Upgrade your S40/V50 headlights to Bi-Xenon for £45

[Tannaton]

Ok so we all know the C30/S40/V50/C70 headlights are crap. As they are the daytime running lights, they're on all summer and the reflectors turn matt grey in the heat and there's little or nothing you can do about the failing output other than fit brighter bulbs.

I'd been looking at what I was going to do about Mrs T's V50 for a while and on Friday night one of the Osram Nightbreakers failed (been in a year) and the light from the remaining headlamp was so poor she couldn't continue her journey. Hence I decided it was time to start a project.

DISCLAIMER: I am not recommending this as a process to anyone, I am simply sharing my work which may help others. I did this in a rush to see what was possible - some of the work is a bodge job but the end result is satisfactory I think. If I was doing it again I would take more time and aim of a better engineered solution. BEAR IN MIND if you complete this process it is an IRREVERSIBLE modification to your headlight, you cannot go back to Halogen bulbs. If you complete this work your car no longer meets the Construction and Use (C&U) EU regs, but that is no more serious than making your own exhaust. If you get the beam pattern set correctly it should be MOT compliant. Make sure your headlamp washers work first as they will then become a testable MOT item.

OK, so I had previously been on to a popular internet auction site and I had bought these:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2626435642...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

And then I bought some of these:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1722110148...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Total cost approx £45. The lamps purchased at H1 kits 5000k.

HERE WE GO....

- Drive your car up to a wall, stop about 10 feet from it. Turn the headlights on and mark on the wall the "cut off" points of the headlamp beam for each side - note there should be a stepped part to the beam in the middle. Do not move the car until you have finished - this is now you reference to make sure the beam alignment of the new lights is not a million miles from the old.

- Remove a headlamp, remove the back cover, inside looks like this. Remove the headlamp bulb. Unscrew the three marked torx head screws to remove the projector unit.



- Lift the projector unit out of the casing - it looks like this:



- We need to remove the front baffle and lens. They are self riveted to the projector here:



- Remove the lens carrier and baffles by drilling out the self rivets. Pick the correct size drill so it's just big enough.



- Once you have removed the lens carrier and baffle, you should have something that looks like this:



- Next you need to remove the spigot at the bottom that is the bulb holder. Do that by bending over the three metal tabs at the bottom of the bowl like so (notice how pitted and matt the reflector is):



- Next you need to remove the bezel from the headlamp assembly. Do this by releasing the spring clips, turning it through 90 degrees and pulling it out. Note - it can only come out one way and it's fiddly.





(If I was doing this again I would work out a way of keeping these).

- Next - take the new projector unit out of the box.



- It looks like this. The two wires are for the solenoid that operate the dipped/main baffle.



- Next remove the three screws that hold the bulb retaining clip to the back and then the large fixing nut:



- Now the bodgery starts. Slide the new projector into the old projector bowl.... MAKE SURE you get the new projector the right way up - the solenoid should be at the bottom.





- It doesn't fit because the spigot on the rear of the new bowl it too large for the hole in the old bowl. Hence use a drill with a grinding tool of some sort to open it up like so (apologies to all the fastidious engineers out there...:-()

THIS IS THE POINT OF NO RETURN!



- This is what you should end up with:



- Make sure the new bowl is pushed as far into the old bowl as it will go and is almost flush with the front - like so:



- Screw on the large retaining nut and tighten. There were washers and gaskets in the projector kit i got but there was no room for them. Refit the lamp retaining clip using the three screws.

- Next - install the modified projector back into the headlamp assembly. ON mine it didn't quite fit as the mounting lugs for the lens carrier fouled the mounting lugs in the headlamp assembly so as small amount of more bodgery was required (attacked it with a small grinder, removed about 2mm):



- With the projector installed, fit the bulb (I had to shave the edge of the base of mine to get it to sit flush). Now we do the wiring:



- Drill a hole in the back cover the correct size for the grommit (23mm I think). There are two pairs of wires - one for the lamp, the other is power for the ballast and simply plugs into the old bulb socket. Red +ve to Yellow wire, Black -ve to brown. At this point you also need to connect the two wires from the dipped/main solenoid to the main beam lamp +ve and -ve. This is easy as the wires are clearly accessible.



- Next connect up the ballasts and fit the lamp back in the car. I cable tied my ballasts securely to various fittings so they didn't move about.

- Turn on the lights and check the beam alignment - adjust as necessary. Mine needed very little adjustment to get the beam alignment the same as it was.



OBSERVATIONS:

I'm delighted with the result. The dipped beam is once again acceptable (but still not as good as on my XC60). The main beam is further enhanced by the Bi-Xenon function. So far no one has flashed me - but I will roll into my friendly local MOT man next weekend to get it all checked.

The beam spread is excellent and even - the £20 projectors work surprisingly well. The colour rendering from the HID lamps is crap. I ordered 5000k ones but I suspect I have 7000k-8000k.

I know this was rushed and contains some horrible bodges, but the end result should be reliable and fit for purpose. I elected to mount the ballasts outside of the headlamp for heat reasons - it would be possible to put them inside however.

AS SAID I am not recommending anyone else does this - it was an exercise to see what was possible with cheap bits on e-bay. I intended to do some more research, buy some better quality parts, some second hand headlamps and repeat the process by making some proper brackets to mount the projectors. If this helps anyone with their own project - that's great.

Good luck!

[Tannaton]

.....I would just add that those who have been reading my posts for a few years may recall that I've been quite sceptical of HID upgrades. However I think the quality of kit available has improved in recent years, but even then it only works with the right combinations of parts. Here we have projector headlamps with bulbs designed to fit. Reflector headlamps are more difficult to upgrade (but some do work well) but H4 twin filament updates are always likely to be a disaster.

If you do follow in my footsteps - please make sure you get the beam checked at a MOT place.

[Sasha94]

Looking good, how do the projectors look in the light lens?? Very interested in this mod

[Tannaton]

Originally Posted by Sasha94

Looking good, how do the projectors look in the light lens?? Very interested in this mod

Not sure really it was almost dark when I finished!!

I will take a pic in the next few days in daylight. I did remove the plastic bezels from the front of the light, next time I will try and work out a way of keeping them.

[Sasha94]

Coolio, be interested to see!!

[Bloders2]

Originally Posted by Tannaton

, next time I will try and work out a way of keeping them.

why? what is the advantage?

[SIAMBLUE]

You were brave pulling them apart and doing what you did, you could've been £45 out of pocket and at least one headlight unit.

I have been looking at the LED can bus bulbs, they plug straight into the standard units, but if the reflector is rubbish then it defeats the point a bit.

[Max HEADVROOM]

iv got the old glass headlights... gutted

[Tannaton]

Originally Posted by Bloders2

why? what is the advantage?

None tangible - purely cosmetic and retaining a standard appearance.

[Tannaton]

Originally Posted by SIAMBLUE

You were brave pulling them apart and doing what you did, you could've been £45 out of pocket and at least one headlight unit.

I have been looking at the LED can bus bulbs, they plug straight into the standard units, but if the reflector is rubbish then it defeats the point a bit.

The main problem with most S40/V50 lights is the reflectors. Hence for me this was a reflector replacement and I took the opportunity to fit HID lamps - in theory I could have stuck with halogen and bought some H1's to replace the H7's. Fitting LED's is likely to make it worse as they aren't so much of a point source.

And yes - there was a point on Saturday afternoon I could have ended up with a one-eyed car...! Mrs T is delighted though - I think the colour rendering is poor but she says they are miles better than before.