My MINI's headlights are nasty. The first owner did a crap tinting on them, and one of the lightbulbs is hanging because it broke on the inside. I literally cannot drive at night unless my foglights are are on. Anyway, I was looking to see if there was any aftermarket headlights available that I could just take the ones that are currently in my car and throw them away and add new ones in. I know nothing about electronics so I'm not really sure what to do when rewiring is necessary. At this point I just want some decent headlights. I tried looking around and it seems most aftermarket headlights require a lot of tinkering.

I found these

http://www.protuninglab.com/07micoeuhapr3.html

Do those need any rewiring?

 

do not buy from protuning lab they are the a very sketchy company.

 

Like the headlights you linked, most aftermarket headlights are for styling change and/or converting halogen to HID (xenon), which is the reason for wiring modification. If you want a plug and play replacement, I would look for a used OEM set from eBay. Most aftermarket lighting are low quality products.

 

I actually found someone that knows how to install car electronics and things like that so that's no longer a problem. What's wrong with protuning lab? I'm actually a pretty big can of the halo headlights and considering those.

 

protuning is terrible I ordered from them and they sent a tracking number but then never delivered the package to fed ex. so I tried to call them and they never answer their phone or return calls. I sent at least 20 emails and they finally responded saying that it was on back order and would ship whenever they get it. I would do some research on them like looking up reviews of this site. I did after I ordered and none of them are good. or just try to call them yourself to ask questions that you have about the lights. it would be a miracle if they answered.

 

What headlights to you currently have on? Any you recommend? I like the look of the halos and i think i'd like to ditch oem.

How about these?
http://www.carid.com/2011-mini-cooper-headlights/spec-d-halo-led-projector-headlights-12130417.html

 

@Scooby Doo:
Read what I posted here. I think your best option is to go OEM.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...60-post80.html

 

I currently have oem halogen. But bought the spec d with the HID kit. I finally have them but have not installed them yet.

 

I decided I think I'm just going to replace them with OEM halogens. I found the thread for these headlights and from the looks of it they aren't worth it. They leave an indicator and you lose the high beam functionality

 

Well, it's not both. It's one or the other. The Spec-D lights come with the warning canceller for the high beams, but are fitted with a H11 bulb, which only supports low beam. If you turn on the high beams with the cancellers plugged in, the car cuts the power to the low beam (thus turning off the lamps). If you don't connect the cancellers, the car will leave power on for the low beams, and the high beams will remove the projector cut-off. But the car will complain your high beams don't work. If you upgrade your lights to a HID kit, you will get warnings for both low and high beams, but you can get a decent output. I'll go to my garage and make a quick video to demonstrate. I'll post it very shortly.

 

That would be awesome. Have you tried bypassing the warning indicator?

 

I don't have anything to bypass it with. I don't have NCS Expert or anything. So I just push the button on the turn signal lever and they go away until the next time I start the car.

 

Would you say overall it was worth it changing over with the HID's? Did you do all the work yourself?

 

Yes, I think it was worth it. As I mentioned in the video, the output of the factory halogens (and mine were in great shape) just isn't as good as the HID upgrade. One thing: I'm about to order a 55w HID kit to replace the 35w kit, just because I had a 55w kit in a previous car and it was noticeably brighter.

I did the work myself. Nothing too complicated. The hardest part is lining the headlights up in the rings since the Spec-D lights aren't exactly the same as the OEM lights. The do fit, but you have to make adjustments. Then once you have them installed, you have to adjust the projectors themselves to make sure they're right. It took me probably 2-3 tries to get the projectors lined up like I wanted. You will need a 4mm wrench to adjust the vertical alignment of the projectors. The horizonal adjustment is 8mm. I don't understand why they're different...

Having said all of this, I wouldn't pay more than $250 for the pair of lights (I paid $240 on eBay). If you go higher than that, you may as well try to do a TRS retrofit -- which I'm still considering as well.

