Ebay Projector Headlights: Revisited and IMPROVED!

NiteHawk · Post by **NiteHawk** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 4:44 pm

This is not a how to, this is just how I did it

I had a set of bosch e46 D2S projectors sittin here...these are available from hidplanet.

Now then, we all know there's been debate about the quality of the projectors that come in the ebay/modern projector headlights. We all know they do a great job for what they are, but there's definatly room for improvement...

SO.......

a retrofit it is

Both the ebay projector and the e46 projector have the same size lens, and are similar in depth.

First...teardown of the ebay headlight. I heated them in the oven at 210 degrees for 10 minutes. When i pulled them out, they practically FELL APART...very easy to open up in seconds.

The lens:

The shroud w/ halo's:

The housing w/ projector:

The housing w/o projector:

Pics of both projectors:

You can see that the e46 is slightly deeper, but the biggest differance in depth is the distance from the front of the bowl to the front of the lens...the e46 lens sits much farther away from the bowl than on the ebay projector. Also notice the shape of both lenses, and shape of both bowls.

Here's a shot of the e46 powered up pointing at the garage ceiling:

Big differance in output:

Now, to mount it, you have to remove the 2 adjuster bolts that come with the headlights, and also the ball joint. BEFORE I did that though, i sat the projector on the adjusters and marked where i needed to drill holes. I used the bolts to sit on since those are LEVEL to the ground, thus giving me level mounting holes as well...

To mount the adjust the new projectors, I went with 3 bolts, 3 rubber grommets, and 6 teflon stop nuts(normal nuts with a teflon washer inside them to lock them in place). The top bolt was used as a stationary pivot, like the ball joint was used on the ebay projector. The other 2 consist of a nut on the inside and outside of the housing to lock the bolt in place, and then the 2 stop nuts at the end, one on each side of the projector's flange. All 3 mounting holes have the grommets in place. These grommets provide a buffered pivot joint so that as adjustment is made, they dont put excess stress on the housing or projector.

See following pictures:

Output without shroud, headon:

Here's the setup with the shroud just pushed back on:

I'll take some pics tonight after i get home from work as to how they look at night

all of the extra hardware, you can pick up at ACE Hardware...

Now you can do this yourself

flhmfd · Post by **flhmfd** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 4:53 pm

that looks sweet. awesome job.

NiteHawk · Post by **NiteHawk** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 5:00 pm

thanks

the same basic idea can be applied to the 00-02 ebay projectors too i'm sure.

for those that may ask, the reason you cant really use anything better, is because very few projectors have the same size lens as the e46 single xenon, and these are readily available.

KrackstaR · Post by **KrackstaR** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 5:35 pm

sweet work man, i wish like hell that you only did one side so we can see the comparison

-Devil- · Post by **-Devil-** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 7:21 pm

hmm ... the ones i have on my 01 ... are turning out to be junk .. the main plastic lens has a 'clear coat' that is peeling off of them ... only had them on there about 8 months at the most ...

right now debating between putting the stock foggy ones back on , converting to an 03+ front end (have 01) or just leaving these pos's on there till i figure out something else to do

NiteHawk · Post by **NiteHawk** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 11:34 pm

Joe: you're in luck...only one side is done

NiteHawk · Post by **NiteHawk** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 3:12 am

after waiting till 3am for the rain to stop i finally got a chance to see them working in real life on the road.

Advantages to e46: much wider beam, more distance

Disadvantages to e46: because of the cutoff shield's design, the left side of the light doesn't project as far as the ebay projectors.

I had to wait for the rain to stop because i dont have the lens on it yet. I'de like to also note that the e46 was on the passanger side of the car, not the driver side, so it's somewhat understandable that the passanger side projector was not fully able to light up the driver side of the road...

I now understand though the pics i've seen of "typical" projector output for oem systems, where the light to the driver side is somewhat limited, but the passanger side gets a long spike of light that goes out far... easy to picture if you just imagine a white line tracing the limits of the projector beam on the ground...

so far, i'm definatly happy with the results.........for now

NiteHawk · Post by **NiteHawk** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 4:11 pm

Update:

Figured out a free way to seal up the back... I just cut a hole in the boot that comes with the headlights

SOHCKing03 · Post by **SOHCKing03** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 11:10 pm

Can the bulb section be replaced with a projector? Then you could have two projectors in there (even if one isn't functional)?

I think it would look a lot better.

-Brad

NiteHawk · Post by **NiteHawk** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 11:27 pm

the space for the highs is smaller than the lows projector.....the only highbeam projector i know of that small, is the Hella 50mm Xenon modules, which run close to $400 PER PROJECTOR...

i'll stick to halogens for now...

SOHCKing03 · Post by **SOHCKing03** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 12:19 am

Yeah me too.

