Hi everyone, I've owned my F30 for almost 3 years now and one of the biggest issues I have had is these halogens. Wow BMW messed these up.
here is a pic of the IIHS testing:
f30 halogen by
Roman G, on Flickr
Anyways I've tried a couple different halogen bulbs and LED bulbs with mixed results. I also noticed that something that has a good beam pattern in the passenger reflector does not mean it will work well with the driver's side.
Case and point these VXMotor H7s LED
Driver's side:
VXmotor Driver by
Roman G, on Flickr
Best Halogens I have had are the Philips X-treme Vision
Amazon Link H7
Best LEDs I just put in are the Katana Mini H7
Amazon Link LED H7
Here the are compared side by side - this is passenger side only for comparison sake and all camera levels are the same, and 25ft from wall.
Halogen vs LED dist by
Roman G, on Flickr
Well my search is over -the Katana H7 will be on this car from now on. I just hope these last for a good while.
I also got them for the fogs Link ->
Amazon H11 LED - hope to have updated pics of these soon.
To be clear these LEDs upgrade the halogen reflectors from Poor to Acceptable - by no means are these on par with a proper projector.
Final two cents: if you are looking to purchase a F30 and care about night time driving or safety at ALL - please avoid the Halogen reflector model.
update:
Video on the subject