Halogen to Xenon upgrade, Quad projector, FX-R retrofit

[aidilj]

Hi guys, I'm sharing a project I'm working on. It's a quad projector setup to replace the current halogens. I thought it would be too much to share at one go, so making it to two sections. I'm also looking for suggestions for a nice setup towards the end of this section, hope to hear from you guys..Reason I'm doing this project is due to my crappy current beam after being racuned (poisoned) by FX-R output beam pictures around the net.Two pairs of projectors:1. E46 AL bi-xenon2. FX-R bi-xenonThe setup will be using an E46 projector internal headlight housing and FX-R retrofitted into the high beam reflector bowl. The FX-R will be the low and high beam, while the E46 is to flash and high beam. Due to the flashing requirement, the E46 AL projector will be using halogen H7 bulb. Setup is mostly similar to DJLeonardo setup from hidplanet.com. Okay on to pictures..Headlight assembly arrived safely from the US

AL logo

Slim digital ballast for HID, bulb is D2S 4300K, ballast is 35W

Removing projector from the housing

Tri wire solenoid on AL bi-xenon projector

Then move on to rebasing the H7 bulb for D2S socketD2S and H7 focal point looks compatible

D2S in its placehttp://i791.photobucket.com/albums/yy197/aidilj/projector/IMG_3295.jpgRebased H7 in D2S holder, bulb is Philips 55W very yellow outputhttp://i791.photobucket.com/albums/yy197/aidilj/projector/IMG_3296.jpgShield/shutter removedhttp://i791.photobucket.com/albums/yy197/aidilj/projector/IMG_3313_G.jpgFX-R projector arrived!http://i791.photobucket.com/albums/yy197/aidilj/projector/IMG_3317_G.jpgFX-R and E46 AL projector size comparisonhttp://i791.photobucket.com/albums/yy197/aidilj/projector/IMG_3318_G.jpgComparing clear and not-clear lenshttp://i791.photobucket.com/albums/yy197/aidilj/projector/IMG_3324.jpgFX-R colorful cutoff, camera white balance is wronghttp://i791.photobucket.com/albums/yy197/aidilj/projector/IMG_3338.jpgDisassemble the projectorhttp://i791.photobucket.com/albums/yy197/aidilj/projector/IMG_3340.jpgEverything disassembled for paintinghttp://i791.photobucket.com/albums/yy197/aidilj/projector/IMG_3342.jpgPaintinghttp://i791.photobucket.com/albums/yy197/aidilj/projector/IMG_3349.jpgACE hardware flat white high temperature paint, lets see how well it stand against the heathttp://i791.photobucket.com/albums/yy197/aidilj/projector/IMG_3354.jpgPaintedhttp://i791.photobucket.com/albums/yy197/aidilj/projector/IMG_3356_G.jpgReassemblehttp://i791.photobucket.com/albums/yy197/aidilj/projector/IMG_3358_G.jpgMockuphttp://i791.photobucket.com/albums/yy197/aidilj/projector/IMG_3359.jpgGetting ready to cuthttp://i791.photobucket.com/albums/yy197/aidilj/projector/IMG_3361.jpgCuthttp://i791.photobucket.com/albums/yy197/aidilj/projector/IMG_3363.jpgFittedhttp://i791.photobucket.com/albums/yy197/aidilj/projector/IMG_3365.jpgFrom the fronthttp://i791.photobucket.com/albums/yy197/aidilj/projector/IMG_3371_G.jpgWhite shield resultwith flashhttp://i791.photobucket.com/albums/yy197/aidilj/projector/IMG_3382_G.jpgno flashhttp://i791.photobucket.com/albums/yy197/aidilj/projector/IMG_3383_G.jpgNow I'm still waiting for another pair of E46 shroud to arrive. I've mockup how the final thing should look like below and thinking whether I should paint the shroud black like the following EVO X retrofit work. Share you thoughts, thanks..http://i791.photobucket.com/albums/yy197/aidilj/projector/IMG_3376_G.jpghttp://i791.photobucket.com/albums/yy197/aidilj/projector/whiteevoshield.jpgCheersAidil

 

[aidilj]

Start of second section

Headlights out of car

AL logo

Bulbs and holder out
Grey holder for low beam, black for high beam

Bowls out, as also pointed by xcrave that removing the bowl can be hard. I did it by removing the black plastic then clipping off the levelling servo from the front

