Lighting upgrades - bulbs in particular

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UKDaveJ

Lighting upgrades - bulbs in particular

Post by UKDaveJ »

I'm hoping that we can turn this post into the definitive guide for bulb upgrades, regardless of which 6, or which age.

I've heard that H1 fitting (for low beam) Osram Silverstars are supposed to be the ultimate for the Highline - all other 6's as well?

What bulbs are recommended for the high beam & front fog lights & what fittings are they?

Dave 8)
horsetan

Re: Lighting upgrades - bulbs in particular

Post by horsetan »

UKDaveJ wrote:I'm hoping that we can turn this post into the definitive guide for bulb upgrades, regardless of which 6, or which age.

I've heard that H1 fitting (for low beam) Osram Silverstars are supposed to be the ultimate for the Highline - all other 6's as well?

What bulbs are recommended for the high beam & front fog lights & what fittings are they?
James swears by his SilverStars......
val_c
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Post by val_c »

I really like Daniel Stern site and his bulb rating with comments.
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech ... types.html
sohlman

Post by sohlman »

HID H1 Zenon conversion with Philips bulbs and Hella Ballasts with 4100 Kelvin colour bulbs.
horsetan

Post by horsetan »

Sohlman wrote:HID H1 Zenon conversion with Philips bulbs and Hella Ballasts with 4100 Kelvin colour bulbs.
Ah, I'd forgotten you'd moved on a bit.... :oops:
sohlman

Post by sohlman »

Osrams Silverstars and Philips Vision plus is great, The best halogens by far but Zenon's are in a different league.
UKDaveJ

Post by UKDaveJ »

Sohlman wrote:Osrams Silverstars and Philips Vision plus is great, The best halogens by far but Zenon's are in a different league.
Thanks James, so how close are you to realising your xenon dream?
All headlights, main beam & foglamp's on 6'ers use H1 fittings - right?
Dave :D
sohlman

Post by sohlman »

All sixes use H1 fitment certainly from 1982 onwards

I am currently ?200 away from realising my Zenon dream, but require my girlfriend to get a job some time soon.

Living off one salary is a bit of a stretch.
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Brucey
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Post by Brucey »

-raises a question- which is more expensive, girlfriend or 6er??

And which is more fun?

Maybe we shouldn't go there......


