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      02-12-2020, 02:19 PM   #1
roma3
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Fixing Horrible F30 Halogens with LEDs

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

Last edited by roma3; 08-30-2022 at 11:26 AM.. Reason: insert video into original post
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      02-12-2020, 02:48 PM   #2
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Yeah I have Halogens on mine and I never knew what a lighting issue it was til I owned this car. I am planning on getting USR Depos with the new bulbs. Also see that USR is releasing LED aftermarket lights as well.
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      02-12-2020, 03:36 PM   #3
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LED in general is better, though not all are. One thing I avoided was those with cooling fans. It's a weak point that's been reported to be failure prone.
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      11-21-2020, 04:26 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by roma3 View Post
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.
Thanks for sharing! Apologies that I'm late to the party but I'm looking into getting these as well now. Was there any flicker, installation, or coding involved? Thanks in advance
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      11-21-2020, 04:43 PM   #5
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There's always coding with LED. Even if you don't get errors coding is an absolute necessity to keep the lights from flashing every few minutes when they're off.
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      11-25-2020, 05:57 AM   #6
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i bought 1 month ago led with fans.after install one of the fans was not working and the led body was horrible hot.please take care of it.
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      02-10-2021, 11:21 AM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Smoothkaos View Post
Thanks for sharing! Apologies that I'm late to the party but I'm looking into getting these as well now. Was there any flicker, installation, or coding involved? Thanks in advance
hey,
1. flicker - no flicker for me
2. installation - not super easy on the f30 -but that goes for changing the low beams in general on this car - its kinda of a pain but very doable.
3. coding - I have bimmercode so I did code the low beams to LED and turned off the hot and cold checks (but I did get bimmercode anyway because of other stuff I wanted to code)

Hope this helps
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      02-10-2021, 11:23 AM   #8
roma3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hakisalapaki View Post
i bought 1 month ago led with fans.after install one of the fans was not working and the led body was horrible hot.please take care of it.
which ones did you get?
I got these in Nov 2019 and ended up selling the car in July 2020 and had zero issues with them.
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      02-10-2021, 11:24 AM   #9
roma3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Billfitz View Post
There's always coding with LED. Even if you don't get errors coding is an absolute necessity to keep the lights from flashing every few minutes when they're off.
YES!
I replaced the fogs with LEDs and didn't code them right away and it was so annoying to get that flashing in the garage
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      02-10-2021, 12:02 PM   #10
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They'd flash anytime the ignition is on and they're turned off. The cold check flashes them when the car is either opened or started, to check if they're working. Then the warm check keeps flashing them every few minutes to check if they're working. You can't see the flashing with halogens because the flash duration is too short to heat the bulb filament hot enough to light up. You can with LED because they have no filament and light up instantly.
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      04-09-2021, 11:07 AM   #11
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I'm LCI trying to put LED bulbs in for my halogens but the LCI has an additional bracket for the bulb making it really difficult to fit anything other than the oem bulbs in. Are you LCI?
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      04-11-2021, 12:20 PM   #12
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sorry I am not LCI.
I did buy some bulbs (VXMotor H7s) and I was not able to close the dust cover with those (but they didn't provide good output anyways so I returned them)

Do you have a picture of the bracket?

the bulb bracket on my pre-LCI was trash too - my fingers were almost bleeding after switching bulbs.
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      04-11-2021, 04:08 PM   #13
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Talking

Quote:
Originally Posted by roma3 View Post
sorry I am not LCI.
I did buy some bulbs (VXMotor H7s) and I was not able to close the dust cover with those (but they didn't provide good output anyways so I returned them)

Do you have a picture of the bracket?

the bulb bracket on my pre-LCI was trash too - my fingers were almost bleeding after switching bulbs.
Let's see if the attachment works
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      04-11-2021, 04:54 PM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Doug Dimmadome View Post
Let's see if the attachment works
You need this type of adapter: https://www.amazon.com/Adapter-Holde...s%2C208&sr=8-6
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      04-13-2021, 08:59 AM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by muniz_ri View Post

Have you tried these or know someone who has?
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      04-13-2021, 09:35 AM   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Doug Dimmadome View Post
Have you tried these or know someone who has?
Yes, and paired them with these bulbs: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
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      04-14-2021, 03:35 PM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by muniz_ri View Post
Yes, and paired them with these bulbs: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
That's funny. I ordered these months ago and returned them because I didn't have the bracket. You just coded out the warm check via bimmercode right?
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      04-14-2021, 03:52 PM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Doug Dimmadome View Post
That's funny. I ordered these months ago and returned them because I didn't have the bracket. You just coded out the warm check via bimmercode right?
Im very interested to see if you can get LED's mounted into the LCI Halogen headlight. Let us know the specific brand/part numbers if it works.

I had trouble with the so called adapters and Morimoto LED's on my LCI. On my prior F30 (non-LCI). I used the identical LED's without any adapters and they fit perfect
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      04-14-2021, 04:23 PM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by muniz_ri View Post
Yes, and paired them with these bulbs: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Quote:
Originally Posted by Doug Dimmadome View Post
That's funny. I ordered these months ago and returned them because I didn't have the bracket. You just coded out the warm check via bimmercode right?
Quote:
Originally Posted by sspade View Post
Im very interested to see if you can get LED's mounted into the LCI Halogen headlight. Let us know the specific brand/part numbers if it works.

I had trouble with the so called adapters and Morimoto LED's on my LCI. On my prior F30 (non-LCI). I used the identical LED's without any adapters and they fit perfect
I had more expensive ones prior to these but they didn't last long. I've had them on for a couple months and so far so good.

The beam pattern is good and almost as good as the stock halogens. The key is to make certain that they are perfectly vertical. Also important to aim them properly to reduce glare for oncoming traffic. The hotspot is a few inches below the height of the headlight at 25'.

Also, I didn't have to code off the warm checks. Just plug and play and there is no periodic flashing or errors for me.
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      05-03-2021, 08:41 PM   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by muniz_ri View Post
Yes, and paired them with these bulbs: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Could you share with me how you got that bracket installed? I can’t get my LEDs into the stock housing to sit steady no matter what I try. Do these brackets need to be screwed into the housing first then the bulbs clipped into it?
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      05-03-2021, 09:43 PM   #21
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Not bmw but i bought beamtechs for my daughter’s subaru. Only issue is during snow storms it’s not hot enough to keep the lenses clear. Switching her to morimoto 2strokes for this winter.
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      05-04-2021, 10:25 AM   #22
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Newman1 View Post
Could you share with me how you got that bracket installed? I can’t get my LEDs into the stock housing to sit steady no matter what I try. Do these brackets need to be screwed into the housing first then the bulbs clipped into it?
Yes, both the adapter and the bulb mounting plate need to be twisted
and secured into the headlight housing first. The bulb then screws into the mounting plate and adapter.

It may help to first glue the adapter and the bulb mounting plate together to make it easier to twist them onto the headlight housing.
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