The Joys of Playing together

[Bonez]

His lights actualy can't be too bright - 100W bulbs are illegal,and even they are not much brighter on the lux meter,

Wondered why the testing station guys keeps asking the question "Can you can drive with this at night?" every time I take a m/c in for a WOF.

[Motu]

HID lights aren't that much brighter on the beam setter, they emit a different colour light though Motu, I'll check one tomorrow for you and let you know the numbers.
The best thing about factory HID lights is that they are self adjusting (have to be under German law) so when you've got 500Kg of cement in the boot of your M3, you still don't blind oncoming drivers at night.

Had one in last week,when you turned the lights on they went into a setting cycle,I didn't notice if they were HID,but they were no brighter than standard bulbs.

[HDTboy]

On dipped beam they're no brighter than halogens. On full beam they're off the scale (Hella beam setter)

Later model BMWs will do a learning cycle on startup (even halogens) so that the lights module has defined end stops for the adjusters so they don't need potentiometers.

HID lights will have an igniter box behind the headlight with a fat juicy cable running into the outer lamp. The inner lamp is a standard halogen bulb