e46 HID Adapters

Hi, I am looking for e46 HID Adapters to buy. I live in Brampton Ontario. Canada. If anyone knows of any shops in the area or within a 40km range max id really appreciate it. There are two pictures posted on what the e46 HID Adapters look like.

Thank you.

No. Do not do this.

You do not use HID bulbs in a reflector assembly. Ever.
If you want HID/xenon headlights, you either buy projector housings or do a projector retrofit from The Retrofit Source.

See the lighting forum for more information.

Originally Posted by jneumann

No. Do not do this.

You do not use HID bulbs in a reflector assembly. Ever.
If you want HID/xenon headlights, you either buy projector housings or do a projector retrofit from The Retrofit Source.

See the lighting forum for more information.

+1
Read SolidJakes writeup:


Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Bimmer App

Originally Posted by jneumann

No. Do not do this.

You do not use HID bulbs in a reflector assembly. Ever.
If you want HID/xenon headlights, you either buy projector housings or do a projector retrofit from The Retrofit Source.

See the lighting forum for more information.

Thanks for the heads up, I wasnt aware that I cant install just the HID bulbs in my stock headlight housing. Would you be able to tell me the reason why? I'm guessing the intense heat...

Sucks though, because I have everything already set up in the car. Ballasts installed, wires ran, zip tied the whole shabang to make it look nice.

Your reflector bowls were designed for halogens. You will blind oncoming drivers if you do this. Very unsafe.

Originally Posted by Breyton-BMW

Your reflector bowls were designed for halogens. You will blind oncoming drivers if you do this. Very unsafe.

Precisely. HIDs in reflector housings are a fast track to r1cer city. Avoid at all costs. You can do a very good proper retrofit for <$300 given you already have the ballasts and wiring.


Also, please ensure you use 4300k bulbs. Don't even think about 6000k or above.

Oh man I didnt know this, so basically the light will just pour out? And sadly I do have 6000k lights The guy I bought them from told me that they are pure whites and that was the look I was going for...

To be honest i'm a super noob to all this stuff, so i'm just learning as I go. But thanks for the information.

So I guess that with my current wiring and bulbs I can still continue right? I just need to get a set of projectors? I seen the ones from the forum you told me to check out. The Morimoto ones, and they seem pretty good.

Just one question about lights, what does Bi-Xenon mean? I know that Xenons are lower light output that HIDs, so if these projectors are Bi-Xenon, doesnt that mean that it wont work with my HID bulbs?

Also the Morimoto ones says H1 bulbs, and I only have H7 bulbs, would that still fit?

Sorry for all the questions, I just want to know what i'm doing before I end up making a huge mistake again...

Do the Morimoto retrofit. You need H1 bulbs because that's what fit inside of the projectors.

Originally Posted by TyG

Oh man I didnt know this, so basically the light will just pour out? And sadly I do have 6000k lights The guy I bought them from told me that they are pure whites and that was the look I was going for...

Morimoto 3Five 4300k bulbs are cheap and good quality. 6000k is blue. I've had them before. They suck, and made my car look r1cetastic next to any car with OEM xenons like my uncle's E60 5 series.

To be honest i'm a super noob to all this stuff, so i'm just learning as I go. But thanks for the information.

No problem, we all have to learn one way or another.

So I guess that with my current wiring and bulbs I can still continue right? I just need to get a set of projectors? I seen the ones from the forum you told me to check out. The Morimoto ones, and they seem pretty good.

Yes. The Morimoto FX-R's are great. (what I have) The Mini H1 and Mini D2S are also good, and from what I've heard are easier to retrofit into the E46's housings.

Just one question about lights, what does Bi-Xenon mean? I know that Xenons are lower light output that HIDs, so if these projectors are Bi-Xenon, doesnt that mean that it wont work with my HID bulbs?

Bi-xenon means when you flip to high beams, the shutter in the projector opens up and floods the light out in front of you, above the previous cutoff. Basically it means lows and highs in one projector. This is what all modern BMW xenon headlights are.

Also the Morimoto ones says H1 bulbs, and I only have H7 bulbs, would that still fit?

