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2010 2011 BMW 5 Series Forum F10 BMW 5-Series (F10) Forums General 5-Series Sedan and Wagon (F10 / F11) Forum F10 Fog Lights HID Conversion
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      04-23-2013, 05:03 PM   #1
hufington
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Lightbulb F10 Fog Lights HID Conversion

I just had time to have the Morimoto HID kit installed replacing the halogen OEM fog lamps.



Before purchasing this kit, I went thru many kits (9-10 different brands)on the market on my Infiniti and my parent's C Class, most of them were cheaply made - well you get what you paid for. I guess.

The worst of them was the DDM Tuning kit that started flickering immediately on one side and then did not come on one day but worked for a while the next day until one side went out for good. I had to uninstall (it was a PITA on the Infiniti!) and send the bulbs and the ballasts back for DDM to check and they sent me a new ballast together with an old one w/o replacing the bulbs either as they were "OK". O installed again, the same issues, sent them back, partially replaced again, etc. etc. Then, I decided that I've had enough with their lifetime warranty bull**** and did not install the last pieces they sent. I know that some people are very happy with this brand and I guess it is a hit or miss. For me, it was a miss all the way.

For the F10, I was looking at the Phillips HID kit for a while (at $250+) but then I've read a comparison somewhere and they were saying that there is no genuine HID conversion kit made by Philips, so I decided not to risk it.

I wanted to try the Morimoto Kit. The kit was priced at $150 and they were offering a 5-year warranty and claiming a lifetime of at least 2,500 hours. This time, I did not want to go through the hassle of installing the kit myself (and then possibly uninstalling in case of an error code or a bulb or ballast problem), so I started looking for a reputable shop. I posted on the forum for advice but no one had any advice for shops in NJ. So, I researched online and found Lightwerkz in Oakland. They are authorized distributors for Morimoto and others. After contacting them, I've set up an appointment and went there last Friday.

I've had the Morimoto 4300K kit installed on my car.

Caesar, who did the installation, was very accommodating and installed a 4300K and 5000K bulb side-by-side and also run them side-by-side with the factory halogen bulbs in order to make a comparison and decide, which ones I wanted to get.

It was really hard to decide which ones to get as the difference was very minimal. The 4300K H8 Morimoto kit was the best match overall IMHO with the headlights and the DRL because the DRL rings have a slight blue/purple hue on them when they were on 100% and the Bi-Xenon headlamps have a slight yellow hue around the edges of the projectors as they are around 4300K.

If you want to match the DRL only, then you'll definitely need to go for the 5000K bulbs or better yet 6000K.

Seeing 5000K and 4300K side-by-side, the 5000K looked slightly brighter to the naked eye but when you check the illuminated floor in front of the car, the 4300K has more illumination than the 5000K bulbs. 6000K bulbs are on the blue side and have less illumination up front but they look more 'aftermarket'.

The install process was pretty straight forward. You can install the kit from the front by pulling the lower grills and they come out easily but the problem is, there is not too much room on the passenger side of an 535 as the inter cooler is taking up all the space.

driver side


passenger side



I did not want to block the airflow to the inter cooler and to the brake ducts, so we went and installed the kit from the wheel well. The plastic liner can be taken out without any problems (although there are many bolts holding it in place) once you remove the front tire and you have enough room to work on both sides. There is also a nice spot to bolt on the ballast securely.



We used the super can-bus warning cancelers to make sure there was no flickering or error codes.

Like mentioned earlier on, the kit has a 5-year warranty and Lightwerkz promises to fix any issues that can occur during that period. Nice people and careful and professional installation.

I have included a couple of other pictures below (some of them are taken with the phone cam so sorry for the low quality images):

Before - OEM setup:



OEM fog lamp vs 5000K Morimoto bulb:



OEM fog lamp vs 4300K Morimoto bulb:



4300K on Driver side vs. 5000K on Passenger side:



4300K with OEM DRL inside:



4300K with Low Beams and DRL rings inside:





4300K with Low Beams and DRL rings outside:





Night shot with phone:





Day shots:







Garage shots for comparison (DRL vs. DRL+HID Fogs):





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Last edited by hufington; 04-25-2013 at 10:46 PM..
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      04-23-2013, 06:08 PM   #2
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Thanks for writing this up and summarizing your experiences. The 4300K Morimoto kit looks like a great match! Any pictures of how the light is dispersed on the surface from a driver's perspective, with and without fogs for comparative purposes?
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      04-23-2013, 06:24 PM   #3
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great write up
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      04-23-2013, 08:02 PM   #4
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Nice.
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      04-23-2013, 09:04 PM   #5
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I will post some pics from within the car tomorrow.
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      04-23-2013, 09:15 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MELLOWYELLOW06 View Post
great write up
Quote:
Originally Posted by Screamin View Post
Nice.
Thanks.
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      04-23-2013, 10:54 PM   #7
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First off great right up, this actually exactly the write up I was looking for. I'm currently looking into a quality kit for my new f10 and I'm getting ready to pull the trigger on the morimoto kits but I cant seem to make up my mind on the color. (5000k vs 4300k). Since you literally just had them done I figured you would be the best person to ask.
Now I know there is no true match for the Angel Eyes (DRL's) but what would you say would be the best happy medium between the angels and stock hids in terms of color?

I know that the 4300k kit would match the stock hids but I'm worried that with the Angel's on the fogs will be slightly yellow when compared to the angels.
My question is how far off were the 5k hids vs the stock hids and How well did the 5k hids match the angels?

