HID Bi-Xenon Retro-fit in 3rd gen
02-25-06, 11:06 PM
#1
HID Bi-Xenon Retro-fit in 3rd gen
Well, I finally finished my bi-xenon projector retrofit into my stock 93 headlight housing project. Actually one side is completely finished and the other side should be done tomorrow. I have the different pieces in different stages of construction so I will be able to take photos of all the different steps.
This is definately not for the faint of heart. It has taken me over 3 weeks to finally get the passenger side completed and source all the componenets. However, now that it is done, this has turned out to be one of the most gratifying and awesome upgrades I have done. To see the great light output in front of me at night blows all other light upgrades out of the water. It sucks that no one offers a kit for this setup. I know most people want to ditch the pop ups when paying big money for new lights but none of the sleek light kits I have seen can match the beam intensity and coverage of a true HID projector runing stock OEM ballasts and bulbs and sitting at the proper height needed to get a good down field aim.
Putting HID's into the stock housings sucked ***** and also did away with the highs beams. the stock housings suck and there is no way around this except to polish them clear like I did.
Anyway here is a list of parts and a step by step how to for those who want to do this. I will post pics tomorrow.
Parts:
1) stock head light assembly 3x (one for practice if need be)
2) HID bi xenon projectors 2x (I used the hella ones from an E55 Mercedes/745 BMW) Audi 6/RS6 ones are supposed to be better but I got these for free so
The e46 M3 ones are nice too but installation and wiring is more complicated. The solenoid for the high beams is on the back side which means cutting away more of the stock headlight. The audi and merc. ones incorperate the solenoin in front under the lens. This is a better space saving design.
note: the e55 projector has a sub shield on the roof of the projector. this is designed to cut out some of the foreground light. I believe the doner cars use other lights to fill this area. by removing the shield you get more light closer to the front of the car. I did this and I am very pleased with the outcome. No need for fog lights. Also, one of the reasons I think the audi and bmw projectors have slightly better light output quality is due to the reflector bowls. the audi's and bmw's have chrome bowls, and the e55 projectors look to have a sprayed on coating which seems to be less ideal. I was thinking of chroming my *****, no wait bowls, but ran out of patience. This mod falls into the tweaking department and is by no means neccesaary.
3) ballast 2X
4) osram/ philips oem 4100k ds2 bulbs 2x
5) heat gun
6) wire ends and crimpers - heat shrink - wire loom and other related stuff for wiring (obviously)
7) wet sand paper (lots of different grits all the way up to 2000)
8) rubbing compond - polishing compound - buffing wheels
9) cordless drill - drimel - grinder
10) high temp flat black spray paint
11) JB weld
12) painters tape (blue stuff)
13) relay (good one that can handle decent current (I had some philips ones from another project)
14) patience (most important part)
labor:
1) lay everything out so you know what you have.
2) work on one headlight at a time as you might take a day or two or 10.
3) take off the factory headlight cover and bezel
4) disconect the wiring from the back of the light.
5) unscrew the 3 retaing screws and spring and remove headlight assembly.
6) remove the stock bulb and rubber cover.
7) stand back and think about whether you really want to do this. This is your last chance. After this there is no turning back
8) pop off the 4 clips with a flat head screw driver.
9) get some gloves for what come next.
10) using the heat gun start warming up the front of the assembly. do not put too much heat in one place, you will melt something (remember patience). You can aim the heat from the rear as well to heat the inside. The piece will get hot so holding it will start to get hard. After it gets pretty hot, start prying the front lens up. You may need someone to help hold the light while you work around the edges. A putty knife works well here but I did mine with a screw driver. Be careful not to crack the lens. You can also put it in the oven at around 200 degrees I think but this way worked fine for me. as the lens comes apart it will pull the gue up. you can cut it with a knife and it will lay back down in the channel on the bucket side.
11) Once it is apart, let it cool down and take a break.
12) now that the lens is cool, take some of that blue tape and cover the front side of the lens so it won't get scratched while working on it. then tape the inside around the edges as to create a box in the center of the lens that is exposed. This is the are that the projector lines up with and we want to remove all the flutes in this area so the light coming from the projector doesn't get refracted by the stock lens. This is a crucial part of the equation and takes the most time to do well. Some may want to polish the entire lens but let me tell you this will take a long time. Also by only polishing the center 60% or so, you leave the flutes on the sides to help conceal the projector. I left about 25% on either side and a 1/4 inch or so on top and bottom. You will see the natural place to lay your tape.
