ugly car. Artist school 101, leave it like it is, don't keep working on it, you will screw up a master piece. I have pretty much stopped at this point with mods, now it is just improved parts over OEM for long term reliability (planning on keeping the car forever). And maintenance.

I switched out my LEDs to a super white wedge...2 of them in each light, and it made them less blue. I think they came with blue leds...so that makes a difference.

 

Perfect....that's what my buddy plans to do too. If you can get a pure white out of them, they will be easier to match with the headlights.

 

Gusmiami, that is a nice garage you have there. If you don't mind me asking, how much did the floor tiles cost? I want to get floor tiles like that too.

 

Do the GPs not come w/ fogs OR Xenons?

Side note, do those colored films (protective films) actually stick to your lights over time? I wanted to put some yellow films on my fogs. Are those films complete crap? I would just swap the bulb, but thats a pain in the *** to get to the fog lights. It looked like you have to pull the bumper off.

 

Its somewhat a selfish act...I would also like to put projectors in my cooper too

 

GPs do that as a weight reduction....the xenon ballasts weigh a lot.

The films work pretty well...but they've been known to melt or discolor on the fogs.

 

when every one says the Xenons weigh a lot, really, I have more extra baggage around my mid section, and the few lbs for a street driven car is somewhat silly, IMHO. Ballasts and ignitors weigh about 4lbs total, if that. Include the water pump, res., tubing, and washer sprayers, and maybe 15lbs or 20lbs at the most...and that is including the washer fluid in my estimate.

They did it on the GP for weight, yes, but more in theory that actual practice...they added the weight with the extra body cladding and the heavy rims. Unsprung weight reduction has a much larger effect on handling that removing ballasts ever would, from what I know.

The films do work well, but I would suggest going to a tint shop and have them put on a thinner material, like the clear bra. They now have stuff that resists heat and is more pliable. The thick stuff works great, but the thinner stuff is just as functional against rock chips. They can do the yellow film for you as well, most likely as a greatly reduced cost over a pre-cut kit. I had them do my cars, and total headlight, turn, and fog coverage was less than $45 per car, never once had damage to a light.

 

hahah i didn't say it was a GOOD idea.....but what do you expect on a GP It was meant to seem like a racecar but retain its everyday car status.

 

Do you guys ever sleep? We were up posting until 2am, and now here we are again...at 10am. I guess thats 8 hours..

 

I slept from 3am to 6am Mountain time. I got up, did some house cleaning, wood floors, vaccuum, bathrooms, and mowed the lawn. Now back to bed. I work nights on the weekends, so Thursday nights are "conditioning" night to make me sleep most of the day on Friday.

Rally, I totally agree. I would have wanted Xenons on a GP if I bought one, and a back seat as well. Not that I use it, but it cuts down on road noise. I put more dynamat in my car than my ballasts weigh, haha....and I know a few GP owners that are planning or have already done full dynamat interiors. That will add about 50lbs

 

I went to bed at 11

 

wimp

 

I posted this elsewhere, but w/out pics....

When I got my xenons, one was DIRTY!! It had about half the light output, and looked like it was reflecting most of the light back at the bulb.

After a few PBR's, I fashioned a cleaning apparatus w/ a coat hanger, lint free cotton cloth, and tape. I sprayed a little windex on it, and it worked great. To keep moisture out, finish by getting a hair dryer and shooting warm air into the headlight.

Here's what it looked like....

The first pic is a "before"

 

Any advice on how/where to get the xenon bulb retrofit? Would THIS work? and how hard would it be to to install?

Also, I love the accessories in your garage (traffic light, etc.). I've been thinking of getting some things like that for my garage as well.

 

I have installed this kit http://vvme.com/catalog/list-s-10145-10146.html on at least 5 friends of mine. Audi A4's with E-codes and some Subaru Legacy GTs and Outback XTs. They are flawless and are the same quality of my phillips systems I have installed that cost me nearly $450. They are on sale right now for $57.99...normally they are like $130-$140 for an H7 set of 4300K to 6000K bulbs, ballasts and everything you need.

If I ever need another set, that is where I am going, hands down. My good buddy Charles has a set that he put in his A4 over 2 years ago, I helped with the install as I have done other kits before, and he has not had one problem, bulbs and charge/ignition are perfect.

But, that is just my experience, and opinion. There are a ton of options out there, but even at regular price, you will never beat the deals from this company, or the quality.

 

here is the direct link to the kit, and order an H7 set up.

http://vvme.com/product/detail-20023.html

 

what about warranty on those? I can't find anywhere that says the type/time of warranty

 

Are those H7 kits even as bright as the d2S bulbs? If they are, is it logical that they would create the same light pattern as the halogen H7s because they are the same shape? If they do, then thats better then putting D2S drop ins in a reflector housing.

I would be weary of drop in reflector conversions. Since they are illegal (not that Im a stickler for the law), no reputable manufacturer will make a set, IMO. If PIAA / Hella / Bocsh / Phillips made a set, I might buy one (for my other car.)

If you are going that route, they work MUCH better if you also convert headlights w/ projectors too...

 

any conversion to xenon is not DOT approved, from what I know, they are for "off road use only"....if you read the fine print of all the aftermarket kits.

 

ps....that never stopped me from converting our Subarus with projector lights to xenon, 6000K H7 kits.