RetrofitLab EvoX-R 2.0 bixenon retrofi

[TriggerFish]

https://retrofitlab.com/collections/bmw ... headlights

Hi all, I've seen some posts about these projectors before, and recently bough a set to fit to my own headlights, and thought I'd share my experiences...

Firstly - import tax... They charged tax on the order, and then DHL charged tax when it entered the country. The RetrofitLab refunded the tax I paid them without question, so do challenge them if it happens to you.

The projectors themselves are widely covered online, so I won't go over those too much, but they seem decent quality, and the kit had everything needed to plug and play.

My concern was that the only RHD option was for the DOT cutoff/beam pattern, whereas we use ECE in the UK, and I was worried it would fail and MoT, or just be wrong... This is what the bulk of this thread will cover as I split both my old and new projectors and swapped the cutoff shield and bixenon shutter to make the new EvoX-R 2.0's have a RHD ECE beam pattern.

I don't have the best photos, as the car was on jack stands, and not in front of a flat surface, or apologies for this. The photos are at least sufficient for the task at hand (mostly!).

Let's start with looking at the DOT beam pattern in the EvoX-R 2.0 projector:

DOT beam pattern

PXL_20250618_204927091.MP.jpg (52.96 KiB) Viewed 280 times

DOT beam pattern

Screenshot 2025-06-25 112141.png (1.88 MiB) Viewed 280 times

And then compare that to the same projector, but with the ECE beam pattern (please ignore the angle - I was trying to balance the headlight without any bolts to hold it in place):

ECE beam pattern

PXL_20250618_205137477.MP.jpg (187.3 KiB) Viewed 280 times

The difference is clear - and I actually prefer the ECE beam pattern, as the hotspot in the middle seems a bit smoother. At any rate, this is the correct, MoT appeasing pattern, and that's the main thing I was looking to address here. It also means I keep the beam adjuster for driving in LHD countries, with the new projector lacks.

So, what did I do?

- the new projectors are screwed together - I undid these screws to remove the lens from the bowl
- the old projectors are riveted together - I used a drill to undo the four rivets holding the lens (and shutter) to the bowl
- the old shutter/shield fits the new projector, but the bolt spacing is slightly different, so I had to enlarge the holes on the shield with a drill
- the old shutter/shield has a plastic mount for the pivot point of the bi-xenon shutter which had to be trimmed slightly with a knife so that it cleared the side of the new bowl
- then I just used the screws to reassemble it all

There was no drilling of the new projector at all.

It took me well under an hour (maybe 30 minutes?) including figuring it all out.

Here's a selection of photos, which captions, to explain a bit more. This isn't an indepth guide - it's a 'this is possible' type post Hopefully it helps someone!

DOT cut off

PXL_20250618_183344130.MP.jpg (168.61 KiB) Viewed 280 times

New, shiny bowl

PXL_20250618_181154144.MP.jpg (186.87 KiB) Viewed 280 times

Old, dull bowl

PXL_20250618_181210988.MP.jpg (137.82 KiB) Viewed 280 times

Old torn down

PXL_20250618_182649372.MP.jpg (191.6 KiB) Viewed 280 times

New projector with old cut off shield/shutter

PXL_20250618_183941310.MP.jpg (195.33 KiB) Viewed 280 times

[TriggerFish]

There's a couple of good guides here on how to remove the projectors themselves - which is very straight forward, but much easier with the headlight off the car (although, as they show, not essential):

https://www.zpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1656727

viewtopic.php?t=104600

[thecremeegg]

Is there any reason you didn't pay the £7 and buy the ECE ones?

[TriggerFish]

Is there any reason you didn't pay the £7 and buy the ECE ones?

Yes. they're LHD, and I am in a RHD country At the time I bought them, they didn't do ECE in RHD

Screenshot 2025-06-26 094522.png (44.83 KiB) Viewed 211 times

[thecremeegg]

Doh, I saw the R and assumed RHD. Carry on!

[Scooba_Steve]

DOT is listed in the MOT manual, so it might pass?

[x-driver]

I have ECE cut-off and I hate it. I'd rather have DOT if I knew before. When driving on a highway, the higher side of the beam will shine in the upper part of the cars in front of you while the lower side of the beam will seem too low to drive comfortly. There is too much height difference. It looks good if you shine it against a close wall but the step grows in the distance.

[TriggerFish]

Interesting! I've only ever driven with ECE (standard headlights on all my cars), and never found that a problem. I find some point too low in general (lowered E30, for example), but there's only so high they can go before the blind people/fail the MOT (the UK annual safety check).

The good thing is, if I do find the same as you, everything I've done is fully reversible and I can just refit the DOT shields.

[TriggerFish]

DOT is listed in the MOT manual, so it might pass?

I did see that in there, but it mentioned the headlight having a DOT marking before being tested as DOT, so I thought it might fail as it's E marked, but got a DOT pattern?

I'm probably overthinking it completely, but didn't wanna strup the headlights down again after chancing it with DOT for the sake of being paranoid the first time round

[x-driver]

Interesting! I've only ever driven with ECE (standard headlights on all my cars), and never found that a problem. I find some point too low in general (lowered E30, for example), but there's only so high they can go before the blind people/fail the MOT (the UK annual safety check).

The good thing is, if I do find the same as you, everything I've done is fully reversible and I can just refit the DOT shields.

Well you can't directly compare the optics to OEM, I don't think OEM step grows in distance, never noticed that. It might have something to do with the sharp cutoff lens optics. OEM being blurred might as well prevent the beam zooming. I'm only guessing however.

Edit: I might be wrong about zooming as I'm looking at my own comparison photos. The OEM is just so much dimmer that the light fades in the distance and doesn't blind others that way. And less focused.

With this experience I'd think the DOT EvoX-R step would be just right at open road/highway driving. Easier to adjust to be high enough for you and low enough not to blind others.

Since you have an opportunity, try driving with both variants and tell your conclusions