[Philm001]

Hello all, I have a BMW 2004 X3 in the US. I really want to upgrade my headlamps from the Halogen to LEDs. I have already found a few options that I am looking at but I wanted to come to the forum here to ask a a few questions before I move forward.

1) In the US, is it legal to "upgrade" the original halogens to LEDs. I saw some online discussions saying that in the US, you are only allowed to use LEDs if the OEM had originally installed the LEDs. Otherwise, you have to use the type of bulbs that came with the car. Just wanted to see if anyone here can verify this law.

1.1) If it is illegal to update to LED, can I still do HID since some models of the car did come with HID? At least that is was I believe in since Rockauto sells HID bulbs for the car.

2) Regardless to #1, I am going to at least update the fog lights (it seems that I can whatever I want to those) I am looking at a few options on Amazon. Some bulbs had pretty good reviews but I don't recognize the brand. I am looking at Osram and Philips for LEDs but just wanted to get some additional recommendations on good brands to go with.

3) Some sources I have come across stated that some cars will have a flickering issue with the LEDs because the car doesn't recognize the low power draw and think that there is an issue. Will the BMW have this issue too? If so, what can I do to solve it?

[Frostynorth]

Putting LED/HID in reflector housings blinds other drivers.

Please don’t.

[tracer bullet]

Xenon HID's are an altogether different light, requiring ballasts and etc. and you'd need to swap the entire assembly.

For LED's I want to say that if it's packaged into the same size and shape bulb, it may be fine to swap, but certainly aim for a similar light output. There are ways to make these obnoxious but there should also be ways to make them nearly equivalent.

[BlkGS]

It is not legal to put HIDs or LEDs in any light that did not come with them originally.

Many do it still. I have. I would look for aftermarket housing that are designed to have an LED for your car. LEDs and HIDs both throw off the optical calculations that were used to design the reflectors. Your lights won't work as well, and may glare oncoming traffic. If you're going to do it, at least do an LED projector retrofit.

[Philm001]

Thanks for the feedback. NGL, I feel like I get blinded anyways by all of the cars driving.

Are there any known cases of people getting ticketed for having LEDs in their housing when it came with Halogen? I was also reading that you can adjust the position of the bulb so that it matches what Halogen does.

Originally Posted by BlkGS

It is not legal to put HIDs or LEDs in any light that did not come with them originally.

Many do it still. I have. I would look for aftermarket housing that are designed to have an LED for your car. LEDs and HIDs both throw off the optical calculations that were used to design the reflectors. Your lights won't work as well, and may glare oncoming traffic. If you're going to do it, at least do an LED projector retrofit.

For the LED swap, did you have to use any additional hardware? Or was it plug-n-play?

[IDBGOD]

I do believe those model vehicles had xenon’s as the main upgraded headlights. I would look into an aftermarket headlight assembly retrofit kit if this something you want to do.

I don’t recommend just changing the bulbs. I did this on my 2001 e46 and they ended up being worse light output, crappy quality with heating/quality issues, and I just went back to original. That was 10+ years ago so I’m sure there might be a better product on the market.

As far as known cases of ticketing, I would say this falls in line with people who tint darker than legal, tint their windshields, etc. Unless you are drawing crazy unwanted attention to yourself, the police likely have better things to worry about.

[Philm001]

Also, can anyone vouch for any brands for the LEDs? I am going to at least do the fog lights. The brands that I am looking at are:

Philips
OSRAM
Hikari
SEALIGHT
FAHREN

[Philm001]

Originally Posted by IDBGOD

I do believe those model vehicles had xenon’s as the main upgraded headlights. I would look into an aftermarket headlight assembly retrofit kit if this something you want to do.

I don’t recommend just changing the bulbs. I did this on my 2001 e46 and they ended up being worse light output, crappy quality with heating/quality issues, and I just went back to original. That was 10+ years ago so I’m sure there might be a better product on the market.

As far as known cases of ticketing, I would say this falls in line with people who tint darker than legal, tint their windshields, etc. Unless you are drawing crazy unwanted attention to yourself, the police likely have better things to worry about.

Thanks for the feedback. I think that I need to look into things a bit more for the headlamps. But for the fog lights, it looks like people had good success with the conversion Halogen -> LEDs

[gaseosx]

I haven't looked at the process for an e83 x3 but it might be possible to remove the lens and drop in a led projector like a Morimoto mled. I know for H4 halogen housings that doesn't take as much work but H7 will probably require additional fitting on the reflector housing.

