higher wattage full beam bulbs

[Alexlind123]

I have Phillips HIDs from www.lavalighting.com I
have H1 euro projectors with 6000k bulbs.

Why did you choose 6000k over 5000k?

[Alexlind123]

Avoid McCulloch kits. They are actually quite poor quality compared to others of the same price. Trust me. I bought a batch of McCulloch (and other brands) to test. Furthermore, the McCulloch kits have the ballast and ignitor separate. Anyway... It's your money but do go do some research and decide for yourself

Oh, and if you DO go HID for the high beams, you'll lose the ability to 'flash' people. Well technically you can, but it's harsh on the bulbs.

It seems as if you have already done extensive research. What would you recommend?

[Scott H]

A majority of the E34 M5 guys on the yahoo group have raved about this setup. Most of the people on that group are pretty critical and technical, in fact, one of the guys is an aircraft engineer and he had nothing bad to say about the kit. It also comes with a separate relay and subsequently none of them have gotten the Low Beam check control message which is a Major plus when it comes to E34 people doing the conversion. They didn't mention anything about having the ballast and ignitor separate either.

Avoid McCulloch kits. They are actually quite poor quality compared to others of the same price. Trust me. I bought a batch of McCulloch (and other brands) to test. Furthermore, the McCulloch kits have the ballast and ignitor separate. Anyway... It's your money but do go do some research and decide for yourself

Oh, and if you DO go HID for the high beams, you'll lose the ability to 'flash' people. Well technically you can, but it's harsh on the bulbs.

[SnakeyesTx]

I hear a lot of good things about the Sylvania Silver stars, but they're pricey compared to standard lights.

[DallasBill]

I run xtec HID-match halogens after reading about them here about 6 months ago. For $35/pair with free lifetime replacement, and a 30 second swap out, they are GREAT!

http://www.xenonexpert.com/xtechalogenbulbs.html

[jgardia]

Hi
I'm using Osram silverstars, and they are great! you get much more illumination and they use the same 55w. They are not cheap, but I think they worth it.

Cheers,

Jose

can a 94 525td handle higher wattage (100 to 130w) bulbs in the full beam, or am i gonna fry the wiring,
i do a lot of country road driving, on the way back from work, and don't want to upgrade my driving lights (i don't like getting flashed all the time by oncomming trafic who think i've got full beam on around town) but for the amount of traffic i see on these country roads, i think going bongo on the full beam would be ok,
anyone have any ideas
thanks, dan

[Qube]

A majority of the E34 M5 guys on the yahoo group have raved about this setup. Most of the people on that group are pretty critical and technical, in fact, one of the guys is an aircraft engineer and he had nothing bad to say about the kit. It also comes with a separate relay and subsequently none of them have gotten the Low Beam check control message which is a Major plus when it comes to E34 people doing the conversion. They didn't mention anything about having the ballast and ignitor separate either.

I have quite a few of the McCulloch kits on hand (newer ones), and they all have the ignitor and ballast separate... though inline of course.

The quality, especially of the bulbs, is even visually lesser than others. Combine anedcotal evidence (you can do that research ) and the cracking, bubbling, poor insulation on the bulbs and one ballast... you'll see these rebrands aren't up to par. When you have a lot to compare with, you see differences. Sometimes these are gaping differences... just like when I compare the 5-6 halo projectors out there. Sure, one looks good... maybe even so if you compare it to one other, but when you have a mess of them, it shows.

EDIT: well I didnt have to take pics of my kits on hand as the net has plenty. see for yourself regarding the ignitors...

EDIT2: on the note of low beam error, I've not once gotten that error having tested four HID kits on the car (two 900x and two H1). This may be due to the fact it's a 89 but who knows...

[Scott H]

and Xtec 5000k H1 rebased bulbs in my M5 and I get the error immediately. When I had the same kit in my 11/88 535, I would rarely get the error. I cannot explain the difference. All I know is that the error has never come about with the McCulloch kits that others have installed.

Why don't you prioritize your list of tested options. After all, that is the benefit of the board....you've benefitted from prior experience of people as far as suspension, maintenance, etc. How about a write up summary of your findings so we can avoid searching through 30 threads on HID kits and *sigh* eye kits.

EDIT2: on the note of low beam error, I've not once gotten that error having tested four HID kits on the car (two 900x and two H1). This may be due to the fact it's a 89 but who knows...

[Qube]

Exactly. Perhaps the older builds are not prone to this. The only time I've gotten the error was went one of the cheap ballasts went. On the noted of tests, I'm working on a write up for both which will be put on bmwe34.net. The short subframe bushing writeup will also be updated on there as well soon I'd think bmwe34.net should be turned into a wiki so we can put our collective experiences into it... such as your HIDs as well, then we can have a good picture of it all. Hmmm... I'll ping Bruno on that.

[Jon K]

Horrible idea because then we'd have, "I don't use spring pads and I'm fine.." to "I torqued my headbolts to 120ft lbs and its fine"