13) once taped off start sanding the center area. start with coarse paper and work your way up. do not use air/electric tools unless you can keep them on very low speed. You do not want to burn the plastic. also keep it wet and cool. This is just like polishing aluminum so to speak. Once the flutes are flush, start working up the grits to remove the scratches left by the coarser papers. you will end up with the 2000 grit and a cold dinner. After the sanding comes the buffing and polishing. Use the rubbing compond and a wheel and then the polishing compound and a new buffing wheel. Meguires makes a polish for plastic. I used some 3m compond I had lying around. I only did this one set so you may want to research the polishing part more.
14) after the lens is done we can move to the bucket. You will need to cut a larger hole in the rear. 1st remove the metal shield inside the housing and the spring on the back. Then start enlarging the stock hole. The size will depend on the projector you choose. start small and work your way bigger. keep it centered and only go as wide as to let the projector sit just below the level of the front lens as it would be when fully seated back down. This will keep the overall length of the assembly as short as possible and give you the most working room on the back side where the conector will go. It gets tight. You will need to trim the cradle area in some places to allow everything to fit without binding.
15) once you rough it in, place the bucket back into the car. hold the projector in the housing and put a bilb in and power it up. You want to do this in a dark place so you can see the light pattern. once you get the projector perfectly horizontal, mark the back side in multiple places to use as alignment references. It would really suck to JB weld them in place and find out they are tilted.
16) after you get some good marks pull everything out and drill some holes from the front of the bucket to be able to bolt the projector in. you may want to make a template our use a scribe to mark the housing with. Just lay the projector in the housing and line up your marks, then use a straight point to impact the housing through the 4 corners where the holes are in the projector. This where you will drill you mounting holes. make sure you drill them straight down in the direction the bolt will travel.
17) once you make your mounting holes, use some small nuts and bolts to secure the projector to the housing. You can change the direction the projector faces by tightening the differnt corners differently. The goal is to make the projector face directly forward when the assmebly is installed. This way you can adjust up and down with the factory adjustment screws. Taking the assembly back and forth to the car will help get a reference of where straight ahead will be. After you get it snug, install everything back into the car to make sure the beam fires level and that it is still perfectly horizontal. You need to make sure you connect the spring and fully seat the one screw. The other 2 are the adjustment screws.
18) now that you are pretty confident with your positioning, take everything back out and mark the back side on all 4 sides. Then once again disassemble the projector from the housing. ( only do this step if you want to paint the inside of the light black. I personall think it looks better black. I painted the projector as well for a sleek look. Just don't paint the inside bowl of the projector. that is where the light reflects. It now matches my 99 spec front end lights this way. Another big advantage of painting the inside black is that it cuts down on stray light emmisions and gives a glare free product) I used high temp bar-b-que spray paint. It is flat black and high heat. just rough up the mirror finish on the inside of the stock housing and prep it with solvent. spray and let dry. put a few coats. It is a goo idea to pre bake the paint with the heat gun to out gas the solvents. This will help keep the lenses clear.
19) after everything is black and dry, reassemble the projector and bolt it in. refit the entire assembly into the car and recheck your aiming. this is your last chance. after you are 100% sure that it fires straight ahead and is not tilted and that it is deep enogh to fully seat the lens remove it once again. You are now reay to JB weld the projector to the housing. Make sure your mounting bolts are snug. do not over tighten them or you risk cracking the husing. Once you cover them in JB weld, they will not vibrate loose. Mix up your JB weld in multiple stages working 1st around the center and then covering the 4 bolt and their holes as well as where the solenoid wire comes through. Once everything is sealed shut let her dry for 24 hrs.
day 3
20) now that the projector is permantly attached, make sure everything is super clean. blow out any dust and really clean the inside of the lens. Any streaks will be visible. This will never be perfect. With the light on, you will still see some swirl marks and small scratches. The fact is, if you look at all the other cars driving around, you will see all the imperfections on them as well. this will not affect the light output.
