[UPDATE] Anyone Interested in Upgrading Their Xenon Projectors?
- Thread starter lucasxdiniz
- Start date
bearded_ed
Member
Lucas, how do I go about figuring out what I've got currently?
I think it's halogens but I'm honestly not sure.
I think it's halogens but I'm honestly not sure.
bearded_ed
Member
z4pilot said:
Perfect thanks, that's exactly what I've got.
I actually already bought a HID kit to go in so I'll try that first because it wasn't too expensive but my god are the lights shit on these cars.
bearded_ed
Member
Can someone check my maths?
I have halogens at the moment, so I think it's going to come to....
Projectors £155
Brackets £45
Postage £6.50
Cutting and setup of brackets £40
Ballast £120
£366.50 total
OR is it £240 for ballast?
I have halogens at the moment, so I think it's going to come to....
Projectors £155
Brackets £45
Postage £6.50
Cutting and setup of brackets £40
Ballast £120
£366.50 total
OR is it £240 for ballast?
lucasxdiniz
Active member
bearded_ed said:
So projectors and brackets would cost £180 after discount. You can do the cutting yourself and set the brackets if you have access to a dremmel.
I am not sure about the ballast, I would assume they're for the pair. But you do not need to buy from the if it's a budget build, Trump only sells and recommends the best. I recommend emailing him and asking about it.
An interesting forum on these projector headlights.
I have an 03 E85 3 litre here in Australia.
It has projector low beam headlights with H7 halogen bulbs (and manual height control).
So, I thought, easy, I'll just get some LED H7 bulbs and replace the halogen ones.
Not so easy, the H7 halogen bulb fits into a clip of some sort that then fits into the headlight housing.
It seems the globe is held in the clip by the bulb electrical pins pins, not the bulb flanges.
The LED H7 bulbs wont fit into the clip.
So, it occurs to me that the Projector housing is actually a Zenon HID item adapted for Aussie use with halogen H7 bulbs?
If so, what code/fitting is the Zenon bulb and is there an LED retrofit item that can be fitted to the Zenon projector housing?
I have an 03 E85 3 litre here in Australia.
It has projector low beam headlights with H7 halogen bulbs (and manual height control).
So, I thought, easy, I'll just get some LED H7 bulbs and replace the halogen ones.
Not so easy, the H7 halogen bulb fits into a clip of some sort that then fits into the headlight housing.
It seems the globe is held in the clip by the bulb electrical pins pins, not the bulb flanges.
The LED H7 bulbs wont fit into the clip.
So, it occurs to me that the Projector housing is actually a Zenon HID item adapted for Aussie use with halogen H7 bulbs?
If so, what code/fitting is the Zenon bulb and is there an LED retrofit item that can be fitted to the Zenon projector housing?
lucasxdiniz
Active member
Hoppy3533 said:
With these you can use your LED bulbs:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/For-BMW-E60-X5-XENON-HID-LED-LIGHT-BULB-HOLDERS-ADAPTORS-Replacement-TYPE3-/372326572924?hash=item56b064a37c
I followed the link to EBay and found that the part referred to is the clip I already have, which fits H7 halogen globes, but not the LED H7s.
But then I noticed a clip that is slightly different for the fitting of the LED globe.
I have ordered these clips and also they are supplying the LED globes to suit.
They won’t get to Australia till the New Year, so the plan is to post an update once they arrive.
But then I noticed a clip that is slightly different for the fitting of the LED globe.
I have ordered these clips and also they are supplying the LED globes to suit.
They won’t get to Australia till the New Year, so the plan is to post an update once they arrive.
lucasxdiniz
Active member
A friend took a photo of our cars side by side before a night-time run. I think it shows the difference between the OEM bi-xenon projector vs Morimoto's quite well. Note that he has Osham Nightbreakers which are supposed to be brighter than my bulbs, Osham Cool Blues.
Attachments
bearded_ed
Member
lucasxdiniz said:
I think we all know that brighter bulbs do not solve the issue.
It's whole unit that needs throwing in the bin! Still can't get over how bad the z4 lights are.
