well i decided that i couldnt stand the lighting in the FD any longer. i bought the e-spec headlight adjuster switch and motors

... they are a nice addition and help the situation.... but there just simply is not enough useable light, and the dispersion pattern is quite poor with the stock housings. word on the street is the e-spec housings are a little better... but still not the best. they are something like 400 for the pair (if i can even get them). also, if i were to go that route i would like to upgrade the wiring to allow me to use some higher wattage H4 bulbs that stock.

anyway, i decided that if i were going ot modify everything i might as well just go all out and do a propper HID bi-xenon conversion. the bi-xenon's let you maintain your brights. i have only done minimal research into the conversion, but decided to jump in anyway. i ordered some m3 hid units, with philips 4100K bulbs, and stock balasts off ebay... still waiting for them to show up.



when they do ill post up some pics etc and get to modifying my stock units to fit the projectors. hopefully it all works out. my only concern at this point is sealing up the stock housings so that i dont have problems with moisture, and having the balasts totally sealed from water as they greatly raise the voltage to a point where it could be dangerous. however, even though the volts are so high, the power used is only 35w as compared to the 55w halogen lights for the h4 bulbs. from what i can tell it looks like i should have plenty of room to work with.


ill still be using my e-spec headlight motors so i can adjust the headlight pitch from the drivers seat, but i dont think it will affect the install. -heath

 

Sweet! Learn something new everyday - never knew there was an angle adjuster for the headlamps. Is there a controller on the motor, or are the electronics that controls the angle on the 'switch' side? Have pics of the components? Was planning on doing a custom fixed light kit, but this might have me thinking differently.

 

Oh, and try to mount your ballast where there the 'wire' between the ballast and the bulb doesn't flex when the lights open and close (on the lamp frame in other words, if there is room). The high voltage is between the ballast and the bulb, but this is only during ignite (when you actually turn the lights on). This is the 'wire' that you don't want to stress.

FWIW, the ballasts (if they are OE) are pretty weather tight. I had mine for my HID driving lights mounted inside the rebar, on the bottom side of the rebar 'ceiling'. The main thing is that you don't want it located where water might pool.

You'll also likely need to run an dedicated harness to your battery for the ballasts, and use the original headlamp harness as a trigger for a relay to turn them on/off. I tried to use the stock harness (in this case, the fog lamp harness) as a direct power source, but it couldn't handle the heavy current draw of ignite. Ignition of the HID system is when the wiring is critical. When I had it powered off the stock harness, only one ballast would ignite at a time.

Never looked to see if they make them, you can check to see if they make male H4 connectors so that you don't have to cut up your OE harness. I'll have to call myself when I get this light project going, now that I think about it.

 

Opps, link might help. http://www.rallylights.com I got my female H9 connectors from them when I bought my Hella 90mm lamps.

 

a firend of mine names Mike, pandazrx-7 fourm name, did this exactly...

search under his name

 

yeah the angle adjuster is a powered switch that changes teh output voltage with every click. that signal goes to a motor on each headlight that attaches to the headlight adjustment screw, and depending on the voltage that they see, the motors move the headlamps a small increment. ill post a parts list/wiring diagram/ and some pictures of the headlamp adjuster motors soon. also, after thinking about it, your suggestion about retaining the stock headlamp harness and useing a male h4 adaptor makes sense. if i get pulled over for a fix it ticket with the headlights, it would be easy to swap back in a set of original lights for the headlight inspection shop . -heath

 

so can you move it higher than stock? say, you're at a stoplight and some moron has his brights on, can you move it up and shine your hids right into the punks eyes?

 

If they're "bi-xenon" lamps, he won't have to. Flicking the hi-beam switch swivels a cover over the bulb that removes the sharp beam pattern cutoff of the low-beam, basically blinding anything in front of the car...

 

yes.... when i have everything back together ill have to calculate how many degrees the light shifts from full down to full up. but if the lower limit is set to a position just before you blind oncoming traffic, im sure if it they were clicked to full up youd have all the adjustment you could possibly use.... but as kento said, you could always just hit the brights.

 

Here's what I used for sealing the housing.

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showd...Number=350-040

Oh and I believe there is a specific way to wire those solenoids up...here's a good start.

http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/view...wiring+bixenon

 

ohh this is awesome... I'm actually planning on doing this for my fd but at the moment i cannot afford bixenon housings..