21) get out the trusty heat gun and start to reheat both the lens and the housing. If you place the two together thet will stick to each other. As they glue gets hot enough, it will start to suk the two pieces back togeter. just help it along and get it all the way down go around the edge to make sure the glue becomes fully gelled and creates a good seal. Now that its tight, put the 4 clips back on and let it cool down.
22) You now have a perfectly sealed and aimed state of the art bi-xenon headlight assembley. Thats all there is to it. Alot of patience and days off of work. A patient significant other and a strong will to help you shrug off all the people who keep telling you that your an idiot with far to much time on your hands. Wait till you see their faces now when you say " hey look at what I ******* made" This is the greatest thing since sliced bread bitch!
23) well your almost done, at least with one side. Now you have to place your ballast and wire everything up. Each ballast and length of cable may very, so there is no one setup here. You want to find a place where the ballast is clear of the light in the up and down position and wont get the high voltage cable pinched. You may have to do more triming and test fitting. I ended up putting the balast under the coolant neck on the paasenger side and double sticky taped it to the fender liner. The high voltage cable goes through the opening behind the light and up to the bulb. every setup might be different. you will have to experiment.
24) wiring. the basic premiss should work on all the bi xeon lights. The only difference is with the bmw ones. They have a 3 wire solenoid which uses one wire to quickly pull the flapper open and then a secound wire to hold it open which operates at less voltage. the 3rd wire is the ground I believe. here is a link on the topic
http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/view...8cfb93c15c1d7f
The e55/745 just use the + and - from the high beam wires. You can conect them directly to the two wires that operate the solenoid. A diode is prefered to prevent back pulsing the circuit when the solenoid shuts after letting off the brights. Here is another link
http://faqlight.carpassion.info/headlamp-harness.html
The only real hurdle is where to get the power to run the low beams. The stock 3rd gen setup, shuts down power to the LB circuit when you energize the HB's. This will not let you use the LB circuit to drive the ballast. You also do not want to connect the ballast directly to the stock wiring because of the high current draw of HID's during start up. It is twice tthat of the stock haolgen bulbs and will wear out components. Here is my solution. This is the easiest and safest and I think coolest way to wire this setup.
1) get that good relay you bought and mount it next to the driverside retractor motor. You are goung to tap in here so this keeps your wiring as short as possible. Since there is no need to have the lights come on when they are down, I used one of the feeds going to the retractor motor. This is the red with blue stripe wire on the harness side. It turns into solid red on retractor side. This wire only gets 12v when the lights are on, not when in park mode. It also gets 12v when you hit the button on the dash. this makes a nice little feature of this button. Before the mod, this button would raise the lights but no turn them on. Now it raises them and turns on the LB's. This makes the button operate as DRL switch. By pressing the button, the lights pop up and come on without turning on the rest of the runing lights. This is good for the DRL mentioned above and as stealth get away at night from the cops. You can turn off the lights and hit the button and only your headlights will be on. High beams work in this mode as well. either full on or flash to pass. In standard operation when you turn the column swith to park, the lights stay down and off. when you roll the switch to on, the lights pop up and come on. High beams work like normal.
2) ground the relay to a good bolt. there should be one right next to the retractor.
3) power the relay from the main fuse block and use a 30 amp fuse.
4) run power from each of the 2 outputs to the positive wire of each of the two ballast boxes.
5) ground the ballast box to a good ground
6) connect the high voltage wire to the back of the bulb.
7) hack the factory light connector and tap into the wire for the high beams. There are 3 wires in the factory connector. LB/HB/GRD. you want theHB and ground. Connect the HB wire to the pos. wire going to the solenoid and the ground to the negative.
8) optional. put a 15 amp fuse in each positve supply wire going from the relay to each coil. also put another diode in the trigger wire feeding the relay coil to protect retractor circuit from back pulse. Put on/off switch in trigger wire to allow you to raise the pop ups for service and not have the lights come on.
9) reassemble the cover and trim around light and sit back and enjoy all he glory of what one HID light can do. It is better than both stock lights combined.
Next month we will talk about how to finish the project by doing the secound light
Picture will be released soon.