Saving some pennies for the Morimotos
I upgraded to Morimoto EvoX-R 2.0 projectors (95% PnP) + Osram CBB bulbs and the difference was night and day. Install wise I thought they projectors fit perfectly without need for modification or special brackets. The 5% was just in regards to finding a different igniter though you can easily source a PnP adapter and keep your factory igniters.
https://z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=117927
https://z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=117927
@lucasxdiniz
Any idea when these are going to be fully available to joe public? It seems the few that have had them installed have been guinea pigs, and as per @Johnr32's comment, he said a lot of adjustments had to be made at the installation. It doesn't sound like they're 100% plug and play yet?
Do you have any idea what's different between the versions EMT are offering vs TRS (USA) https://bit.ly/2uFjRxy or RFL (Netherlands) - https://bit.ly/2R8Fy0l
Cheers.
Any idea when these are going to be fully available to joe public? It seems the few that have had them installed have been guinea pigs, and as per @Johnr32's comment, he said a lot of adjustments had to be made at the installation. It doesn't sound like they're 100% plug and play yet?
Do you have any idea what's different between the versions EMT are offering vs TRS (USA) https://bit.ly/2uFjRxy or RFL (Netherlands) - https://bit.ly/2R8Fy0l
Cheers.
lucasxdiniz
Active member
Z-4-FUN said:
They are. See my update on the first post or a few posts above yours. They aren't 100% plug and play as Morimotos Mini 5s need to be trimmed. He can send you the projectors already trimmed if you wish to pay.
Those look like retrofits of the standard Hella unit, so the projectors do not look like they would be much of an improvement over the stock Hella units BMW designed the headlights for, i.e more of a halogen to OEM Bi-Xenon retrofit. I think, I only looked briefly.
Please email Trups, he'll be happy to answer any of your questions. He also sells LHD kits if you are in Europe.
lucasxdiniz said:
@lucasxdiniz Thanks for clarifying the status of these. I had seen your updates to the post on the first page (with prices etc), but @Johnr32’s post from 24th Nov didn’t inspire 100% confidence in the quality of these early units. Also @mjennings23 mentioned he wasn’t entirely satisfied with the older brackets EM Tuning supplied for the V4 units.
And without any up-to-date photos of the items it’s hard to judge if these are still in development or are now a polished product. Personally, I’m quite game for a bit of DIY-ing, but with these being quite pricey items you want to know that they're up to scratch. I know others have documented the installation of similar items from TRS in USA, as per the link you shared in this thread - viewtopic.php?t=104600 - but it would be a bonus to get a dedicated installation guide for these specific units. A worthwhile little task for Trups if he wants to shift a few sets of these, I'd say :wink:
As you suggested, I will email Trups ([email protected]) and see if he can provide any further clarification.
The quality of these projectors and performance far exceeds that of any oem projector to date. The problem is the actual projector alignment i.e the adaptor brackets that mount the projector to the lowbeam unit. I'm not sure if trups has perfected the mounting brackets yet but if you wanted a perfect fit and finish then the only way is to send in your headlights to him or go to his unit.
Z-4-FUN said:
Thanks for the response @Johnr32.Johnr32 said:
The projector unit from Morimoto is definitely the business! But obviously it's critical the beams are correctly aligned for that to be of any use.
What I'm really keen to know is how the mounting brackets from EMT compares to that from TRS or RFL - links above. The cost of the units from EMT + having them install starts to get very punchy! And then I questions if there's any guarantee they're not going to come loose and become misaligned over time???
Perhaps someone who's got a bracket from another supplier might be able to share their experience...
Limonge said:
If retaining the oe igniter, then you can use this adapter
https://www.retrofitlab.com/en/d2s-extension-cables.html
If you want to repalce with a different igniter, you can use search for new/refurbished Volvo D2R igniters (p/n 30655898). I went with the latter only b/c I already had everything taken out and waiting for those adapters to ship from overseas would've taken too long and I had no idea of the quality of those adapters (versus using Volvo oem parts which I know I could trust). But of the two solutions, the adapters is probably the cleaner/easier solution.