Update #1
Have spent whole evening yesterday setting up the beam, fiddling with shutter adjustment and finally putting the HID bulbs in.
Pic below is the headlamp with new projector and HID bulb in its place. As you can see, it takes more space than original one and I was forced to relocate the ballast to the outside of headlamp assembly. Very unhappy about it, but what can you do :/
I had to cut the hole and wire the cables out of the unit.
The extra stuff on the inside of cover is silica bag (keeps inside of lamp moist-free) and a external mass cable.
Now the "fun" part have begun as I spent literally an hour under the bonnet, dancing around the car like ballerina, trying to find the decent mounting spots for ballast&wiring. T5 is so cramped under the hood that it really seem impossible to add anything, let alone 2 sets of wiring of decent proportions:
It would be easy to "just throw them anywhere" but I would be worry if not attached properly, it would do something nasty - they get pretty hot and there is high voltage involved so basically any place I tried I wasnt comfortable with. it really is a pain in the... to mount them. Ended up kinda "suspending" them using wire, cable ties and some corners of engine bay, but that will definitely change. I have idea to use a long narrow piece of perforated steel to mount the wiring to it, like the base, and then attach the whole assembly somehow to the car. Short cables between bulb and external wiring does not help either, cant now remove headlamp before unplugging the harness first. Wont be using extentsion cables, thats for sure, can cause more bad than good. I was used to pulling out lamp in 5 seconds and fiddling with it while still connected to cables so now its just a step backwards.
Finally when done, you can see how the beam pattern look, (5000k bulbs).
below, how it did look with original fresnel lenses and the same HID kit.
Looking at the beam pattern on the new projectors, you can clearly see the difference - much sharper cutoffs and beam shape. Unfortunately - right side is not so good as whole projector seem to be rotated down - need to emphasise now that is NOT the case of the new projectors, but something wrong with my lamp/mounting points/whatever. It was like this before (see pic with fresnel lenses) but wasnt as disturbing due to the more spreaded light output.
I tried everything to rotate the beam - nothing worked. Not sure what is wrong, but without re-mounting projector or re-shaping the mounting points it seem impossible to fix. Alternative probably would be getting different headlamp.
I dont have any decent pics from the road - will follow up with them when I do more testing, but so far I can give you some personal feedback as to compare to my previous stock lenses with the same HID kit:
- light output is much improved - clarity of the lens and brand new reflectors makes a big difference in how bright the beam now is.
- foreground lighting changed dramatically - from almost non-existent (see pics from previous post with fresnel lens on the wall?) to nice and uniformed from the bonnet to the cutoff points. I feel like I am driving with fog lights now as road just in front of the car is now perfectly lit
- the beam pattern of those projector is much more narrow than previous ones. That is a downside. I have read about it and apparently thats the nature of E46 projectors. Compared to Mini H1 for example or even my old ones - they are just very narrow. Its good to have foglamps set as I do (have alligned them so they shine just below dip beam pattern) as they have wide spread and nicely supplement the main ones, especially on bendy roads.
- bi-xenon function is just OK, cant say I was blown away by it. Will try to make some photos of just xenon high beam, but without HB3 bulbs supplementing them, I dont think I would be happy. Those projectors definitely wouldnt work for me as the only source of high beam. When shutter is fully opened, you are gaining more wide-spreaded light so atleast driving on bendy roads with high-beam on is better than previously, as side of the roads are better lit trough high beam. One of my previous ideas to improve high beam was mounting set of spot lights and personally I think it would have made better job. Or maybe with better quality projector and D2S burner it would be better? But dont expect the same output from those as you would get from OEM bi-xenons of audi or BMW. Completely different league.
- the cutoff lines are sharp, so they allow you to better alligning projectors and I'm more confident now about not dazzling other drivers. You literally have projected edges on the cars in front of you so you know exactly how much glare you produce and where. It takes a while to getting used to it after previous lenses, I must admit - not sure how I feel about it yet...
- there is a rainbow effect on the edges of the cutoff - It is similar to what I see on all new LED equipped cars etc where the edge of cutoff is a bit purple/green and observing the pattern on cars in front of me is a bit distracting. I think lots of xenons have this but probably the better projector, the less rainbow?
- the shutter allignment I mentioned in previous post is an issue and real PITA. Made one light perfect (very sharp cutoff on the road even far far away from the car) but another is a blurry line from 10meters onward. It all looks good on the wall and from close distance, but when you see the beam on the road as far as it reaches - its bad. Will have to try to adjust again, but atm its just trial and error :/
General experience so far? - OK.
Was it worth 120e? - I think so
Would I do it again? - probably not and keep using previous setup without so much hassle.
Will update with more pics and more daily-road experience after a while.
if anyone have advices as how to improve allignment or lens rotation - Im all ears
