WHY should you change your fuel filter?

"You bought such a nice car, M3."


You mirin' bro?

One day you will realize. That the headlights that are in my car. Should not hurt your butt.

Originally Posted by E46Mango

Oh and if i'm not mistaken, the chinese HID bulbs tend not to filter out damaging ultraviolet light that can yellow your housings. just saying!

Not dick riding, but this is true, I've seen it with DDM bulbs partially melting housings.

Originally Posted by ThatGuy_JZ

Not dick riding, but this is true, I've seen it with DDM bulbs.

Which in case. Ill buy new lens's. And still have 500$ left over from the 700$ kit. Besides i have laminex on my headlights because im 12 what is this

I'm not hating, hell I ran the DDM's till they burnt out, that's where I'm coming from. I'm running Khoalty's now. It's not the outer clear lens I'm referring to, but the actual housing of the headlamp gets a little burnt. I live with though because like you I have a hard time justifying +$100 for some bulbs.

Originally Posted by ThatGuy_JZ

I'm not hating, hell I ran the DDM's till they burnt out, that's where I'm coming from. I'm running Khoalty's now. It's not the outer clear lens I'm referring to, but the actual housing of the headlamp get a little burnt. I live with though because like you I have a hard time justifying +$100 for some bulbs.

Khoalty =nono. WHAT were you thinking?


So unsafe

Originally Posted by ChrisRedmon

Khoalty =nono. WHAT were you thinking?


So unsafe

Do they spontaneously combust or something?

Originally Posted by WDE46

Do they spontaneously combust or something?

I think he was being sarcastic. Or maybe they will. Either way it is completely irrelevant to fuel filters.

Originally Posted by Encryption76

I think he was being sarcastic. Or maybe they will. Either way it is completely irrelevant to fuel filters.

Page 1 was the last time something relevant was said. Mango might be annoying, but Mango is just text in a forum. In a sense, he's nobody, just like you (everyone). Let's keep it about the cars.

Hope to get a new fuel filter myself. At 80k as the second owner and the original owner probably did not get the new filter.

Originally Posted by WDE46

Mango chill. You should probably be a little more open minded and stop getting offended when people don't like your attitude. If his headlights are adjusted properly and they don't catch the car on fire, then there is no problem.

Actually, that ain't exactly so. Yes you can do the static adjustment but you can't compensate for the dynamic changes while driving that the leveling system allows for. You still are going to be a public nuisance by scattering the light rather than focusing the light and that is what makes other drivers want to use a hammer on your lights.

Change your fuel filter at 30K intervals. You will be glad that your did. Your car will too.

Originally Posted by Stickbuilder

Change your fuel filter at 30K intervals. You will be glad that your did. Your car will too.

+1, this is the ANSWER. Do what you want to do, but 30k is the right way to go.

For everyone who has 120k on the original fuel filter and/or aftermarket Xenon's just keep your comments to yourself.

For those who choose not to do PM, more power to you. Hopefully at the end of the day it will pay off for you.

Enough said!

Originally Posted by Stickbuilder

Actually, that ain't exactly so. Yes you can do the static adjustment but you can't compensate for the dynamic changes while driving that the leveling system allows for. You still are going to be a public nuisance by scattering the light rather than focusing the light and that is what makes other drivers want to use a hammer on your lights.

Change your fuel filter at 30K intervals. You will be glad that your did. Your car will too.

My friend with an e36 M3 bought an entire assembly from bavauto. Glass housings 5k lows and 3k fogs (1000 dollars) And HIS lights are the essence of blinding. Both of our lights are 55w. Until you put them side by side.....you don't know what you are talking about. The only difference is mine are shooting through laminex too.


Changing my fuel filter fixed my occasional non start issue.

Jesus, can we stop with the headlight discussion!!!

One last thing to shut off the headlight issues.

Xenon/headlight 101

1. Xenon's in anything but projector lens are not the thing to do. All OEM Xenon's are in projector lens as they have the sheet metal shield in the bottom (that's right, the bottom of the projectors, do your optic & lens research) and this metal shield is what controls the upper level light cut off. This metal shield that controls the upper level light cut off is important in order to no create glare and blind oncoming drivers. The projector lens with the metal shield and active leveling is what is integrated to protect other drivers on the road.

2. Vehicles with Xenon's have headlight leveling control or suspension leveling control. This was government mandated and most manufacturers went with headlight leveling as it was likely cheaper and more accurate than suspension leveling control.

3. Some vehicles actually have active Xenon's that steer with the car. This is done by additional stepper motors and it ties into the steering angle sensor.

4. Xenon's in fog just usually do not work. Most fogs are not projectors and may not have the sheet metal shield. Most fogs are more like flood lights and should not be run in town or while other traffic is around, especially if they are converted to Xenon.

5. Xenon retrofits cannot properly match the bulb to the optics, so many times the light pattern cannot be controlled properly.

6. This being said, some situations Xenon retrofits can work, but they need to be well thought out.

7. Anything higher than 6k bulb temp is foolish. Usually 6k at 55 Watt or 5k at 35 Watt is a good way to go.

Change your fuel filter at 30k miles!

