Hella

[bimmer540wsubs]

I just bought Halogen Hella Angel Eyes for my 98 540. They are an OEM part. I want to upgrade to Xenon. I know i need two ballasts, which if anyone has some to get rid of, ill buy them. But my real question is, what else do i need? Is it a wiring kit? Thanks for the imput

[aok2me]

I think (not sure) all you need is the ballast. I'm not sure if your halogen assembly has brackets to lock down the ballasts. It's located behind the high beam. Also, I've heard that the headlight warning indicator will turn on for halogen to xenon conversions. It believe has to do with the ecu detecting high voltage from the xenon. I don't know if this can be fixed.

Also, bmwtips.com has many how to's on this and other useful stuff.

[bimmer540wsubs]

thanks! how will i bolt the ballasts down then???

[dagoo98]

thanks! how will i bolt the ballasts down then???


That is definitely not your only problem. First of all you will need xenon bulbs also, simply using ballasts does not make xenon lights. The ballasts function is to ignite the gas in the xenon bulbs. Another problem you will have in the installation is tha tthe actual size of the slot that holds the bulb will be too big for the xenon bulb because halogen bulbs are bigger. You will need to silicone the bulb in to make it hold.

The best option is to sell the headlamps you have and buy the xenon headlamps which will look exactly the same but the slot will be sized for the xenon bullb. The bad thing is that even though that is the only difference. They are about $200 more expensive per headlamp so that's an extra $400 in total. After you get these you will also need the xenon bulbs and ballasts which you can probably buy from someone for about $300-$400. If you buy these from the dealer it will cost you about $250 per ballast and about $100 per bulb. The bulbs are supposed to last about 7 years.

[weaksauce]

I think (not sure) all you need is the ballast. I'm not sure if your halogen assembly has brackets to lock down the ballasts. It's located behind the high beam. Also, I've heard that the headlight warning indicator will turn on for halogen to xenon conversions. It believe has to do with the ecu detecting high voltage from the xenon. I don't know if this can be fixed.

Also, bmwtips.com has many how to's on this and other useful stuff.
The warning is because of the low current draw from the ballast assembly. The car thinks the bulb is burned out and will give a headlight failure warning. My .02