I just bought an 88 M5 from the original owner with only 46,000 km on it - almost mint condition. It's never seen winter. The headlights are poor(sealed beam). I've ordered H1 and H4 lamps and looking into bulbs. I'm thinking of a HID conversion, and I'm wondering if I could do the same on my 73 CSi. The HIDs are 35 watt which is less than the existing sealed beam bulbs. Thus I'm thinking my existing original wiring would not need to be upgraded. I don't mind mechanical issues, but I'm not great at electrical issues. Am I being too simplistic? Should I have any problems if I do the conversion? Thanks. Jeff
HID conversion
- Thread starter Jeff
- Start date
x_atlas0
Well-Known Member
The lights aren't the projector-style, so you'll be blinding everyone in oncoming traffic, as the lights have no full cutoff system. As I recall, a law was passed a few years ago that required the use of a projector system with HIDs for this very reason.
http://forums.officer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41131
http://forums.officer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41131
The H4/H1 combination is very effective and easy to incorporate. You can even buy various wattage bulbs, from the standard 55/60 in the H4 and even 80 or 100 for the H1. There are many posts here on wiring. Since your coupe has no fuses for either low or high beams and no relay for the low beam and the power for both comes all the way from the hi/lo dip switch on the column, adding fuses and the low beam relay is highly recommended in my opinion. I just added the relay to my `73 and it is pretty simple to do using the existing wires. HTH.