[bsmoov]

Is there anyone out there that have done the pre lci halogen to xenon headlight conversion?

I know the headlight wiring harness needs to be modified, is there anyone with the latest info? I've searched and I've only saw a bunch of old threads with a lot of conflicting information about the ground wire.

If anyone can help, I'd appreciate it.


I don't need help with the coding, just the harness modification to get the headlights to light up.


Thanks!

[lowrydr310]

Originally Posted by bsmoov

Is there anyone out there that have done the pre lci halogen to xenon headlight conversion?

I know the headlight wiring harness needs to be modified, is there anyone with the latest info? I've searched and I've only saw a bunch of old threads with a lot of conflicting information about the ground wire.

If anyone can help, I'd appreciate it.


I don't need help with the coding, just the harness modification to get the headlights to light up.


Thanks!

I did it twice. It's really easy, and the ground wire is the least conflicting part. Simply source a pinned ground wire from a donor harness and add it to pin #2 on your harness, then terminate it at the ground box along the fender behind the headlight. These comb type ground boxes are sealed fairly well and I wasn't able to disassemble one at the junkyard, so I simply crimped a ring terminal on the ground wire and fastened it to the same bolt that secures the black ground box to the body.

The next steps depend on what kind of lights you have and how you want your high beams to work. Many of the conversion steps say to modify your intern headlight wiring to splice the high beam wire to the xenon shutter wire. This is the easiest approach since it doesn't require you to run new wires and doesn't require a different FRM, but it isn't OEM behavior. In this setup when you push the stalk for high beams or pull for a quick flash, the inner high beams will illuminate and the xenon shutter will lower in both cases. This should be fine for pre-LCI xenon lights, however on the LCI lights the inner bulbs are just for cornering and are not intended to be left on for any length of time, such as driving at night. I haven't heard of any problems but just looking at the light design there isn't much space and I can see that bulb getting hot. Newtis.info also has a description of the cornering light feature for LCI models and even says the FRM is programmed to account for heat buildup and will turn the cornering light off after some predetermined time so the housings dont get too hot, melt, or otherwise get damaged.

I personally haven't seen it but didn't want to take the chance so I ran a separate shutter wire from Pin 5 on my headlight harness to the corresponding pin in the FRM (don't remember offhand which one it was). But after doing this and reprogramming my original FRM (for the halogen lights) the xenon high beams didn't work. I had to get a different FRM from a xenon-equipped car. In my case I got it from a pre-LCI car and after reprogramming it, it worked fine.

If you're adding pre-LCI xenon lights then your simplest approach would be to just add the pin 2 ground, splice the high beam wire to the xenon shutter inside the headlight itself, and just code out the cold low beam bulb checks so you don't get any errors.

[bsmoov]

Thanks for the input lowrydr310!

I read a few places that you shouldn't connect that ground into the car's body. If the harness just needs a ground wire on the #2 pin, could i add a pin for #2 and piggy back it off the ground pin from #4?

Like tap the number 4 and use that wire to pin in the #2 slot?


If you're taking the wire you pinned at 2 and running it into the box in the fender, how do you know which place to attach it to? Any pics?

I don't really care about high beams. or adaptive errors as it can be coded out. I'm running pre lci e92/m3 headlights on a e91 conversion. This e91 happens to have halogen lights.

[lowrydr310]

Originally Posted by bsmoov

Thanks for the input lowrydr310!

I read a few places that you shouldn't connect that ground into the car's body. If the harness just needs a ground wire on the #2 pin, could i add a pin for #2 and piggy back it off the ground pin from #4?

Like tap the number 4 and use that wire to pin in the #2 slot?


If you're taking the wire you pinned at 2 and running it into the box in the fender, how do you know which place to attach it to? Any pics?

I don't really care about high beams. or adaptive errors as it can be coded out. I'm running pre lci e92/m3 headlights on a e91 conversion. This e91 happens to have halogen lights.

You could splice to the existing ground in #4. With xenons on and inner high beam bulbs on that's 70W which is about 6A of current. Not unreasonable for the gauge of wire used and the length of the existing ground, however a separate ground is cleaner and safer.

It's also exactly how the OEM xenon cars are wired. I read posts about not to do it because "lights were flickering after" but that's because of the low beam cold bulb checks. Most of the early xenon conversion posts were done without much knowledge and people didn't realize that the cold low beam bulb check causes the xenons to flicker. People also coded and added $522 xenon option to the VO in the CAS and FRM but I don't think that's needed. I personally added it to mine but I had to get a new FRM for the shutter activation and needed to reprogram it anyway, so I did add the $522 option. If you don't add $522, coding out the cold low beam bulb check should be sufficient. You won't have leveling errors either because there's nothing to code out without the $522 option added.

PM me with an email address and I'll share the pictures of the installation. I also have spare donor harnesses and can send you the pinned wires for you to add as new grounds in #2.

[bsmoov]

Sent you a PM. I'm not sure if the PM system is working properly here as I gotten email notifications of PMs, but when I log on, it doesn't show.

[bsmoov]

lowrydr310

Please get in touch with me once you get a chance. I'd really appreciate it!

[lowrydr310]

Originally Posted by bsmoov

lowrydr310

Please get in touch with me once you get a chance. I'd really appreciate it!

I emailed you on the 15th! I have those pinned ground wires packaged and ready to ship.

[smatanovic]

Originally Posted by lowrydr310

I emailed you on the 15th! I have those pinned ground wires packaged and ready to ship.

lowrydr310 I know this is an old thread, but would you mind sharing the images here? I am interested in in doing this conversion and would greatly appreciate it.

[avi312singh]

Originally Posted by smatanovic

lowrydr310 I know this is an old thread, but would you mind sharing the images here? I am interested in in doing this conversion and would greatly appreciate it.

Did you make any progress?

[smatanovic]

Originally Posted by avi312singh

Did you make any progress?

I ended up taking the housings apart and splicing the wiring internally. It was fairly easy, TBH, once I had the ballast out of the way.

[Beamerboy303]

So I recently bought an HID kit for my 2007 e90 and was able to get it to work without any kids or lighting issues however the Xenon bulbs were so long I was unable to secure them properly. Are you guys not having this issue? Also I did no such rewriting or anything. I simply plugged the kit in directly

[Jerez418]

Originally Posted by smatanovic

I ended up taking the housings apart and splicing the wiring internally. It was fairly easy, TBH, once I had the ballast out of the way.

Did you do any coding?? Also how has the setup been working for you??

[tireSlayz]

Originally Posted by Beamerboy303

I did no such rewriting or anything

ok good to know