Headlight Swap Questions

[scottsouthern1]

New to the forum guys!

I have been reading here for a while but just decided to pull the trigger and make an account.

After making my account I started to do some research with the search feature here and it seems like there are tons of different things people have done with thier headlights. Everything from swapping the lenses, to upgrading to HIDs, to painting the insides, to just getting different halogen bulbs.

From what Ive read Im 90% sure my car has Halogens not HIDs. I have a 2007 m35x with the 8 speaker package I think (I dont have speakers in my front seats like some do) So, I think this means I have halogens.

Currently my headlights are yellow in color and are starting to get foggy and the entire headlight is reflective (unlike others that I have seen look black, I think these may only bee on m45 sports though). In the past I have tried to repair headlamps with the fog reduction kits you can buy at autozone and such with no success.

I know what I want. Clear (non-foggy) headlights, with black interiors, and very white lights similar to this photo:

Photo credit to The Bodyguard

And I also have interest in adding an led strip or something similar to this photo:

Photo credit to mexillis

I guess my main questions are as follows:

Should I paint my headlights black inside or can I purchase a black housing somewhere that will fit my 07 m35x?

Do I need to purchase new housings anyway if I want to convert to HID? (ive seen a lot of links to retrofit for HIDs but ive only found fog light installation threads)

Can I get just as good of color out of my halogens if I purchase better bulbs like the phillips xenons?

What options are there to install led strips or something similar and how difficult is that process? Im not sure whats going on in the second photo I posted but it looks sick and I want to do something similar.

Thank you guys for the help in advance! Really looking forward to getting to work on my new M. Ive owned it for about 3 months now and the only thing I've done is paint my calipers. Excited to get more work going.

Keep in mind my goal here isnt to break the bank, I'm sure a full HID conversion will give the best results, but If I can eliminate my ugly yellow lights for some comparable halogens without having to do a swap thats probably the route I want to go.

[Sstupid]

Can you post a pic of your headlight? I have an '07 M45 Sport, but I don't think the inside of mine is black. I won't be able to look until tonight. I'll let you know.

[Sstupid]

This is what mine looked like before I attempted to polish them, which I got semi-good results with, using the 3M kit.

[mexillis]

the headlight polishing kits work pretty good but do take some elbow grease and patience. As for the LED strip that will only cost you 20-30 bucks and some time to wire them in to the parking lights in order to get that look I had. With some good LED bulbs you can get a nice output on your low beams and highs, I dont have any recomended brand but have seen some with nice output.

[JPA88]

New to the forum guys!

I have been reading here for a while but just decided to pull the trigger and make an account.

After making my account I started to do some research with the search feature here and it seems like there are tons of different things people have done with thier headlights. Everything from swapping the lenses, to upgrading to HIDs, to painting the insides, to just getting different halogen bulbs.

From what Ive read Im 90% sure my car has Halogens not HIDs. I have a 2007 m35x with the 8 speaker package I think (I dont have speakers in my front seats like some do) So, I think this means I have halogens.

Currently my headlights are yellow in color and are starting to get foggy and the entire headlight is reflective (unlike others that I have seen look black, I think these may only bee on m45 sports though). In the past I have tried to repair headlamps with the fog reduction kits you can buy at autozone and such with no success.

I know what I want. Clear (non-foggy) headlights, with black interiors, and very white lights similar to this photo:

Photo credit to The Bodyguard

And I also have interest in adding an led strip or something similar to this photo:

Photo credit to mexillis

I guess my main questions are as follows:

Should I paint my headlights black inside or can I purchase a black housing somewhere that will fit my 07 m35x?

Do I need to purchase new housings anyway if I want to convert to HID? (ive seen a lot of links to retrofit for HIDs but ive only found fog light installation threads)

Can I get just as good of color out of my halogens if I purchase better bulbs like the phillips xenons?

What options are there to install led strips or something similar and how difficult is that process? Im not sure whats going on in the second photo I posted but it looks sick and I want to do something similar.

Thank you guys for the help in advance! Really looking forward to getting to work on my new M. Ive owned it for about 3 months now and the only thing I've done is paint my calipers. Excited to get more work going.

