Legal Disclaimer The procedures on this page are presented as guidelines ONLY. They reflect particular jobs that were done by myself and were written down from memory as a guide to others who might need to do the same procedure. I make no representations as to the accuracy of the information contained here (please remember that I am not a professional mechanic and that free advice is worth every penny). What you do to your car is what YOU do to your car. I take no responsibility for the results of YOUR actions, lack of common sense, or stupidity. Introduction The majority of BMW Z3's come fitted with a set of normal headlights and are often slated for having very poor night time visibility... however all is not lost with the fitting of an aftermarket HID (High Intensity Discharge) Xenon Headlight Kit. HID kits have been around for several years now and have developed into very small and simple kits that simply clip into the standard car loom in a matter of minutes. most kits are made in the Far East and are sold in the UK for anywhere from £50 to £250+ but in my experience more expensive isn't necessarily better. The kit I have used for this guide (and have fitted to my Z3 M Coupe) were bought from a reputable eBay seller E-Performance UK and for the Low Beam on the Z3 are a 9006 fitment. Note This guide is using a 6000k 9006 fitment HID kit from the above mentioned seller. Many other kits are available and may differ from what is shown below and as such this guide should only be used as general pointers in fitting any other kit, though most are pretty much the same these days. Tools/Parts Required - this will vary depending on which HID kit used Flat Headed Screwdriver Cross Headed Screwdriver Scissors/Wire Cutters 10mm Spanner Zip Ties 9006 Fitment HID Kit (6000k used) 1. There are many different makes of HID kits out there and which one you go for is down to personal preference, prices tend to vary from around £50 to £250+ and the kit used here came in at £70 + delivery. It is worth mentioning that there are bulbs out there advertised as "HID" and "Xenon" but these are just regular bulbs usually with a much higher (and illegal) wattage and also run the risk of blowing fuses and melting wires. With the prices of HID kits falling all the time there really is no need to even try these cheap bulbs and it's worth getting a PROPER kit which will usually consist of 2 bulbs, 2 Starters/Ballasts and necessary wiring/fixings. This kind of kit will be a VAST improvement over the standard lights! (pic 1 & 2) 2. Starting with the drivers side you immediately see how little room there is to work here. However, the water bottle is simple to remove so with a flat head screwdriver remove the plastic nut on the left hand side (standing at the front of the car) and then lift the water bottle up and move out of the way. There is a plastic ridge/clip on the underside of the bottle that sits in a metal bracket so ensure you use a smooth upwards movement. (pic 3 & 4) 3. With the water bottle out of the way there is now plenty of access to work on this side and you can now see the low beam bulb. To remove the bulb you need to turn the bulb anti-clockwise as your looking at the back of the light, so turning the clip at the bottom towards the wing. A quick side by side comparison shows the differences between a standard Halogen bulb and a HID bulb. Remove the wire/clip from the standard bulb and store the bulb (you can easily revert your lights back to standard at anytime). (pic 5 & 6) 4. Carefully remove the new HID bulb from it's holder and making sure you DON'T TOUCH THE ACTUAL BULB with your fingers insert it into the light and rotate clockwise as your looking at the back of the light. If you haven't bought the 9006 fitment bulb then it won't fit the light and the wiring clips will also be different so please ensure you do get the correct kit! (pic 7) 5. Next take one of the Starter/Ballast units complete with the wiring loom and start plugging it all in. First take the standard wire/clip that was on the standard bulb and plug that into the starter/ballast. Then take the 2 smaller clips from the starter/ballast and plug those into the wires/clips running to the new HID bulb. And that is your wiring done! (pic 8 & 9) 6. Where and how you mount the starter/ballast is really up to you and there is no ideal place, though it is certainly best to tuck it out of the way from any direct water (although the units are sealed and all connections are waterproof) and to have the connections on the starter/ballast pointing downwards. On the drivers side I used a hole in the slam panel to mount the supplied bracket to (requiring a cross head screwdriver) and with the water bottle re-fitted it fits perfectly. I also zip tied the wires neatly together (using scissors/wire cutters to trim the zip ties down) as they give you a fair bit of slack to aid with easy placement of the starter/ballast. (pic 10, 11 & 12) 7. With one side done it's time to check it functions correctly (you may want to do this test earlier before mounting the starter/ballast and re-fitting the water bottle). Before I tested the light I did check on the fuse situation as he instructions with the kit used here stated that the headlight fuse must be 20 amp. A quick check in the fuses box reveals that the Z3 has 2 fuses for the Low Beam on EACH side (so 4 fuses in total) and each pair total 12.5 amp (5 amp and 7.5 amp). Although this is lower than stated I would rather the fuses blew before any wiring melted so a quick test and a 30 minute journey confirmed that the standard fuses are fine (though ensure your fuse cover does have some spares should you need them). Along the same lines it may be a good idea to keep the standard halogen bulbs with you in the car as a backup should the HID's fail for any reason, though there is no real reason they should. (pic 13) 8. Moving on to the passenger side you will immediately notice there is even less room to work in although without going to the hassle of removing the entire airbox there is just enough space to get access to the low beam bulb (God only knows what you have to do to change the high beam bulb!). So remove the standard bulb exactly the same way as the drivers side, rotating the bulb anti-clockwise. (pic 14 & 15) 9. The standard wiring runs through a grommet in the plastic cover so it is necessary to pull the grommet out of the cover and replace it with the grommet usually supplied with the kit. Here I had to cut one of the wires out of the new grommet as the clip would have been in the wrong place to connect to the standard loom. So ensuring your wiring will end up in all the right places fit the new HID bulb into the back of the headlight and clip the plastic cover back in place. (pic 16) 10. Now with the stater/ballast simply plug all the wiring clips together in the same way as the other side and check everything works as it should. You can start to admire just how amazing the difference is, but don't get carried away until you've finished the install. (pic 17) 11. Onto the last step now, securing the passenger side starter/ballast. Again it is entirely up to you where and how you do this but I used the supplied bracket (requiring a cross head screwdriver) and bolted it to the standard airbox mount (using a 10mm spanner) and twisted the starter/ballast so it sits flat. It's not as tucked away as the drivers side but there is much less room here. If you did remove the airbox for better access I expect there may be room somewhere further along behind the headlight but for now I'm happy with where it's mounted. (pic 18) 12. So that's it, you've now got a proper set of HID Xenon headlights installed in your Z3 and it's time to take a good look at just how amazing the the lights now are. The difference is literally like night and day (excuse the pun!) and not only does it give you far more brighter and clearer light it also updates the look of the Z3. However, the one drawback is it now makes the side lights look very orange and dull. it is possible to get side light bulbs that match the Xenon colour better and this is something I will be looking to sort out very soon so will add that to this guide when a suitable solution is found. (pic 19 & 20) This guide has been written by Jon Murgatroyd, do not copy onto other sites, however you are welcome to link directly to the page. pic 1 - hid kit pic 2 - standard z3 headlights pic 3 - tight for access pic 4 - water bottle removed pic 5 - easy access now pic 6 - bulb comparison pic 7 - hid bulb fitted pic 8 - first clip pic 9 - second/third clips pic 10 - zip tie wires pic 11 - securely mounted pic 12 - neat and tidy pic 13 - light comparison pic 14 - plastic cover pic 15 - access to bulb pic 16 - hid bulb fitted pic 17 - connect wiring pic 18 - securely mounted pic 19 - test lights pic 20 - looking good! designed by: