07-29-2018, 10:28 AM | #1 |
Captain
87
Rep 602
Posts |
DIY: Replace Halogen with LED Headlight Bulb
Are you sick of the bland and boring look of your halogen headlights? Do you believe that a premium automobile such as the BMW 228 should have a sharper lighting look? Well, look no further!
I purchased a set of LED's on Amazon and put them in over this past weekend. Overall, totally worth the $40. The install took some customizing but still worth the time. And no codes! Read below for the official how to: Product: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Tools needed: Flat head screwdriver Small pliers Jack (optional) First, I removed the wheel. May not be completely necessary but I preferred to have more elbow room. (NOTE: When putting the wheel back on, the lug nut ft lbs of torque should be at 103) There's a jack pad area behind the front wheel to raise it up. I recommend the Burger Tuning "Floor Jack Adapter" for ease of use - it's $20 and I've had mine for 5 years. Floor Jack Adapter: http://www.burgertuning.com/BMW_jack_pad_adapter.html Then, you will need to remove the cover by pressing down on the two tabs and pulling out. Should be fairly straight forward. After this, you will find a black circular cover. Right tightie, lefy loosy - loosen and it will pull off. It may require some effort. Now, we need to remove the stock bulb. You will find a silver retaining clip with three points that are locked into different areas. Using a flat head screw driver, I pushed the top down and to the right, which then made the retaining clip move forward. At this point, you should be able to move it up and down as there are still two hinges on the bottom. Remove the entire retaining clip by squeezing both sides to remove it from the bottom hinges. If the clip falls, you can use a magnetic retriever tool to grab it (personal experience). After this is complete, you should easily be able to remove the bulb by pulling the electrical connector off. Now comes the tricky part. The LED bulbs I received have a large fan on the rear. This makes it difficult for the stock retaining clip to fit correctly. After reaching out to the vendor, they suggested modifying the stock clip rather than an adapter. As you can see, the retaining clip, as is, doesn't work well: First, you can remove the retaining cover from the LED bulb itself. Just grab it and turn left, it should pull right off. Now we need to do some customizing to the stock retaining clip. I don't have good pictures of this as this was a frustrating process but I finally got it to fit. The gist of it is this - you need to widen and flatten it out a bit so that it can clip into the hinges and the locking mechanism at the top (like stock) but also able to hold the new retaining cover in. After you've made adjustments, place the retaining cover you removed from the LED Bulb into the socket like below. Take care not to let it fall - if it falls below it will be a VERY irritating experience! The photo I have is below is showing what the end state should look like. Now, you can insert the bulb through the socket, turn right to tighten, and voila, the bulb is in! BEFORE buttoning everything back up - make sure to turn on the lights and verify everything works! You should see no codes (this was a surprise - I thought for sure the BMW wouldn't like it.) And finally, the end result. A few photos below showing the performance of the bulbs.
__________________
Past:
2015 A3 E90 335i E46 323ci B6 Audi S4 |
Post Reply |
Bookmarks |
|
|