How to Convert Sealed Beam Headlights to Led

Finally! A plug-and-play LED headlight conversion for non-ellipsoid owners that really WORKS. Replace those feeble sealed beam style US halogen lamps with ultra-bright and super white LED lamps.

The Fear: Driving a Classic BMW at Night
One of the scariest aspects of owning and driving a classic BMW of the 80s is lack of visibility when driving at night. Especially for cars that came with the very basic Sealed-Beam style stock headlights, which are horrible, especially by today's standards.

If you love driving your classic BMW, but hate the feeling of "driving by candlelight" with 5 and 3/4" sealed beam lights, you are not alone. Previous solutions involved higher wattage bulbs, which can melt your wiring due to the added heat and stress. Other solutions involve either converting to expensive and hard to find ellipsoid style lights, or hokey hack-job solutions with poorly controlled light output. We've seen and tried some of the Xenon and LED conversions out there for classics like the E30, E24 and E28, but they aren't the engineered solution we'd want for ourselves.

A Modern Solution to a Vintage Issue
Enter Hella. The OE lighting supplier to BMW, and trusted lighting manufacturer since literally the 1800s (1899, to be exact). Hella is is known as a pioneer of automotive lighting technology, with advances in halogen, xenon, LED and even laser light. They simply don't make "junk" and you won't find their logo on just anything. These LED conversion lamps are engineered and SAE certified for quality, safety, longevity, and performance. This is something you're going to be hard pressed to find elsewhere in the market, especially for venerable BMW classics.

This package includes a pair of Hella drop-in replacement high/low LED headlamps that can be used to swap out any standard 5.75" sealed beam lamp. They come as pictured, with compatible 3-prong plugs for a simple plug-in installation. Install is a breeze, as these install just as your stock units do.

How They Work
Each headlight has a small but SUPER potent LED cluster with four insanely bright square CREE chips. Each lamp is extremely light weight. At first look, you'll wonder how something so compact can produce such radical lighting output. We were certainly shocked ourselves.

The lamp assembly has both a high and low beam, just as the factory sealed beam style headlamps do. There is a center divider which helps isolate and control the beam patterns. When the low beam is on, only the upper portion is illuminated, and with high beams activated both the upper and lower halves come on to throw some serious lumens. This gives your BMW a look that's both interesting and exciting when parked at night with the lights on. During the day, we find these headlights fit in pretty well and in pretty good keeping with a stock look. While these may not be for the Concourse restoration crowd, we think they're pretty damned cool, especially if you're looking for resto-mod appeal and function.

The Results Are Clearly Visible
The end result is a more modern light output that lets you see much clearer at night, and be seen during the day or inclement weather. The color temperature is tastefully in keeping with other factory LED headlights you'll see on newer, high-end European models. For super dark driving, the high beams provide exceptional visibility, giving a clear view with well-defined colors (versus the yellow hue of antiquated halogen candlepower).

These headlights pack a punch, but have a very well-defined cut-off, so that they aren't blinding to anyone oncoming. The beam pattern is what you'd expect from a high-grade OE manufacturer like Hella, and nothing like you can find elsewhere on the aftermarket. There's no flickering, even at low temps. We tested on our own cars down to 20 degree with zero flickering or hesitation. We're very confident in these superb LED lamps.

Bulb Check Control System Note: As these LED headlights draw significantly less wattage than the stock halogen units, you will receive a bulb check warning on your check control system. Modifications can be made to satisfy the check control system, but we do not have info on this. If pushing the "check" button and clearing the "LOW BEAM" warning light is a deal breaker, these may not be the right solution for you.

Note: These lights are not DOT approved. Each headlight is SAE certified, but NOT approved for use on US public roads. For this reason this headlight kit is sold for off-road / racing use only.

BMW Fitments:

3 Series
E21 (77-83) > 320i
E21 (77-83) > 323i
3 Series
E30 (84-92) > 318i
E30 (84-92) > 318is
E30 (84-92) > 325e
E30 (84-92) > 325es
E30 (84-92) > 325i
E30 (84-92) > 325is
E30 (84-92) > 325iX
E30 (88-91) > M3
5 Series
E12 (77-81) > 528i
E12 (77-81) > 530i
5 Series
E28 (82-88) > 528e
E28 (82-88) > 533i
E28 (82-88) > 535i
E28 (1988) > M5
6 Series
E24 (76-89) > 630CSi
E24 (76-89) > 633CSi
E24 (76-89) > 635CSi
E24 (87-89) > M6
7 Series
E23 (77-87) > 733i
E23 (77-87) > 735i

How to Convert Sealed Beam Headlights to Led

Source: https://www.bimmerworld.com/Lighting/Headlamps/Hella-LED-Conversion-Headlight-Kit-BMW-Sealed-Beam-E30-E28.html

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