[Imperial328i]

Hey guys, I'm having a hell of a time getting a good beam out of these DEPO headlights on my F30. I'm pretty sure I'm running either the bulbs it came with or the bulbs out of my stock halogens. Could the bulbs be the problem? Anyone have any success with these headlights? Compared to my F87 it's like driving a 70's Chrysler at night with a headlight out. Pics for clicks. Thanks a lot guys

[Diirek]

Originally Posted by Imperial328i

Hey guys, I'm having a hell of a time getting a good beam out of these DEPO headlights on my F30. I'm pretty sure I'm running either the bulbs it came with or the bulbs out of my stock halogens. Could the bulbs be the problem? Anyone have any success with these headlights? Compared to my F87 it's like driving a 70's Chrysler at night with a headlight out. Pics for clicks. Thanks a lot guys

I don't think it's possible to get an OEM like beam pattern with the Depo's. However, you should invest in a good set of HID's or LED bulbs with the same color temperature as the halo LED's. I think they're right around 5k in color temperature.

And yes - please throw out your halogen bulbs for everyone's sake

[exE36M3]

FWIW, I've run the Halogen DEPO and ZKW and BOSCH lights on my old E36 M3.
The quality of light output is noticeable between the China/Taiwan Depo and German/European ZKW Bosch... BUT it wasn't like 1000%... more like 10% to 15%.
I ended up dropping in an HID kit (about $30-$50 for the generic units) and that brought it up to par with modern automotive lighting.

Yes, people will decry using non-DOT HID lighting... but I never got high beamed flashed in the 10 years I had them in my M3 low-beams and fog lights. And that includes 7 years of 70 mile, round trip commutes from the city of SF into the burbs with heavy traffic.

The key there was just making sure the lighting was levelled just below where an oncoming driver might be.

[Imperial328i]

Originally Posted by Diirek

I don't think it's possible to get an OEM like beam pattern with the Depo's. However, you should invest in a good set of HID's or LED bulbs with the same color temperature as the halo LED's. I think they're right around 5k in color temperature.

And yes - please throw out your halogen bulbs for everyone's sake

I'm not looking for OEM, I understand that's not going to happen. But it is so bad lol. If I don't turn my fog lights on it's akin to taping flashlights on my hood. So you're saying those bulbs are not helping and that I should go HID or LED. Any recommendations as far as brands?

[Imperial328i]

It's hard to see in the picture so I threw some red lines on there. That is the beam pattern I have currently. I sat there (in front of a darker wall) and tried all sorts of combinations and this was the best I could get. Are other people with DEPO's getting similar results??

[Diirek]

Originally Posted by Imperial328i

I'm not looking for OEM, I understand that's not going to happen. But it is so bad lol. If I don't turn my fog lights on it's akin to taping flashlights on my hood. So you're saying those bulbs are not helping and that I should go HID or LED. Any recommendations as far as brands?

check out this thread:

Installed Depo headlights, Morimoto HID's, fog lights, and clear side reflectors. https://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1459304

I went with a Morimoto HID kit and haven't had any long term issues. I was getting a low beam error in idrive that I coded out with bimmercode but the kit I got was supposed to be error free, so there's that.

This was also long ago enough that I think LEDs have come a pretty far way and are worth considering. if you can get plugnplay error free LEDs that don't need the balasts that come with the HIDs, I'd have to assume thatd be the way to go at this time. Good luck!

[exE36M3]

Hmmm...

When you look at your stock halogen housing, and I assume you will keep it... the bulb inserts into a fat (maybe 1") "I"-shaped slot. I had about 4 or 5 HID kits on my E36 M3 over the 10 years (experimented with quality). And the hardest part was drilling a 1/2" hole in the headlight cover so I could run the HID wiring through it. Kits were pretty cheap too, $50 or less. I found the most dependable were the "big" silver box units or "analog." Skip the slim or digital ones - they always seems to malfunction or just die.
I liked the 4500k color range best. It's a yellow white, not as sexy at the 5500-6000 white light, but white light is super hard on your eyes at night. Sunlight is around the 4000-4500 range.

If you go LED... not sure if there's a true LED bulb array/plug-in that can fit through that halogen slot, that puts out the light you need. (I haven't tried as my 435i is the Xenon/HID). A quick search on LEDs headlight bulbs on EBAY has almost all of them for "high beam" or "daytime running lights".

If I went LED, I'd got with an entire headlight swap... but that's money. A lot of money.

Happy to be corrected if anyone has done a successful LED conversion where they can still see 100 feet out.