[Dvtchmxn]

So I have a 16 228ix and it really annoying that the headlights are halogens, you would think in 2016 bmw would make it that all their models would have LED headlights, but no we are left with horrible looking headlights.

anyways for my fellow 2-series connoisseurs have any of you guys gotten any good retrofit kits? If not I'll probably just end up replacing the bulbs

[Mogki]

A lot of retrofit opens I had looked into where way too much money for me to justify being worth it, I ended up swapping all the lights to LEDs and it looks much better at night

[mb67]

I bought a CPO '15 228i convertible that had halogen headlights and spent the money for retrofit headlights that look like the upgraded headlights with LED halos:

[Dvtchmxn]

Originally Posted by mb67

I bought a CPO '15 228i convertible that had halogen headlights and spent the money for retrofit headlights that look like the upgraded headlights with LED halos:

do you have a link for them?

[mb67]

Originally Posted by Dvtchmxn

do you have a link for them?

pm sent.

[Mogki]

Originally Posted by mb67

pm sent.

Can you hit me up too with info on them?

[Outlaw 06]

I had a 2013 F30 328i with the stock halogen headlamps, and they were horrible too. The car’s stock 55W halogen bulbs were rated at 1,500 lumens. I replaced them with OSRAM H7 12v 65W halogen bulb, rated at 2,100 lumens (40% brighter). This inexpensive upgrade made a significant improvement illuminating the road at night.

[cristo]

They are great bulbs.
H9 burner on an H7 base.
Osram stopped making them several years ago.
After a long hiatus, Vosla began making an
equivalent product.
Scroll down to almost the bottom of this
long page to find them here:
https://www.danielsternlighting.com/.../products.html

[ss-mjs]

Originally Posted by Mogki

A lot of retrofit opens I had looked into where way too much money for me to justify being worth it, I ended up swapping all the lights to LEDs and it looks much better at night

Since you didn't choose a retrofit, what LED bulbs did you use?

[Mogki]

Originally Posted by ss-mjs

Since you didn't choose a retrofit, what LED bulbs did you use?

https://www.2addicts.com/forums/show....php?t=1811310

It's in that thread towards the end, it made a huge difference for night but you still of course have the ugly looking reflectors in the day

[BetweenTheWheels]

Purchased rings from bavgruppe and baked the lights open myself. Replaced light housings with HID units from morimotto. A long, difficult job. Worth it.

[Dvtchmxn]

Originally Posted by BetweenTheWheels

Purchased rings from bavgruppe and baked the lights open myself. Replaced light housings with HID units from morimotto. A long, difficult job. Worth it.

can I ask you how you managed to get the lens put back on? 5m tape? glue?

[TCS4339R]

Am I misunderstanding most of the comments on this topic? They sound like they are more concerned with the appearance of the headlights , than their performance.

[dradernh]

Originally Posted by TCS4339R

Am I misunderstanding most of the comments on this topic? They sound like they are more concerned with the appearance of the headlights , than their performance.

You're in a rural state where headlight performance is a crucial safety concern for all drivers.

I lived for twenty years in rural NH and it was the same: poor lighting = poor safety. Hitting a deer or, even worse, a moose, would be a very bad day behind the wheel. Moose, especially, tended to badly injure or kill the drivers who had hit them. Deer were no walk in the park, either.

I've also lived for extended periods in major urban areas where headlight performance was relatively inconsequential. We live in a large country where exterior lighting requirements vary dramatically.

[cristo]

On forums, looking like high performance
is almost always more important than
being high performance.

[TCS4339R]

About those deer. I had two hit me in three years. Both times it was the first day of hunting season.

[Dvtchmxn]

Originally Posted by TCS4339R

Am I misunderstanding most of the comments on this topic? They sound like they are more concerned with the appearance of the headlights , than their performance.

I mean it has been proven that LED headlights work better than halogens so I don't understand your comment about performance

[dradernh]

Originally Posted by Dvtchmxn

I mean it has been proven that LED headlights work better than halogens

My recollection from a 12/17 C&D article is that at that time this wasn't necessarily the case. A portion of the article can be read here (apparently, unless I'm missing something, the full piece isn't available online, even to print subscribers such as myself): https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a1...-1916-to-2018/.

The diagram at the end shows that in two out of eight tests the halogens outperformed the LEDs. These tests used existing motor vehicle implementations (a Honda halogen and a Mercedes LED), which may have had something to do with the results(?).

IIRC, the print article had more to say about the state of effectiveness of halogen vs. HID vs. LED in 2017. I have no idea if typical LED implementations have now moved to the fore and others are inferior in all cases, or if lasers are the latest flavor, or if NHTSA has caught up to the Europeans in terms of allowing cars sold in the US to produce state-of-the-art headlamp output.

What I know as an older person is that I'm much more aware of my cars' headlamp output than I was when I was younger and driving with comparatively inferior lighting. I can say that improved automobile lighting hasn't kept up with the effects of aging on my eyesight. IIRC, the rule of thumb is that with every 20 years of age it takes 2X as much light to see as well. My experience bears that out, more or less.

[TCS4339R]

Originally Posted by Dvtchmxn

I mean it has been proven that LED headlights work better than halogens so I don't understand your comment about performance

I was making a general comment about my impression of the posts. I did not mean to ignore anyone who was discussing performance.

[BetweenTheWheels]

Originally Posted by Dvtchmxn

can I ask you how you managed to get the lens put back on? 5m tape? glue?

The lenses on our cars come from the factory with a sealant that is a granular adhesive paste that is spawned from hell and made by the devil himself. Hence, baking the lens off (versus just prying or heat gunning) is a must. It's not for the faint of heart.

As for replacing, the typical adhesive for light lenses is butyl rubber which Morimoto sells (I'm sure other suppliers do too) when you buy their kits. The butyl rubber comes in a coiled rope and the box has more than you'll need for doing a dozen lights. It can be rolled and stretched and placed in the gap between housing and lens and then heat gunned to soften and seal. Much easier closing than the BMW adhesive is getting open.

As for some of the chatter I see about LED vs halogen - just my two cents here - LED is what our halo rings are made of and they look crisp and clean and they can be seen at a distance so they're great for DRLs. As for the actual bulb in a headlight housing, LED isn't really a great choice. The throw from the actual light beam on LEDs is not long and so replacing halogens (which do suck) with an HID housing is much better and gives the throw a headlight needs to see far in front of the car.

[Xi-Xi]

Originally Posted by Dvtchmxn

I mean it has been proven that LED headlights work better than halogens so I don't understand your comment about performance

Replacing a halogen bulb with an LED bulb by no means guarantees better lighting performance. Headlamps designed for a halogen bulb in many cases will spray light everywhere except down the road when an LED is used. I can imagine that in some cases it may work well, but for me it never has.

[EnlightenedOne]

When did they switch to standard LEDs? I’m looking at a 2017 and it doesn’t list LED headlights so I guess it wasn’t for sure that year.