I have an F55 2016 with the stock Halogen headlights, using the H4 halogen bulb ....i want something brighter....i upgraded to the Philips X-treme Vision halogens which are maybe brighter, but not really much difference

I would like to upgrade to LED bulbs...but not sure how the pattern and focus will be in the MINI and also don't want to set off and codes or flicker and do not like the blue-white of some LED's ....looking for a pure white and BRIGHT LED ......has anyone out there upgraded?

 

I'll bump this thread since I was going to make a similar one.

I see that there are kits to do a direct replacement of halogen (h4, I believe is what is in f56s) that are supposedly plug and play. But I did see conflicting information on if the car will need to be brought back to the dealership to adjust computer settings. So like the OP asked, has anyone done this upgrade?

Also, I have seen in other threads that people have replaced their DRLs with LEDs. That is something that I was also considering (just for looks). Does anyone know if there are LEDs in the Kelvin range that would give a blue tint? Since its DRLs, their actual illumination is probably not important. So I'd say blue > white >> stock.

 

I would like to know more info about this, too. I spend a good portion of my time at my boyfriend’s house, and he literally lives on a long windy country road with no street lights. Consequently, if I am out and about at night, it is difficult to even find our driveway, which is pretty well hidden, with my standard Mini headlights. Part of the problem is they are a bit dull, and the other part is these old eyes ain’t what they used to be.....


Kat

 

I would also like to know more about this. I hate the standard halogen lights.

 

I've done this upgrade a few years ago to my F56 Cooper S. You just need to find a good H4 LED bulbs with CANBUS to avoid bulb out error codes and flickering on start-up. I also changed the bulbs on my DRLs, parking lights and fog lamps to LEDs. If you want a bright white color temperature, stick with something on 6000K hue anything higher that this will give you a blueish color temp. I think I bought all my LED bulbs from Amazon. Good luck!


Side Note: Swapping head lights to LEDs didn't give me the satisfaction I wanted because I was still missing the Halo LED DRLs so I end up buying a 3rd party head lamp assembly that looks exactly like the OEM projector LED head lamps. Here is the link to the thread started by another forum member tylerhunter showing the upgraded head lamps.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...rojectors.html

 

Thanks for the information xentar!

I was just reading and talking to some people about upgrading to LED and there might be an issue with our cars. Since the MINIs use reflector headlights, I was told that LEDs would cause lots of glare for other drivers (has xentar or others noticed this?). Typically, projector headlights are the easier ones to do a direct replacement to LED. Maybe that's why the information on LED direct replacements to F56s is fairly lacking.

I still want to upgrade the DRLs to LED, but maybe I'll go for "premium" halogens for headlights (I want the clean, white color). This thread has pretty good information (halogen headlight/foglight replacement and LED for DRLs):
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...placement.html

 

I got the ones that can be rotated so I can adjust the sides where the LED bulbs are towards the left and right side of the head lamps.

I didn't notice any glare nor experienced on coming cars flashing their lights at me. But if you can find a nice bright white halogens then go for it.
I tried 5 different halogen bulbs then finally gave up and went the LED route.

 

hola, yo compre unos foco led para mi f56 que trae de fabrica halogenos. alguien sabe que tengo que hacer para que funcionen???

 

I wouldn’t upgrade unless you the a projector type headlight, the standard halogen housing will just scatter the light and blind oncoming drivers.

 

Unfortunately that is not entirely true. I upgraded my wife's halogens to LEDs a few months ago. In doing the swap I marked on our garage door where the cutoff line is and where the hotspot was located. I installed the GTR Ultra 2 H4 bulbs and the beam pattern was almost exactly identical but considerably brighter. I did adjust the lights down 2 clicks which equated to about 1" at the 25' mark. The LED lights are phenomenally brighter, don't scatter the light and provide the same beam pattern as the halogens.

That said, cheap LED replacement bulbs typically found on Amazon and Ebay will give different results. The GTR Lighting Ultra 2 bulbs were not cheap, I spent $240 for the set and we've yet to have anyone flash their high beams at us when approaching.

Here is a video from Headlight Revolution. They push the GTR Lights but they test 24 other sets of bulbs against the GTR Lighting bulbs and do it in a controlled environment.

 

ooohhhh okay

 

I forgot to add that I already have BimmerCode so I was able to code the lights to LED. The canbus adapters are glorified resistor blocks that fool the computer into thinking a halogen is there instead of a lower wattage LED.

 

Ok. Your headlight housing is not make for that bright of lights. So you do you.

 

Care to support that claim? I've done a considerable amount of research regarding LED replacement bulbs and how they interact with projector headlight shells as well as reflector style headlights. I have found numerous white papers regarding the designs and how they relate to the location or placement of the lighting filament. Not a single one of them referenced any sort of lumen or lux rating that stated that beyond a certain level was too much for that shell. Filament placement is critical, more so with reflectors. You buy quality LED replacements, you get the same beam pattern as a halogen, just brighter. You buy cheap LED replacements, you get a shitty beam pattern and subsequently blind oncoming drivers. I await your response.

 

Nope I’m good. My minis have came with the LED lights from factory. I’ve driven past cars that have halogen lights with the aftermarket conversation kits and are blinding.

 

In that instance I would say that you encountered the people that bought the $30 LED kits off Amazon/Ebay and didn't do any measurements or adjustments. People like that do a disservice to those of us that have done these conversions (and done them properly).