OK guys. Have an 05 R53.

Came with halogens, bought DEPO OEM style headlights with projectors


55w Phillips Ballasts, 4500k Morioto bulbs.

Looks excellent at night. No flickering, no reprogramming. HOWEVER. I have heard that this style of R53 used to drop the voltage on lowbeams inorder to save the life of the bulb. I have gotten into a position where this is no longer desireable, and my question is, do I need to program this out? Should I program this out? My light setup is excellent, but if it could be better by putting more volts (or stabilizing it) for more output I would be intrested.

*Do I need to program the lowered voltage out of my R53 to run my Ballasts more efficently?
*Is the lower voltage for lowbeams on the R53 even a thing?
*How / what would I use for such a thing?

Thanks guys. If this is in the wrong section feel free to move it.

 

Anyone have any ideas? I noticed today that if I have my low beams on, then turn them off and turn them back on (I use the "follow me home" option often) within ~30 seconds, atleast one of the bulbs can't reignite. It tries, flickers for a second, then fails to ignite.

 

its not that its dropped voltage, its that the voltage is on a frequency. what that frequency is, im not sure. but it pulses, for some it makes the lights flicker. putting a capacitor inline on the power should alleviate most problems.

 

I don't nesscarily have a problem. It was just simply an observation about things I have read. Just wasn't sure. I am pretty sure my ballasts contain capacitors (due to their build construction) but I was simply curious.

 

mmmkay, im sure the ballasts have a capacitor built in, but I wouldn't think it would be large enough to handle fully the frequency pulses from our BCM. but hey if they work, they work =D

 

qolor - where did you mount your ballasts for the headlights?

I just ordered the same lights as you (my stocks being halogen) and can't seem to find where I would mount the ballasts to install HIDs on my headlights

 

I will take a picture when I get home. I am going to be experimenting with different ballasts in the future. Mine are very big. However, the 55w Phillips ballasts I got off of amazon came with brackets. I used some painters tape and some bending to mount them.

What ballasts did you get?

 

Not sure what type of ballasts... just buying from my local vendor over here (Umnitza - some of you may know them from the BMW crowd, super popular in a good & bad way )

Biggest issue I am having first is how to get the wiring from the bulb to the ballast since there is a lid that covers it all.

Headlights:


HID Bulb install:


Lid won't close since wires have to connect to ballast which is outside of the housing for the bulb...


I am thinking of trimming here under the lid and make 2 "U" shaped cuts? so that the wires fall into this dip and can still be connected to the ballast.

Waiting to see how you and others have done this though before I go hacking away at plastic lol

 

So I got the lid closed with the wires coming through, no cutting needed... Where to mount the ballast

Is there enough room on top of the lid and when the hood closes to mount like so?





Or should I look elsewhere under the hood somewhere?

 

You can maybe mount it to the bottom of the headlight like the factory HID ballast. You can see on the Depo / Helix ones we carry they have a mount location on the bottom as the headlight housing plastic was cast from the original OEM Xenon headlights. Those bottom pegs/

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ight-help.html











-----------------------------------------


Genuine MINI Xenon headlight with ballast

 

ECS I will try maybe doing it just like that... These are the Depo/HELIX ones you guys carry. Will update later this evening (my time) when these are put in.

From looking at these out of the box, once everything is wired up, installing them in the car I'm guessing is going to be pretty simple? Unbolt the old ones and disconnect them, then put new ones in and bolt them up?

 

You are welcome.

Thanks for the purchase..

Yep that pretty much it, After install. pull up to a garage or somewhere flat and adjust the manual adjustment to make sure the headlights are level.

 

Do these have leveling adjustments? If not I don't see how else I would adjust if the bulb gets locked in there.

So from previous post, I found the pegs you were talking about. There is enough room under there to fit a thick ballast without hitting anything?

This is where you're talking about:

 

Yep, kind of like the factory set up.

There are two metal hex rods with a flat head screwdriver slot.

Once the bulbs are in, turn the lights on , shut the hood, and adjust, you can level the headlight. Pretty level right out of the box. Might have to open and close the hood a couple times after each fin adjustment. Far right and left.

 

There up here?



I thought thats what they might've been for, but wanted to double check. Ok awesome, ill get some pics up when finished. If these HID's don't end up working, Ill be getting matching sets of those Ziza bulbs you guys carry

 

Yea, those far outside ones. The studs thread at the top mount to the hood.

Sounds like a good plan.

 

 

Above is how my ballasts are mounted, this is how I ran my wiring. There is a ballast under the heat shielding. I used double sided tape for that. (I swap bulbs and ballasts alot, I test different things so I use the hood mounted ballast as a control cheap eBay one.)

Morimoto H7 4500k
Phillips 55w Ballasts

 

Hmmm insteresting... I ended going with ECS recommendation and mounted them where the stock ones are on Xenons.

I decided to do my own thread so the finished product is here:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ml#post4111118

 

Looks great, nice thread.

 

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I found a set of these lights. I got into them last night and put the bulbs in them. I can't find the "fixed spring" to hold the square part down. Was this shipped with the headlights or do you remove them from your old lights?