Keep in mind my goal here isnt to break the bank, I'm sure a full HID conversion will give the best results, but If I can eliminate my ugly yellow lights for some comparable halogens without having to do a swap thats probably the route I want to go.

Hi! Congrats on the M!

You have some semi-ambitious goals for your headlights, depending on your skill level and DIY confidence! But good ideas, nonetheless!

To start, are you skilled with or how comfortable would you be with disassembling your headlights (baking and separating them) and putting them back together? What about electrical wiring such as those required for HID installations?

The 'blackened" headlights you see on the black Y50 in your first pic were specific to the Sport model Y50s. You can always swap them out with your base model headlights, although if you currently have halogen headlights, you'd need to figure out how to wire up the ballasts and wiring for the HIDs in the blacked out sport model headlights.

Having said that, you can ALSO open up your headlights, WETSAND the headlight covers (lenses) to remove as much of the yellowing/fogging (the store bought kits only do so much and most detailing shops can restore your headlights and remove the yellowing and oxidization. I got mine done for $60 at a reputable detailing shop!) While you have the headlights opened, you could add the LED strip into the interior of the headlights as you so wish.

Although you can always upgrade your halogen bulbs, HIDs will always be the surefire way to go when looking to upgrading light ouput on your M. There are many resources and sites out there for HID installations and products, but my two favorite, go-to places are HIDPlanet.com ( http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/ ) and The Retrofit Source ( http://www.theretrofitsource.com ). AS there are multiple pieces required for a proper HID fitting such as projectors, ballasts and bulbs (to start) to get a proper HID conversion or retrofit going that can be overwhelming, TRS has some of the best HID products on the market right now and a LOT of information can be found about HID bulbs, ballasts, projecters, shrouds, installations and retrofitting on the HID Planet forums! Not to mention TRS's customer support is phenomenal, based on my past experiences! Do check them out!

As far as the LED strips, definitely something that would require separating the headlight assembly. Again, something you can do yourself or something a shop can do for you. Obviously the latter will cost you more.

You can purchase a set of OEM Sport model HID headlights, but that's $$$$, unless you can find a damn good deal.

Good luck with your project(s) and keep us posted!

[mikew83]

Here's a great thread about your LED's
led-headlight-install-t465065.html
Mexillis put a step by step in the comments....

As for your M having Xenons or not;


See how right above the key, there is no button next to the VDC button? It's just a blank spacer? That means halogen.If you do have HID Lights on your M, that spacer is replaced with a "AFS ON/OFF" rocker switch. Like this one. (Sorry, I couldn't find a close-up, but you get the idea)


HID lights came with the Journey and Premium packages. I don't think it was a stand alone option in 07... Hope that helps clear it up for you

[Sstupid]

I see, now, what you guys are talking about. The chrome part of my headlight bezel looks like someone sprayed some VHT on it. You can see it best where the red arrow is. This is after I polished my headlights, btw.

[steelcity]

Im dying to get my hands on these blackened headlights as well. Even if I can fi d someone that can do the baking would be awesome. Id screw it up. Are there any companies that you can ship your headlights too for baking and painting the housing?

[JPA88]

Im dying to get my hands on these blackened headlights as well. Even if I can fi d someone that can do the baking would be awesome. Id screw it up. Are there any companies that you can ship your headlights too for baking and painting the housing?

Yes. But be ready to spend mucho mulla. One Eighty in NYC is one. You may want to check out HID PLanet forum also.

[steelcity]

Im dying to get my hands on these blackened headlights as well. Even if I can fi d someone that can do the baking would be awesome. Id screw it up. Are there any companies that you can ship your headlights too for baking and painting the housing?

Yes. But be ready to spend mucho mulla. One Eighty in NYC is one. You may want to check out HID PLanet forum also.

I'll look into them, thanks.

[scottsouthern1]

Thanks for all the info guys!

So Ive done some more research.

First off, I ordered myself a 3m restoration kit to get rid of the yellowing/scratching/hazing thats started to happen on mine.

After that my main focus has been on making my headlights black. So I found a few threads on all that (http://www.nicoclub.com/archives/m45-sp ... rsion.html) and it sounds like Im going to have to remove my whole front bumper to get my lights off, which is kind of a project for me haha. If theres an easier way to remove the headlight assembly let me know please haha.