ChrisRedmon, do us all a favor and no more comments on headlights.

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Originally Posted by ChrisRedmon

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Tim, you are no fun, that GIF was insane

Originally Posted by ChrisRedmon

"You bought such a nice car, M3."


You mirin' bro?

One day you will realize. That the headlights that are in my car. Should not hurt your butt.

Don't flatter yourself. Was talking about BMWs in general as nice cars, especially M3s (again, in general)

People spend X amount on a car and insist on installing crap.

Oh and BTW, the chinese/ddm/khoalty/generic HID bulbs causing excess heat/ultraviolet light ISN'T ONLY TO DO WITH YOUR LENSES. What about your PROJECTION BOWLS FOR ONCE? What are you going to do? Replace your bowls? You need some SERIOUS schooling on headlight assemblies and lighting in general. It's an EXTREMELY COMPLICATED AND DEEP SUBJECT. It's not just LOOK BRO LITEZ

Originally Posted by Stickbuilder

Actually, that ain't exactly so. Yes you can do the static adjustment but you can't compensate for the dynamic changes while driving that the leveling system allows for. You still are going to be a public nuisance by scattering the light rather than focusing the light and that is what makes other drivers want to use a hammer on your lights.

Change your fuel filter at 30K intervals. You will be glad that your did. Your car will too.

This man is a professional.

Originally Posted by ThatGuy_JZ

Not dick riding, but this is true, I've seen it with DDM bulbs partially melting housings.

I've seen it as well. The projector bowl (especially cheap ones) will fade over time with the heat (within a year) and that coupled with the low life of generic HID bulbs and you pretty much have NO light quite soon. It's dangerous.

So I changed out my ~40-60k filter that I had on my 325, I put my old filter on my girls 325 which is a 2002 with 125k, and had the OE filter from 2001.
Here are the snaps of cutting open her Original Filter

Figured anything was better than what she had on it. We don't know how long she will be keeping the car.
So my gain is her gain in this case

Thought you guys would be interested to see what caused her random misfires + Misfire with low fuel codes and lack of performance.

After 125k of fuel and I know she idles a whole ton, I wonder why we had a check engine light..

Here is the cut out of a 11 year old/125k miles KAYSER OE filter.
PIX:

Originally Posted by E46Mango

This man is a professional.

Maybe in this instance. Normally he's just deriding manual transmission owners as people who couldn't afford to pony up the extra $1000 for an automatic.

Oh and while I'm against Chinese HIDs, I'm not so against not retrofitting the auto leveling system. It does not adjust very quickly at all (takes a few seconds before it decides to change). Over bumps and such, an auto leveling car and a fixed level car will cause the same scatter. The only thing auto leveling allows is for you to load up a ton of weight and not have to worry about reaiming the light.

Also, unlike Europe, it is not a legal requirement here to have auto leveling for HID systems.

Originally Posted by TerraPhantm

Maybe in this instance. Normally he's just deriding manual transmission owners as people who couldn't afford to pony up the extra $1000 for an automatic.

Oh and while I'm against Chinese HIDs, I'm not so against not retrofitting the auto leveling system. It does not adjust very quickly at all (takes a few seconds before it decides to change). Over bumps and such, an auto leveling car and a fixed level car will cause the same scatter. The only thing auto leveling allows is for you to load up a ton of weight and not have to worry about reaiming the light.

Also, unlike Europe, it is not a legal requirement here to have auto leveling for HID systems.

In my experience and observation, the dynamic leveling system in our cars work extremely well and work on an active basis. Try this: At night point your car against a wall (at pretty much any distance) with the headlights on and open your trunk. Push down on the back of the car and watch the headlights compensate. It happens pretty quickly. You don't want it to happen TOO quickly as you wouldn't want the headlights flickering over every bump. I think (in not so techy terms) takes an average and considers other factors as well. All in all, I think it does a great job.

Ken Rockwell's observations:

Automatic Dynamic Range and Height Adjustment

This is the magic part about the real BMW xenon headlights. They impressed the dickens out of me on my first night drive. I'm used to lights dipping as I brake and rising as I hammer it. These automatically and dynamically adjust the lights as you drive!

The BMW xenon lights continuously adjust themselves as you drive. As you put more or less in the trunk, step on the gas or brake or drive up or down hills in normal cars the lights go up and down, and half the time would blind oncoming drivers. If you load up the trunk in a normal car or every time you step on the gas the car points up a little and points the lights up. In the BMW 540 the xenon lights automatically self adjust, and if you're paying attention as I do you'll see them moving up and down to compensate every moment as you drive. This is also why it's illegal to jam a xenon conversion bulb into a regular headlight: the xenon is so much brighter that it's a safety hazard if it doesn't continually adjust itself. This is why the xenon headlight assemblies on the BMW cost about $1,000 each.

The adjustment considers acceleration, braking and suspension positions. It also considers road speed so it knows how to interpret suspension movement.

That last tidbit is pretty interesting