Mike
This is definately not for the faint of heart. It has taken me over 3 weeks to finally get the passenger side completed and source all the componenets. However, now that it is done, this has turned out to be one of the most gratifying and awesome upgrades I have done. To see the great light output in front of me at night blows all other light upgrades out of the water. It sucks that no one offers a kit for this setup. I know most people want to ditch the pop ups when paying big money for new lights but none of the sleek light kits I have seen can match the beam intensity and coverage of a true HID projector runing stock OEM ballasts and bulbs and sitting at the proper height needed to get a good down field aim.
Putting HID's into the stock housings sucked ***** and also did away with the highs beams. the stock housings suck and there is no way around this except to polish them clear like I did.
Anyway here is a list of parts and a step by step how to for those who want to do this. I will post pics tomorrow.
Parts:
1) stock head light assembly 3x (one for practice if need be)
2) HID bi xenon projectors 2x (I used the hella ones from an E55 Mercedes/745 BMW) Audi 6/RS6 ones are supposed to be better but I got these for free so
The e46 M3 ones are nice too but installation and wiring is more complicated. The solenoid for the high beams is on the back side which means cutting away more of the stock headlight. The audi and merc. ones incorperate the solenoin in front under the lens. This is a better space saving design.note: the e55 projector has a sub shield on the roof of the projector. this is designed to cut out some of the foreground light. I believe the doner cars use other lights to fill this area. by removing the shield you get more light closer to the front of the car. I did this and I am very pleased with the outcome. No need for fog lights. Also, one of the reasons I think the audi and bmw projectors have slightly better light output quality is due to the reflector bowls. the audi's and bmw's have chrome bowls, and the e55 projectors look to have a sprayed on coating which seems to be less ideal. I was thinking of chroming my *****, no wait bowls, but ran out of patience. This mod falls into the tweaking department and is by no means neccesaary.
3) ballast 2X
4) osram/ philips oem 4100k ds2 bulbs 2x
5) heat gun
6) wire ends and crimpers - heat shrink - wire loom and other related stuff for wiring (obviously)
7) wet sand paper (lots of different grits all the way up to 2000)
8) rubbing compond - polishing compound - buffing wheels
9) cordless drill - drimel - grinder
10) high temp flat black spray paint
11) JB weld
12) painters tape (blue stuff)
13) relay (good one that can handle decent current (I had some philips ones from another project)
14) patience (most important part)
labor:
1) lay everything out so you know what you have.
2) work on one headlight at a time as you might take a day or two or 10.
3) take off the factory headlight cover and bezel
4) disconect the wiring from the back of the light.
5) unscrew the 3 retaing screws and spring and remove headlight assembly.
6) remove the stock bulb and rubber cover.
7) stand back and think about whether you really want to do this. This is your last chance. After this there is no turning back
8) pop off the 4 clips with a flat head screw driver.
9) get some gloves for what come next.
10) using the heat gun start warming up the front of the assembly. do not put too much heat in one place, you will melt something (remember patience). You can aim the heat from the rear as well to heat the inside. The piece will get hot so holding it will start to get hard. After it gets pretty hot, start prying the front lens up. You may need someone to help hold the light while you work around the edges. A putty knife works well here but I did mine with a screw driver. Be careful not to crack the lens. You can also put it in the oven at around 200 degrees I think but this way worked fine for me. as the lens comes apart it will pull the gue up. you can cut it with a knife and it will lay back down in the channel on the bucket side.
11) Once it is apart, let it cool down and take a break.
12) now that the lens is cool, take some of that blue tape and cover the front side of the lens so it won't get scratched while working on it. then tape the inside around the edges as to create a box in the center of the lens that is exposed. This is the are that the projector lines up with and we want to remove all the flutes in this area so the light coming from the projector doesn't get refracted by the stock lens. This is a crucial part of the equation and takes the most time to do well. Some may want to polish the entire lens but let me tell you this will take a long time. Also by only polishing the center 60% or so, you leave the flutes on the sides to help conceal the projector. I left about 25% on either side and a 1/4 inch or so on top and bottom. You will see the natural place to lay your tape.
