Hi, i would love to hear if anyone had any success replacing their H13 Halogen headlight bulbs out with LED bulbs with CANbus. Please let me know if you have installed LED bulbs and your experience!

 

I have been considering it but haven't pulled the trigger yet. I have researched several YouTube videos and other links. There are a WHOLE LOT to choose from and very little "objective" data.

 

My only hesitation going to LED would be the H13 bulb design. Even in halogen form, the H13 bulbs and Mini headlights leave much to be desired for output. Adding LED bulbs is only going to exaggerate the poor headlight performance.

 

I've tried a few headlight options. If you want better lights I'd suggest just biting the bullet and buying the Mini 25W xenon retrofit lights that ECS tuning sells. They're not cheap but they work great: buy once, cry once.

https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-...t/63102347698/

The stock halogen headlights are crap no matter what bulb you put in them. You could buy projectors and then retrofit them with LEDs, but then you're not too far from the price of the xenon ones and those work better anyway.

Note that despite what the ECS site says, I had to code mine to get them to work properly on my 2012 MCS. So either budget for dealer coding or plan to buy something like Bimmergeeks software and a cable.

 

The 25w xenon worked really well. Used those back in 2015 on my 2009 R56. Well worth it, much bright and broader beam pattern. Back in 2015, there is no coding apps, but you might be able to get away with bimmercode nowadays. If its 350 a piece now, its a bargain compared to 4 figures when it first came out back in 2014.

 

I have seen those and like them other than the price sticker. I know there are others out there using LED, it has to be better than the stock and at $100-125 a heck of a lot cheaper.

My Coupe is a 2012 as well. I would have to do some research. I have both Bimmerlink/BimmerCode and I have tinkered with NCS Expert. Bimmercode for the $$$/speed/convenience of changing some simple options is GREAT. I used NCS Expert to get my digital Speedo closer to real speed.
I use Bimmerlink to read/clear error codes.

 

Bimmercode will work fine to code the 25W xenons, here's a how-to post:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ml#post4588923

No, see, that's my point: it doesn't. The problem is that you're taking the crappy stock reflectors, and then you're sticking an LED bulb in there with a differently shaped light source in a different location than a halogen filament. "Add more light" isn't necessarily going to help you if it's in the wrong place in a poorly-designed housing.

I get it: they're not cheap, and I farked around with cheaper options myself. But if you're planning to keep the car for a while and care about seeing well at night, my suggestion is to just bite the bullet and buy the xenons. If your current headlights are still good you can get some money back selling them here or on eBay.

 

Can the switch to xenons be coded with a Foxwell NT530?

 

I schwaben tool will not code it. Its a scanner, not a coder. I bet their universal one will not either.

You will need NCS expert, bimmercode or a shop who has the software, or MINI dealer will do it.