DIY: hid retrofit on a budget! (for halogen lights)

That gonna be close to impossible. The shrouds are epoxied in. So only a slight room to turn :-/ I will see what I can do though... Thanks again !!

Originally Posted by tyusha

That gonna be close to impossible. The shrouds are epoxied in. So only a slight room to turn :-/ I will see what I can do though... Thanks again !!

Ah. Well for future reference... People in this thread told me I was wrong for doing this, but here we go. If you modify the black rings that come with the shrouds, they clip right in and then WILL pressure fit on the projector without epoxy nor silicone. THey're legitimately hard to get off, too.



They also fit around the lens a lot better than the "right way" that everyone does it. Perfectly centered.

Thanks for the pics! That's almost exactly what i did! I epoxied the ring to the shroud first! But it did not fit as snug on the projector as I would have liked... So I ended up putting epoxy on the projector housing as well...

Ordered the mini hi 5.0 bixenon and the bx35 h1 bulbs. I have crappy DDM tuning slim ballasts for now. But will be grabbing the morimoto ones from TRS!

Originally Posted by tyusha

So I just did this today, and it went really well for the most part. The light pattern is really odd however. Even after adjusting the headlights, the area right in front of the car is completely dark. Not sure what to do. I don't know if this is one of those cases where the bixenon levers need to be bent a bit. Please let me know what you guys think. It looks like this

Nice!

Deadwood83 or anyone else, if you get a chance, could you post a pic of your light output like it did in my post 615 where you can see the front of the car, and the dark area in front of the car. I just want to compare it too mine... i will try to get back in there and adjust the angles. i hope it will work... otherwise i will need to order some new shrouds and centering rings....

Originally Posted by tyusha

Deadwood83 or anyone else, if you get a chance, could you post a pic of your light output like it did in my post 615 where you can see the front of the car, and the dark area in front of the car. I just want to compare it too mine... i will try to get back in there and adjust the angles. i hope it will work... otherwise i will need to order some new shrouds and centering rings....

Hey, I haven't done this, but I do know that with projectors, you want EXACTLY what you have. The light to be thrown ahead of the car.
When in the car, I'm sure you don't notice the dark spot as much, correct?

This is exactly what you want.

Yeah that's exactly what deadwood83 said, and it makes perfect sense. I think most of the funkiness of my light pattern comes from the slight angle of my projectors. I gotta adjust them!

Originally Posted by tyusha

Yeah that's exactly what deadwood83 said, and it makes perfect sense. I think most of the funkiness of my light pattern comes from the slight angle of my projectors. I gotta adjust them!

Yeah you could adjust them a little bit, but for the most part, you have that DEAD ON. The cut off wouldn't be more perfect if you ask me.

I get mine on MOnday, sadly I work second shift, so I'll probably do all the work when I get home at 11:30pm.. I may wait till the next morning but idk.
Not sure how long it takes to install, roughly, so I don't wanna risk getting half way through, and being screwed for driving home at night.

Originally Posted by tyusha

Deadwood83 or anyone else, if you get a chance, could you post a pic of your light output like it did in my post 615 where you can see the front of the car, and the dark area in front of the car. I just want to compare it too mine... i will try to get back in there and adjust the angles. i hope it will work... otherwise i will need to order some new shrouds and centering rings....

I don't have your exact angles, but I have a pic of my cutoff as well as a pre-lowering pic of the car where you can see that the only illumination in front is the angel eyes.



Remember I have custom cutoff shields, which meant I had to form them by hand, so they are by no means perfect.


And what I consider a money shot. You can see the light start to pick up at the very bottom of the image, but pitch black before that.

Ok cool! Thank you very much! That helps once again. I will try to tweak angles a little this week!

Okay we'll I did this last night. And this is what I have so far, without any adjusting.

I know what I would want, but how ba does this look?

Originally Posted by mattfarrington

Okay we'll I did this last night. And this is what I have so far, without any adjusting.

I know what I would want, but how ba does this look?

It needs a little more adjusting.
May be a aim the projectors a touch more higher.

But how far are you from the wall?
I guess you should first come really close to the wall then mark the hot spots. And reverse 20 or 25ft straight and alight the hot spots again. There is a little guide floating here with pictures which shows you exactly how to align the HID projectors.

Yeah I didn't adjust at all. My hood release cable just stretched, so I can't open it yet.
But it was daytime so I was about 3 feet away. I need a lot f adjusting to the middle I think?
I'm hoping I cn see tonight... Haha
I'm screwed with my hood being stuck closed into I can get to the deals to he them open it.

Hmmm. from 3 ft distance it looks OK. Doesnt look facing too much to the ground. But you never know until you are in the actual viewing distance which is 20/25ft.

You should be fine at night. Just drive a little carefully till you can get your hood open.

Well thy makes me feel better. I'll grab a night shot after I get off work at 10:45.
Talked to a brothers friend who works at BMW.. Said he goes in through the grill and messes with the latches to open it.

Originally Posted by mattfarrington

Well thy makes me feel better. I'll grab a night shot after I get off work at 10:45.
Talked to a brothers friend who works at BMW.. Said he goes in through the grill and messes with the latches to open it.

Here are a couple of threads to get you started.


http://www.e46fanatics.com/forum/sho...d.php?t=633010

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum....php?t=1169487

I'll just have a shop open te hood for me. Lol

But I got other pictures. Seems OK. But needs adjustments.
Also the light only shoots out maybe 20 feet. I feel that's way too short.

Thats awesome, I am on budget so this helps a lot haha. Thank you

Hi, I'm curious. I know how to adjust the beam up and down, but it seems my beam is too narrow in the middle and the lateral illumination seems very limited especially on the right side. Is there a way to adjust the beams laterally to allow more illumination on the side? It seems I have most of the output into the middle. Kind of like a narrow cone...
Thank you