I decided Im going to paint them instead of buying black ones. They're just to pricey. I found a black bezel on ebay for 350 but thats just the plastic housing and includes no electronics.

As for the bulbs, I'm gonna skip the HID conversion and go for some xenon white halogen bulbs. If anyone can point me in the right direction there that would be appreciated.

Finally, I want to replace my turn signal bulbs with silver coated amber leds if possible. That way I can eliminate the orange color from my headlights, taillights, and side blinker lights. Again, if anyone would like to link me to where I can purchase these for the best price it would be much appreciated.

[kmiles]

I wouldn't shy away from converting them from halogen to HID. I tried the whiter halogens and just didn't get the much more light. The HIDs are so much better. My wife's new Lexus has factory HIDs and when I compare them side by side, they look almost identical in terms of the cutoff, etc. I bought the kit from Retrofit Source and installed it about 1.5 years ago. I didn't go anything fancy - just 5K. It took me a couple of hours as I wanted to do it clean and right. I had a problem with a bad ballast in the first month or so, but since then they have been rock solid. Retrofit Source was very good and easy to work with when the ballast went bad. I was worried about them for awhile after blowing the first ballast, but I've had zero problems. You should also look at VLED for turning the turn signals into DRLs and for some of the other lights. They are very high quality and I've had mine in for nearly 2 years.

[hoaapple]

Thanks for all the info guys!

So Ive done some more research.

First off, I ordered myself a 3m restoration kit to get rid of the yellowing/scratching/hazing thats started to happen on mine.

After that my main focus has been on making my headlights black. So I found a few threads on all that (http://www.nicoclub.com/archives/m45-sp ... rsion.html) and it sounds like Im going to have to remove my whole front bumper to get my lights off, which is kind of a project for me haha. If theres an easier way to remove the headlight assembly let me know please haha.

I decided Im going to paint them instead of buying black ones. They're just to pricey. I found a black bezel on ebay for 350 but thats just the plastic housing and includes no electronics.

As for the bulbs, I'm gonna skip the HID conversion and go for some xenon white halogen bulbs. If anyone can point me in the right direction there that would be appreciated.

Finally, I want to replace my turn signal bulbs with silver coated amber leds if possible. That way I can eliminate the orange color from my headlights, taillights, and side blinker lights. Again, if anyone would like to link me to where I can purchase these for the best price it would be much appreciated.

So I was the one who wrote that little how-to on removing and painting the inside housing of the headlights. I can say that it's been 5-6 years since I've done that and they are pretty much the same since the day it was all installed back. There has been no fading or condensation, it has all been normal.

I don't see any other way to remove the headlights without removing the bumper. There are bolts holding the headlight that cannot be accessed without removing the bumper.

That said, the only thing it cost me was a weekend worth of time and a couple cans of primer and paint. Not bad considering the costs involved in having a shop do it. Even if you were to ship to have another party do it, you'd still need to take apart the front end to remove the headlights anyways.

It's not a hard project, just takes some time and remembering where everything went once you put it all back.

[scottsouthern1]

So I was the one who wrote that little how-to on removing and painting the inside housing of the headlights. I can say that it's been 5-6 years since I've done that and they are pretty much the same since the day it was all installed back. There has been no fading or condensation, it has all been normal.

I don't see any other way to remove the headlights without removing the bumper. There are bolts holding the headlight that cannot be accessed without removing the bumper.

That said, the only thing it cost me was a weekend worth of time and a couple cans of primer and paint. Not bad considering the costs involved in having a shop do it. Even if you were to ship to have another party do it, you'd still need to take apart the front end to remove the headlights anyways.

It's not a hard project, just takes some time and remembering where everything went once you put it all back.[/quote]


Well thats good to hear. I think I am going to wait on painting them for just a little so I can plan more. While I have the bumper and everything off I want to make sure and do everything I want to at once. Probably paint the headlights, maybe add an led strip, change out the grill for a black one, and make the HID conversion if I decide to go that route.

Can anyone point me to where to purchase the silver coated amber led bulbs for the turning signals in the front, sides, and rear?