hello i'm new and ? about HIDs mostly
 

well my boyfriend keep telling me to get them , and i tried to search but i guess i did it wrong,I have an 05 mini cooper not an S and i want to know if there is any hid kit out thats a plug and play and i wouldnt have to rewire things or would i have to get the projector headlights to make things work? also i dont want to pay 500 bucks light suggestions please. well thank you.

Ashley.

A retrofit HID system is a bit problematic and will cost more than $500 to do it right. If visibility is an issue add driving lamps or higher wattage bulbs.

:thumbsup:

Go with a good quality Halogen bulb.

I have a 2008 cooper with halogens. Was not happy with output. I upgraded to higher wattage H7 halogens from candlepower.com. I just installed them yesterday and have not driven at night yet, so I cannot comment on the upgrade yet. From what I could tell, they are whiter and brighter. I will update in a day or so.

thank you cant wait.
ashley

Update1:

I work with a guy that has a 2008 MCS (mine is a MCC) and he and I parked next to eachother to compare headlight output differences. Although they are different designs of light fixtures (he has new body style, I have R52) mine was noticeably brighter with the 65W H7 bulbs.

The downside so far is that the clear plastic cover of the light is noticeably warmer. I hope there are no longterm issues with this.

I have another plan to check out real Xenon bulbs/igniters with H7 bases in these headlights as well. The visible "cut-off" of the lights seems to come from the internals of the light fixture, not the bulb. If this is truly the case, Xenons may work in our headlamps without blinding oncoming traffic. Somone on Mini2 in Europe has done this and said it worked. It will be a while before I get to this.

First a good HID retrofit will cost more than $500. I have done one and put me in the whole about $1200! (Bulbs, Ballasts, Projectors, New headlights to cut open, wiring)

If you are looking to put HID bulbs into your regular reflector style headlight you are going to do a good bit of blinding to oncoming traffic. Also you need to make sure that you purchase bulbs that are listed as D2R bulbs. There are two kinds of HID bulbs. D2R and D2S. D2R are for reflectors style headlights. These are mainly seen in older Acura TL's and the Prius have them as well. D2S are made for projector housings. The difference in the bulb is the D2R has a metal housing around part of the bulb to help prevent alot of the light projecting all over the place.

Now with that said, the reflector style headlights that are built with D2R's are designed with that bulb in mind so that way the light output does not go all over. Regular reflector headlights are designed with a Halogen bulb in thought.

If you would like to learn alot more about this you can go to hidplanet.com They are a great resource for parts, the forums are full of info, and they have a for sale section too!