 

After seeing your comments I am considering doing this again but with HID's. I have never installed anything on a car before. Would you recommend me doing this or should I just go with OEM? Right now anything is better than what I have. How much did this cost you total? And what materials did you use, which HID kit dod you get? Sorry for all the questions. I read through all the other threads and I'm still not sure and I feel like I've gotten the most info from you so far.

 

No problem with the questions. I don't mind. I'm still kind of new to MINI myself, but I'm generally skilled, so I use my better judgement for most cases.

If you've never done car work before, I'd potentially leave this for someone else tackle. I don't know where you live, but if you're anywhere near DC or Baltimore, I'd be glad to help. Or at least let you see in person what you'd be up against before you buy anything.

If you do OEM, the replacement is much more straightforward. It's quite as simple as 4 bolts per light and a couple of plugs. I'd offer up my OEM's for cheap, but to be honest I like the idea of having them as a fall-back just in case something happens.

The HID retrofit with any light will be much more complex.

My entire project cost about $300 -- $240 for the lights, $40 for the HID kit, and the rest was shipping. I wouldn't worry about the error eliminators...no matter how you do this retrofit, the error eliminators will just cause more problems than they're worth, at least from what I can tell. Others may tell you differently.

I ordered this kit:

http://www.ddmtuning.com/Products/DD...ast-35W-or-55W

with the 5000k H11 bulb (the Spec D uses H11 instead of H13, like the OEM housing).
I also purchased the HID harness (an extra $10) which is how I avoided the flickering issue a lot of other users reported. If you buy that, you'll have everything you need to avoid having to splice or cut any wires. Most aftermarket HID kits are similar, so if you don't go with DDM's kit, pretty much any other kit would connect in similar fashions. The kit may or may not come with instructions. If not, let me know and when I have some free time I can post a quick walkthrough on how I connected my lights.

As far as the Spec D lights: there are 4 bolts on each light and 4 nuts on each that serve as adjustments for the housing (to fit inside the chrome ring and the holes on the hood/bonnet). You'll need a metric socket set, and a bit of patience to get the lights aligned properly.


If you were to go the other route: the TRS retrofit, which from what I hear has the best results, you're in for a PROJECT. It requires baking your headlights to open the housing and then cutting the existing reflectors to create a mounting point for the projectors. Those will run you in the $300+ range, just for the projectors and parts, then also you need the HID kit or bulbs to go with it. All of the retrofits I've seen posted here on NAM look great, but they seem like a lot of blood, sweat, and tears -- which I can't spare right now...

 

Ok I see. If not I know someone that knows how to install these things. My current headlights are ****, broken, and for some reason tinted and you can't see anything. So if I can somehow go with HID projectors than that would be great. And I really appreciate you answering all my questions. What wattage were the bulbs you got? Not sure how that makes a difference. Any cable cutting required for this? Oh, and do the halos stay on during the day? Is that what you where referring to when you were talking about the lights on the sides? You think that if I take it to someone who knows how to install headlights they would know what to do or do I need to tell them where to hook certain things up? Again I cannot thank you enough.

 

35 watt, 5000k; and yes, the wattage makes a big difference. I'm about to order 55 watt ballasts because they're that much brighter.

I didn't have to cut any wires. The halos have to be spliced into the lights on the side and they only turn on when those lights are on (so parking lights or head lights). But the lights come with the splices so you don't have to cut anything. You can wire the halos however you want, so you could set them up to be on always, or never, or by some other custom switch.

I'm sure if you took it to someone, they would be able to figure it out. It's not complicated, and the majority of the connectors only have one matching place to connect.

 

Awesome man, thanks! I decided to go with the HID's.

 

I have the spec d halos was it just the black and white wires that you had to splice into your side marker lights? and on mine there is a harness that isn't plugged into anything, what is this for? I plan on installing tomorrow so was just wondering as the instructions don't mention what the wire harness is for.

 

I think spec d said that the wires are for some euro models. They don't go jnto anything.