I was lookin some h.i.d.s kits for my max i was also thinkin about havin them installed in my fog lights,what are some good company's and should i switch to e36 headlamps or keep the stock let me know what ya think or what you do

Stock headlights no.

E36 ONLY if they are projector.

There are pics and info on past pages...

I somewhat agree.

If you can get a screamin deal on some HIDs for the stock housings, it does put out a lot better lighting than stock, but you do lose high beams.

Otherwise, e36 projectors are probably the only good choice.

Keelan (spipedong90) put some HIDs in a stock housing on his red Maxima and the light output was much improved, but the pattern and cutoff were not good. He had to aim them down, too because of the poor cutoff.

pattern on garage


pattern on road



Our stock foglights don't have that great of a pattern, either. I don't know if that would be worth the money.

3k hid.s

They are some nice headlights. I prefer the black housing.

Thanks Man. Chrome matches the chrome from the gxe

Trust me and a few other headlight swap members can truly say that e36's or cefiro headlights (in my case and about two other members) gives a better output without even using HID's. So try the e36 output first then go with HID's for an even better output but you'll be surprised at how the projector headlights give off when compared to the craptastic stock headlights.

do not put HIDs in a stock housing. the beam pattern and cut off is non existing.

if he has to aim the lights low then what's the point of having HIDs? so you can see 10 ft in front of your car REALLY well? might as well stick to halogens...at least you still have high beams.

Where do you guys buy E36 projectors? BTW I like the chrome housing!

Thanks. EBAY my man.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/BMW-E...44572216QQrdZ1

Are they difficult to install? what tools do you need? I have the stock HL and I'm wondering this because never done it before.

Nothing is too difficicult if you want to do it. Doing this the first time I have to say that I chose the hardest of the swaps and spent about 3days of cutting my headlights and radiator brackets to shear slices of sheet metal. I think that doing the e36 swap is easier and requires less cutting. But when I did my swa it was the first time on the dremel and it's a measure twice then cut type of thing. But check the stickies for a writeup on how to install the e36s.

Ok got some questions here (im new smack me later)1.what cause's the cutoff 2. should i go to the junk yard for a few housings to practice on 3.as far as the highbeams go do i splice any wires 4.who makes a good aftermarket h.i.d kit for a reasonable price.finally is this kit hard to install ok you can smack me now

You dont. HID's are going to run you at least 300 after all is said and done. IMO not reasonable at all.

Thats how I feel. In th past 2 years I watched it go from 400 a ballast to 200 for a pair of aftermarket ballast. I'm just going to wait a lil longer.

I agree with what has been said above with regards to not putting HID in stock reflectors. The older gen maximas (1st-3rd gen) have crappy reflectors with crappy beam pattern. I have retrofitted reflector HID in my car and the beam pattern is crappy with the right headlight having a large hotspot and the drivers side dispersing the light to all hell. I am currently saving up to get some Bi-xenon projectors in my max.

bi-XENON for a 3rd gen? where? or do you mean on the E36? I personally don't care about how much it cost (well I care because I have to save some $$$ too) all I want is a nice beam and pattern that really improves the crappy stock headlights, everytime i have to drive at night i feel terribly blind with those stock HL, hehehe i was so ignorant a few months ago, I bought this ultra white plasma bluish bulbs from ebay (around $10) and I was hopping to get a better nightvision, definitely beam is brighter but didn't help much anyways. Thanks to this forum I've learned a few more things than just upgrade the bulb :

If you don't want e36 headlights. Buy a pair of the clear euro headlights on ebay for 100$ . they glass is clear and wont disperse the beam like the stock. then order a pair of Bi-xenon hid's which go for abotu 350-500 that have the built in glare shield. thats another route that no one here has gone.

Euro Headlights

Bixenon 9005's

I think Keelan got those HIDs for like $100 or maybe less. IIRC, he had them set so they are about like HID low beams, just no high beams. Possibly he made some kind of cut off in the housing? I can't remember, it has been a few years.

He hasn't posted in a while and he wrecked the car, but when I saw them, it wasn't blinding or anything and it put out better usable light than stock. I am sure the projectors are far better, though.

