oem DS2 xenon bulb vs aftermarket

So my passanger side headlight went out and I plan on soon seeing whats the cause and if a replacement is necessary or something possible else. I was looking online to get an idea of how much a new bulb would cost and I saw FCP has a discount on BMW oem bulbs and a few other bulbs. I read that people tend to stick to Philips and Osram but if anyone has any experience, is there any reason besides cost to buy aftermarket over oem? The oem ones are more expensive but that is not a problem for me. Thanks for the help

There's lots of reasons depending on what you pick. More light output, longevity, etc. Aftermarket also has the problem of false advertising the light output. You don't need to buy genuine BMW. Just as long as it's Philips/Osrams, since that's who they get it from anyways.

If you do replace them, I would suggest you replace in pairs.

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Originally Posted by sillieidiot

There's lots of reasons depending on what you pick. More light output, longevity, etc. Aftermarket also has the problem of false advertising the light output. You don't need to buy genuine BMW. Just as long as it's Philips/Osrams, since that's who they get it from anyways.

If you do replace them, I would suggest you replace in pairs.

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Thank you Sillie, oddly enough I spent all day yesterday looking through mostly your posts on the e46fanatics forum for my lighting questions. Thanks for the reply snd all the help , nice to meet ya


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My suggestion is to order Phillips or osram bulbs from lightwerkz.net - replace in pairs

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Originally Posted by Vas

My suggestion is to order Phillips or osram bulbs from lightwerkz.net - replace in pairs

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Is there a specific reason you recommend lightwerkz vs fcp euro?


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Originally Posted by Este330

Is there a specific reason you recommend lightwerkz vs fcp euro?


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Lightwerkz is an authorized distributor of Phillips and osram bulbs. Last time I check I did not see those listed on FCP euro.

One of the most popular d2s bulbs for a good price is the Osram CBI.

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Originally Posted by Este330

Thank you Sillie, oddly enough I spent all day yesterday looking through mostly your posts on the e46fanatics forum for my lighting questions. Thanks for the reply snd all the help , nice to meet ya


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Nice to meet you as well. Another good place for bulbs is here: https://www.theretrofitsource.com/hi...cecategory:asc

Bulb size should be D2S, if it isn't already selected in that link.

I had good results with 85122XV2C1 - Philips Xenon X-treme Vision D2S GEN2

I put them in when I got my new projectors from https://retrofitlab.com/collections/bmw-3-e46

The difference was shocking. Not so much how good it is, but how bad it was before the new bulbs and projectors.