HI,


I have a 2016 F55 justa with standard headlights. The evening lighting is poor to say the least. What have folks done to improve this
thanks
MartyS

 

My F60 came with Halogen lights and being new to Mini's, I had a lot of research to do. Living in the country, the deer blended into my vision and almost got two since I've owned this car. So I ended up installing LED's, bought the BimmerCode App with the Wifi OBD2 and made the simple changes. Very happy since then. Plenty of bright white lighting and the cost was way less than what everyone was telling me it would cost. Something to consider.

 

Care to share the costs? I am sure many people are interested in getting the LED lights. Also, this gives me hope the LCI front and rear lights will install in my 2015 F56.

 

Got most of the info from people on this website.

I bought the headlights from: http://www.headlightexperts.com
(you might find cheaper but I'd recommend the canbus2 built in)
... and they were on sale for $109.00 set.
The BimmerCode App was free: http://bimmercodeapp.com .. but the expert mode code access cost less than $30
The Wifi adapter cost less than $30.00 over Amazon.


If I went with what Mini says, over a grand.
If I did as the local shops said, around $550 plus labor.

Just install lights, tell the coder to change it from halogen to LED and go for it. No other parts needed.

Bright and plenty happy with them.

 

 

Sorry, I don't have the fogs in mine, just the Park and Daytime running lights.

 

Sorry for the dumb but what is the bimmer code for?
I'm also looking into converting my halogens to either hid or led. Is one better than the other?

 

It's a program that once connected to your vehicle, will allow you to change the settings in your ecu. Like my vehicle came with halagon headlights, and to change the lighting of the system to LED headlights, will freak it out. With this program, it will change your ecu's written codes to what is needed to run the equipment as if it came stock. If you have a smart phone, download and try it out. First off, you won't change your vehicle, you're not connected and it is in test mode. For less than $60 you can change a lot instead of running to the dealer or draining your wallet.

 

The BimmerCode app and the V-Gate OBD are must-haves, IMO. I removed the legal confirmation that you get every time you start the car, and that in and of itself being removed was worth the price of the app/V-gate alone. To me anyway.

 

Here is what you'll need.

This is the one I purchased.



BimerCode App (download it through iTunes or Google Play)

http://bimmercodeapp.com/

 

That's the one I got, but I got the black one, it was the cheapest at $21 then. Add the BimmerCode upgrade to get the full use of it @ approx $28, it's worth it's weight in gold for the life of the car. Figure on changing what halogon trash I have left out. And that's not counting all the rest you can do with it. Iceing on the cake.

 

I have been trying to install these lights but I'm having a heck of a time getting the little metal spring clip past the wire the new bulbs have on the side of the bulb. I have a 2018 3 door S (if that matters). Maybe its just my big fat fingers and 90 degree Florida heat that's making this so hard. Is there a trick to getting these bulbs snapped into place? Thanks for any help.

I am happy to report that after a couple mails with the Headlight Experts folks (they were great!) I got the bulbs installed. I then programmed (Via BimmerCode) to change the low and high beams from bulb to LED and deactivated low and high beam cold monitoring and everything works. A great upgrade for a very reasonable price. I plan to change my fog lights next

 

Very interesting... so you didn't spring for the capacitors at $10 to eliminate the warning? Or even with that, you needed to code it out? This sounds like a great upgrade, though I don't care for that cold / high-tech LED look- more interested in their HID kit.

 

I put Sylvania ZXE bulbs in my wife’s Honda and they made a huge improvement. Something to consider if you don’t like the LED look.

 

After a couple emails with the vendor (they were very quick to reply - great help) I've gotten the bulbs installed. Via Bimmercode app I did change low beam and high beam to LED. I did also get the capacitors but am still getting an error on left and right high beams. Everything seems to work but the error pops up. I wonder if with the capacitors added I should not have switched the ECU from bulb to LED?? Also I read somewhere that the warm and cold checks also need to be changed so I will try that later. Assuming the errors get sorted out I'd say for about $150.00 this is a darn good update.