If you live in a large city or travel on major interstates, high beams are rarely used, anyway. When I lived in Portland, I would go months without ever using them.

e36 projectors aren't that cheap, plus it's a lot of crap to put them in and get them right. Not to mention they don't even fit right unless you get wade covers or somehow mount them in the new clear lights. You are starting to talk about paying ~$500 for headlights.

ok i checked the link that heresmymind left for us which was pretty neat reasonbale price too which ones would be ideal i.e not to to bright but with a deep color to them, theres a guy that a block up from that has deeeeeeppppp blue h.i.d's on his wrx i have'nt seen any others like that one or evo's for that matter over all i just want something that looks good not gawdy. i wanna keep everything close to stock looking as possible thats my style clean classy and simple any suggestions???

This is james92se, And it would have to look like this for me to do it.

what for my car to look like that one in order for you to install the lights? the mechanical and wiring aspects i can do myself.not flaming you dont get me wrong!!! just need some advice thats all. depending on where ya live we can go get a sixpack my treat and hook them up together any faster and easier way to do it, im for it. but umm that is one classy max once again im not flaming or disrespecting you in any way

Sorry for the misunderstanding but that's not my car, it's james92se's car, I was making a statement that if I did it on my car ,it would have to look like that...

There are quite a few right-ups on how to get e36 lights flush mounted with the wade/gts covers you'll just have to do a little search.

I been looking at the stickies but can't find any detailed information about the installation of the E36, Does anyone know where can I find a good writeup about this? Thx

This is a pretty good write up. You could have found it if you did a little searching. http://www.geocities.com/bmwconversion/ and another http://www.angelfire.com/trek/tko/bmw_conversion/

4300k + 3000k
4300k vs 3000k
- fogs 3k

Projectors + H I D FTW

Came across these e36s today on ebay, projectors with HID kit. Looks to be better quality that alot of the cheap stuff there. Very tempting...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...6939888&rd=1,1

very very tempting must admit

10k hids are too blue 4300k-6000k is prefered. best lighoutput. when u got 8k-10k-12k u start losing light output and putting urself at risk for

As said above, ~4300k gives the most light output. Anything above starts to not only get dimmer (still brighter than most halogens) but they actually start to get hard on your eyes. All OEM HID setups come with the ~4300k HID's.

Please don't get the conversion kits though... the halogen projectors are not designed correctly for HID's. Yes, it will be brighter... yes, it will look better... but the people driving by you will think differently. The glare will be terrible and you will always be getting a lot of light into other drivers' eyes.

The only true way to get HID's into a non-HID housing is a retrofit. Taking an HID projector from a true HID housing, and putting it in your own housing. If you're willing to spend some money... a lot of money... there are companies out there that will do the retrofit. You can always do it yourself as well if you believe you have the skill to do it. In the end it would be much more worth your time and money. The light output would simply amaze you, you won't blind oncoming drivers, plus you simply get all of the benefits of HID's including longer life. Here's one of the companies that'll do a retrofit: http://www.illusion-lighting.com/ (read more about the retrofits from the link below)

With HID's you don't have or even need a high beam. The light output is so intense and so well "directed" that all the light you would ever need comes out of what would be considered your "low beams".

For a lot of info, and some awesome pictures of retrofits, take a look at this site: http://www.intellexual.net/hid.html#oemkit

WOW!!!!!! that what im lookin for,as for the price.. just have to save some serious pennies and deal with the sucky lights and wal-mart special fog lights(to which i think look pretty good) but wow ya hit a sweet spot

Great info!

I admire heremymind headlights, but have intentions of changing mine.

Yay people like my headlights:-p

hey guys ok. I couldn't wait any more the stock light output on my se headlights sucks hardcore.... so i bought something. is it a good deal?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/92-98...QQcmdZViewItem

if they are the cheapoones ill get better one later... i just couldn't wait.

i will just have to cut down the headlight housing with a dremel right?

Just got my HID kits and euro headlight today. I installed the HID kit and let me tell yah. It's 6x brighter than stock. 3x the amount of brightness over e36, 3000 lumens vs 1000. Worth every penny. Even with stock housings, the output looks like a Lexus. I think it'll look much better with euro headlights cuz it's clearer.

unfortunately the damn signal switch went bad on me again. it refuses to turn on the headlight. I gotta follow GreenMax instruction on how to clean it up.

Omg.. your lights are amazing and make me jealous... hehe.

naw, I like the stock euro setup with hid is much better for me. At least I could adjust the angle, with these e36 you can't do much to them really. I mean, what if a strong wind shifts its beaming angle while you're driving, you're gonna blind everybody including the polices. hehe

i got a set of bmw e36 projector halo lights if anyone wants em msg me.