My Quest For Better Lighting On My E46 ///M3

.....in terms of performance! ....oh and some modifcations appearance wise

Been in the retrofitting game for quite some time now and I knew that once I got the m3, immediately I needed to modify the projectors because of their lack of intensity, width, and color. Now most of you "upgrade" to 6000k bulbs, but your losing lumens the higher temperature you move up, and on top of that, your making a bad projector even worse.

I bought my car used, and noticed the shrouds had scratches on them, and the front lenses were basically sandblasted to hell. Lucky for me, Tom at EAS had new lenses in stock so I picked them up for ~$70 shipped. Sweet!

The following consists of Infiniti FX35 Projectors with a TSX lens swap. You ask why? Because the lenses that come on the FX35 projector are usually frosted, which completely diffuses the light output...and KILLS color. With the tsx clear lens swap I have created a hybrid projector, that is very wide, intense, sharp, and colorful as hell. No need to "upgrade" to 6000k for that color flicker boys! I added in fresh philips 85122+ bulbs (4300k) since bulbs wear out after time and significantly lose lumens. Osram bulbs arent good anyways (IHMO) and thats what came with the car from the factory....

I colormatched the shroud to my cars color (titanium silver) for added customization. I love the look of the chrome shroud, but when its deep inside a headlamp, all it does is reflects black, so it doesnt always appear chrome. Also the factory shrouds are sort of transparent, by painting them, no light gets out of the housing. The FX projectors are closed up anwyays...so thats a huge plus.



Eww....old greasy lenses

Front lens removed...

Shroud looked like someone had taken a sander to it!


Philips vs. osram

Side by side...

Stock E46 output: Notice lack of sharpness and color (width is VERY poor too, hard to see in this pic)


Stock shroud/projector

New monster..



Color flicker from tfx:

Notice how barely any light escapes...

The TSX lens itself brings out some beautiful characteristics even when the projector is not on...

This is where I stopped....The umnitza angel eyes wouldnt fit quite right onto the modified setup...Im going to need to elongate the brackets for a custom fit. For now, just installed them onto the DRL section.

Wow very nice work, that is a cool custom job

wow, do u still have bi-xenon functionality?

Yes, the fx is a bixenon projector. I was thinking about going with the s2000 as on majority of my previous personal retrofits, but this is the first time im going with the TFX for my own setup....very excited!

I wired the fx bixenon wiring directly into the factory E46 wiring....

Here are some more pics with the lenses on. Everything came together nicely, I will get some pics up tmrw when I get the chance.

looks very nice. can't wait for pictures of it on the car and the spread on the ground

Very nice setup!! Does the TSX projector fit perfectly with the our OEM shroud or require some modification?

As you can see on the OEM setup the shroud goes right around the lens. In the modified setup, the shroud sits around the lens holder since the lens is smaller....

wow...very nice setup.

damn sick

Looks amazing! Can you show some pictures of the width?

Sexy! Where did you get the parts?

how many hours of work did it take you and would u be willing to do this job and make some money ? i have an 01 and it doesnt have Bi xenon, anyway I can get bixenon and do ur type of modification? Thanks

pictures of the output (width, color, intensity, cutoff) will be up tonight, and by tmrw night you will see the stock vs. modified comparison.

Originally Posted by MandysM3

how many hours of work did it take you and would u be willing to do this job and make some money ? i have an 01 and it doesnt have Bi xenon, anyway I can get bixenon and do ur type of modification? Thanks

Once the lamps are out and ready to be worked on, labor is roughly 6 hours if you have the proper tools, this is from start to finish.

01, no xenons? No problem....you can solve that pretty easy. project would be the same as this plus the installation of a oem d2s bulb and ballast/ignitor setup.

Caesar

Alright, got those output pics for you guys. Just wanted to say this retrofit has been one of my favorite. The TFX is truely a monster and its really a pleasure to use it on my personal setup, finally...

The color band is ridiculous. Its so evenly, and as you can see, even at large distances, the beam pattern is very sharp and wide. The auto leveling feature works perfectly, and all the stock adjustment knobs are fully functional.

I decided to only put an angel eye over the DRL/Flasher area since I would have had to trim some of the inner housing off so the auto level feature can do it's thing. I tried putting it in there and the space was just too tight since the TFX is mounted about 1/2 inch further out due to its size.

Heres about 10' away from the wall..









Moved a bit further back...about 30'












Now I parked 150+ feet. It must have been...I was alllll the way across the church parking lot, and the right side of the beam was going across 4 garage spaces. You can see how well the output is, even over such a large distance.... You can see the blue color band above the cutoff line....I have never seen this on any projects I've done. As mentioned before, hands down possibly the best lighting that will ever fit in this car.

Holy!!!! I want this done! Would you customize one for me for a fee? LOL

That looks amazing!

Originally Posted by stm

Holy!!!! I want this done! Would you customize one for me for a fee? LOL

wow that looks amazing