Angel eyes out

Fitting test

FX-R is mounted in the bowl with two screws. One as pivot point for rotational adjustment

This spray is highly recommended

Painted with satin black

Angel eyes installed

The replica shroud was hacked thoroughly to fit the angel eyes. No modification to the OEM shroud
Initial hack

Whats left of the shroud

It turns out that double-sided tape is not good enough so the angel eyes are JBed (JB welded)

Electricals

A simple circuit was designed to handle the existing control input from the car. When flashing with the low beam off, activate the halogen and its projector shutter. But when low beam is on, high beam or flash activates the bi-xenon shutter. Schematic as follows

Circuit produced

Another set of relay is used to convert the 3 wire AL solenoid to 2 wire input. We need to enable the strong pull solenoid momentarily before then activating the weak solenoid to hold the shutter down. Schematic follows, the capacitor would allow short energization of relay until it is fully charged, resistor is to discharge the capacitor

The relay set

Capacitor for HID to solve flickering problem

Capacitor for angel eyes, also for flickering problem

Before

After

Output comparison

Comparison between 55W halogen with 35W HID, HID is more efficient because most energy is converted to light while halogen radiates a lot of heat

Low beam before (halogen)

Low beam after (HID)

High beam before (2X 55W halogen)

High beam after (bi-xenon shutter)

Done

All in all I'm okay with the result, not very happy with the high beam and I'm blaming the cheap bulb for that. Suspecting that the arc chamber is skewed causing the light to be off center. Will try to get new proper bulbs and keep these as spares. Probably going for 55W ballast next time for crazy output. Hope this would help anybody looking for a guide or help.

Cheers
Aidil

 

[morrogan]

Any levelling mechanism involved in this upgrading project?

 

[B33mEr]

Awesome project bro :top: in my opinion paint it black it looks better

 

[aidilj]

Any levelling mechanism involved in this upgrading project?

The headlight already have manual leveling control. The incoming bowl assembly will support leveling as well.

 

[jarance]

stay with chrome first. If dont like, then respray to matt black.

 

[aidilj]

stay with chrome first. If dont like, then respray to matt black.

Hi Jarance, thanks. That's the thing, I was thinking like that but don't want to remove, reinstall and readjust again, sounds like a lot of work.

Some pictures from lightwerkz M3 quad projector retrofit
http://www.e46fanatics.com/forum/showthread.php?t=595110

 

[aidilj]

This is if the shroud is black

http://www.e46fanatics.com/forum/showthread.php?t=772065

 

[aidilj]

white and chrome

http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?39580-BMW-e46-quad-retrofit

 

[skinhead]

Aidil,
If ur car originally come wit halogen bulb,u need to 'trick' the sys.if not, bulb error will appear on ur meter.else,u can use gt1 n reprogram the light. I vote for black ...

 

[aidilj]

Aidil,
If ur car originally come wit halogen bulb,u need to 'trick' the sys.if not, bulb error will appear on ur meter.else,u can use gt1 n reprogram the light. I vote for black ...

Yup I hope the error will come after replacing the halogen with xenon. Then can learn to clear it either with GT1 or scanner 1.4.0. Will try the "trick" only if both fail.

Thanks for the vote.

 

[bmw7833]

I like the chrome one, looks like another inner ring after the angel eye.

 

[xcrave]

Aidil,
If ur car originally come wit halogen bulb,u need to 'trick' the sys.if not, bulb error will appear on ur meter.else,u can use gt1 n reprogram the light. I vote for black ...

Errr you dont happen to know how?

BTW im goin for Flat black too going to redo my eyes

 

[aidilj]

Errr you dont happen to know how?

BTW im goin for Flat black too going to redo my eyes

Hey xcrave, I haven't tried because I don't have the problem. But you might want to try programming with GT1, here's my screenshot : see number 12

 

[aidilj]

Retrofit coding instructions available here http://www.bmwclubmalaysia.com/forums/showthread.php?41073-DIY-E46-OBC-stalk-retrofit

 

[Petrus]

Superb mod, mite consider this after I do facelift for my ride !!! Thanx for the sharing :rock:

 

[xcrave]

Superb mod, mite consider this after I do facelift for my ride !!! Thanx for the sharing :rock:

Get the cold ones ready will help you out wakakak

 

[aidilj]

Progress update, angel eyes installed..

 

[xcrave]

Cantik la bro... adui sakit ati sakit mata... jelez

 

[skinhead]

:top:........................................