serious retro projector questions

[marshmallow15]

the units in question are the hella d2s/d2r projectors. i plan to use these for my low-beam projectors. what would you guys suggest for high-beam?

also, i might mount using some sort of bracket mounted inside the stock headlight. the mounting and everything of the projector im fine with. im just stuck at the wiring of everything: i assume stock wiring won't handle the extra output, so did you guys completely redo ALL of the headlight wiring? i want to be able to use the OE headlight switch to control everything. how will i use my 9004 wiring to power two seperate projectors?

[mx3frik]

Hey,

Glad to see more and more retroers on the block. If one's to use the hella bixenons one should be able to get away with just using the bixenon.

Jamming a projector and a halogen high beam moduel in the housing might be a bit pushing it since the curve in the frotn lens is more pronounced toward the edges and will affect the beams.

As far as wiring go, I would suggest using relays to power the projectors, this way you can keep the stock wiring, using the 9004 plugs as switches for the relays and power the hella's off the battery with fresh, heavier gauged wires. When i built a wiring harness I crushed a bulb and used the base to hook up to the stock plug to trigger the relays.

There are lots of resources on retrofit but a major site one can spend whole day on would be:

http://faq.auto.light.tripod.com/

More spicifically the wiring portion of the site:

http://faq.auto.light.tripod.com/headlamp-harness.html

Let us know how things turn out. I'm just starting a project and 13 hours into sanding the headlight front lens. Now it looks something like this: (but betterz, 1 hour of sanding is done aftter this picrure)

http://members.rogers.com/aishi/lens12hours.jpg

You can change the 12hours to 2,8,10hours to see the how much time I'm taking for just the flattening. I think I'm gonna call it flat and start polishing...

Definitely keep us posted on your progress, hf and gl, cheers,

Eugene

[marshmallow15]

i was thinking of bi-xenon, but after looking at some i noticed that they were pretty big and long and wasn't sure if it wouldn't fit in the housing.

i found a pretty good 9004 wiring diagram on the site you provided. i might use this to make my harness and just use this harness to tap into the headlight switch for the low beam. then i might buy some projector foglights and mount them so they face up a little more than the cut-off beam of the projector, and use the wiring that came with the projector fogs and wire that to the high-beam wiring of the headlight switch.

<small>[ February 23, 2004, 01:48 PM: Message edited by: marshmallow15 ]</small>

[mx3frik]

As far as fitment for bixenons, (I got Hella's 1st gen bixenons, one with a plastic bulb holder and conventional HV plug) I think I'll have to end up cutting the back of the housing a bit and let the projector stick out a bit then try to seal it off again.

IMO foglights might not have enough reach to be used as high beams. Usually fogs are wide and short so you can see what's directly in front of you in heavy fog. Since the HID's are wide and bright for high beeams you can go for something bright, narrow and long driving lights(pencil beams perhaps?). Or youc an go nuts and get soem HID high beam modules

Depending on your budget, there are quiet a lot of info/selection on some decent complimentary lights off these two of my favorite sites:

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/
http://www.suvlights.com/

Cheers, always welcome to brainstorm some more and keep this thread going. IMO the lighting forum isn't too too much technical lighting as of yet.

Eugene

[marshmallow15]

Originally posted by Eugene H.:
IMO foglights might not have enough reach to be used as high beams. Usually fogs are wide and short so you can see what's directly in front of you in heavy fog. Since the HID's are wide and bright for high beeams you can go for something bright, narrow and long driving lights(pencil beams perhaps?). Or youc an go nuts and get soem HID high beam modules

that came to mind, but my mx-3 isn't a daily car anymore, so i just need some sort of driving light or projector aimed a bit higher that i can flash so people will know that im flashing them for something. but i dont intend the high-beam to be for a daily driver car, just something to notify drivers with.

[marshmallow15]

another idea i just got:
if i were to buy this http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=33710&item=2461816279 and remove the 4 projectors, then mount them and wire some phillips or xenon bulbs (the REAL ones with the ballasts) and install an upgraded wiring harness, would that do the trick for the budget projector retrofit? or will this be a problem because of no cut-off line? what do you guys think?