13) once taped off start sanding the center area. start with coarse paper and work your way up. do not use air/electric tools unless you can keep them on very low speed. You do not want to burn the plastic. also keep it wet and cool. This is just like polishing aluminum so to speak. Once the flutes are flush, start working up the grits to remove the scratches left by the coarser papers. you will end up with the 2000 grit and a cold dinner. After the sanding comes the buffing and polishing. Use the rubbing compond and a wheel and then the polishing compound and a new buffing wheel. Meguires makes a polish for plastic. I used some 3m compond I had lying around. I only did this one set so you may want to research the polishing part more.
14) after the lens is done we can move to the bucket. You will need to cut a larger hole in the rear. 1st remove the metal shield inside the housing and the spring on the back. Then start enlarging the stock hole. The size will depend on the projector you choose. start small and work your way bigger. keep it centered and only go as wide as to let the projector sit just below the level of the front lens as it would be when fully seated back down. This will keep the overall length of the assembly as short as possible and give you the most working room on the back side where the conector will go. It gets tight. You will need to trim the cradle area in some places to allow everything to fit without binding.
15) once you rough it in, place the bucket back into the car. hold the projector in the housing and put a bilb in and power it up. You want to do this in a dark place so you can see the light pattern. once you get the projector perfectly horizontal, mark the back side in multiple places to use as alignment references. It would really suck to JB weld them in place and find out they are tilted.
16) after you get some good marks pull everything out and drill some holes from the front of the bucket to be able to bolt the projector in. you may want to make a template our use a scribe to mark the housing with. Just lay the projector in the housing and line up your marks, then use a straight point to impact the housing through the 4 corners where the holes are in the projector. This where you will drill you mounting holes. make sure you drill them straight down in the direction the bolt will travel.
17) once you make your mounting holes, use some small nuts and bolts to secure the projector to the housing. You can change the direction the projector faces by tightening the differnt corners differently. The goal is to make the projector face directly forward when the assmebly is installed. This way you can adjust up and down with the factory adjustment screws. Taking the assembly back and forth to the car will help get a reference of where straight ahead will be. After you get it snug, install everything back into the car to make sure the beam fires level and that it is still perfectly horizontal. You need to make sure you connect the spring and fully seat the one screw. The other 2 are the adjustment screws.
18) now that you are pretty confident with your positioning, take everything back out and mark the back side on all 4 sides. Then once again disassemble the projector from the housing. ( only do this step if you want to paint the inside of the light black. I personall think it looks better black. I painted the projector as well for a sleek look. Just don't paint the inside bowl of the projector. that is where the light reflects. It now matches my 99 spec front end lights this way. Another big advantage of painting the inside black is that it cuts down on stray light emmisions and gives a glare free product) I used high temp bar-b-que spray paint. It is flat black and high heat. just rough up the mirror finish on the inside of the stock housing and prep it with solvent. spray and let dry. put a few coats. It is a goo idea to pre bake the paint with the heat gun to out gas the solvents. This will help keep the lenses clear.
19) after everything is black and dry, reassemble the projector and bolt it in. refit the entire assembly into the car and recheck your aiming. this is your last chance. after you are 100% sure that it fires straight ahead and is not tilted and that it is deep enogh to fully seat the lens remove it once again. You are now reay to JB weld the projector to the housing. Make sure your mounting bolts are snug. do not over tighten them or you risk cracking the husing. Once you cover them in JB weld, they will not vibrate loose. Mix up your JB weld in multiple stages working 1st around the center and then covering the 4 bolt and their holes as well as where the solenoid wire comes through. Once everything is sealed shut let her dry for 24 hrs.
day 3
20) now that the projector is permantly attached, make sure everything is super clean. blow out any dust and really clean the inside of the lens. Any streaks will be visible. This will never be perfect. With the light on, you will still see some swirl marks and small scratches. The fact is, if you look at all the other cars driving around, you will see all the imperfections on them as well. this will not affect the light output.
21) get out the trusty heat gun and start to reheat both the lens and the housing. If you place the two together thet will stick to each other. As they glue gets hot enough, it will start to suk the two pieces back togeter. just help it along and get it all the way down go around the edge to make sure the glue becomes fully gelled and creates a good seal. Now that its tight, put the 4 clips back on and let it cool down.
22) You now have a perfectly sealed and aimed state of the art bi-xenon headlight assembley. Thats all there is to it. Alot of patience and days off of work. A patient significant other and a strong will to help you shrug off all the people who keep telling you that your an idiot with far to much time on your hands. Wait till you see their faces now when you say " hey look at what I ******* made" This is the greatest thing since sliced bread bitch!
