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E46 Bi-Xenon (budget) retrofit

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Old Mar 14th, 2019, 18:31   #71
Yobbo
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In a bit of a rush as I type this but here are some pics of the D2S projectors with LED bulbs, mind you they were aimed at the clouds but the light output was much improved - further tweaks are to be had but one of the ball and socket joints is slightly broken on the right headlamp (so pops off and aims high, need to glue this) and the left one's horizontal adjuster just snapped off like chocolate... :'(

WORD OF WARNING - if you have facelift headlamps >07', then you WILL have to cut the corners off the bottom base mounting plate with a Dremel and smooth back as much as possible, this will make fitting just better all round using just the two top screw which are adequate enough.
Before removing the old projectors you may need to create a sufficient gap to remove the hidden screw by clockwise turning the vertical adjuster otherwise you may damage the socket joint.

You can see some pics here and I should note - the light output pics were taken last night before I chopped the bottom base corners off (also pictured):

https://i.ibb.co/BB5SyhG/D2-S-LED-Off.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/BCX1P4h/D2-S-LED-Low-Beam.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/t85FS6q/D2-S-LED-Full-Beam.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/gT7xL1x/Ball-and-Socket.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/S5d0yQr/D2-S-Mod-1.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/f0DnTWZ/D2-S-Mod-2.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/McpcC7Y/D2-S-Mod-3-Cut.jpg
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Old Mar 15th, 2019, 16:25   #72
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Yobbo View Post
...
You can see some pics here and I should note - the light output pics were taken last night before I chopped the bottom base corners off (also pictured):

...
thanks for pics, nice!
can you shot 1 pic in front of a wall, when you get a chance?
want to see the pattern and cutoff on vertical surface (road lightup looks interesting)...
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Old Mar 15th, 2019, 17:26   #73
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I failed to get a close to wall cut off pattern but it's not bad -
The cut off shows the staggered slant of the shutter quite clearly, but what I have done is matched up the lower level of the left side to the higher level of the right side. I don't seem to have any artifacts either which after 2-3 days of fiddling is nice - I discovered that anti-clockwise on the black hex adjuster lowers the beam and clockwise raises it, not sure about the horizontal one as the side I want to adjust doesn't have an adjuster anymore!
It feels like playing Russian roulette in terms of snapping the adjusters but quite happy with the pattern and output as it is right now, can't see any further need do anything to be honest.

I've got 6 more images from last night on the same road.
Using the beam adjustment dial I go through Low, mid, and high aim on the low and high beam.

https://i.ibb.co/7KnGmcr/1-Low-Beam-Low.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/5Tv60cN/2-Low-Beam-Mid.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/pRjvhgC/3-Low-Beam-High.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/4WNnNGF/1-High-Beam-Low.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/g4hYw7q/2-High-Beam-Mid.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/b7C2s66/3-High-Beam-High.jpg


EDIT - HIGH BEAM SHUTTER NOT WIRED IN YET
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Last edited by Yobbo; Mar 15th, 2019 at 18:21.
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Old Mar 15th, 2019, 18:00   #74
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Yobbo;2504503

[url
https://i.ibb.co/7KnGmcr/1-Low-Beam-Low.jpg[/url]
...
wow, to be honest THATS the max level you should have it on at dipped beam, atleast thats how it looks from photos. When you do all 3 pics one by one (like GIF) it looks like you are raising up the lights towards tree crowns...
maybe pic is misleading, dunno

those 2 empty "holes" just below the car looks a bit weird also... wall pic will reveal if there are any issues or not, but just doday I was discussing this pic with a friend (s40 2008 with LED H7) and I am baffled how bad some applications can be...

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Old Mar 15th, 2019, 18:08   #75
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Yobbo, just to compare - my low/high beam and wall pics, maybe will be handy to see.
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Old Mar 15th, 2019, 18:28   #76
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LizardOfBodom View Post
Yobbo, just to compare - my low/high beam and wall pics, maybe will be handy to see.
My battle scarred iPhone 5 is not the best for pictures haha...

