So the girlfriend got a 2012 Mini Cooper Classic Knightsbridge that comes stock halogen

I want to install HID on it because it's much safer for her for the roads that we drive through (some urban areas with lack of street light)

I've searched through and learned 2 things:
1. I need a relay (or relay harness, or relay cable...what's the difference?)
2. I need an error eliminator

However I'm still trouble by another thing.

I understand there is no true "DRL" but rather the lowbeam stays on all day (as long as car is turned on) and because of that there is no switch to turn on the lowbeams at night since it's already on during day.....this is the H13 bulb

BUT...the hibeam is H13 too....is the hibeam also the same physical bulb as the lowbeams? Or it's just a second bulb of the same H13 size?

Thanks a lot for any input

 

The H13 bulb has high and low beam. If you want high and low beam HID you will need a harness. The bixenon kit you are looking for is very common. A Plymouth Neon uses the same one. The harness and bulbs go together (buy as a set) and the ballasts can be purchased separately in whatever wattage you like.

How it works is the harness keeps the low beam on. When you select high beam the harness activates a motor (coil and magnet) in the bulb to physically move the bulb element into the high beam position.

Because you are using a harness, the stock headlight connectors will be unplugged on one side and the other side will be controlling the harness at a very low current draw so both sides need error eliminators. There are a few ways to eliminate the error. You can use resistors (6 ohm 50 watt is the magic number, you will need 4), You can reprogram the car to not check or report the error (see the NCS expert thread for that one). The off the shelf eliminators usually do not plug into the right place to do the job.

There are other kits that plug into the headlight sockets but reliability issues come into play. They may have the bugs worked out by now. I beat this subject to death in 2009 and my set up is still working.

When you are done make sure you aim them tangent with the horizon (downward) The second generation housings have a good cutoff pattern for this kind of modification so don't ruin it by pointing them up in the air.

DRL on these cars is just the low beams. I think your tail lights come on too, so it really the same as keeping your lights on.

Hope this helps.