BMW headlights,

[mhrallyteam]

Besides nico i wrx u, does anyone ever tried fitting bmw headlights on a post facelift legacy. They are pretty cheap, i might try to fit a set on mine, im so fed up seeing f*ck all in the dark. They sell the twin projectors with bracket for 150$. I would only need a plastic cover of some sort. Any ideas?

[skid542]

I don't really know enough about the BMW headlights to give much of an opinion but I am certianly interested in seeing someone else explore this option as our lighting is well, just barely sufficient.

[tris91ricer]

You guys need to align your lights, or something. . . Coming from a pre-face to a post-face, I can tell you, the post-face lighting is lightyears ahead of the pre-faces.

Is it jus that you can't see your own beams when there's oncoming nighttime traffic? I know that's an issue for me, but I don't think it's really necessary at that point.

[vrg3]

Yeah, Tristan's right -- post-facelift lights are actually pretty good! You just have to set them up properly (which would be true of any other lights too):

- Make sure the lenses are nice and clear
- Make a heavy-duty wiring harness
- Use good bulbs
- Aim them correctly

Is it jus that you can't see your own beams when there's oncoming nighttime traffic? I know that's an issue for me, but I don't think it's really necessary at that point.

I don't understand -- are you saying you wish you could see your headlight beams in the air? Cuz that would be bad because it would create a lot of glare.

[tris91ricer]

Basically, when I'm driving at night, and mostly in wet conditions, I notice that I can't quite distinguish MY headlight beams on the ground in front of me, due to the ambient light from oncoming traffic. This kind of annoys me, as I wonder if my headlights are effective at that point. I would also think more people would see this and want to throw more light in front of them, in an effort to combat this effect.

In reality, though. . . Other driver's lights, especially if there's a newer BMW with xenons oncoming, their lighting is more than sufficient for two or three cars, either direction.

[Manarius]

If I'm not mistaken, BMW headlights a dual headlights. How do you plan on splitting it up for high/low?

[vrg3]

Oh. That's how it's supposed to be.

Think about it -- wet asphalt is a highly specular surface, meaning it tends to reflect light in the "mirror direction." The angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection. That means that there's no way you can shine a lot of light from where your headlights are and have it reflect off the wet pavement back to where your eyes are.

On some cars (like pre-facelift Legacies) you can kind of see your headlights in front of you. While it may be comforting at low levels, it's false comfort. And it's dangerous at high levels; this is light reflecting off the water in the air, not off the ground! All it's doing is preventing you from seeing straight ahead.

[mhrallyteam]

I did an overhaul of my headlights, new wiring and everything. They are much better than before, but i still want better lightning.

For the dual Hi/Low i'll had two more fuse and relays or something. Anyway i'll start from the ground up, if time permits

I have to check if the light fit first, i'll go look in a JY.

[vrg3]

Hmm... What twin projectors for $150 are you talking about? I'm a little suspicious...

What I would recommend if you really want better lighting is doing something like what evolutionmovement did on his pre-facelift; he made housings to mount Hella 90mm headlights.

[Manarius]

Hmm... What twin projectors for $150 are you talking about? I'm a little suspicious...

What I would recommend if you really want better lighting is doing something like what evolutionmovement did on his pre-facelift; he made housings to mount Hella 90mm headlights.

Mind you, that took a shit load of effort, and as I recall, he didn't get it quite right.

[vrg3]

Yes, it took a lot of effort. But we're talking about fabrication here anyway.

Functionally he got it right... it just didn't come out looking quite how he had hoped.

[mhrallyteam]

The headlihgts at 150$ were the cheap after market ones for 92-98 bimmers, without bulbs, but i have a lot of H1 in stock.

Good oem twins are 300 something buck, with 'angeleyes', which i don't care about.

I just don't have enough time to make i bracket myself, so if the bimmers bracket don't need to much modifying it might be a good alternative. If it doesn't work i'll install those aircraft landing lights i used for rally a while ago, illegal but so efficient

[vrg3]

Cheap aftermarket lights are unlikely to be better than the ones you've got right now.

I thought you were concerned about low beams and high beams both. If all you need is better lighting when there's nobody around, you should definitely just put some driving lights (or landing lights) on. Legality shouldn't be a big issue, since you don't use them when other traffic (official or otherwise) is around.

[skid542]

I have my lights setup so that I can run both the highs and the lows at the same time, but there are times when I'd like a little more light. In all honesty though I'd probably be better off with fogs or driving. Though dismantle some glass JDM's and go the route Steve did, that I think would be cool and worth the work. My biggest complaint is definately against our plastic.

