1999 E38 Headlight Questions

[CadJack]

I purchased a '99 740iL last year. This past week, a low beam burned out. Upon inspection, I noticed that someone had changed the bulbs to Halogen, where it appears that there were Xenon before. The ballasts and some other bricks with wiring is still in place, as well as two other wires for Xenon, one on each side with red rubber on the connectors. I would like to correct this back to stock or better upgrade, but no one I know understands what is supposed to be factory, and how they operate. I'm an older mechanic, but have never messed with Xenon lighting. There seems to be a lot of lighting for sale online, but am unsure of some of what I am seeing. I readjusted my headlights when I bought the car, but low beams are useless, bright are still aimed too high at the lowest adjustment. The Halogen bulbs obviously are wrong and don't even fit the sockets correctly. 'Ever head of this? Is there a good source of information for that which I am writing about?


Thanks,
Brandon

[RVAE34]

That's just nutty. A halogen bulb shouldn't be able to fit into a D2S socket. I suppose it's possible they make halogen bulbs with D2S bases but unlikely. I see you are new here and cannot attach images but if you have access to a photo hosting site, you should post the images here for us to see so we can try to better assist you.

If the car came with and still has the HID housings with the ballasts, you should be able to try and install a used D2S bulb which can be purchased pretty cheap. I prefer Philips 85122 or 85122+. Osram's will work too but I would stick with those two since they were OEM HID bulbs.

Good luck!