Upgrading Electronics in an 88 E24 and the battery

Folks,

One of the many things I like about my '88 M6 is that it is a very mechanical car. Unlike the '97 740il that I owned for a couple of years, I never have to worry about the battery draining out if I choose not to drive the car for a couple of weeks on end. This is important to me since I use my car strictly for recreational drives (I'm an NYC resident who uses the subway 95% of the time).

That said, if I choose to add a navigation system or a universal bluetooth wireless kit one day, should I worry about powering such items from an alternate battery source?

In the same vein, is it risky to upgrade the headlights to HID/Xenons?

I've heard that modern day cars with even an internal digital clock depend more on a charged up battery than older school cars like mine.

Sumanto

I wouldn't think so, even if you get something and hard-wire it in vs. something powered via the lighter socket, unless whatever your doing or using has some massive current draw.

I haven't looked into it, but HID/Xenon upgrades for your car, if they even exist, I think would be really expensive, as in $1k-$2k expensive. If you have the projector-lens hi/lo beams, I would just upgrade your light bulbs (the PIAA Xtreme-white bulbs from Bavauto.com) and if you have standard sealed beams, then some Hella's with some good or somewhat higher-wattage H4's.

If you drive the car infrequently, even if it seems to hold power fine for a couple of weeks, one of the 'Battery-Tender' trickle chargers would be a good idea.

thanks

Thanks for the tip on the Detran battery tende" trickle charger. I'll recommend that to all of my friends who own cars that they drive only once or twice a month.

You seem to have a battery drain somewhere. Track that down and your problem should go away.

Not risky; just expensive and pointless. Get a good set of H4/H1 halogens (Cibie or Hella) and your eyes shall be literally opened. I recommend Daniel Stern, who knows way more about this stuff than anyone else I know.

For the second time today, I gotta recommend you go over to MyE28.com where we have discussed all of this stuff to death. The E24 is mechanically and electrically identical to the E28 and there's a remarkable amount of expertise there. We welcome E24 guys as well.

minor update - apparently there are some low-cost HID-light kits out there; Didn't see anything that was vintage BMW plug and play though - it kinda looked like there are bulbs that can fit stock lights, but there's some kind of issue with the HID bulbs, having to modify things for fitment, with sealing from exposure to the elements being a problem that has to be solved in some fashion. Plus, figuring out where to install the ballasts. So, do-able if you're kinda handy, but hardly a simple install.

As CR mentions, there are already lighting options and upgrades that are very effective & far simpler.