Project "Uncrapify my headlights"

[Javier]

I purchased some “DTM headlights” from Umnitza, and quickly came to realise that these are probably the crappiest E36 headlights you can buy (OK, unibody headlight-turnlight ebay headlights are worse, but not by much).

Living with them I rapidly noted a series of flaws:
- The wiring and 4-pin connector the headlights came with were horrible, with loose soldering which can be very dangerous.
- Halogen projectors are dim, and uneven... passenger side was brighter/sharper than driver side.
- High beam reflector is like a candle in a storm. Yes, sucks that much.
- Sealing rubber is of low quality and doesn't work for high beam covers, for example.
- Round glasses are of smaller diameter than the holes of the front part they sit in, and it shows (you can see the innards of the headlight)

Continuing with living on the cheap edge, I thought it would be a good idea to opt for some aftermarket chinese HIDs, so I bought a 6000k H1 kit. Result: as dim as halogen, the only difference being now you have to use ballasts which are another point of failure. Oh, you should know that 6000k is also known as gay-blue.

Additionally I wanted some angel ayes for my car, I can't help it, I like the way they look. That is why I purchased 30-LED Orions (aaagh, just before 60-LED came out). They are pretty bright at night, so you can't really see the gaps between each LED (the pearl necklace effect) unless you really look for it. During the day you can, but it is not that bad. Conclusion: they are nice, but the more LEDs the better. A little too bright for my taste, and they say 60-LED are even brighter, go figure.

In the next posts I will show you how I went from crappy-tacky lights to very decent looking and greatly functional ones.

PS: Fortunately I sold my angel eyes and now have 80-LED 4300k ones from Khoalty. No gaps, bright but not ludicrously bright.

[Javier]

Phase 0: high quality wiring
This one is a must, but I was lucky to have my busted bosch headlights with internal wiring intact. Just took it all out and put it into my new chinese aftermarket headlights.

Phase 1: proper bixenon projectors

This is where the heavy work took place.

Halogen projectors where never meant to be used with HID capsules. Focus is wrong (HID capsules are of different size than H1 bulbs), spread is terribly narrow (understandable for lower lumen halogens, but what a waste for higher lumen HIDs), glare is unsafe for oncoming cars (halogen cutoff is too generous for the more powerful HID).

These are reasons enough to avoid using HID bulbs in halogen projectors, but since mine were of very low quality they had an additional problem: driver side was dimmer than already the already dim passenger side.

The solution was to do a proper HID retrofit, and I chose FX-R bixenons from TheRetrofitSource for the job. They are replicas of the fine FX-35 projectors, have a nice spread and a beautiful cutoff. Best of all, they are bixenons, meaning that they can also replace the unimpressive high beams. Also needed: Philips 85122+ capsules with manly 4300k colour and D2S to AMP adapters so I can still use the chinese but ok ballasts.
Quick 'OMG!!!! it is so much better' moment:
[url=http://img141.imageshack.us/i/016000kvs4300k.jpg/][img]http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/2747/016000kvs4300k.th.jpg[/img][/url]
(look how I tried to get better lighting without changing projectors by modding the cuttoff. It did get better with that and a lot of additional tweaking but not by much)

These FX-R projectors have 4 mounting holes, and the internal headlight frame (the one that holds the high beam bowl and the low beam projector) has only three mounting holes. We need a bracket that can attach the two parts together. I've seen some clever people use the front part of the halogen projector and attach the new HID projector to that plastic part, then the plastic part to the headlight frame.

I felt that attaching the new projector to the plastic shroud was not the best idea since plastic quality in this chinese headlights is nowhere near my beloved boschs. You should not forget that changing a bulb always requires the use of considerable force.
Here is a diagram showing the bracket I 'designed':
[url=http://img9.imageshack.us/i/5bracket.png/][img]http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/8703/5bracket.th.png[/img][/url]
It is very simple, and has four 'elliptical' holes so you can have some freedom to rotate the projector and end up with a nice and aligned cutoff.

