I was looking around the different threads, and it seems everyone is trying really hard to wire up aftermarket HID xenons into their OEM halogen housings. I was wondering, as I am looking for better lighting, is it possible to install the HID projector housings into a non-HID car, but instead of xenons, put in halogens instead. On my old car, I had halogens with a projector lens, and they were fantastic to drive with at night. I feel the mini's halogen light tends to be too diffuse.

Has anyone tried this?

 

I was wondering the same, specially with those black headlights, and to improve light output

 

If you are going to retrofit projectors into your OEM housings go HID. If you buy the ebay headlights they are design for an H11 bulb I think but you can buy a $35 HID kit to drop in and be fine and not glare. The only no-no is HIDs in halogens.

 

...edit

 

I got mine w/o Xenons and looked @ different options. But ended up going with a HID kit and finally found one that w/o Bulb-Out warnings. Only downside is...my high-beams are still yellow but how often do we use high-beam? Low-Beam HID is fine with me w/o those darn warnings.

 

Pics??

 

When you say you got an HID kit, is that just the bulbs and ballasts, or does it include projector lenses as well??

 

your mini is bad assss

 

sure. i'll take some and post it.

 

What if I have the Xenons but want to get HID, can I use the same kit? Could you also specify which kit you got?

Thanks!

 

i am looking into this,

converts our Halogens into XENON's ...w/ Angle Eye effect as well.
I've found some photos on Google, ...they look nice. -especially for the price. ...i think this would beat the standar halogens?? ...i'd love to get some real-world info on how these worked for people though.

 

+1 on this, i can't stand having regular halogens anymore! as of right now i have non projectors halogens, im just looking for a kit that i can install without highbeams so i can run 6000k on both low beams and fog lights, i shoulda read more about this forum before i purchase this car, dont get me wrong this car is very fun to drive but there are certainly a few things i'd like to fix

any comment will do with pics and instructions and oh yeah please list the price of the kits and parts as well

thanks,

-ms

 

If you have projectors, you definitly want HID bulbs. I did a fully custom projector & HID retrofit on my last vehicle.

When people say they are putting in HIDs, they are generally referring to replacing the halogen bulbs with an HID bulb and ballast (which is part of how the bulb works).

Typically your best bet is to stick with what you have, if you have reflectors stick with halogen bulbs. The reason for this is many times HID bulbs are longer than a halogen bulb even though the size number is the same. What happens is it does not properly reflect in the housing and it forces the beam of light out of where it is supposed to be and can shine in all the wrong places (i.e. into oncoming traffics eyes, and with a bulb as bright as an HID, it can be extremely bright). Another thing to consider is heat. I don't think this is too much of a problem with the MINI reflector housings, but they can sometimes melt. HID bulbs run MUCH hotter than a standard halogen bulb, and when stuck into a reflector housing that is too cramped, it can melt the reflector and sometimes cause damage that is not fixable (i.e. you have to buy a new housing). Just a side note.

If you have projectors, stick with HIDs. Projector lenses are specifically designed to handle the HID bulb, and is projected outward with a (usually) sharp cutoff to protect oncoming traffics eyes. It is also more evenly disbursed across the roadway in front of you to avoid "hot spots" of light.

There are some vehicle manufactures that put halogen bulbs into projectors, but that is mainly for cost reduction reasons. Projectors will give a much better light distribution than a reflector housing can.

Found these photos in a quick search:

HIDs in a reflector housing:



HIDs in a projector:

 

If you have the reflector housings on your mini and want to replace your stock halogen bulbs with an HID bulbs, you can. Kits range anywhere from $30-$100 depending on where you buy them, just get the right bulb size. I used to order from http://www.ddmtuning.com. They have a pretty good product but I won't lie, their customer service is some of the WORST i've ever encountered. If it goes out its usually easier to just buy a new kit than deal with their service dept. Same warning as above for how well they will work in the reflector housing. I bought a kit and they ended up being worse than the stock halogen bulbs because of how it threw the light everywhere.

You have a couple options when it comes to ordering HID kits, so here is a little info.

Putting HIDs in a veicle that does not have them from the factory is illegal, and you can get a ticket. Just a fair warning. Not saying to not do it, but I just want to throw it out there.

Generally there are two power levels you can order them in, 35watt or 55watt. Vehicles that come with HIDs generally have 35watt. If you are putting an HID kit into a standard reflector housing, go with a 35watt kit. You will be less likely to get flashed by oncoming traffic, and less likely to get pulled over.

