• Welcome, Guest! We hope you enjoy the excellent technical knowledge, event information and discussions that the BMW MOA forum provides. Some forum content will be hidden from you if you remain logged out. If you want to view all content, please click the 'Log in' button above and enter your BMW MOA username and password.

    If you are not an MOA member, why not take the time to join the club, so you can enjoy posting on the forum, the BMW Owners News magazine, and all of the discounts and benefits the BMW MOA offers?

Install HID Kit In Hella FFa Lamp?

kantuckid

New member
I see on Advrider where this has been tried, but not seen a long term use report. I am curious if this lamp or another relatively cheap driving light will take this alteration? Heat effect on body,lens,etc.? The guy that did it there enlarged the reflector hole . So, the question is not can I do it, but will it work over the long haul ?:scratch

THAT TITLE IS SUPPOSED TO SAY: HELLA FF50!!!!!
 
Last edited:
I see on Advrider where this has been tried, but not seen a long term use report. I am curious if this lamp or another relatively cheap driving light will take this alteration? Heat effect on body,lens,etc.? The guy that did it there enlarged the reflector hole . So, the question is not can I do it, but will it work over the long haul ?:scratch


Don't think I've ever seen this particular idea researched on this website. BUT, I do think it was tossed around for awhile on the Pelican Parts R1100S/R1200S board. Vague memory (but I'm used to that! LOL) that perhaps Jony RR on that site actually did the conversion you're considering. Thing I would wonder about is if the light source would be in the correct focal point for a reflector designed for a halogen bulb.

Me? I'm perfectly happy with the stock Hella's on my bike. There seems to be plenty of light for me, but then I don't ride that fast at night. :whistle

Good luck!!
 
Corrected to say: Hella ff50 lamp!!!!

I read the Pelican threads , but also took notice that then vs. now is a different thing in terms of the HID kit costs! Ebay has them going for ~$25-30 in a kit.
 
Last edited:
converting hella halogen lights to hid

I did this conversion this last winter. You can get the ff50 lights from Amazon for about 100 dollars. If you make sure to get the driving lights instead of the fog lights you will not have to modify the reflector. The fog light has a shield that interferes with the hid bulb. With the driving light the bulb installs just like the original h7 bulb. What you will have to do is make a large hole in the plastic light housing with a spade bit or a unibit for the rubber boot which holds the wires from the bulb to go through. This is fairly easy but you need to spend some time determining where to put this hole so that you have room to fold the wires inside the housing so that every thing fits back together properly. I got the hid kit from a place called HID GEEKS off the internet . They have regular or slim ballast as well as 35 or 50 watt kits. I think I paid about 75 dollars for two 50 watt kits with slim ballast. I am pretty happy with the results, they put out a lot of light in a nice wide pattern, although they probably do not work as well as reflectors designed for hids. The nice thing is if you want to you can always just put the h7 bulbs back in them. I have them installed under the mirrors on a 2010 R1200RT using BMR light mounts. The ballasts are pretty easy to mount inside the fairing with wire ties and the wires fit through a gap under the mirrors with out having to make a hole. I have not used them long enough to know about the long term use of them, but after havig them on for ten minutes or so they do not seem to be any hotter than halogen lights would be.
 
I did some searches for R1150R headlight modifications too & so far not found anyone that has done the same HID mod. to the main light?
 
I was reading a "HID conversion thread" on Advrider & found this link about that subject with interesting reading . There are also some other lighting tidbits you can learn from: www.danielsternlighting.com Go to "bulbs" then "HID" or just read it all...:thumb
 
Back
Top