We will still use the front half of the old halogen projector, but only for aesthetic purposes. The idea is to have the new projector lens as deep as the old one. That is why we have to cut it.
The front half will be our new 'shroud'. The mounting tab that is 'deeper' shows us where we have to do the cutting:
[url=http://img9.imageshack.us/i/02wheretocut.jpg/][img]http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/2762/02wheretocut.th.jpg[/img][/url]

This way the FX-R projector can sit inside the plastic shroud. It could seem it is a little too recessed but since the FX-R lense is pointier than the halogen one the result is that the FX-R will mount as deep as the original projector.
[url=http://img9.imageshack.us/i/03cuttingprocess.jpg/][img]http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/5393/03cuttingprocess.th.jpg[/img][/url]

Once we cut it this is the general idea of how we mount all the parts:
[url=http://img225.imageshack.us/i/4overview.png/][img]http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/9691/4overview.th.png[/img][/url]

Ooops! I didn't take pictures of this part of the process because I got carried away but I hope this diagrams are clear enough. Our shroud is drawn with some yellow, the headlight frame with cyan, and the metal bracket with green. Mounting holes for the FX-R projector are marked in red, and the ones for bracket-frame-shroud in blue. Keep that in mind when looking at the next diagrams.
[url=http://img225.imageshack.us/i/6projectorbracket.png/][img]http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/1096/6projectorbracket.th.png[/img][/url]

You have to use nuts to adjust the bracket-projector union properly. I used three for each top screw (so they function as adjusters) and just one for each bottom screw.
[url=http://img9.imageshack.us/i/8projectorbracketframes.png/][img]http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/108/8projectorbracketframes.th.png[/img][/url]

Proper alignment through trial and error. But how can we test it without the car?
We need a 12V source. If you don't have one you can use an ATX power supply (yes, the PC one!). This power supply has 12V and 5V lines. 12V+ lines are yellow, 5V+ are red. Ground (-) is black.
Put the HID capsule into the projector, connect D2S adapter to capsule and to ballast, and ballast to ATX power supply (yellow for +, black for -)
[url=http://img9.imageshack.us/i/08atxpowersupply.jpg/][img]http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/2407/08atxpowersupply.th.jpg[/img][/url]
To switch your power source on just short pins 14 and 15.

A good method to avoid mis-alignment is to do one headlight first, and compare with the other (the still untouched one).

So, once mounted it looks like this:
[url=http://img3.imageshack.us/i/9endresult.jpg/][img]http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/2849/9endresult.th.jpg[/img][/url]
See? They look very similar.

Once attached and adjusted properly, you can connect the solenoid wires to the High Beam wires in parallel. Polarity is irrelevant. I used posi-taps to do that... makes it easier and cleaner because you don't have to crimp-in connectors.
[url=http://img3.imageshack.us/i/10positaptohighbeam.jpg/][img]http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/9617/10positaptohighbeam.th.jpg[/img][/url]
I guessed I had to use the red one, but high beam wires are thicker than I first thought. Use blue. Oh, and test your high beam functionality with the handy ATX power supply (your normal high beam bulb should light on, and you should hear the shield in your bixenon projector lowering).

By the way, there is no need for the original low beam wires anymore, since we will be using the D2S to AMP adapter. We have to come up with a good-enough way to get the adapter cable out of the headlight. This is what I did:
[url=http://img3.imageshack.us/i/11carveholeford2splug.jpg/][img]http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/5873/11carveholeford2splug.th.jpg[/img][/url]
'Carve' a hole so the D2S cable can get out of the headlight, but just deep enough so when you put the low beam cover, it presses against the cable, slightly deforming it and filling the hole.

Can you see the hole for the aftermarket H1 capsules? Just seal it with something. I cut a square piece from a busted foglight and used that to fill it.

You now have an über nice bixenon headlight!