BTW I fitted high brightness bulbs (50% brighter etc...) and the standard headlights are still rubbish. If I can get a set of ellipsoids cheap then those will be tried, but otherwise its goingto have to be Xenons.
~~~~~~~~~~~~Brucey~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
horsetan

Post by horsetan »

Brucey wrote:-raises a question- which is more expensive, girlfriend or 6er??
Based on the number of shopping trips James was forced to go on in the past, I'd say his girlfriend beats the car hands down....
UKDaveJ

Post by UKDaveJ »

Brucey wrote:-raises a question- which is more expensive, girlfriend or 6er??

And which is more fun?

Maybe we shouldn't go there......


BTW I fitted high brightness bulbs (50% brighter etc...) and the standard headlights are still rubbish. If I can get a set of ellipsoids cheap then those will be tried, but otherwise its goingto have to be Xenons.
Wife vs. 6'ers, hmm, I'm not going there...... :lol: :roll: :wink:

So then Bruce, are you going to tap into James' xenon project, or have you got a plan to DIY?

Dave :)
sohlman

Post by sohlman »

I have had a chat with these guys here and there conversion for BMW Car Club members costs ?200. Normally it's ?225. By far this is the cheapest available and the quality looks really good compared to a lot of the rubish out there.

http//:www.hids4u.co.uk

Once i have sorted out my finantial matters i will be buying a set. The imediate priority is the inductions system which is being fitted on Saturday.

James
horsetan

Post by horsetan »

Sohlman wrote:I have had a chat with these guys here and there conversion for BMW Car Club members costs ?200. Normally it's ?225. By far this is the cheapest available and the quality looks really good compared to a lot of the rubish out there.

http//:www.hids4u.co.uk....
You mean this lot
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sharkfan
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Post by sharkfan »

BTW I fitted high brightness bulbs (50% brighter etc...) and the standard headlights are still rubbish. If I can get a set of ellipsoids cheap then those will be tried, but otherwise its goingto have to be Xenons.
I don't know what bulbs are fitted in either car but the standard lamps in my 1985 M635 seem a lot better than the ellipsoids that the PO had fitted to my 1982 635. I guess this means nothing more than picking the right bulbs is as important as the lamps.

In these days of xenons, superbright doo-dah, white lite, super-everything-gadget bulbs, has anyone simply upgraded to 80w or 100w bulbs. Whilst strictly speaking illegal, given the proliferation of 'alternative' bulbs it would be pretty difficult to tell by the roadside and would take an incredibly zealous Police Officer and CPS combination to prosecute you successfully.

Sharkfan.
UKDaveJ

What, Big watts?!

Post by UKDaveJ »

sharkfan wrote:
BTW I fitted high brightness bulbs (50% brighter etc...) and the standard headlights are still rubbish. If I can get a set of ellipsoids cheap then those will be tried, but otherwise its goingto have to be Xenons.
I don't know what bulbs are fitted in either car but the standard lamps in my 1985 M635 seem a lot better than the ellipsoids that the PO had fitted to my 1982 635. I guess this means nothing more than picking the right bulbs is as important as the lamps.

In these days of xenons, superbright doo-dah, white lite, super-everything-gadget bulbs, has anyone simply upgraded to 80w or 100w bulbs. Whilst strictly speaking illegal, given the proliferation of 'alternative' bulbs it would be pretty difficult to tell by the roadside and would take an incredibly zealous Police Officer and CPS combination to prosecute you successfully.

Sharkfan.
Fully understand where you're coming from mate. The only reason I've resisted the increased wattage route is not the legal aspect, more the strain on old electrics, effect on old headlamp units etc.
Melting cables (ok I know you can upgrade & use bigger relays etc) & knackered reflectors aren't what I was looking for.

If my new bulbs are a disappointment, then I might look at the BIG WATT route, or maybe xenons. We have a lot of country lanes around here (despite being only 15 miles from Birmingham) & at night neither 6 has lights that inspire much in the way of confidence when pressing on.
Dave :)
sohlman

Post by sohlman »

The problem with 100 watt bulbs is that you can melt the wiring and in some cases the plastic surround on Elipsoid lenses. Also it's not the power that necasserily affects the light output. What is important is Lumens and the different technologies on offer on both halogen and Zenon systems try to get the highest luminal output possible. You will find that the Philips Vision plus and Osram silver stars were tested against a variety of different bulbs including some 100W bulbs by PIA and were found to be the brightest.

By contrast Zenon systems at 4100 Kelvins will produce about 20X more light then the best halogen bulb, but only produce 35 watts of heat compared to a standard bulbs 55 watts.

Just my two peneth
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sharkfan
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Post by sharkfan »

Point taken James,

Is there any independent evaluation of the major bulb brands to help shine :oops: some light on the subject - rather than reading and disbelieving the manufactureres blurb - Auto Express / Which / Halfords etc :?:
sohlman

Post by sohlman »

here is a review from auto express on 50% brighter bulbs and standard bulbs. It gives some detail on the differences on bulbs that claim to be the best.
http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/product_te ... _cent.html
http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/product_te ... ndard.html
horsetan

Post by horsetan »

Sohlman wrote:here is a review from auto express on 50% brighter bulbs and standard bulbs. It gives some detail on the differences on bulbs that claim to be the best.
http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/product_te ... _cent.html
http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/product_te ... ndard.html

...and here's a pic they took earlier:

Image
UKDaveJ

Bulbs fitted

Post by UKDaveJ »

Fitted a pair of the aforementioned Osram silverstars earlier this evening, before I trotted off to Mallory Park.
Low beam is definitely better, but I think I need to manually raise my non-functioning headlight vertical adjustment, although it recently passed the MOT - I don't know that if the beam is on the low side of low whether that is ok from the MOT testers point of view; clearly if the beam was on the high side of high it would have been picked up! Phew, that was hard work!

Any tips for adjustment?

I also bought a set of silverstars for the main beams, but I struggled to get the access 'caps' off the back......! I'm sure it should be a similar operation to that of changing the dip/low that I did earlier.....

Am I doing something wrong?! :oops:
Dave :?
sohlman

Post by sohlman »

When i did mine it took me about an hour and a half as the aluminium covers had fused on with corosion. In the end i got my friend around who has hands like vice and he twisted them off. It's the same operation, but they are a pig to get off if they have coroded. I cleaned mine all up and then added a heat proof grease so that i could take them on and off in the future. Incidentally one of the halogen bulbs i replaced at the time was an original bulb from 1985.
UKDaveJ

Post by UKDaveJ »

Sohlman wrote:When i did mine it took me about an hour and a half as the aluminium covers had fused on with corosion. In the end i got my friend around who has hands like vice and he twisted them off. It's the same operation, but they are a pig to get off if they have coroded. I cleaned mine all up and then added a heat proof grease so that i could take them on and off in the future. Incidentally one of the halogen bulbs i replaced at the time was an original bulb from 1985.
Thanks James!
Manny

Post by Manny »

I just changed my lights as well. This might not be the purist thing :? , but i thought i would keep up with the new six. I also put halogen bulbs in my brakes lights (no pics of that thought)

Check it out:

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/1498707

I'll post some better pictures later.

Emmanuel
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