23) well your almost done, at least with one side. Now you have to place your ballast and wire everything up. Each ballast and length of cable may very, so there is no one setup here. You want to find a place where the ballast is clear of the light in the up and down position and wont get the high voltage cable pinched. You may have to do more triming and test fitting. I ended up putting the balast under the coolant neck on the paasenger side and double sticky taped it to the fender liner. The high voltage cable goes through the opening behind the light and up to the bulb. every setup might be different. you will have to experiment.
24) wiring. the basic premiss should work on all the bi xeon lights. The only difference is with the bmw ones. They have a 3 wire solenoid which uses one wire to quickly pull the flapper open and then a secound wire to hold it open which operates at less voltage. the 3rd wire is the ground I believe. here is a link on the topic
http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/view...8cfb93c15c1d7f
The e55/745 just use the + and - from the high beam wires. You can conect them directly to the two wires that operate the solenoid. A diode is prefered to prevent back pulsing the circuit when the solenoid shuts after letting off the brights. Here is another link
http://faqlight.carpassion.info/headlamp-harness.html
The only real hurdle is where to get the power to run the low beams. The stock 3rd gen setup, shuts down power to the LB circuit when you energize the HB's. This will not let you use the LB circuit to drive the ballast. You also do not want to connect the ballast directly to the stock wiring because of the high current draw of HID's during start up. It is twice tthat of the stock haolgen bulbs and will wear out components. Here is my solution. This is the easiest and safest and I think coolest way to wire this setup.
1) get that good relay you bought and mount it next to the driverside retractor motor. You are goung to tap in here so this keeps your wiring as short as possible. Since there is no need to have the lights come on when they are down, I used one of the feeds going to the retractor motor. This is the red with blue stripe wire on the harness side. It turns into solid red on retractor side. This wire only gets 12v when the lights are on, not when in park mode. It also gets 12v when you hit the button on the dash. this makes a nice little feature of this button. Before the mod, this button would raise the lights but no turn them on. Now it raises them and turns on the LB's. This makes the button operate as DRL switch. By pressing the button, the lights pop up and come on without turning on the rest of the runing lights. This is good for the DRL mentioned above and as stealth get away at night from the cops. You can turn off the lights and hit the button and only your headlights will be on. High beams work in this mode as well. either full on or flash to pass. In standard operation when you turn the column swith to park, the lights stay down and off. when you roll the switch to on, the lights pop up and come on. High beams work like normal.
2) ground the relay to a good bolt. there should be one right next to the retractor.
3) power the relay from the main fuse block and use a 30 amp fuse.
4) run power from each of the 2 outputs to the positive wire of each of the two ballast boxes.
5) ground the ballast box to a good ground
6) connect the high voltage wire to the back of the bulb.
7) hack the factory light connector and tap into the wire for the high beams. There are 3 wires in the factory connector. LB/HB/GRD. you want theHB and ground. Connect the HB wire to the pos. wire going to the solenoid and the ground to the negative.
8) optional. put a 15 amp fuse in each positve supply wire going from the relay to each coil. also put another diode in the trigger wire feeding the relay coil to protect retractor circuit from back pulse. Put on/off switch in trigger wire to allow you to raise the pop ups for service and not have the lights come on.
9) reassemble the cover and trim around light and sit back and enjoy all he glory of what one HID light can do. It is better than both stock lights combined.
Next month we will talk about how to finish the project by doing the secound light
Picture will be released soon.
Mike
Last edited by MFilippello; 02-25-06 at 11:28 PM.
02-27-06, 03:13 PM
#6
a few more shots of the front,
I will take some pics tonight after I get the other light fully installed.
The beam pattern is exactly like the original E55 that they came out of. It has a perfect cut off and no stray emissions. The only complaint that could be raised is the fact that the E55 lights are not as good as the Audi ones. They have a bit of a hot spot in the center. The new TL ones are supposed to be the best but I would have had to pay for those. Also I do not think they would have fit in the housing. These were really tight. Audi RS6 is next best from the reviews. The difference is trivial. these lights are 1000% better than stock.
