Some Help And Advice Please... - BMW Forum

mech9T8 · 10-21-2004, 11:24 AM

Ok, so I gave in and got myself an early Christmas and birthday present. Here is my question (actually I have asked this before but I need to be sure).

1) I live in Canada and my car has daytime running lights. These lights turn on once I start my car and work off of the high beam. They will turn off once I turn on the low beams. I've heard some say that you must disable the DRL if you install HID's and others say don't worry about it. I just don't want to damage the HID system.

2) It is so close to winter and I'm wondering if I should wait till spring to install these things. What do you guys think?

Thanks.

El Presidente · 10-21-2004, 11:58 AM

DRLs run a low voltage off the highs. Unless you go bixenon, no need to disable it.

No real reason to wait, however HIDS are harder to start in cold.

jllphan · 10-21-2004, 03:02 PM

Interesting question. When I bought my ZKW's I noticed it had the DRL, my oem NA spec headlights didn't have DRLs. However, umnitza had cut the lead for the DRLs, I assume to limit the draw of current, as the DDE is already asking for more than oem.

Would that be the reasoning, or was it merely because the DRLs would impede the look of the DDE?

Sorry to answer your question with another, but maybe someone could enlighten us both...

El Presidente · 10-21-2004, 03:06 PM

No, I've seen multiple manufactures use DDE and DRL concurrently.

My depos also have a DRL light, which I chose not to wire.

mech9T8 · 10-21-2004, 04:30 PM

Thanks for the help.
Jllphan, I think that you are confusing the city lights with the DRL. There isn't an extra bulb for DRL, it actually runs off the high beam bulb while the city light has an extra bulb. To my knowledge the only way you can get DRL is to switch the relay module.
I want to have my city lights on while my low beams are on, I think that would look cool.

B_w. · 10-21-2004, 05:31 PM

my zkw's have the drl's. i think there is some module you can get so that you can disable them. it costs $50 CDN.

Delmarco · 10-23-2004, 11:59 AM

I had this same thought, or confusion rather, between City lights and DRLs, and someone told me City lights are better than DRLs because its it own seperate bulb hidden in (or under) the highbeam projector on the E36 headlights. With City lights you can mod the colors and they compliment the DDE better than DRLs.

I noticed that the Umnizta website don't really emphasize it but their ZKWs do have Citylights (jllphan I can't tell on the site if the ZKWs+DDE packages have City lights but the plain ZKWs do). In fact the umnitza picture below you can see the city lights in the high beam projector.

(I want them)

I've seen installation instructions at one of the DIY links here that give alot attention to the City lights portion of ZKWs during installation.

I like really the City lights package though. I would mod it with blue bulbs, inside yellow- white DDEs and have white HIDs projectors.

God knows I can't wait to get the ZKW+DDE+Xenon HID (w/ city lights

) from Umnitza! The full pakage for $899.99 ( I just need $899.98 more before I can buy them :wink )

El Pres you are gonna help me install them......remember....Red Stripe....

El Presidente · 10-23-2004, 12:16 PM

Word.

Speaking of, my lens should be here today. Need to go pick up the housing from the body shop.

mech9T8 · 10-24-2004, 01:11 PM

Hey Delmarco, can you take before and after pics. I'd like to see what mine will look like when I get around to installing them. Actually I don't even have them in my hands yet but I think I'm going to wait till the spring (so they don't get all mucked up with the sand, salt and snow.
What colour did you get? I couldn't decide between 5000K and 6000K. I ended up getting 5000K.

Delmarco · 10-24-2004, 01:29 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by mech9T8@Oct 24 2004, 12:11 PM
Hey Delmarco, can you take before and after pics. I'd like to see what mine will look like when I get around to installing them. Actually I don't even have them in my hands yet but I think I'm going to wait till the spring (so they don't get all mucked up with the sand, salt and snow.
What colour did you get? I couldn't decide between 5000K and 6000K. I ended up getting 5000K.

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Oh...I didn't buy them yet. But I will post pics as soon as they're in my car.

If my car insurance wasn't $500+

a month then I'd have them already.

I also need to replace my summer michelins with all season conti-extreme contacts ($500) before winter. Plus I'm hoping to get a GPS Nav/DVD system around X-mas. So I'm looking at late Feb./early Mar. before I can afford them.

Also does anyone know the theft rates on ZKWs or HIDs headlights in the US?

I've heard about the HIDs in Maximas in the US and someone said something about the UK theft rates were high for Hellas.