Yeah, the majority of the time I have my beam adjuster set to the lowest or a couple notches above, I never get flashed at all.
Though the other night when the sockets popped off a guy in front flashed his hazards, turned his lights on and off, then pulled along side and verbalised something like "Nice f**king Volvo mate!" or at least that's I'm telling myself...
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Old Dec 26th, 2019, 10:48   #77
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Interesting read, thanks guys.

I ordered H7 kit from retrofitlab as I have h7 high quality leds and hid kits laying around already. Keeping high beam stock (or high quality led, but dont drive on countryside too often).

I have facelift and have removed/cleaned projectors once last year - aware of the one tricky screw.

----

Seems to me all the leds here used so far are cheapo aliexpress ones?
They mostly suck or are slightly birghter than stock h7 halogen (you might find some better ones as far as the build, but the chips/leds usually are still cheap)... Ofcourse better projector will give you illusion of much higher output overall as the stock projectors (with milky glass and one quite burned bowl in my case) suck badly.

On the top is cheap aliexpress led (with good reviews) and price about 20+ euros. This image is with stock projectors.
Below is higher quality Hikari led bulbs (80usd + tax + shipping). Also manufactures in China but uses high quality philips lumiled leds (https://www.bulbfacts.com/led-kits/r...it-review.html).
Other thing is beam pattern, that sucks bad on the cheap ones (both are rotated 9 and 3 o clock). It has to do with the fact, that the cheap bulb is not mimicking the halogen lightouput (leds too large, no correct curvatures in bulb etc.).

http://www.jipikaje.ee/volvo/bulb2.jpg
http://www.jipikaje.ee/volvo/bulb3.jpg
http://www.jipikaje.ee/volvo/bulb4.jpg

Hopefully this expensive led still works great in bmw projector fitting, cant wait to try out.

----

Other very interesteing and even better mod should be using led retrofit (morimoto or some aliexpress one). They are built from factory for led, thus are much more effective. So far guys are comparing the first gen Morimoto with 35w high quality hid as far as output goes (in morimoti projector). The second gen is supposedly even brighter.

Too bad these are not sold in EU yet. Shipping + taxed from US will make them quite steep.
http://www.morimotohid.com/bi-led-mo...rojectors.html

e46 projector + high quality led/hid kit will set you back about same as aliexpress or cheaper led projector.

I have o a lot of ineresting reading bookmarked regarding led projectors. Some aliexpress ones are quite good actually.
And with more or less modding, all of them should fit V50 headlight.

http://www.lightwerkz.net/photo/outp...-comparison-2/
https://www.hidplanet.com/forums/for...ojectors/page4
https://www.drive2.ru/o/b/465169835681120372
https://www.hidplanet.com/forums/for...ctor-need-help
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3267...chweb201603_55
https://www.hidprojectors.com/produc...nt=41815940489
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Old Dec 26th, 2019, 20:48   #78
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Default LED in xenon projectors

I have retrofit projectors with halogen h7 bulb. But i dont want to HID cause most time i drive in city. So best choise is LED i think. Those popular LED with diodes on both sides have one similar problem: black slot in front of headlight on road. It you can see it in screenshot. By searching about LED in projectors i have found that LED form makes big difference of light output in different xenon projectors with 2.5 and 3 inches. There is url to that comparison https://www.led-car-light-manufactur...eadlight-bulb/. Now iam planing to wisit local shop with cheap LED and try it out variuos options and find out does it realy makes sense.
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Old Dec 26th, 2019, 20:54   #79
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Default LED in xenon projectors

Mistouched.. Writing on phone
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Old Dec 27th, 2019, 09:41   #80
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LizardOfBodom View Post
Thanks!
Have a look here, thats where I bought projectors from.
Because I had all other parts I only needed them and long-beam adapter from that shop, but you can get full kit from them ready-to-go (D2S or H7).
Hey guys, thinking of doing this now, but have absolutly no idea what to get really.

What is the difference between the DS2, H7 D1S? Is it just the standard H7 I need? Is it possible to convert the standard H7 headlights to have both the dipped and the full beam?
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