Mike
I will take some pics tonight after I get the other light fully installed.
The beam pattern is exactly like the original E55 that they came out of. It has a perfect cut off and no stray emissions. The only complaint that could be raised is the fact that the E55 lights are not as good as the Audi ones. They have a bit of a hot spot in the center. The new TL ones are supposed to be the best but I would have had to pay for those. Also I do not think they would have fit in the housing. These were really tight. Audi RS6 is next best from the reviews. The difference is trivial. these lights are 1000% better than stock.
Mike
Trending Topics
03-01-06, 12:00 AM
#15
I am actually having some small issues that I need to sort out. If anyone has any input please chime in.
1) The drivers side projector shines its pattern lower on the wall sugessting that it needs to be raised, but when looking at the lights from in front of the car, it hits me in the eye first when squatting down to view them suggesting it is higher than the passenger side. This is the exact opposite of what I expected.
2) the drivers side light intensity is less than the passenger side. It is definately dimmer. the projectors are the same but from different doner vehicles (745i pass side, e55 drivers side) The only difference that I can see is that the e55 had its glare shield as part of the cosmetic housing and the 7 series had it built right onto the projector. Right now the driverside has more shielding around the sides of the projector to keep light from leaking out but this should not effect light inensity directly forward. I have to open up the passenger side and put the shield from another e55 assembly to make them match. Maybe this is the reason. I doubt it though.
3) I have 2 slightly different ballasts. They look the same but the wire is a liitle diffent at the end. I wonder if the voltage is off?
I am going to try flip flopping some stuff to see what happens tomorrow night.
Mike
1) The drivers side projector shines its pattern lower on the wall sugessting that it needs to be raised, but when looking at the lights from in front of the car, it hits me in the eye first when squatting down to view them suggesting it is higher than the passenger side. This is the exact opposite of what I expected.
2) the drivers side light intensity is less than the passenger side. It is definately dimmer. the projectors are the same but from different doner vehicles (745i pass side, e55 drivers side) The only difference that I can see is that the e55 had its glare shield as part of the cosmetic housing and the 7 series had it built right onto the projector. Right now the driverside has more shielding around the sides of the projector to keep light from leaking out but this should not effect light inensity directly forward. I have to open up the passenger side and put the shield from another e55 assembly to make them match. Maybe this is the reason. I doubt it though.
3) I have 2 slightly different ballasts. They look the same but the wire is a liitle diffent at the end. I wonder if the voltage is off?
I am going to try flip flopping some stuff to see what happens tomorrow night.
Mike
03-01-06, 08:31 AM
#18
Tequila? ..it's like beer
iTrader: (1)
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Woodbine, MD
Posts: 1,124
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Just to chime in... It may seem weird but the lower cutoff on the driver's side is the correct beam pattern meant to reduce glare when approaching from behind.. You can see another one here:
Even my saab with halogen lights has a similar cutoff.. it is a few inches lower on the drivers side.
I'll be headed down this same road this year. I'm thinking about using some TT projectors though. The TT has tiny little fog light projectors (halogen) that should make great brights and fit in a sleepy configuration.
Even my saab with halogen lights has a similar cutoff.. it is a few inches lower on the drivers side.
I'll be headed down this same road this year. I'm thinking about using some TT projectors though. The TT has tiny little fog light projectors (halogen) that should make great brights and fit in a sleepy configuration.
Originally Posted by MFilippello
I am actually having some small issues that I need to sort out. If anyone has any input please chime in.
1) The drivers side projector shines its pattern lower on the wall sugessting that it needs to be raised, but when looking at the lights from in front of the car, it hits me in the eye first when squatting down to view them suggesting it is higher than the passenger side. This is the exact opposite of what I expected.
2) the drivers side light intensity is less than the passenger side. It is definately dimmer. the projectors are the same but from different doner vehicles (745i pass side, e55 drivers side) The only difference that I can see is that the e55 had its glare shield as part of the cosmetic housing and the 7 series had it built right onto the projector. Right now the driverside has more shielding around the sides of the projector to keep light from leaking out but this should not effect light inensity directly forward. I have to open up the passenger side and put the shield from another e55 assembly to make them match. Maybe this is the reason. I doubt it though.
3) I have 2 slightly different ballasts. They look the same but the wire is a liitle diffent at the end. I wonder if the voltage is off?
I am going to try flip flopping some stuff to see what happens tomorrow night.
Mike
1) The drivers side projector shines its pattern lower on the wall sugessting that it needs to be raised, but when looking at the lights from in front of the car, it hits me in the eye first when squatting down to view them suggesting it is higher than the passenger side. This is the exact opposite of what I expected.
2) the drivers side light intensity is less than the passenger side. It is definately dimmer. the projectors are the same but from different doner vehicles (745i pass side, e55 drivers side) The only difference that I can see is that the e55 had its glare shield as part of the cosmetic housing and the 7 series had it built right onto the projector. Right now the driverside has more shielding around the sides of the projector to keep light from leaking out but this should not effect light inensity directly forward. I have to open up the passenger side and put the shield from another e55 assembly to make them match. Maybe this is the reason. I doubt it though.
3) I have 2 slightly different ballasts. They look the same but the wire is a liitle diffent at the end. I wonder if the voltage is off?
I am going to try flip flopping some stuff to see what happens tomorrow night.
Mike
03-01-06, 04:45 PM
#19
Newbern, I think you might have misunderstood what I was trying to say. it is correct that the driverside of the pattern is lower than the passenger side as to not blind oncoming traffic. This is not what I was refering to. In my case, if I set one light at a certain height (pass side), then block the light from shining on the wall and set the othe beam to the same height (driverside) then you would think the lights should be level. car parked on leve ground shining at flat wall ahead. You stand in front of each beam to see only one at a time and the individual patterns are level.
You then stand in front of the car facing it and squat down to get into the level of the beam. You would think both lights would hit your eyes at the same time since you just leveled them but no. The driverside light reflects 1st. If you level them by eye then the beam patterns on the wall are no longer level?
That is my situation.
Mike
You then stand in front of the car facing it and squat down to get into the level of the beam. You would think both lights would hit your eyes at the same time since you just leveled them but no. The driverside light reflects 1st. If you level them by eye then the beam patterns on the wall are no longer level?
That is my situation.
Mike
03-02-06, 06:04 AM
#20
Tequila? ..it's like beer
iTrader: (1)
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Woodbine, MD
Posts: 1,124
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Ahh, now I think I understand. Almost sounds like the projector lens isn't square to the bulb or something along those lines. I can't think of anything else that would affect the placement of the bulk of the light. Good luck figuring it out.
Dave
Dave
03-03-06, 03:24 PM
#23
GT35R
iTrader: (1)
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Boston, MA
Posts: 290
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
wow that is amazing, Something I have had on my mind for quite some time... Have any pictures with the lights on lookin at the headlights.... Keep up the good work and keep us posted
03-06-06, 11:58 PM
#25
Ok here is an update to the small problems I was having.
The bulbs that I used were different brands. That is why they were different brightnesses. They both came out of e55 headlights that I thought were from the same car. My dumbass didn't even think to check them. One was a philips and the brighter one was an Osram Xenarc. Got another Xenarc and they are now matched.
The level issue I was having was my stupidity also. Dave was actually correct but not for the exact reasons. When standing in front of the car, in between both lights, and squatting down, I am actually sitting in the path of the driverside's high part of the cutoff but in the passenger side's low part of the cutoff. This is why the driverside light would hit my eye 1st. The step is in the middle of each projector. When in the center of the two projectors, I am getting opposite ends of the cutoff pattern. If I step off to either side of the car then they line up. Duh!
Mike
The bulbs that I used were different brands. That is why they were different brightnesses. They both came out of e55 headlights that I thought were from the same car. My dumbass didn't even think to check them. One was a philips and the brighter one was an Osram Xenarc. Got another Xenarc and they are now matched.
The level issue I was having was my stupidity also. Dave was actually correct but not for the exact reasons. When standing in front of the car, in between both lights, and squatting down, I am actually sitting in the path of the driverside's high part of the cutoff but in the passenger side's low part of the cutoff. This is why the driverside light would hit my eye 1st. The step is in the middle of each projector. When in the center of the two projectors, I am getting opposite ends of the cutoff pattern. If I step off to either side of the car then they line up. Duh!
Mike