Friday, January 16, 2009

NEW HEADLIGHTS!!!

Hello!
It's Friday, and today is ridiculously cold out side. I pulled my car out of my garage this morning and my temperature gage started flashing a negative 19 degrees outside. Yeah, its kinda cold. Now, back on topic, my car is the top of the line 328i, it has every bell and whistle on it, except xenon headlights. I know, if you're a car freak, you sort of really want these. On top of the obsession of BMW's, I also have an obsession with xenon's!!! These lights are amazing, the cool, crisp light that the xenon gas emits, is unbelievable. Ever since I can remember, I wanted them to be on my car. Now owning a car that they're suppose to be on, they're not. So, after investigating after market headlights, I finally found a set from DDM Tuning at a reasonable price. I purchased them. These headlights are the exact replica of the factory xenon headlights that come on the BMW with that option. I purchased mine on December 8Th, and waited until January 13Th to receive them. As soon as I got them, I pulled them out of the box and admired their pristine quality. After the shock receded, I began to uninstall my old headlights. After about an hour, they were out. I began to hook up the halo to my battery terminal, soon realizing the company sent me the wrong wiring parts. So, I called DDM, and they promptly sent out the correct wiring parts. One of many snags out of the way, I started installing the headlines. Anxious to see them light up, I installed the passenger's side first and then proceeded to turn on the headlights. With no luck, the light didn't come on. After more tries, and no luck, I called the company back again. They began to explain to me how to hook them up and troubleshoot the problem, but nothing seemed to work. So one of my genius ideas, I changed the polarity going into the headlights power source and completed to install the other headlight. It's a miracle they both came on. Not to get too excited, the passenger headlight went off, and my "canceller" exploded. In disgust with myself, I started uninstalling and packing them away to send back. After six hours of fiddling with them, I couldn't believe that I had screwed up something so simple. Once my mess was all cleaned up, I went to bed. Unable to drive anywhere due to the weather the next day, I decided to uninstall my old lights, and install the new ones to see if I could get them to work without the "cancellers". So, once again I uninstalled the old lights and in with the new! To much surprise, they worked!!! I couldn't believe it, I was told some cars didn't need the "cancellers" for the lights to work, who knew my car was the on that didn't. It's a 1 out of 10 chances it could happen; in other words its slim. BMW's have a computer in them that monitors the operation of the car and its components, since my car was not programed for xenon's, its not set up for the circuitry the xenon's give out, thus it sends a message to the car that the headlight is out, thus the "canceller" bypasses this and doesn't send the error message. My car, "the odd one," didn't need them. I think this is because I used 55w Ballast instead of the 35w Ballast that come standard, I opted for the higher wattage, and in return my car worked properly without the "cancellers" and still carried a full circuit. So, now my headlights work perfect, there everything I had hoped for and now I can enjoy the cool, crisp lights.

3 comments:

  1. Interesting story, I purchased after market taillights around December 2 and got them about two weeks later. After installing them I realized a tail light bulb was blown. Two days later I installed a new bulb, everything worked fine. Good luck with your new headlights.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bmw's are nice cars, and Xenon light are good to drive with. However i hate to pass someone at night with them they temporarily blind me. Nice work getting past the circititng problem though.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm reminded of two things. First, I had to give my car an oil change and my dad had been bothering me for a while about it. Finally, I said I would do it. I had picked the coldest day (though not as cold as you described) and after we changed the oil, my dad wanted to fix the dent in my car from when I wrecked. Secondly, my brother had to install headlights on his car. When he put them in, they were stuck on the bright beam. I glad you got yours working.

    ReplyDelete