Bulbs

[rc944]

Anyone got any alternatives to osram night breakers or philips xtreme vision
the beam on my non-xenon b3s is rubbish. i dont want to retrofit and HID kit etc so am looking at just new bulbs or other ways to improve
the lenses do need a cut/polish

[B10BRW]

Anyone got any alternatives to osram night breakers or philips xtreme vision
the beam on my non-xenon b3s is rubbish.

I have tried both on my non-xenon X1 the beams are still non-existent, like the proverbial P holes in the snow

[JohnW]

The Philips extreme vision are probably the brightest (non xenon and non led) you can buy. They consistently win all the comparison tests.

Retrofit HID alone to halogen lights is a bit amateurish, have you considered a full headlight swap for Bi xenons? I did quite a bit of investigating some time ago for my pre facelift E46, eventually fitting modified factory bi-xenon headlights without any coding:

http://walkdens.co.uk/CarPics/HIDs25010 ... nstall.pdf

[rc944]

Very impressive JohnW but likely beyond my talent

[DogWagen]

The Philips extreme vision are probably the brightest (non xenon and non led) you can buy. They consistently win all the comparison tests.
I did quite a bit of investigating some time ago for my pre facelift E46, eventually fitting modified factory bi-xenon headlights without any coding:

http://walkdens.co.uk/CarPics/HIDs25010 ... nstall.pdf

John - thanks for sharing this; I have had b-xenons on my to-do list for the B3s but was struggling to work out how to do....!

[JohnW]

I’m a little out of date with reviews the Philips Racing vision GT200 is the better H7 halogen now. You can go for 100W halogen but risks the heat melting the lamp holder and wiring.
There may be better LED replacements now too, it was a few years ago since I had my pre facelift E46.

The final solution on the linked write up uses an HID kit ballast and the D2S lamp in the factory Bi Xenon housing. The shutter is operated by the halogen high beam wire Teed off from the loom and the capacitor tricks the LCM and prevents it strobing.
It was before things like Carly when recoding the LCM meant an expensive trip to the dealer for me so I had to experiment.