Headlight differences

Post Sun Feb 07, 2016 1:17 am

My car has one pair of Bosch headlights and one pair of Hellas on the other.
Both are a bit tatty and would look out of place after a full restoration , so been looking at full replacements.
Mines a 90 car with smilie headlights and also the option problematic adjustable beam control.
While looking around I see that Bosch sets have a big price difference for cars fitted with this,so what is the difference as the adjustment system can't be included as it is separate ?
Also , they seem to list different items for car that drive on the left side of the road or right, am I right in thinking it doesn't really matter as they can be adjusted either way ?

At £156 a side I might be interested. £227 is a bit much. I'd like to keep the option of maybe buying the headlight beam adjuster kit from BMW as its still available, if expensive.
Thanks

http://www.bestpartstore.co.uk/bmw/3-sa ... d%5B%5D=30

Post Sun Feb 07, 2016 10:38 am

Headlamp units are identical for ones with remote height adjustment and those without. The only difference is the changing of one manual adjuster for the hydraulic cylinder and mount, which are fully interchangeable.

Post Sun Feb 07, 2016 12:13 pm

Thanks, that was my thinking too. I couldn't work out why the big difference in price for some units.

Post Mon Feb 08, 2016 5:32 pm

The wiki is quite scathing about the pre-facelift lights, so I presume it is a worthwhile improvement changing this for the later "smiley" ones, but is there a view on whether the Hella or Bosch versions are better?

Post Mon Feb 08, 2016 6:41 pm

I wouldn't say that the facelift lights are a massive improvement over the pre facelift ones. Both are far superior to the 60/45W Tungsten headlamps I started motoring with.
The facelift lights are essential if you want to fit HID bulbs to your dipped beams though, because of their excellent beam control.

Post Mon Feb 08, 2016 8:39 pm

60/45W, you had it lucky! My first car had 36W single filament bulbs that needed focusing, the dip beam was achieved by a solenoid pulling the N/S reflector down and extinguishing the O/S lamp, the "dip and switch" system. I uprated my second car to have 42/36W BPF bulbs and I remember sealed beams coming in as an improvement!