I was bored today so I decided to see if I could put high beam bulbs in the low beams. Well it can be done. Im not sure how much more light I will get but every little bit helps. If anyone is interested, heres a quick guide.

Things you will need:
2 extra high beam (9005) plugs, and bulbs
a thin screwdriver, i used a dentists pick
a file or a grinder
optional : 2 thick o-rings

total time taken : less than 20 minutes

reasons why you cant put a high beam bulb in from factory:

1. there are 3 tabs that hold the bulb into the headlight casing. The low beam and high beam have a slightly differant pattern so you cant switch them.

2. The plugs in the car are matched to the bulbs by little tabs also, (two tabs on a high beam and 1 tab on the low)

3. also, the low beam bulb has a larger diameter hole then the high beam, so you can not put a low into the high socket, but a high fits in the low, which works out rather well.


step 1 : unplug the low beam headlight, and remove bulb

step 2 : take off that blue clip off the base of the plug

step 3 : the plug has 2 contacts. And next to each contact there is a tiny hole that contains a little clip that holds the contact in the plastic plug. stick the screwdriver into the little hole and push in towards the contact, a little clip will release allowing you to slide the contact out of the plastic plug. Do the same thing to the extra plug too.

step 4 : the tabs on the contacts will now be pressed in and will not clip into the plug anymore so you must carefully bend the tabs outwards again. Then slide on the high beam plug onto the low beam wires of the car.

step 5 : repeat for the opposite side.

step 6 : the high beam bulbs will not directly fit into the low beam sockets, so look at a high and a low bulb side by side from the front, youll see that the top tab on the high beam bulb is too far to the left. So take your file and cut the left 50% of the tab off. I used a bench grinder, made it very easy. And now the bulb will fit.

The high beam bulb has a smaller diameter socket than the low beam, so the light will have a sloppy fit in the headlight assembly. It will stay in, but it might not be 100% sealed from water, although its probably not a big deal. but f it bothers you...

step 7 : There is a thin o-ring that is on the bulb itself to seal it. I replaced that o-ring with a thicker one of the same diameter. Then apply some petroleum jelly or other lubricant to the o-ring and the high beam bulb slides snugly into the low beam socket, give it a twist, plug it in, and there you go. 65 watt low beams.

Sorry I dont have pics, but I just did this on the spur of the moment, and my hands are stil freezing from the unheated garage The bulbs seem a bit brighter, so Ill have to take it for a drive and see what happens. The benefits I can think of would be that its brighter obviously but It still uses the low beam light pattern so it will not blind oncoming drivers. Once I modify my lights so I can put all 4 headlamps on, then this mod might now be very imnportant, but It took me about 15 minutes to do the first one, and 5 to do the other. It was easy and i figured why not? Good luck!

I took pictures of when I did mine if anyone would like any pictures.

did you notice a differance with the brighter bulbs?

The difference was not as great as I was expecting. But the light is thrown out much further that is for sure & yes it does seem brigher. The beam of light also seems a tad wider with the uncaped bulbs but nothing near as wide as the high beam housing.

I was using 9004 Siverstars on my Lo Beams for 2 years until one of the bulbs blew out. I replaced the Low Lites with the stock bulbs again and replaced the the Hi Beams with the Silverstars that I took out of the Low Beam sockets(they're dual filament bulbs). I was thinking (just thinking) of possibly replacing the low beams with 9007 bulbs which are slightly (5 watts maybe?) higher wattage than the 9004 bulbs. But after reading up on this modification I didn't like what I read. It seems that the 9007 beam pattern is different because the angle of the dangle with the filaments are not the same. That'* why I am probably going to try another set of 9004 Silverstars this summer. I don't like having to re-aim the headlights THINKING I have it right only to blind the oncoming traffic.

read this
http://www.bmwe34.net/E34main/Upgrade/More_light.htm
good pic'* on how to do this mod.


ROD

Rod, You've posted before right? I know I've seen that recently.

haha, well looks like more than one person has beat me to this mod

Yeah, somebody posted it about a month ago. I did it to mine. Didn't feel like saying how much I liked the results in yet another thread...

One quick tip for ya, tho. I know at my local PepBoys they sell the 9006 plugs. This spring, I am going to splice those in, so that when it comes time to change bulbs, all I have to trim is the one easy mounting tab. Don't have to worry about melting away the ones "inside" the bulb.....

I didnt have to melt anything, because I switched the 9006 plug with a 9005 plug, without cutting wires. I just removed the contacts, and slipped a 9005 socket on. Now when I switch bulbs I can just cut the one tab back, and I can easily put it back to original if I ever need to for some reason.