Reddit reviews Philips D2S 85122C1 Xenon HID Headlight Bulb (Pack of 1)

The projectors can have either type of bulb - halogen or xenon. In most cases they are not interchangeable, however (at least for the E39) BMW designed the headlamp projectors to be able to correctly project light from either type of bulb. I know this because I just fit my (halogen) E39 with xenon lights this weekend, after a good bit of research.

Here's what I bought:

• 2 Phillips 4300k D2S Xenon Bulbs

• 1 pair of D2S bulb holders (your E60 may require a different type of holder)

• 1 pair of ballast-to-bulb wires

• 2 Xentec 55W HID Ballasts

• 1 pair of Kensun anti-flicker / warning canceling capacitor packs

everything was hooked up in the order listed, and the replacements are plug-and-play. the Xentec ballasts were ordered after everything else - at first I bought two Innovited 35W ballasts, but they were pretty much crap. the light output was less than my original halogen bulbs, and the color sort of flickered around a bit, which was pretty annoying. the Xentec ballasts definitely produce a cleaner, brighter light. I haven't done much night driving with my new Xenon lights yet, however I can already tell that my visibility is MUCH improved.

as for your E60, you may want to do some of your own research. I'm sure some of what I bought could work (certainly the capacitor packs, and probably the ballasts), but I am almost certain you will need different holders (DDM Tuning shows these for the E60), and it looks like those holders may use D1S bulbs instead of D2S. if you're serious about upgrading them, do a google search for "E60 LCI halogen to xenon retrofit" or some variation thereof, and read as much as you can to try and figure out what you need!

http://amzn.com/B00480J4JG

Sounds about right. Like most German cars, Audis are expensive to work on due to labor and parts. You can save yourself some money by replacing parts yourself. Assuming you have xenon bulbs, they are roughly [$42/ea on Amazon] (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00480J4JG) for the Philips D2S models (roughly equivalent to the stock brightness). Dealer/OEM prices could easily be 3-4x that per bulb. For the HID module, you could find a used one on eBay for much cheaper or even from someone like ECS Tuning who I've found to be one of the better sites for Audi parts.