Thanks in advance!

Last edited by Jhenka; 04-23-2013 at 11:12 PM..
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      04-23-2013, 11:37 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jhenka View Post
First off great right up, this actually exactly the write up I was looking for. I'm currently looking into a quality kit for my new f10 and I'm getting ready to pull the trigger on the morimoto kits but I cant seem to make up my mind on the color. (5000k vs 4300k). Since you literally just had them done I figured you would be the best person to ask.
Now I know there is no true match for the Angel Eyes (DRL's) but what would you say would be the best happy medium between the angels and stock hids in terms of color?

I know that the 4300k kit would match the stock hids but I'm worried that with the Angel's on the fogs will be slightly yellow when compared to the angels.
My question is how far off were the 5k hids vs the stock hids and How well did the 5k hids match the angels?

Thanks in advance!
I believe the 5000K kit would be the middle way between the headlights and the angel eyes.

When you have 4300 vs 5000 side by side, it is really hard to see the difference but from some certain angles (from the sides and close to the ground), the 5000K has a blueish hue and the 4300K has a white/yellow glow around the edges like the HID headlights -but still, they are (4300) not the perfect match because the OEM HID is going thru a projector lens and the fog HID is reflected from the fog light housing.

The angel eyes have a hint of blue/purple and 6000K would be a better match for them. But 6000K looked too blue for my taste and did not match the headlights at all.

When you get them installed, make sure both sides have the same color shade as they may differ even if they have the same color temperature. We had a box of 5000K bulbs and the two bulbs had different shades of white/blue so they had to find a pair that matched.

I saw both 5000K and 4300K inside the garage and the illumination is getting worse as you get higher with the temperature. (In order to compare the illumination check the light reflected from the floor in front of the car in the pictures). So, I guess a 5000K kit would be a good compromise between color and illumination and would match the HID and the DRL.

I hope this helps.
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      04-24-2013, 12:07 AM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hufington View Post
I believe the 5000K kit would be the middle way between the headlights and the angel eyes.

When you have 4300 vs 5000 side by side, it is really hard to see the difference but from some certain angles (from the sides and close to the ground), the 5000K has a blueish hue and the 4300K has a white/yellow glow around the edges like the HID headlights -but still, they are (4300) not the perfect match because the OEM HID is going thru a projector lens and the fog HID is reflected from the fog light housing.

The angel eyes have a hint of blue/purple and 6000K would be a better match for them. But 6000K looked too blue for my taste and did not match the headlights at all.

When you get them installed, make sure both sides have the same color shade as they may differ even if they have the same color temperature. We had a box of 5000K bulbs and the two bulbs had different shades of white/blue so they had to find a pair that matched.

I saw both 5000K and 4300K inside the garage and the illumination is getting worse as you get higher with the temperature. So, I guess a 5000K kit would be a good compromise between color and illumination and would match the HID and the DRL.

I hope this helps.
Agree.

I'm not sure if anyone have done it, but retrofitting projectors into the fogs would be ideal. I have talked to theretrofitsource.com and according to them, it's about $450 for the kit/labor/parts. but you do have to send in your fogs. I was looking into DIY but seems a bit of work. I know some people on HIDPlanet.com have retrofitted ford focus fogs into their cars - as it has projectors and it eliminates the glare. If you look at the HID fogs at a certain angle, you do get a lot of glare which looks like it is brighter, etc. If I decide to send my fogs in for a retrofit, i will post pics. Otherwise, maybe someone will make projector fogs as a direct replacement for the F10 for less $. Group buy????
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      04-24-2013, 07:50 AM   #10
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nice
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      04-24-2013, 01:29 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bobby_Drake View Post
Agree.

I'm not sure if anyone have done it, but retrofitting projectors into the fogs would be ideal. I have talked to theretrofitsource.com and according to them, it's about $450 for the kit/labor/parts. but you do have to send in your fogs. I was looking into DIY but seems a bit of work. I know some people on HIDPlanet.com have retrofitted ford focus fogs into their cars - as it has projectors and it eliminates the glare. If you look at the HID fogs at a certain angle, you do get a lot of glare which looks like it is brighter, etc. If I decide to send my fogs in for a retrofit, i will post pics. Otherwise, maybe someone will make projector fogs as a direct replacement for the F10 for less $. Group buy????
I also thought of projectors but first of all there is noone offering them ready to buy yet and secondly, it is expensive like Booby mentioned. It would be great to have a projector setup because then you can have the same bulbs in both projectors (headlights and fogs) and have a perfect match. I believe that since there are two different sets of fog lights (m-sport and non m-sport) there won't be anyone offering them ready to buy any time soon and it will always be either a DIY project or send the originals and wait type of solution.

Anyways, I am very happy with the HID conversion.
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      04-24-2013, 02:52 PM   #12
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How much did it all cost in total?
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      04-24-2013, 03:52 PM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cchrono View Post
How much did it all cost in total?
$150 is the kit and $90/h installation.
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      04-25-2013, 10:47 PM   #14
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Added the garage shots above...
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      04-26-2013, 05:42 PM   #15
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nice.
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      04-26-2013, 06:46 PM   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hufington View Post
Added the garage shots above...
Very nice! Thanks!!
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      04-26-2013, 07:09 PM   #17
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what would be the best color to match factory lights, 5000?
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