The confusing world of xenon/projector retrofits

[Fudge]

I'm not talking about getting headlights from a sport and putting them in them a non xenon car.
I'm talking about websites like this http://www.theretrofitsource.com/ and forums like http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/forum.php where you can buy and learn how to retrofit projectors/bi-xenons/HIDS. For example

As far as I'm aware it's a much bigger thing in america compared to here so wondered if anybody on this forum had done any retro fits? To any car that is although i'd be interested to see if anyone has done a quad
projector bi-xenon clio. I'd quite like to get into it as I've always wanted bi-xenons and thought I could get this http://www.theretrofitsource.com/co...morimoto-sealed7-headlights.html#.VDe9dYCwIki fully sealed with the right wire harnesses for the 5 but I'm not sure if it would all be too complicated for me.

 

[McGherkin]

Done properly I'm sure it'd be a pretty good upgrade, but it looks like an absolute nightmare.

 

[Fudge]

some people are really good at it though but yeah it can involve ovening and splitting headlights open then a lot of cutting and epoxy

 

[AlexW]

Looked into this when I had my motorbike, decided it was too mugh of an arse and just fitted a HID kit into the standard headlights and aimed them properly.

Buy a spare set of headlights and dive in at the deep end, keep this/A thread updated though, could be interesting/helpful for others.

 

[ado]

I did on the 200. The only 200 with bi xenon AFAIK.

 

[McGherkin]

^pics?

 

[ado]

Car is long gone to someone whom doesn't frequent the forum. It's still working perfect though.

 

[Fudge]

Did you not take any pictures when you did it?
Edit: yes you did

Few pics for now. I'll write it up if I get it finished.

Had to use a dremel to cut the lens as the lens started to melt before the glue. lol

Was going to be fitted with these but they are too big so got some smaller projectors coming.

Going to be fitted with Osram CBI bulbs. I'll make sure there are some before and after pics of the output.

 

[Fudge]

So for whoever it might interest I'm thinking @McGherkin I bought a set of bi-xenon projectors for my mx5 but before I put them in there I decided to strip down some old phase 1 dual optics I had

Actually came apart really easily and nicely.
Here's the low beams and the high beam without the lens and the shroud

It turned out that these headlights where f*cked, whoever owned them before had broken the adjusters then wedged it all back together with a piece of hose and decided that would be able to align them properly. Making these headlights useful no more
theres the halogen projector on its own

And next to the bixenon one

And the bixenon one behind the phase one shroud (with it's clear lens i think it looks even nicer)

so in conclusion I think a phase one would be extremely easy to put a bixenon projector in there and you can still use the halogen high beam making for some awesome headlights (if anyone trusts me to do it for them I would do it )

 

[McGherkin]

Interesting. I did think that the Ph1 lens is quite poor quality so an aftermarket bixenon setup would be killing two birds with one stone.

What bulb does that use, and I presume it moves the shutter back so what signal does that use? 12 volt?

I'm not in a position to get you to make a set yet, but I'd be very happy to see a finished product fitted to a car.

 

[Fudge]

It uses a proper oem d2s bulb but it is one of the cheapest and smallest projectors available without going into ebay projectors
I reckon the phase one headlights could quite easily accommodate the nicest largest bi xenons
Yeah it's a 12v circuit and just flips the shitter down. Although the relay harness that I got with it runs the hid bulb and switches the hi/lo without any splicing into your own cars wiring.
I'm very tempted to make the first phase one set of bixenons tbf! Also looking at the set of phase two xenons I have their output isn't too great and could be improved with a bixenon projector.

 

[Goodj]

You're going to have all sorts of 'fun' getting those to run in a pop-up lights MX5. No doubt there'll be many threads on MX5NUTZ.com to assist you on this one.

 

[alistairolsen]

I've done a set with their "direct fit" morimoto mini 3.0 and they're too big for the majority of housings. I was lucky that I *just* had room, but for the majority of headlights I'd go the odl way and cut the bowl to mount them.

Well worth the effort for the extra light output!

 

[Fudge]

Oh yes lots of "fun" @Goodj and as @alistairolsen said they have direct fit which is what these where, but somehow I got my measurements wrong

That's not going to seal back together so as I knew I had some cutting to do I decided to find some fully plastic headlights as my metal ones where blowing up a Dremel disc per mm
But this was actually harder than I thought it was either glass lens and metal body or glass lens and plastic body and a glass lens would likely break when taking apart.
Eventually I managed to find some on a landrover defender site which had the added benefit of having leds in

Then I ovened them apart luckily they came apart quite nicely

Then I marked the halogen cutoff on the wall and slowly and painfully (with bits of burning plastic and dust being flicked at me) started cutting untill I ended up with a hole big enough

Then it was time to mount the projector, align and epoxy it in.

All mounted with the shroud

Then repeat for the other side wire it all in and voila

Now time for some output shots, I got my firends mk1 who has the standard Koito halogen lamps with osram night breaker unlimited and used my dslr with the same exposure setting for each picture.
His low beam

My low beam

His high beam (don't know why I went all slanted)

My high beam

From behind Halogen (low beam)

From behind hid (low beam)

Then I took some more down a different road from the driver seat
Low

High

 

[Daz.]

I must admit the Xenons on the megane are shockingly bad - the wifes boggo Corsa headlights are so much better!

 

[Goodj]

Hmmm,
Well, it's an improvement from stock, but the Mk2.5 projectors with Osrams are at least as good.

Still, any more light is good

 

[Fudge]

Hmmm,
Well, it's an improvement from stock, but the Mk2.5 projectors with Osrams are at least as good.

Still, any more light is good

Ah well these are the worst/cheapest projectors because they had to be really short even then they hit the back of the lids
I imagine with the mk2.5 you could go with something fairly large and well performing
Like I've seen a mk2 with an s2000 projector and the high beam retrofitted

 

[CoryColeWilkins]

I installed a set in my ph2 dci. I quite like the finish.
They are of course, very hard to take pictures of.

 

[Fudge]

Ah nice! What stuff did you use? and you got any output shots?

 

[Simon_16v]

@CoryColeWilkins Are they Bi-xenons too?

 

[CoryColeWilkins]

@Fudge & @Simon_16v
They are bi-xenon projectors I bought from eBay. They have 8000k bulbs which are a little too blue for me, they will be changed.
I don't have any output shots atm, I can grab some later.

 

[Fudge]

Are they d2s projectors? If so get osram cbi bulbs they're expensive but they're the brightest 5000k bulbs and the ones my pictures show
They're amazing