[mx3frik]

I'm not familiar with the JDM 'lude lights...but if they're halogen/halogen and you want to stick a D2x in there you'll have to reabase the bulb and shield parts of the lit part so the focal point is the same as the halogen one. I think output wise your Hella D2x projector will will be better and sharper.

I forgot to mention, as wiring goes don't forget our stock circuit for the low beam switches off when you turn on the high beam and you gotta by-pass that when you have your HID's in.

Eugene

[Taras]

Originally posted by Eugene H.:
...I think I'll have to end up cutting the back of the housing a bit and let the projector stick out a bit then try to seal it off again.

....Or youc an go nuts and get soem HID high beam modules

Eugene

Eugene, I think you might need to cut off more than a bit....

Are you suggesting that I am nuts?

[Taras]

I would stick with an OEM HID projector. This way why bother retrofitting? Hella Bi-Xenon is the largest projector there is, short of Q45 Gatling (the one with multi lenses). But Hella Bi-Xenon does fit. The biggest challange in out lights is not depth (we got enough of it) but height and width (if you want to use additinal halogen hi-beam module). Hella Bi-Xenons would be great for flashing people, but only at night when they are on. You do not wish to be turning them on and off for short periods of time. If you wish for a better possibility of fitting anothet halogen hi-beam unit beside your HID projectorm then go for something smaller for your HID projector. Bosch and Valeo make smaller projectors. Hella from A6 (low beam only) is smaller as well and is a great projector (E-code only). Valeos (Audi A4, Saabs) are overpriced right now because most retrofitters have hi demand for them due to their sharpness and colour at the prism cut-off. Same goes for Honda S2000 projectors. I personally think that Bosch (BMW E46 (low beams), Audi TT) projectors are underappreciated right now. If you want a smaller Bi-xenon then go for a Bosch unit from BMW E46 (bi-xenon) or VW Passat W8. Same unit. It is a tad longer than Hella Bi-Xenon but smaller in lens diameter, height and width.

If you think that placing a dual set up into your headlight is going to be a complicated solution, go for bi-xenons and then hang some decent driving lights under your bumper. That way you can go lager with those and actually get more useful setup.

You also mentioned that functionality is not very important for hi beams. If aestetics are of concersn, then a quad setup will look better. You can just go and pick up anything round between 2-3" in dia. to place in there.

[mx3frik]

Eugene, I think you might need to cut off more than a bit....

Are you suggesting that I am nuts?

You're right Taras I tend to over simplify processes when I sum things up. Part of my timit/modest nature. I didn't want to scare a retrofitter away w/ the gory details

When i say nuts I meant price-wise, but you're different 'cuz you have a head start with the extra parts you have. For me the HID driving lights are outta the project's budget but objects of my desire...

Cheers!

Eugene

[millionflame]

I have 2nd Gen Halla Bi-Xenons.

If you can get some, get 3rd gens, but they are hard to find so far since they are very new.

Make sure you leave yourself LOTS of time when doing this. Plan it out before hand, and it would help if you can problem solve on the fly really well too.

I've changed me set-up two times now so far, and I'm going to do it a third time. It's an ever-evolving process with retro-fitting.

[Taras]

Originally posted by Aiden:
...If you can get some, get 3rd gens, but they are hard to find so far since they are very new.....

By 3rd Generation Bi-Xenons do you mean the adaptive Hellas? See Picture Below: <img src="http://mediaservice.photoisland.com/auc ... 118475.jpg" alt=" - " />

[millionflame]

No.

I saw them on Hermans's forum a while ago. He posted them.

They were a complete sealed unit, like Hella 90mm units.

I just consider them 3rd Gens since they're a different bi-xenon design than previous ones.

You can buy them as well, but finding them is the hardest part about it. They're too new as of yet.

[Taras]

Susquehanna has them. But I would not call them 3rd Gen Hella Bi-Xenons as they are not OEM. BTW, Suvlights has Osram made Bi-Xenons that are direct fit to replace 7" round headlights. They even come with trim