[azn2nr]

what you realy need is a bullet cam that can pick up infared light and an infared light or 2 all in your front grille and a screen in your dash to view on.

not really, but if the bmw lights work let us know. could make my car look marginaly better than it does now, well not likely but its worth a shot. espcialy for better lighting

[vrg3]

Lee - You did that wiring with your stock lights? Be careful with that... those bulbs aren't meant to run both filaments at the same time, and could easily explode.

If you feel the need for more light, fog lights aren't likely to help. Driving lights are, though, definitely.

[sammydafish]

hmm... those bimmer headlights your talking about might work... I assume you mean these http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/92-96-97 ... 3269QQrdZ1



next time I see one I'll have to measure the hight of the housing. That's my only concern. The fact that the side marker won't fit the fender doesn;t matter to me, I can fix that easy and my car's getting the rattle can job soon anyway. A big gap between the bumper and light would look stupid though. Even though that could be filled also. I run no center grill, so that doesn't matter to me.

I just might have to try this out. I've got a set of driving lights that I'm going to mount where the grill was. The stock lights in the 90 just don't cut it. They aren't even yellowed.

If this doesn't work, do you guys think it's work mounting up a set of 92+ lights and polishing them up nice?

The added bennifit to either of these might also be that the lights are not as deep. right now, the 9004 bulb hits my intercooler.

[skid542]

I have a small push on/push off switch mounted to my gear shifter and that switch triggers a relay that I placed in parallel with the stock hibeam wiring so that I can turn the highs on with my switch on my gear shifter or I can operate them normally from the column. If I operate the highs at the column then the lows cut out when the highs come on but if I operate the highs from my switch the low beams stay on as well. But yes all the wiring is still stock and I've been running this setup for close to a year and a half and had no troubles. Is this really that unsafe Vikash?

And yes, driving lights would benifit me more than fogs, yet another thing to wait for until I'm out of school and no longer poor .

[kidatari]

Bump, I'm very interested in seeing if someone can get this to work

[vrg3]

sammydafish - Those eBay lights aren't gonna be good. I promise.

Switching to the 92-up headlights and wiring/polishing them up good would be actually quite good. The only catch is that you also need to change the hood, fenders, and bumper, unless you want to do a lot of hacking.

You're right that the 90-91 headlights are useless, on low beams as well as high beams. A decent pair of driving lights mounted where the grille was will do wonders for the high beams.

Lee - Carmakers wouldn't make the brights cut off the low beams with dual-filament bulbs if they didn't have to. They generally don't bother with dual-bulb lights.

So, yes, that really is unsafe. And for multiple reasons, too.

For one thing, the already marginal stock common wire is bearing the load of both filaments' current draw instead of just one. I wouldn't be surprised if upon close inspection you found that they were already starting to melt. (As an aside, also realize that this tiny wire is severely limiting the power consumed by both filaments, which may be why your headlights still work today).

And, like I said, these bulbs are only meant to run one filament at a time. The contacts within the bulbs might be able to handle the extra current, but the bulb itself can't. Modern headlight bulbs are pressurized to at least dozens of psi when cold, and the pressure (and so the force applied to the inside of the glass) increases proportionally to the temperature, which is almost doubled over specs when you run both filaments.

So when you run both filaments, you do risk causing the bulb to explode. Or starting an electrical fire. Maybe both!

[skid542]

Okay, well then I guess I'll be putting one more thing on the list, check the wires. However, I don't think I'm going to change it as it does make a very noticable difference and it's worked so far.
While they may have not 'designed' the bulb to run both filaments at the same time, they did include a safety factor in there somewhere. At this point I've run the configuration through the temperature extremes of summer and winter and it still hasn't failed. If it does fail... well, I guess I'll just get new bulbs/headlights, and yes I'm aware of pv=mRT but the bulbs do face forward and are enclosed.
Like I said, I'll check the wires and beef them up if needed but I'm still limited by the current that my older alternator can put out.

[vrg3]

::shrug:: I'll just avoid driving at night in Blacksburg.

[skid542]

...fair enough...

[93forestpearl]

I've been considering trying to find some updated headlights to massage into the front of my '93. Maybe from somthing like an Acura CL or, I dunno. The trick would be finding some that are almost the same height and look decent.

[snowboarded]

A wet sand with 1600 grit and buff works well, it takes away that yellow tint and increases visability. Also you might wanna toss in some silverstar whites in there. No color tints tho, those are teh bad. I did this and sometimes think it might be too bright for other drivers.