Optional step: cut the centre of your inner high beam glass to get rid of the 'flutted pupil', or get some flutless ones, or find a place where they can make lexan replicas with the hole in place, like I did. This is why I noticed another headlight crappiness.

[Javier]

The inner glasses of my crappy headlights are way too small compared to the holes they have to fill. They leave a nasty gap that lets light through and create an unpleasant effect.
[url=http://img225.imageshack.us/i/12innerglassgaps.jpg/][img]http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/7711/12innerglassgaps.th.jpg[/img][/url]
There is an easy fix. Just make gaskets to cover those gaps. To do that we can use a... yes! A humble PC power cable. We just need the outer insulation.
[url=http://img225.imageshack.us/i/13innerglassgasket.jpg/][img]http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/5729/13innerglassgasket.th.jpg[/img][/url]
Make a longitudinal-steady cut so you can fit the insulation around each inner glass (they have tabs all around except for the top part which you don't need to cover).

Install with care to make sure the gasket is properly circling the glass, specially in this green-marked areas:
[url=http://img225.imageshack.us/i/14installgasket.jpg/][img]http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/2534/14installgasket.th.jpg[/img][/url]

Look ma, no gaps!
[url=http://img225.imageshack.us/i/15nomoregaps.jpg/][img]http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/8879/15nomoregaps.th.jpg[/img][/url]

[Javier]

I hate it when my headlights fog. Good headlights don't do that (my boschies didn't). This is mainly because sealing gaskets don't perform as they should. Let's fix that one too.
[url=http://img225.imageshack.us/i/16sealinggasketleavesga.jpg/][img]http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/8459/16sealinggasketleavesga.th.jpg[/img][/url]
Don't blame the mod we did for the D2S cable! That is the unmodified high beam cover we are looking at.

We need to make the sealing gasket 'thicker' so it doesn't leave that gap anymore. Let's take it out to see what we can do:
[url=http://img225.imageshack.us/i/17takeoutsealinggasket.jpg/][img]http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/7795/17takeoutsealinggasket.th.jpg[/img][/url]
(Don't mind the broken area. That is what guys at Umnitza did to connect high beams and city lights to the car. Why? That is a mystery. I resealed it the day my headlights arrived.)

To make a thicker sealing gasket we can use, again, PC parts!

Remember the ATX power source? I had another one, broken but full of wires that I could use to stuff the rubber channel and that way make a thicker gasket.
[url=http://img225.imageshack.us/i/18bettersealinggasket.jpg/][img]http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/3651/18bettersealinggasket.th.jpg[/img][/url]
Yeeei! Do the same to the high beam cover is necessary, and to the front glass cover. If it does not solve the fogging issue it will at least keep dust out of your headlights. You can always leave one of those tiny desiccant bags (silica gel for example) for a two-pronged attack against moisture.

Next post (when it stops raining): Output pictures, installed headlight close-ups and 'God, why do you hate meeee' moments for when I discovered this whole thing is not over yet.

[bmwboyee]

excellent job. Did you ever finish it up? Do you have output pics? Did you have to remove or cut the low beam glass?

[Javier]

Hi, thank you!

Yes, I managed to finish it. One of the halos had a defect and after repeated heating/cooling (the normal lifecycle when you use/don't use the car lighting) only half of it was turning on. I removed it, re-soldered and, voila, everything was finished.

Sorry I don't have cutoff pics. I'm studying abroad and my beauty had to stay home. But they are FX-Rs... the cutoff is exactly as others have reported. Do a search on google images for "fx-r cutoff pics" and you'll see it. Gorgeous.

The glass cover for the low beams: I had some guys make a mold of it, then modify this mold so it would have a hole in the middle. This way I avoided having to cut glass and stuff.. the lexan replica they produced already had the hole.

[jitsjaf2009]

Thanks for sharing with us. Biggest lesson I learned from all this...quality and workmanship is important. If I ever take on the project I will definitely remember your journey...and hopefully will get the right "critters" first. jim