Xenon and halogen headlight parts interchangeable?

[ErrErrminator]

I seem to be amassing a collection of headlights in my mission to de-tango the front of my Zed, TBH I’m wishing I hadn’t started down this road. Is is getting complicated and expensive!

I wanted to acquire two facelift halogen lights and simply swap them over with my current ones. No cutting/opening up of units or swapping internals, nice and simple. I picked up N/S and O/S units separately. One cheap, one not so. The cheap O/S one has a couple if issues in that one bulb holder is missing and the reflector chrome coating is poor. So I found another O/S light, which arrived today. This was described as a non-xenon unit, but upon inspection I see an extra connector on the bottom of the case, inside the dip beam unit looks different, has a thick black wire unlike the others and the side light wires have been cut. From a quick look on the net this is definitely a xenon unit, minus the ballast and bulb.

My question to those in the know is, can I swap internal bits from the poor halogen unit, into the xenon unit, but keep the xénons better reflector, to make one good O/S headlight?

Hope that all makes sense.

I’m a bit miffed at being mis-sold a xenon, but if I can make it all work out then the situation may not be so bad.

 

[LittleZ4]

Now this is something I'd be interested in as I'd like to do the same but the cost of xenon headlights makes my wallet cry (and the mrs!!)

 

[MACK]

I'm no headlight expert, but have seen them in pieces in the flesh as I also sourced various units when I was planning a cut and shut before I landed a set of post facelift xenons for my pre car.
If IIRC the basic headlight casing/lens is the same for xenons and halogens with the exception of the the bit where the ballast mounts needs to be drilled/cut out on a halogen for the ballast plug to slot into

 

[ErrErrminator]

To add a bit of information, which I have gleaned from much reading last night and this morning, on this site and elsewhere.

The headlight unit I have just received, which the seller is sure is a non-xenon (ie halogen) unit, has the following features:

It has a clear indicator strip (hockey stick).
Externally it looks identical to my car's halogen units apart from the colour of the hockey stick.
It has DS2 + H7 stamped on the outer casing.
There is an additional multi-pin connector on the underside of the casing.
Internally it has a completely different projector housing (no bulb, or ballast present).
There is a thick black wire with an odd 90 degree connector on the end coming from the additional conenctor.

From what I have read there are two types of Xenon headlights for the E85.
Pre-facelift cars, with the orange hockey stick, had a xenon outer projector and a halogen inner reflector.
Post facelift cars, with the clear hockey stick, had two projectors, the inner being a sort of dummy with an angel-eye ring.

What I seem to have acquired here is a pre-facelift headlight, with a clear hockey stick. There is no evidence of it having been opened and swapped internals. I have just read a comment that there are some 2005 pre-facelift xenon lights with clear hockey sticks knocking about, but they are rare. Sounds like this is one of those.

All of this is very interesting, but it still means I have got a xenon headlight when I wanted a halogen one. So I am stuck, unless I can swap around internals.

 

[ErrErrminator]

Well I’ve answered my own question. I spent a productive hour or two this afternoon swapping bits between the two driver’s side headlights, one halogen, one xenon, to end up with one really good halogen unit.









A bit of elbow grease later and the lens was all polished up and looking ready to be installed in the car.

 

[rally-chris]

Good job there, well done.

If you have some parts leftover from the donor headlights, I'd be interested in the 'Side to side' adjuster gear and shaft as shown below, as the gear wheel is missing from one of my headlights. I presume this screws into the back of the inner light housing.



Thanks
Chris

 

[Thys]

I've been with my own headlight-trouble, wondering if it's just plug&play to transplate post-facelift headlights (halogens) to pre-facelift z4 body? Both kinds seem to have exactly the same shape and mountings, perhaps you know that, as you are in the HL subject :roll: