Want to upgrade headlight performance

[JasonC]

To get back on track here since we got inundated with stamars knowledge. To the OP, have you looked at the reflective surface in the ellip housing you got now to see if its still nice and shiny? If not, adding brighter bulbs or HIDs will not do much.

[iansane]

a 55 watt high beam will not last very long if it has regular use
its not just the housing the bulb is also much brighter ( brights.... concentrate)
please look up the wattage of your low beams and your high beams.
i dont think there is such a thing as a regular incadescent headlight for a 9006 9005.
I dont really know how far back your car would be but Im pretty sure ive never owned one.
Although I did own a 68 vw bus when I was in my 20s. And I have no idea what kind of headlights it used at this point.
halogen means the cheapies.
Although technically, hids also use a halogen gas they arent called halogen lights.
Nobody is talking about incadescent regular headlights ever. They are talking about the cheapie halogen disposables HIDs or leds at this point.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halogen_lamp

if you read this thoroughly you will even see the formula that shows the lifespan difference between your 35w low beams and your 55w high beams.
The 55w high beams ( or brights) will have a much lower lifespan particularly if left on for longer periods of time.
no offense to anyone but I am amazed at how many people do not even know car basics on the bmw forums. Ive never seen anything like it anywhere else.

Come on, you have to be pulling my leg here. You're just a bit retarded, right? Or just a troll. A 55w bulb will last years with everyday use because, get this, 55w bulbs are standard on thousands of cars and trucks out there. Every factory style 9006 bulb is 55w. 9005 bulbs are 65w.

[cabin]

a 55 watt high beam will not last very long if it has regular use

That's funny, my highs and lows both use 55W H1 bulbs. Guess those low beams aren't going to last very long being 55W and all.

[Varinn]

What the hell is that guy smoking? Euro ellipsoids come with 55w H1 bulbs standard across the board and they don't have issues with burning out early. Also they are not called "brights" they're called high beams because they project higher than the... you guessed it, low beams. The low beams do not use not shitty low wattage bulbs in most cars as they are the primary source of light for 90% of most people's driving. The high beams have less need to be restricted to reduce glare so they sometimes ramp up the power output for a little extra light on dark roads.

HID bulbs don't burn halogen gas either, they run are filled with xenon and are a completely different form of bulb with a different design principle. You CAN go out and grab a cheapass "HID" conversion kit off ebay where they glue a made in china xenon bulb onto whatever form of mount base you want, it will be bright as all fuck, and it will do a fantastic job of illuminating signs, raindrops, and other driver's eyes. Through various e30's I've personally had stock sealed beams, euro smilies with "HIDs" and with halogens, Hella h4/h1's with halogens, and now I have Hella Bi-Focus H1 lowbeams and Hella H1 highs again with halogen bulbs.

My current light setup PERFORMS the best out of all choices I've had but cosmetically isn't up to par with the ellipsoids. The ellipsoids were brighter with the hid bulbs but glared the fuck out of everyone on the road and had horrendous light distribution across over half the pavement infront of me. I correctly aligned the headlights to spec and it changed nothing so I took the bulbs out and put in halogens. Overall intensity was lower but light spread evenly on the road and in the end visibility was much better.

None of this is taking into account a legit HID/Xenon projector conversion, which is absolutely the bees knees in headlight performance.

[DaButt]

1. Email Daniel Stern

2. that is all.

[lbreevesii]

Note to all: if you haven't, please red the page regarding HID's on Daniel Sterns site.