[Redd]

I've had extensive experience mucking about with LED replacement bulbs on my other cars. Bottom line, don't do it. Halogen reflectors are designed to work with a 360 degree light source. Unfortunately LED bulbs only produce light from two sources (chips) at the 3- and 9-o'clock positions. So the end result is that u may get weird light patterns and shadows.

If you truly want better lighting then you need to do an LED projector retrofit. This involves opening the headlights, cutting, custom brackets and wiring to fit an aftermarket projector into your headlight housing. LED projectors come with the proper cutoffs so you don't blind oncoming traffic. I went this route with the M3 and love it. But you need to get it professionally done and it won't be cheap.

[BlkGS]

Originally Posted by Philm001

Thanks for the feedback. NGL, I feel like I get blinded anyways by all of the cars driving.

Are there any known cases of people getting ticketed for having LEDs in their housing when it came with Halogen? I was also reading that you can adjust the position of the bulb so that it matches what Halogen does.



For the LED swap, did you have to use any additional hardware? Or was it plug-n-play?

You absolutely can get a ticket for it. Even the adjustable LED bulbs aren't perfect. A halogen bulb is a cylindrical light source emitting in 360 degrees at the filament. LED bulbs are point sources emitting at a less than 180 degree spread. They put them back to back to try to mimic a filament, but they're not perfectly equivalent.

For a retrofit, in overly simplified terms, you bake the headlight to open it, remove the glare shield from the reflector, install the projector, then reseal. You can get a projector that installs into the regular bulb base, and has connectors to hook to regular bulb wiring. This greatly oversimplifies it, but it isn't hard. You just have to know a little bit, and figure some stuff out on your own. Or pay a shop to do it for you.

[jmg]

Don't be that guy. Please.

[BlkGS]

Originally Posted by Redd

I've had extensive experience mucking about with LED replacement bulbs on my other cars. Bottom line, don't do it. Halogen reflectors are designed to work with a 360 degree light source. Unfortunately LED bulbs only produce light from two sources (chips) at the 3- and 9-o'clock positions. So the end result is that u may get weird light patterns and shadows.

If you truly want better lighting then you need to do an LED projector retrofit. This involves opening the headlights, cutting, custom brackets and wiring to fit an aftermarket projector into your headlight housing. LED projectors come with the proper cutoffs so you don't blind oncoming traffic. I went this route with the M3 and love it. But you need to get it professionally done and it won't be cheap.

I did the retrofit in my TBSS. It took some fiddling but I got it 90% right the first time. The 10% is unused a set of crappy China housings and the adjusters broke, so I couldn't get the aimed quite right. I've been planning to buy a better seat of housings and do them again, a little better the second time around. My big debate now is. If I want to buy new projectors with laser spotlights for the higbeams as well, or keep using the ones I have and like overall. Or, bite the bullet on some mori.oto MLED 2.0s

[Redd]

Originally Posted by BlkGS

I did the retrofit in my TBSS. It took some fiddling but I got it 90% right the first time. The 10% is unused a set of crappy China housings and the adjusters broke, so I couldn't get the aimed quite right. I've been planning to buy a better seat of housings and do them again, a little better the second time around. My big debate now is. If I want to buy new projectors with laser spotlights for the higbeams as well, or keep using the ones I have and like overall. Or, bite the bullet on some mori.oto MLED 2.0s

This is why I had them done professionally. It's not trivial to retrofit projectors.

[MaxVO2]

Originally Posted by BlkGS

You absolutely can get a ticket for it. Even the adjustable LED bulbs aren't perfect. A halogen bulb is a cylindrical light source emitting in 360 degrees at the filament. LED bulbs are point sources emitting at a less than 180 degree spread. They put them back to back to try to mimic a filament, but they're not perfectly equivalent.

For a retrofit, in overly simplified terms, you bake the headlight to open it, remove the glare shield from the reflector, install the projector, then reseal. You can get a projector that installs into the regular bulb base, and has connectors to hook to regular bulb wiring. This greatly oversimplifies it, but it isn't hard. You just have to know a little bit, and figure some stuff out on your own. Or pay a shop to do it for you.

****In my area near Washington, D.C. you will get ticketed almost immediately. It is very noticeable if care is not taken with proper reflectors, etc.. There's more to it than just getting it all to bolt up. Several people in my area had some pretty cobbled together systems that were *clearly* illegal and had terrible glare that blinded other drivers. Once the police started issuing the citations the modified and cobbled together systems basically disappeared here.

There are ways to do it right, but it is not cheap or that easy.