Just get new bulbs. The Morimoto bulbs are of much higher quality than whatever you have now, and if you drop a bit more money, you can get the Phillips 85122+ bulbs which are vastly superior to whatever you have now. Just get 4300k bulbs. Much better at night and don't look retarded.

Sorry for all the questions, I just want to know what i'm doing before I end up making a huge mistake again...

I did the same when I first got my E46, though to a lesser degree. I dropped $700 on the DEPO Projector46 set which has REALLY poor quality projectors and on top of that I got 6000k bulbs. And MyCarr LED angel eyes. My headlights were blue and the angel eyes were purple. It looked downright awful. Poor life decision.
Hopefully you've got less in this than I originally did.

Proper projectors with clear lenses will give you the effect most people are looking for when they buy 6000k+ bulbs, which is colorful flicker:

jneumann, you really saved me man. Thanks for answering all my questions, and damn you really ended up making a horrible buy haha. Thankfully I only spent $120, and if the only waste is the bulbs then by all means I think I saved a lot more than I could of lost.

I'll definitely look into getting the Morimoto projectors. The FX-R looks pretty good, but would I have any difficulty installing them? I checked out xi_chee's DIY and it looked very easy for the mini h1's. Also the FX-R page doesnt show the option for bulbs, what bulb would I need?

Originally Posted by TyG

jneumann, you really saved me man. Thanks for answering all my questions, and damn you really ended up making a horrible buy haha. Thankfully I only spent $120, and if the only waste is the bulbs then by all means I think I saved a lot more than I could of lost.

I'll definitely look into getting the Morimoto projectors. The FX-R looks pretty good, but would I have any difficulty installing them? I checked out xi_chee's DIY and it looked very easy for the mini h1's. Also the FX-R page doesnt show the option for bulbs, what bulb would I need?

You would need D2S bulbs for the FX-R, which is the OEM standard for HID bulbs. I don't know what differences there are between the Mini H1 and Mini D2S other than bulb type, but I would go D2S if I were you so you can use the high quality OEM Phillips bulbs. You will likely need D2S to AMP adapters to work with your current ballasts.

Retrofitting requires roughly a full day on a weekend, a dremel, some screws and nuts, and lots of jbquick. If you get bixenon projectors, wire a plug on the bixenon shutter solenoid wires and tap into the high beam lines so you will gain quad high beams.

Doing a FXR retrofit is more difficult than you can imagine. The comments above sound very simple, because it's coming from very knowledgable lighting people. These folks have taken apart their headlights and know things inside out. For a nooby like you, I'd hate for you to get over your head with doing a retrofit without knowing the effort. Aligning the projector so that it's level is going to be your biggest trouble. And then theres the part of cutting up your headlights and mounting those projectors. Are you gonna have the balls to do that? Don't jump to the conclusion that doing a FXR retrofit is easy, especially when you're new to the car. Everybody makes it sound so easy, but that's because they've spent time reading, researching, and probably fiddled around with their lights before. If i were you, I'd go out and look for a used set of oem bixenons, or send your headlights to Lightwerkz and have them do the FXR retrofit for you.

Originally Posted by TyG

jneumann, you really saved me man. Thanks for answering all my questions, and damn you really ended up making a horrible buy haha. Thankfully I only spent $120, and if the only waste is the bulbs then by all means I think I saved a lot more than I could of lost.

I'll definitely look into getting the Morimoto projectors. The FX-R looks pretty good, but would I have any difficulty installing them? I checked out xi_chee's DIY and it looked very easy for the mini h1's. Also the FX-R page doesnt show the option for bulbs, what bulb would I need?

I'lll take all that into consideration. Thanks jneuman for all the information, its definitely going to help me get my car some awesome headlights. And thanks toy4to for the heads up on the upcoming difficulty. I'll make sure to evaluate the whole process before I give it a shot.

Buy a spare set of frames if you are worried. Worst case, you can swap your old frames/reflectors back in and you'll be good to go.

If you're really worried, buy a set of beat up headlights off ebay/craigslist/these forums/junk yard and cut those up. Restore the lenses while you're at it. You wouldn't believe the difference it makes in light output.