Heck looks like I'll stick with stock projectors for now. $410 is a lot of money for me and I am in no position to spend $600 on headlights ($190 assembly +$410 projectors).

Down the road though, this retrofit would be the easiest.

Great write-up!!

-Brad

NiteHawk · Post by **NiteHawk** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 12:24 am

$410 projectors?

the e46 projectors are only $100/pair on hidplanet...

its the bosch 50mm modules for the highs that are expensive...lol

SOHCKing03 · Post by **SOHCKing03** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 12:57 am

Wow I was looking at Kits not OEM lol.

Then maybe the e46 wouldn't be a bad idea.

You stated that the e46 does not project out as far as the ebay ones on the left side. Does this present a problem>

Is your overall verdict that it is worth it?

-Brad

NiteHawk · Post by **NiteHawk** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 1:01 am

whether its worth it or not is up to you to decide.....

personally, its worth it. i get more distance. sure i lose some foreground light, but thats what foglights are for......

the fact that the e46 doesnt project as far on the left...not really an issue...plus, my projectors arent totally aimed right yet either. so i cant really judge that aspect yet.

01rtgurl · Post by **01rtgurl** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 11:38 am

Watching for said pics of comparison....

NiteHawk · Post by **NiteHawk** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 12:09 pm

yeah sorry, i didnt have a camera before i started on the other side

what i can do though, is take the projector by itself and hold it w/ a burner in it so it still lights up like it would if i hadnt removed it yet.....

i still have to do teh final aiming and fine tuning the level and stuff......

NiteHawk · Post by **NiteHawk** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 11:23 pm

Update:

After driving home tonight w/ both sides done and aimed. I've determined that they were not worth the time and money put into making them fit.

The sheild has a much bigger slope in it and the distance increase, to me, wasnt worth the loss of left road visibility.

Yeah the E46's spread evenly, yeah they're brighter...no it wasnt worth doing.

sorry guys, i guess its safe to say do a retro w/ better projectors, or at least put an hid kit in these the way they come to you...your options for projectors to swap in are nill and the e46, just dont cut it

Kevin_GP · Post by **Kevin_GP** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 1:02 am

I don't really get what you are saying with the left side visibility, do you mean because of the stepped cut off? Can you take a picture of what you are talking about? Also, did you enclose the projector itself or did you just put the shroud back on? Did you preform any color mods with the projector or take out the bar?

I didn't think these headlights were a good option for retrofitting, its going to be hard to find a projector smaller than the E46 to fit in that space.

NiteHawk · Post by **NiteHawk** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 1:58 am

bar? what bar?

yeah, the output to left of the step. which is actually the right side of the sheild... the stepped output is well, a huge step when compared to the ebay projectors.

if you look at this pic again, you can see the very big differance in the "step" of the beam. as distance grows, that step becomes a mountain of a difference. with the ebay projectors, you can see see a good distance on the left side of you...with the e46, not so much.

yes, i did slightly colormod them by pushing the sheilds inward slightly.

No, i didnt enclose the projector other than putting the shroud back in place.

bar? explain...

Kevin_GP · Post by **Kevin_GP** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 10:24 am

On mine I had a horizontal bar just behind the lens to help control light in the foreground. Some guys remove those to gain color/foreground light but I haven't removed mine yet. I don't really see it in the pictures so maybe our projectors are different? I didn't buy mine from HID planet, I bought mine on ebay with oem ballast/igniters. I wasn't super impressed with the E46's either, and I always had the intentions of upgrading. However I still don't see how this wasn't an upgrade in atleast light distribution. From the pictures I have seen the ebay projectors look horrible at properly distributing the light. Props to you for taking the time to try it out and take pictures though.

NiteHawk · Post by **NiteHawk** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 11:10 am

yeah, they do spread light better, not denying that... but the huge stepped cutoff is very annoying to me

Kevin_GP · Post by **Kevin_GP** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 1:07 pm

Did you try aiming them up higher, when I first started my retro they were aimed way to low and I raised them up and made a huge difference. Maybe you have your driver side aimed to far in horizontally. Its hard to tell with no pictures. Also if you search around on HID planet I know alot of people have made there own shield to have whatever step patterned desired (some people just get rid of the steps entirely). I dunno if that would be worth it to you but you could always try it out.

NiteHawk · Post by **NiteHawk** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 2:59 pm

the step on the ebay sheild would be preferable since its a very minimal step...

i'll see what i can do, but i'm really not into the idea of opening them up again...

i actually have them aimed a little too high as it is... normally the highest part of the cutoff is supposed to be level w/ the center of the projector, mine go up slightly

about the bar? do you have single or bixenon? i saw no bar like what you described...perhaps thats only on the bixenons?