Then you have a color choice, ranging from 3,000K to 30,000K (the K stands for Kelvin, the temperature rating). 3000K will be yellow like you would want in a fog light. 5000K will be the purest white, and what you will find in cars that have HIDs from the factory. 6000K has a little blue, 8000K even more blue and so on. When you start pushing the 30,000K levels you get into purple. Keep in mind if you jump to a 55W, the color will wash out a bit. For example, when I had my truck (with the retrofit), I had 6000K 55W bulbs in my projector lenses but when I put in fog lights below, I used a 35W kit and got 5000K bulbs. They matched when you looked at them from the front, and on the roadway. The higher power will wash out the color a little.

I would recommend a 5000K kit if you are buying HIDs. It will give you the most usable light out of all of them. I put a chart below to give a better idea of colors, etc.

Then you have the bulb size, which will be whatever bulb size fits your mini (I don't know off hand, should be in the manual though.)

You CAN also get Hi/Lo kits that have the hi-beam integrated into the bulb. They do work, and in order for your mini to have hi-beams with an HID kit, you need them. If you get them without you just simply will only have low beams. Your preference. They work just fine without, but are nice to have if you need them.

Another note, just as a heads up, is cycling the HIDs. I like to warn people about it just as cautionary to cause less problems later. Cycling an HID bulb on and off too quickly can damage the HID ballast. The ballast is used to fire the bulb on when they first start up, and cycling it too quickly off and on with not enough warm up time can, and will damage them and eventually they just simply won't turn on. Trust me, i've done it before.

HID color chart, just to give a comparison idea:

 

If anyone has any Q's about HIDs, projectors, and even doing a retrofit, feel free to shoot me a PM or email, I'm always happy to help out with this stuff. It's one of my favorite things to do. I do plan to do an HID projector retrofit on my mini as well in the future. I have the stock halogen reflectors and I'm going to retrofit in HID projectors. I have everything but a set of reflector housings (that I can hack up, I don't like to cut up the only set on the car in case I mess up lol.) and I'll be starting on it.

Another note is you can often times buy knock-off projector housings for many cars off of ebay, etc. Generally these are cheap, and made in china or elsewhere. They don't normally have a sharp cutoff and don't always have a even distribution of light. I've even seen some melt. HIDs run MUCH hotter than a standard halogen bulb does.

 

This was for your R53, yes? In the R53 the highbeam and lowbeam are separate bulbs. For anyone with an R56, the car will have a hi/lo bulb. It's one bulb that has both the low beam and hi beam integrated in it so when you hit the switch, it just changes the reflection point, instead of firing up a second bulb. You can get a hi/lo HID kit, it works just the same, just changes the reflection point in the bulb.

 

Thank you so much for this insight.
Your info is very helpful.

I found this setup
http://www.protuninglab.com/07micoeuhapr3.html

I like that it is sold as "plug and play". Yet I really want to see this in person or read a review of them. I may contact the company and see if they sell them anywhere near San Francisco (where I live). The company is based out of Los Angeles, so it is worth a shot? ...i've really got to see these in person before I spend any $$ on them.

 

A bit off topic, I'm just looking to replace my OEM bulbs with a brighter "white" bulb. I found these on Amazon...

I'm reluctant to believe that these being $14.99/2 would be a "Plug & Play" replacement for my OEM Bulbs.

Can anyone give me some inisght?

TIA

Julie
aka PROUD to be Molly's MOM

 

I can't speak for these personally, but they most likely will work. However, the quality may not be there. In many of the pre-built projector housings like these use a very low quality projector unit. Usually it results in uneven lighting (causing some hot spots) and a low quality and 'fuzzy' cutoff line. They will most likely work, but whether the quality is up to par with the price I can't say. I'd say try to find some reviews of them somewhere and see what people have to say about them. Look up the company too and get some background info on the quality of their products. That's what I would do, especially before spending that much money.

These will be plug and play, but they are not true xenon bulbs. It's just a knockoff, and is basically just a halogen bulb. The best bet for middle ground between a standard halogen bulb and HIDs is a Silverstar Ultra bulb. Silverstars are a little more white, and put out a little bit more usable light on the road. Since a silverstar bulb is just a modified halogen bulb it still works as intended with the reflector housings and you won't run into problems with light patterns as you would with an HID bulb. It will be a slightly brighter version of a halogen bulb. Silverstars are plug and play as long as you get the correct size. They can be a little pricey though.

 

Thank you arsci!! I will look into those.