TriggerFish
Member
https://retrofitlab.com/collections/bmw-z4-e85/products/bmw-z4-e85-2002-2008-bi-xenon-xenon-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. 8)
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:
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):
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!
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. 8)
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:
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):
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!