[BlkGS]

Originally Posted by Redd

This is why I had them done professionally. It's not trivial to retrofit projectors.

I agree, not trivial, but not that insanely hard.

To be fair, the headlight housings I bought would have been jacked up had I used them normally. Their adjustment knob was designed to cover the full range in like, 1.5 turns, and if you accidentally exceeded that it broke the adjustment forever and they're just loose. The biggest problem is they were delivered maxed out, and there was no way to know that if you backed it off even slightly it was gonna be permanently broken, lol.

[Philm001]

Originally Posted by gaseosx

I haven't looked at the process for an e83 x3 but it might be possible to remove the lens and drop in a led projector like a Morimoto mled. I know for H4 halogen housings that doesn't take as much work but H7 will probably require additional fitting on the reflector housing.

Sure, thank you for the feedback. Are you able to vouch for any of the LED brands? The ones that I am looking at are:

Philips
OSRAM
Hikari
SEALIGHT
FAHREN

[BlkGS]

Originally Posted by Philm001

Sure, thank you for the feedback. Are you able to vouch for any of the LED brands? The ones that I am looking at are:

Philips
OSRAM
Hikari
SEALIGHT
FAHREN

They're all just Chinese made bulbs. There's not like, some that are legit and good and some that aren't. They're all the same "doesn't work great" setup.

[zx10guy]

I did a retrofit with both HIDs and LEDs in my 2019 Toyota C-HR that came with halogen projector headlights. Don't care if it is illegal or not. Driving that car with the stock setup was downright dangerous. I could barely see much in front of me in normal urban streets around me at night. I had to use high beams to get any distance visibility which causes other problems.

The first mod was putting in HIDs. Yes, there is a ballast required but the kit I got was plug and play even with the recommended relays to be installed to deal with the initial turn on load. I loved the setup and was happy with it.

I then got into a crash with a stupid deer. The right side headlight was damaged significantly but the HID system only needed the bulb to be replaced as one of the wires in the harness was cut. I told the body shop this but they chose to replace my setup with drop in LED bulbs. They chose a set of Heise LEDs to swap in. While the light throw was good the quality of the beam spread and such just didn't match up to what the HIDs did. I still go back and forth as to whether to swap back my HID setup as I still have all the parts to put back in. Incidentally, almost 3 years later, one of the LED emitters for the left bulb burned out. Fortunately, it happened just before the 3 year warranty expired on them. So I got a full replacement set.

ETA: Forgot to mention, I've been driving around the Metro DC area for years with either the HID or LEDs and never once have been pulled over by any cop both local or state. Drove past, next, and behind many of them. No issues at all.

[BlkGS]

There is a BIG difference between dropping LEDs or HIDs into a projector compared to a reflector.

[gaseosx]

Originally Posted by Philm001

Sure, thank you for the feedback. Are you able to vouch for any of the LED brands? The ones that I am looking at are:

Philips
OSRAM
Hikari
SEALIGHT
FAHREN

You need to find the projector retrofits that are in the style of the Morimoto mled. Most are using chips that are Chinese clones of Cree or Philips. You are specifically looking for projectors that have that long screw thread with a nut to lock it to the reflector.

https://www.theretrofitsource.com/bi...ctors-P-M-LED2

[Philm001]

haha, thanks for all of the information guys. I will definitely keep everything in mind.

Basically, if everything is done right and clean and professionally, people (cops) shouldn't notice it. I definitely don't want to be that guy on the road.

Just for some background, by trade, I am an EE. So I am not scared to get my hands dirty with a bit of wiring. Just need to make sure I am clear on the details of the ins and outs and the options available. I installed my own upgraded dashboard with a larger screen, bluetooth, android auto and apple car play. Still works to this day after a few years.

For the bulbs, on one-hand, I don't want to break the bank. But on the other hand, I don't want to get something cheap and regret later. I want to get something from a reputable brand. There are a ton of options on Amazon. Most I know are basically Chinese brands with very questionable claims. I would rather get a brand that people trust (whether Chinese or not). From my own experience with Chinese products, their claims are very large but their delivery is not there. Not all of them are that way but most of them are.

So it sounds like Philips is the way to go.

I still need to do some research with my own headlights for High beams and low beams. But the Fog lights, I think that I can replace those no problem. So I want to get some lights from a brand to use with while I am still looking at what to do with the headlights. If HID is best for the headlights then so be it. But at least for the fog lights, I can make those LEDs.

Let me know of any other trusted brands for LEDs