1st Gen R53 Cooper S Aftermarket xenon questions to replace halogens on a GP

Going from Halogen to HID is actually simple, any of the aftermarket light kits will work. (I prefer the ddmtuning kits) Should basicly be plug-n-play, since factory halogens work off 12v.

Your biggest question is which housing to use, you want something with a projector lens, either an aftermarket housing that "you" like the look of or a used set of OEM projector housings.

 

I'm not up on my GP's as much as I should prob. be but, if the fog lights are the same as the regular gen 1's and you're simply looking for better visibility, you may want to consider this route:

http://www.motoringalliance.com/forums/exterior/17279-projector-fog-lights.html

Those w/ an hid kit, prob. less expensive overall, simpler & far less invasive on your GP.

 

Give some of the high end Halogens a try first. There really isn't much of a difference between them.

 

I upgraded my stock halogens with a set of aftermarket projector HID's. They are night and day different (no pun intended lol). The only thing that sucks with the aftermarket ones is that the high beams are basically useless. HID's are not designed to be turned on and off repeatedly since they need a "warm-up" process, so they are always on regardless of them being in high or low beam settings. With aftermarket ones, they pull power from the high beam power supply to stay running, and then reduce the power being supplied to the high beam halogen bulbs, making the high beam halogens basically useless. So the best way to get past this it to add a set of nice, bright driving/fog lights and wire them to turn on with the high beams. Simple solution will cost about $500 for the HID kit and driving/fog light kit. You don't need a can-bus system or anything special, and they are all plug & play with the factory harness.

Beware, some states have laws against converting your headlights to HID's unless they are factory due to many "tuners" doing aftermarket ones incorrectly (like putting HID's in stock halogen housings, which completely unsafe and horrible for everyone else on the road). Massachusetts has a law like this since they had a ridiculous amount of people complaining about being blinded by HID's. HID's need projectors with an internal level shield so they don't blind oncoming traffic. Putting HID's in factory halogen housings don't have this and they blind EVERYONE in front of you. Projector HID's also need to be properly install and adjusted, and as you could imagine, the 1st gen models are not easy to adjust since you literally have to open and close the hood multiple times to adjust them correctly. The factory HID's have an auto-leveling system in them so they do not need to be adjusted manually (regardless of the model year, so if you found ones without the auto-leveling system, they are not factory). I would recommend looking into a set of used factory HID's and you shouldn't have any problems. You just need to bring it to a dealer to have the ECU reprogrammed for the HID's. If you were thinking about spending $1600 on a retrofit kit, then you are right about where you would be for factory HID's on the MINI if you find used ones online and get it reprogrammed at the dealer.

The choice is yours, but the factory system is really good, if you want to spend the money. Aftermarket ones are decent but you will need an extra high beam solution (like driving lights) and aftermarket ones are illegal in some states.

Make sure if you go aftermarket, you don't higher than 6000k bulbs. Higher than that and you will start changing the color of them. 5300k is white, and 6000k is white with a slight blue hue to it, and those are the normal factory color ranges. They are also the closest to direct sunlight and thus give you the best light available that our eyes can see.

Whatever you do, DO NOT BUY PROJECTOR FOG LIGHTS AND PUT HID'S IN THEM!!!!! Like I stated earlier, HID's need a projector housing with an internal shield, the projector fog lights do not have shields in them. You will simply blind EVERYONE in front of you if you do this!!!

 

Sorry but I have to somewhat disagree with the last part of that, it may possibly be an issue with a generic "hang under the bumper" projector fogs, but not with the above "Mini Replacement" projector fog light, they do not glare at all into oncoming traffic, I actually started with replacing the bulbs in the OEM housing w/ hid's and they did glare, not as bad as replacing the bulb in a headlight but there still was glare, changing to those projectors removed the glare qoutient completely, don't know if it's the design of them or the lower mounting position. Also those are adjustable, not just bolt them in & leave them.

 

I'm not saying for him to not get projector fog lights, I'm saying for him not put HID's in them. That's the reason way states are making them illegal to do on cars, because they need special projectors housings. Standard halogen projectors don't need the shielding like HID's do, so it's perfectly find to use them with halogens bulbs. Once you switch to a much brighter xenon system, you get way too much light from them.

 

I had HIDs on my 2003 MCS so when I got the 2006 GP I was disappointed in the headlight output. Instead of going down the HID path I upgraded the low and high beam H7 bulbs to 65W bulbs. I found this to be very simple, inexpensive, and adequate.
Here is a link to the Osram 65W Rallye bulbs that I used:
Osram Rallye 64217 65w Ultra High Output H7 Special-Service Bulb

The bulbs are technically illegal due to being 65W but I have not had any issues with on-coming drivers or law enforcement after 6 years of use. Just make sure the headlights are aimed properly.

 

Which ones did you get?