Light upgrades | E39 Non-Bakeable | G4 Bi-Xenons, Morimoto, New Adjusters, New Lens

[cnsorial]

Bad news. I mounted the projector housing to the new adjusters. Put all the light bulbs in place. Hooked everything up to test alignment of everything before sealing it up and "fire in the hole." Except the low beams wouldn't turn on. I haven't touched my drivers side but that wouldn't turn on either. Halos, turn signal, high beam all work fine. Just no low beam. Tried everything and can't figure out why other than that ground being disconnected and tucked away.

Any suggestions? My car is a 97 with halogens originally but it has aftermarket canbus ballasts running oem us spec hella facelift xenons now for a couple of years with no issues. I'm at a loss.


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[blackknight530i]

Bad news. I mounted the projector housing to the new adjusters. Put all the light bulbs in place. Hooked everything up to test alignment of everything before sealing it up and "fire in the hole." Except the low beams wouldn't turn on. I haven't touched my drivers side but that wouldn't turn on either. Halos, turn signal, high beam all work fine. Just no low beam. Tried everything and can't figure out why other than that ground being disconnected and tucked away.

Any suggestions? My car is a 97 with halogens originally but it has aftermarket canbus ballasts running oem us spec hella facelift xenons now for a couple of years with no issues. I'm at a loss.


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Definitely not the ground wire as I left it disconnected on both my e39s and have no issues. The low beams are completely independent of what projectors they are in and should work even if not installed in projectors. If they aren't working, you left something else out.

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[cnsorial]

Definitely not the ground wire as I left it disconnected on both my e39s and have no issues. The low beams are completely independent of what projectors they are in and should work even if not installed in projectors. If they aren't working, you left something else out.

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I agree. The low beams are independent of everything. Just with the ballast hooked up and connected to the bulb, neither low beam works on either side.

Just blows my mind that the drivers side isn't working either when I haven't done anything to that side.


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[blackknight530i]

I agree. The low beams are independent of everything. Just with the ballast hooked up and connected to the bulb, neither low beam works on either side.

Just blows my mind that the drivers side isn't working either when I haven't done anything to that side.


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What are you powering them with?

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[cnsorial]

What are you powering them with?

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They're aftermarket ballasts with a canbus resistor. Came with the car when I bought it. They worked last night coming home from class before I pulled it out to work on it.

I don't have the lights sealed up or anything. Just all the bulbs hooked up. I triple checked to make sure everything was hooked up right.

No fuses in these cars right?


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[blackknight530i]

They're aftermarket ballasts with a canbus resistor. Came with the car when I bought it. They worked last night coming home from class before I pulled it out to work on it.

I don't have the lights sealed up or anything. Just all the bulbs hooked up. I triple checked to make sure everything was hooked up right.

No fuses in these cars right?


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Not sure if there are specific fuses for each type of light, but could be different fuses for them. Check the card in the glove box.

The fact that the driver side light stopped working and you hadn't touched it sounds like a fuse issue.

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[cnsorial]

Not sure if there are specific fuses for each type of light, but could be different fuses for them. Check the card in the glove box.

The fact that the driver side light stopped working and you hadn't touched it sounds like a fuse issue.

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Will investigate further tomorrow. Thanks for your help.


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[auaq]

I want to try plugging mine and see how it looks right now.

[Jason5driver]

I want to try plugging mine and see how it looks right now.

Pictures?

[auaq]

Sorry. Didn't go out and plugged it in. Will do tomorrow.

- - - Updated - - -

I'm sure it will be bright enough to evaporate vampires. And maybe zombies too ...

[cnsorial]

Auaq, do you plan to do anything with your fog lights? How's the retro coming?


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[auaq]

No, I do not plan to upgrade the fog lights since they are actually brand new.

Got the missing parts yesterday, there are few more stuff that I ordered and expecting to receive it today or tomorrow. It will be a while before I can continue working on it and update this thread.

[cnsorial]

Gotcha. I'm trying to make my dogs match the low beams and angel eyes but it doesn't seem to be working.

Hopefully I'll be done this evening. Btw, I shortened the plastic mounts for the projector studs as you did. Be careful when putting on the boots and bulbs that you don't put too much pressure on them and break the plastic. Ask me how I know. I couldn't get the stock boot to work even with cutting it, so I'm just going to buy a 90 mm boot from trs


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[auaq]

Gotcha. I'm trying to make my dogs match the low beams and angel eyes but it doesn't seem to be working.

Hopefully I'll be done this evening. Btw, I shortened the plastic mounts for the projector studs as you did. Be careful when putting on the boots and bulbs that you don't put too much pressure on them and break the plastic. Ask me how I know. I couldn't get the stock boot to work even with cutting it, so I'm just going to buy a 90 mm boot from trs


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Yeah, my cats are pretty much brand new which were installed in the beginning of last year.

