[Frobius]

I had a thought. I'm keen to retrofit xenons to my car but it's the cost that's the most prohibitive part.

I was thinking, could I buy oem xenon housings that don't come with ballasts or bulbs, making them cheaper and then fit an aftermarket D2S HID kit?

Something like this?

http://www.hidorigin.com/philips-oem...rsion-kit.html

Anyone got any thoughts? I'd imagine it'd still need coded.

[Frobius]

Added: I see that oem xenons use D1S bulbs.

Pretend the above kit is a D1S kit. Would this work? What about the angel eyes?

[makkan00]

Think about adding lamp washers into your budget as well.

[xenon]

Yes without washers and self-levelling, you'd have to remove all this stuff every MOT time.

[doughboy]

Originally Posted by makkan00

Think about adding lamp washers into your budget as well.

Originally Posted by xenon

Yes without washers and self-levelling, you'd have to remove all this stuff every MOT time.

So,

New front bumper too
New washers, pump, plumbing etc
Front & rear ride height transducers, brackets, linkages etc
New / modded wiring harness
New headlight control harness etc
Coding of footwell module?

a bit of a job then eh?

[Frobius]

Well I've got a 330 so I've already got washers.

I understand the rest of the retrofitting required and already have the parts for the levelling. I was looking for advice on if aftermarket ballasts and D1S bulbs would fit in oem housings as they can be bought significantly cheaper this way.

[seanblee]

I see no reason the bulb wouldn't fit - a D1S is a D1S. Your problem would likely be in mounting the ballast, but I'm sure that could be overcome...

[Frobius]

That's what I was thinking. What about wiring? Not sure if the input to the OEM ballast would fit an aftermarket one? It'd be really easy if I had bought the lights, but I want to check and see how feasible this is before going ahead. That said, I've heard of people replacing broken OEM ballasts with aftermarket ones without any dramas so..

[xenon]

I don't think you'll have a problem.

[doughboy]

So do non-HID cars still come with the level sensor loom into the front and rear nearside wheel well?

[Frobius]

No. But they plug in through the same place as the ABS / brake pad wear sensor.

It's not an easy retrofit, but I'm a lot happier doing the arms for the level sensors and the wiring than I would be having to do the washers too. The BMW retrofit instruction looks reasonably straight forward. My Indy reckons that I won't need a new light switch as I can just disconnect the wires for the headlamp adjustment thumb wheel. I *might* need a new footwell module though but won't know until it's time to code in the levelling.

I think the difficult part will be the adaptive lights. I think it'd be easier to get a set of non adaptive lights. I hear that to retrofit adaptive you need steering wheel position sensors and all sorts! Not sure how easy it'd be to put adaptive lights in but with the adaptive bit disabled. Might be difficult to ensure they are pointing forwards?

[xenon]

Adaptive lights take a feed from the steering position sensor (which you might already have), the front and rear levelling potentiometers (which you will have once you've fitted them) and the prism sensor located in the rear-view mirror stem (not the same sensor as used for mirror dipping). It might be easier to forget trying to get adaptive to work but whatever you do it will be nice to see some photos and updates from a proper HID retrofit. Good Luck