I was planning on making a fiberglass mold and mounting the projector assembly to that

 

Hey if anybody needs pointers let me know, I did a Bi-Xenon conversion with a lot of trial and error...

Also, if anybody wants a pair of BMW E46 single Xenon projectors, let me know. I believe they are one of the smallest and easiest to retrofit.

Yeah it's cool to have the Bi-Xenon's, as I do, but rarely will I really use them...if you want to retrofit the singles, you can always wire up strong fog lights for high beam use.

 

i will definatly need some help or pointers for adapting them to the stock housings, and how to seal them up etc. the wiring looks pretty straight forward but ill see when they actually arrive in the mail . anyway, keep an eye out for this post, or maybe ill send you a PM or something with a few questions. thanks once again! -heath

 

ok just got my stuff in the mail.... and now i have a few rather large problems.
-first of all, the balasts didnt come with the female connectors... and im not sure where i could possubly get them.
-secondly, untill i get them i cant begin to "experiment" with wiring (rather... what wires do what). also there is a second set of wires that comes from the balast, and i have no idea what its for.
-lastly im not sure how far in to mount the projectors in the stock housing, as well as re-sealing them.

anyway ill post up some pics before i go do some research. if anyone has any insight feel free to give me some pointers -heath

 

The biggest problem that I can see is how you actually mount the projectors. What do you mount them to?

 

im not sure yet haha. well, you cut the stock headlight housing to get them to fit in, but sealing everything up is the mystery that i have yet to uncover. its going to be a big gaping hole, and the projector will be exposed.... so the answer is im not sure yet

here are a few pics though:







this one is what is hanging me up (with the wiring).... i dont have the connectors that go to the back of this ballast. there are 2 plugs... one has 2 larger prongs in it (im assuming thats simply the power feed + & - ... but i dont know which is which ) , the second plug has 3 smaller prongs in it.... im assuming those are for light controls: high beam, low beam, and ground (but thats just a guess at this point).

ill keep doing my HW... but if anyone has done a retrofit before id love ot hear from you. -heath

 

Keep me updated. I definitely want to do this, but I have no idea how i'm going to mount/insulate them.

 

Unfortunitly I have no experience with those specific ballasts, I used the Hella Gen 3's which have one universal harness plug-in for the positive and ground. I used the the stock high beam output for the shield solenoids...

There's a world of information at the HID forum, check it out.

http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/

 

Also, cost aside, which would be a better option for HIDs in the FD: OEM HIDs such as the E46 setup, or the 50/90mm Hella setup? Better being defined as visibility, (relative) ease of install, and finished, professional look (not as important)

I'm sure about the legality of the hella 50/90mm capsules, but what about the oem retrofit? and HIDs ARE legal in popup headlight cars, correct?

 

ok so i pryed the lights open... heated them slowly with a heat gun and opened them wiht a spacking knife.



now im trying to decide how exactly to mount them in the housing. the bi-xenon solenoid does not clear the rear of the housing. so i have two options....
1. is to cut out the section where the solenoid hits (that is preventing the projector from sitting inside the housing) so i can mount the projector INSIDE of the housing.
2. is to cut a larger hole in the back of the projector to allow me to slide the lense in, and have it mount OUTSIDE of the housing.




the problem is how to seal the electronics etc in each scenario. in both cases the solenoid and all the wiring will stick out of the back and be exposed to water etc. not sure how ot proceed. -heath

 

You may want to check out if an E55 bi-xenon projector would fit. The bi-xenon mechanism is housed within the E55 projector itself, so sealing up the projector is not a huge problem.

My friend and I put together the first FD retro back in 2003. For sealing of the rear we used JB Weld.







We've used JB Weld to seal the rear headlights of every retrofit we've done and it has held up perfectly.

 

Alright so you've gotten about as far as me. I haven't had time to go any further. But I plan on sanding the lens and polishing it so it's clear.

 

ok i just got my new set of lights in so ill get back to work... ill keep you guys updated. -heath

 

well ive run into a slight problem... the housings dont clear the rear of the fiberglass pop up frame. i can cut into them, however, there are things that fold down behind it which i can NOT cut into so im a little stumped. any suggestions from the people who have done the conversion?

 

Can you clarify, what "things" are you talking about? Do you mean stock wires/harness?