Okay, thanks for that boot info.

[blackknight530i]

Gotcha. I'm trying to make my dogs match the low beams and angel eyes but it doesn't seem to be working.

Hopefully I'll be done this evening. Btw, I shortened the plastic mounts for the projector studs as you did. Be careful when putting on the boots and bulbs that you don't put too much pressure on them and break the plastic. Ask me how I know. I couldn't get the stock boot to work even with cutting it, so I'm just going to buy a 90 mm boot from trs


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You got your low beams to work finally? What was wrong?

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[cnsorial]

You got your low beams to work finally? What was wrong?

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Oh, yes. I updated my other thread on it but I guess I forgot to update this one. Both ballasts went out. Not sure when or how. They worked the last time I drove it at night. I had a spare ballast laying around from my accord and put it in and it worked perfectly. Thanks for your help with the trouble shooting.

Passenger side is installed. Finishing up drivers side now and will update with pics. Did they ever revive your thread so I can stop clogging up Auaqs thread and post there instead?




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[cnsorial]

Finished both headlights and took it for spin around my neighborhood after it got dark. Color flicker of cutoff is fantastic. Projectors perform very well and far better than OE. Couple issues related to my car and my installation and not the projectors.

First, even with new adjusters, the beam is not nearly high enough. It points way too low even at the highest setting. So I guess I'll have to zip tie it like I had before. I'm thinking it could be due to me having the self leveling headlights on a non self leveling car? Im out of ideas.

Second is that on my drivers side, the high beam points lower than the low beam. I checked it before sealing it up and it was fine. So not sure what happened there. Not a big deal since these are bixenons and I really only use my high beams for flashing.

I tried taking a picture with the lights on but my phone couldn't capture it.

Overall, I'm very happy with it. At the very least the projectors aren't flapping in the breeze like they were before. The euro spec lenses with arctic silver look fantastic IMO. This was my 4th projector retrofit in a variety of different cars and it was the most frustrating and time consuming.




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[philly98540]

Looking good. you must have distorted the light frame when you close them up or something to cause the high beam to shift?

[cnsorial]

Looking good. you must have distorted the light frame when you close them up or something to cause the high beam to shift?

Yea. That's what I'm thinking. My OCD is making me feel compelled to open them up to fix it but I can literally count on one hand how many times I've used my high beams.


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[auaq]

How's your low beam aim?

- - - Updated - - -

Also, how do you like it overall?

[cnsorial]

How's your low beam aim?

- - - Updated - - -

Also, how do you like it overall?

Low beam aim is too low even at the top of the adjusters travel. My theory is that the auto leveling motor is locked in a position that pulls it down too far. My plan is to zip tie it into position in a clean way from the inside and just life with that. I'm gonna have to swallow my pride on this one haha.

Overall, I love it. I initially did this so I could fix my adjusters and get rid of the orange side marker, but figured for $100 I could improve the light output "while I'm in there." The color flicker is so beautiful and the clear projector lenses really do improve the output compared to the oem fresnel lens. I also love the euro lenses.


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[auaq]

Cool. Can't wait to have mine all done. Will have to make sure the aim is right and there's enough adjustment threads left for improvement.

[auaq]

Not much done in the past few days, as I'm dealing with allergies. Can't stop coughing every now and then. I got the adjuster cups thanks to BimmerMeUpSnotty and is already screwed on to the housing. Spend some time installing the new AE rings. I had to cut the plastic flat top bar in order to squeeze the rings to fit in the grooves. These AE's don't actually fit that well in the groove, so they stick out a little bit causing an interference fit between the frame and AE ring housing. I had to grind down the frame on the top flat side a little bit to clip in the the two housings together. There were some trial and errors initially with the fitment before I used the little double sided sticky tape that came with this kit to finally hold the new rings in its place. Hopefully, they don't come loose apart and fall inside the headlights late on.













Anybody knows what these little things are? They came with the AE kit.

[cnsorial]

Looking good Auaq. I have no idea what those little clip things are. Maybe philly knows? Today I just baked open the passenger side light to fix the stud that broke when I was putting on the boot. I think this is why I couldn't get the beam to adjust higher. Hopefully it goes back smoothly.


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[philly98540]

Fit looks pretty good after you worked them in. Maybe yours are a little bit thicker than the Hella rings? Not sure. The clips hold the rings into the housing on some cars I guess. Not needed on ours.

Id not trust the double sided tape long term. I just glued mine using some clear silicone added on the back side.

Those are SMD rings. Any pics of them lighted up?