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LED Upgrade from Halogen

3K views 6 replies 4 participants last post by  Father Mapple 
#1 ·
Hi all,

I've been looking into putting LEDs in my current halogen sockets to improve visability at night, I purchased a kit from Amazon that looked like it would do the job however i found that it would not fit in my current socket even though it was described as plug and play.

I cant seem to find any kits/adapters that specifically say they will fit so i was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on what to look for/buy?
I've put a google images link below of what my fitting looks like the red arrow shows the metal connector that wouldn't fit on the LED bulbs i bought hence why it wouldnt lock into place in the headlight.


For reference I have a 2017 116D
Thanks
 
#3 ·
bjt said:
Are the new 1er halogen headlights reflector or projector based?
Can't fully make sense of the first part of your message but I think your asking if my halogens are reflector or projecter? My current headlights are halogen reflectors and i just wanted to replace the halogen bulbs with LEDs in the exisiting reflector housings. I didnt want to mess with the whole projector scene.

Thanks
 
#4 ·
Ah OK. Not helpful I know but I'd be wary of creating a lot of glare with LED bulbs in a reflector. Same problem as with HIDs in a reflector.
 
#5 ·
bjt said:
Ah OK. Not helpful I know but I'd be wary of creating a lot of glare with LED bulbs in a reflector. Same problem as with HIDs in a reflector.
Yeah I've been looking at bulbs with the same 'spread' as halogen and from other posts i've read as long as you insert it so the LEDs are pointing left and right not up and down then the light spread and glare should be minimal
 
#6 ·
Are you sure that's what your sockets look like? The filename of the attached image clearly says "bmw e60 xenon" and they look a lot different then my E87 reflector-style halogens.

I have succesfully installed my LED's in halogen reflector-style lights and yes, having the led's pointing left and right instead of up and down does make it not super glare'ish for head-on traffic. I installed the Nighteye fanless H7 bulbs, image below.


The are attached to the car with the same retainer-clip as the regular bulbs and the lead is plugged into the bulb-leads, not straight into the bulb itself.
This is what the regular retainer-clip looked like in my H7 halogen reflector-lamps.
 
#7 ·
Is it possible you have been sent H4 when you need H7 or vice versa? H7 has (if memory serves) two pins whereas H4 have three (for dip/main) The nighteye bulbs in the pic look like the H4 ones I had in my last (non bmw) car.
 
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