Community Forums

Navionflyer · 10-19-2019, 08:56 AM

I'm looking for somebody who has swapped out the BMW style headlights in a 2005 Monaco Dynasty over to the newer style LED headlight buckets. Thank you. C a r y

oldguy70 · 10-19-2019, 03:28 PM

Don,t know anything about those lights but I put led bulbs in the bronco style lights and
they are awsome.

gmc70 · 10-19-2019, 06:32 PM

You should not have to change the buckets if you do not want to. You can get just the LED bulbs that will replace the halogens in it now. I am doing it right now on our 2009 vacationer. I use SuperbrightLEDs for the conversion but I have heard of a company M4. I have just had good luck with the first one.

Twolanes · 10-19-2019, 08:12 PM

On my 2004 Monaco Safari Trek I changed the OEM Halogens to LED’s by simply changing the high and low beam bulbs. Super bright LED part #’s 9005-HLV5 and 9006-HLV5. The OEM light fixtures are actually made by Hella, but used in a variety of mid-80’s BMW’s. I guess Monaco figured they’d work well for RV use.

The new LED’s will plug into the existing harness, but you’ll have to secure the harness, the included LED driver and a little extra wire, but it’s an easy 2 hour job.

The LED’s made a huge difference in nighttime road illumination. However, they’re really bright, so make absolutely certain the beams are correctly adjusted so oncoming traffic isn’t blinded. So while your swapping out the lights, make sure the fixture adjuster screws are all working. If not, you can find them on the internet, or your local BMW dealer.

vito.a · 10-21-2019, 11:02 AM

The headlight assemblies on our coach are from a 2001-2003 BMW 525i. They utilize a Hella H7 bulb. The H7 bulb is a relatively low production bulb and I haven't found anyone that makes a direct replacement LED or HID bulb.

Two years ago I purchased an aftermarket HID conversion bulb kit from DDM tuning. I have had very good results on other cars with HID kits from DDM tuning. But this kit comes with an adapter that is made poorly. The bulb fits into the adapter and then the adapter fits into the original H7 headlight socket. The entire assembly is loose and the bulb moves around.
The headlight beam pattern is all over the place. In fact, the two beams cross over each other about 100' out and the built in adjustment is not enough to compensate.

I'm waiting to find a replacement bulb (either HID or LED) that fits directly into the H7 socket.

I have had good results from replacing the original Hella FF300 Oval fog lights with Hella driving lights. They are great for night time driving. I need to rewire them so they will operate on high beam. From the factory they will only function on low beam.

wamcneil · 10-21-2019, 03:35 PM

[QUOTE=vito.a;5005748
I'm waiting to find a replacement bulb (either HID or LED) that fits directly into the H7 socket.
.[/QUOTE]
Well... It's a bit more convoluted than that... The old BMW headlights use H7 bulbs, but they do not use standard H7 socket/retainer. The BMW retainer is different from regular H7 retainers, and places the bulb much deeper in the housing. This makes it very difficult to get the bulb in the right location in the reflector because of the LED's heat sink. It's not plug-n-play. Somebody would need to engineer the bulbs specifically for this type of housing.
Here's how I worked around it with good results.
http://www.irv2.com/forums/f115/diy-...de-379517.html
One guy toward the end of the thread just bought aftermarket HID assemblies. That might be a good options, but obviously higher cost.

vito.a · 10-21-2019, 05:50 PM

Do you remember which H7 low beam LED bulbs you used?
The Amazon link you listed in the Feb 2018 thread no longer works.

"Sorry! We couldn't find that page. Try searching or go to Amazon's home page."

wamcneil · 10-22-2019, 08:58 AM

I'm not finding any that are just exactly like the ones I got. The design appears to be very similar to these:
https://www.amazon.com/AUXITO-H7-LED.../dp/B07KSY7F32
https://www.amazon.com/Headlight-Rig.../dp/B07TXHSCXX
https://www.amazon.com/Auxbeam-Headl.../dp/B06XCYZ4SQ

The important distinction is that the rear part of the bulb assy is a threaded shaft, and the heat sink screws onto it. And there's is no fan in the heat sink. This enables the heat sink to be removed and modified to clear the headlight housing. Then the heat sink threads on after the bulb is installed.

There's a new type available with a flexible heat sink dangling out the back of the bulb. I wonder if a design like this might work better?
https://www.amazon.com/SoCal-LED-Fan.../dp/B07MQGHXNL
https://www.amazon.com/JKCOVER-Headl.../dp/B074YH3X6G
Cheers,
Walter