e60 headlights HID to halogen

Antoin

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My e60 has factory hids but they are sheeeite. I suspect the projector bowls are fecked.
The actual headlamps aren't easy to open so replacement bowls I think are out of the question.

Is it plug and play to fit a set of standard e60 halogen headlights (the entire unit)?

Edit; Reason I don't want to put in a set of HID units is that second hand they are a fortune...and also no guaranteeing that they would be any better.

Thanks,
Anton
 
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AlpineF30

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In theory yes it will work as the plugs are the same.

The bowls can be replaced but its a total **** of a job to do and I was going to just update my lights to LCI but then I smashed the car so it put an end to that.

The harness should support the downgrade, there is some modifying needs done for halogen to xenon but don’t think it would need be done for xenon to halogen but don’t quote me on that.

After that there footwell light module would need to he coded to tell it that it now has halogens and to deactivate the sensors on the shock which takes care of the self levelling for the xenons.

Ideally you would need to change the switch panel as well as the halogen one contains a scroll wheel which allows you to adjust the level of the halogen lights
 

Antoin

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In theory yes it will work as the plugs are the same.

The bowls can be replaced but its a total **** of a job to do and I was going to just update my lights to LCI but then I smashed the car so it put an end to that. Was it going to require the lense cut off/ open?

The harness should support the downgrade, there is some modifying needs done for halogen to xenon but don’t think it would need be done for xenon to halogen but don’t quote me on that.

After that there footwell light module would need to he coded to tell it that it now has halogens and to deactivate the sensors on the shock which takes care of the self levelling for the xenons. Is it an issue if they aren't deactivated?

Ideally you would need to change the switch panel as well as the halogen one contains a scroll wheel which allows you to adjust the level of the halogen lights Wouldn't be overly bothered about this. Generally only me in it without a load in the back so if the lights are set correctly they shouldn't need adjusted.

Thanks @AlpineF30 please see my comments in bold

Thanks for the response (y)
 

AlpineF30

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Thanks @AlpineF30 please see my comments in bold

Thanks for the response (y)
Was it going to require the lense cut open? Yes. Needs baked and then resealed and then the bowl cut out

Is it an issue if they arn’t deactivated? Not sure it will probably generate a fault code although this fault code may not generate anything on the dash. Although voltages may be wrong if not programmed for Halogens as the ballast does most of the work on a Xenon setup.
 

pablo

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a couple of new bulbs might help things? I always found TPS good for HID bulbs as they arent VW specific

Im guesing alignment is good? level sensors arent broken or anything?
 

Antoin

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a couple of new bulbs might help things? I always found TPS good for HID bulbs as they arent VW specific

Im guesing alignment is good? level sensors arent broken or anything?

Brand new phillips vision bulbs so they are good quality hid bulbs. Helped slightly but not much tbh.
Alignment may be off slightly but they are essentially just quite dim ie they don't light up any part of the road well regardless of where they are pointing.

I see the beam adjusting on bumps and dips so I assume the levellers are working.
 

Antoin

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Was it going to require the lense cut open? Yes. Needs baked and then resealed and then the bowl cut out

Is it an issue if they arn’t deactivated? Not sure it will probably generate a fault code although this fault code may not generate anything on the dash. Although voltages may be wrong if not programmed for Halogens as the ballast does most of the work on a Xenon setup.

That would be my concern that the lighting circuit would not be fit to cope with the constant drain with halogens rather than the quick high drain with the ballasts starting up.
 

AlpineF30

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That would be my concern that the lighting circuit would not be fit to cope with the constant drain with halogens rather than the quick high drain with the ballasts starting up.

I know the light module controls all this so in theory if the xenons are coded out it should default to halogen mode and expect the appropriate current on the wiring harness.
 

Antoin

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Just as an update to this the standard xenons got so bad in the dark nights that I was pretty much blind on the road when faced with oncoming traffic.
So I got a cheap set of halogens (£20 the pair) along with part of the wiring harness from the donor car. Modified it (swapped couple of wires and fabricated my own plug) to connect to my cars harness so that no cutting of my existing loom was required which keeps it plug and play for when I eventually get a good set of standard xenons.
At the moment it works with no errors displaying on the dash (possibly some stored but I haven't checked yet) and no coding required...yet 🤞
Instant improvement over the xenons which tells me how bad they were.

Now that I have these working I will take a look at my xenons to see why they are so bad. I expect that the bowls are completely burnt out of them.
 

fatboysamo

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You may not need to deactivate them as I had a MINI Clubman years ago and it had halogen light about still had the whole levelling system for the HID as when you switched on the car it did the whole self check thing with the light going up and down. It was like this from factory.
 
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