The retrofit xenons are lower wattage and have less output than the factory ones but should still be a huge upgrade over halogens. The retrofit xenons only come in the titanium grey.

 

Rob, What did your local company do for you exactly? What specifically did they install? $650 is dirt cheap from what I'm seeing.

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

Also, Does anyone have comparison photos of the 25w vs the 35w self-leveling system? Is the light output difference huge?

 

The 25w retrofits aren't self-leveling like the factory lights.

There's a whole thread on the 25w retrofit kit here...

 

Right, I know they arent self leveling... I just included "35w self-leveling" to define one vs another :-)

Any Photos? hehe
---I'm becoming a Mini addict already - I was considering picking up some sways & a cat back ... meanwhile, I have only put a deposit on a car so far (SMH). Parts for this car are SO CHEAP! ---

 

Ah. I took that to mean you wanted pictures of the self-leveling of the 25w vs. the self-leveling of the factory 35w.

There are a ton of photos of the 25w output in the thread I linked. Pictures of the 35w output should be easy enough to find (might be some in that thread as well). Doubt you'll find any photos directly comparing the two as no one would have had both on their car, not too many people have two MINIs, and of those that have two MINIs fewer still would have performed a halogen to 25w conversion. You'd almost need someone with the 25w conversion to find someone with factory xenons and get them to park next to each other at night to take pictures for a direct comparison, and that seems like a high effort, low reward thing to do.

Based on the pictures I've seen of the 25w conversion it quite bright. The 35w factory ones might be brighter, but I can't imagine them really needing to be.

 

wait so i can't just throw in a HID kit on the stock housing?

 

Please don't do it. You'll blind oncoming traffic and make it worse for drivers with very sensitive eyes. Just get spec-D's housing for $280-300 and slap that hid kit on then. Thanks.

 

That's a horrible idea. You need to retrofit some projectors or something of the sort to prevent major light scatter. If you throw HID's in the stock reflector housing, you will lose a good portion of your light to the trees, traffic lights and the eyes of oncoming traffic. That's how people veer off course and you end up in a head-on collision. Avoid creating your own problems.


Upgrade by swapping the lamps for some lamps with projectors. They work like lenses to focus the light down onto the road - providing a clear visual of what's ahead. -

I'm just trying to decide if I should attempt the 35w involved swap vs the 25w easy swap.

Adrian

 

Hi,

A little late to this but I have just purchased and fitted (very simple physical change) the after market lights mentioned. They are a direct replacement to the factory halogens and are black internally in the UK (perhaps there is a choice but I didn't ask and was not offered any).

They look identical to the factory Xenons (in black) and even have the cleaning ovals - indeed I am sure they are the same unit aside from the output. You will see a picture in my single album.

One thing that seems clear is that they do need coding - they come on if you flash the lights with the ignition on but will not operate without strobing immediately after fitting.

Will be recoding as soon as I have one or two other things sorted,

Steven

 

Anyone got a link to the "spec-D" housings?

 

As mentioned before the the US version Titanium Gray 25 W - Set ( 63102347698KT ) will need coding and it looks like the same for the UK versions that are black - vuv716q. Thanks for letting us know for the euro ones. The Clubman D looks very nice.

We only get the Titanium Gray ones here in stock for the US.


http://www.ecstuning.com/Search/SiteSearch/63102347698/

 

Thanks for the mention. Let me know if I can help from a European perspective on anything Mini. This is my second BMW Mini but I also own a couple of British Mini's - a Cooper S from 1968 and a Cooper RSP from 1990 - so I know a little about them. I have a reasonably friendly dealer friend or two and am happy to ask if necessary on anything I can't answer.

One thing that maybe someone can help with is the question of retrofitting the Sport button (this article was a great help so thank you nutsofamily) - I want the original look and have the three button switch installed. I now need to connect the terminal attached to the button end (not certain which one as three are empty) to the fuse box (19 on the X14272) but am interested in the colour / gauge of the wire in the factory set-up and it's route from fuse box to buttons ?

Wondering if anyone can help ?

 

Has anyone with halogen headlights, just buy bi-xenon headlights and install an aftermarket bi-xenon conversion kit?

Wouldn't that be more cost effective?

 

so leave the halogen lights alone and just upgrade the bulbs?
If this is what you suggest its a bad idea, it scatters light, does not give proper illumination, blinds oncoming traffic, and is generally frowned upon as a bad idea :p

 

No, what I wrote is buy the OEM bi xenon headlights without the bi xenon lamps and ballasts and install an aftermarket bi xenon lamp and ballast rather the OEM one.

 

glad i asked
i thought about that too, if you go that route you want the ones with canbus resistors so you dont get errors

 

hey, I have a 2010 mini cooper hardtop s. I bought an h13 hid kit for kensun. I have the 35W 8000k kit right now. its not as bright as I expected. my hid fogs are brighter than my headlights. I just purchased the 55W kit imam see if that helps. but is this a common problems with minis? they don't like hids ? help me out!!! and they seem pixely if ya know what I mean... not in full diameter as halogens.

 

That's because the fog light optics weren't designed for a converted h13 hid bulb.

 

are you suing HID bulbs in halogen headlights? are they projectors?
Youre going to have horrible hotspots and light output with HIDs in halogen fixtures, theyre not designed for it

 

+1 throwing Xenon bulbs in non projector halogen housing just blinds oncoming traffic as it does not focus the light and have the correct cut off and pattern.

 

Yeah, but he's talking about the fog lights which are pretty useless as lights anyway. (at least for seeing anything down the road. If you don't believe that try turning off the headlights and see just what the fog lights illuminate. (about 30ft in front of the car))


When you are traveling 50mph (or 73.3ft/sec) 30 feet isn't doing anything. By the time you see it, you've hit it...

 

Before you go putting HID bulbs in your halogen housing ... all those cars with the blue-hue, obviously aftermarket HIDs that blind you on the road ... that's what THEY did ... The reflectors in your halogen headlamps were designed to appropriately reflect a bulb with a filament ... HID bulbs have an 'arc'. The light coming from the bulb is 'shaped' in an entirely different manner and, therefore, reflects to completely inappropriate places. You end up with very bright light with very little 'focus' ... your beam pattern will change and become less useful for you and more irritating to those around you.
The only way to use HID bulbs to improve your lighting (WITHOUT f**kin with other drivers) is to use headlights designed for them.

 

I purchased a pair of OEM Bi-xenon Headlights. I installed a pair of D2S bulbs and a pair of full can-bus ballasts. Did some rewiring and now i have xenon!

I do not have any kind of flickering but i do have a bulb out warning (think it's for the high beam). Low and high beam are working properly.

So, i fired up old good NCS EXPERT and i disabled bulb checks (both cold and warm monitoring) for high beam. Now, i do not have high beam! When i enable high beam the shutter is constantly vibrating, like it does not have enough volt..

Any idea?

 

try
PWM_FL_BEI_BIXENON
wert_01

to see if it works

 

a2oc its current value is wert_01