Interesting read, thanks guys.
I ordered H7 kit from retrofitlab as I have h7 high quality leds and hid kits laying around already. Keeping high beam stock (or high quality led, but dont drive on countryside too often).
I have facelift and have removed/cleaned projectors once last year - aware of the one tricky screw.
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Seems to me all the leds here used so far are cheapo aliexpress ones?
They mostly suck or are slightly birghter than stock h7 halogen (you might find some better ones as far as the build, but the chips/leds usually are still cheap)... Ofcourse better projector will give you illusion of much higher output overall as the stock projectors (with milky glass and one quite burned bowl in my case) suck badly.
On the top is cheap aliexpress led (with good reviews) and price about 20+ euros. This image is with stock projectors.
Below is higher quality Hikari led bulbs (80usd + tax + shipping). Also manufactures in China but uses high quality philips lumiled leds (
https://www.bulbfacts.com/led-kits/r...it-review.html).
Other thing is beam pattern, that sucks bad on the cheap ones (both are rotated 9 and 3 o clock). It has to do with the fact, that the cheap bulb is not mimicking the halogen lightouput (leds too large, no correct curvatures in bulb etc.).
http://www.jipikaje.ee/volvo/bulb2.jpg
http://www.jipikaje.ee/volvo/bulb3.jpg
http://www.jipikaje.ee/volvo/bulb4.jpg
Hopefully this expensive led still works great in bmw projector fitting, cant wait to try out.
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Other very interesteing and even better mod should be using led retrofit (morimoto or some aliexpress one). They are built from factory for led, thus are much more effective. So far guys are comparing the first gen Morimoto with 35w high quality hid as far as output goes (in morimoti projector). The second gen is supposedly even brighter.
Too bad these are not sold in EU yet. Shipping + taxed from US will make them quite steep.
http://www.morimotohid.com/bi-led-mo...rojectors.html
e46 projector + high quality led/hid kit will set you back about same as aliexpress or cheaper led projector.
I have o a lot of ineresting reading bookmarked regarding led projectors. Some aliexpress ones are quite good actually.
And with more or less modding, all of them should fit V50 headlight.
http://www.lightwerkz.net/photo/outp...-comparison-2/
https://www.hidplanet.com/forums/for...ojectors/page4
https://www.drive2.ru/o/b/465169835681120372
https://www.hidplanet.com/forums/for...ctor-need-help
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3267...chweb201603_55
https://www.hidprojectors.com/produc...nt=41815940489