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Thread: Another successful Bi-Xenon retrofit. E36 with FX-R projectors.

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
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    Another successful Bi-Xenon retrofit. E36 with FX-R projectors.

    I purchased my car about a year ago and it came with "euro" headlights on it. The front glass says "InPro" on it but the rest of the housing is exactly like a DJ Auto headlight (bulging bulb covers with metal wire/spring to keep them closed). I'm not sure if they're 100% InPro or if they're just DJ Auto housings with the lenses replaced with InPro brand. The only reason I think this would be a possibility is because the carhas been in an accident in the past.

    Needless to say, these were meant to be run with H1 incandescent bulbs. The previous owner(s) pretty much chopped out all the old wiring and left them so they could only be run with and HID setup. I dealt with it for a few months since the car was going to be on jack stands soon for a huge suspension overhaul during the winter. November came around and I took advantage of TheRetrofitSource.com's black Friday sale. I ordered the E36 Retro-Quik bracket set, 35w ballasts, FX-R 3.0 projectors, a pair of expensive but oh-so-worth-it Osram Xenarc 66240 CBI bulbs, a new set of DEPO headlights with nippled glass, because who doesn't like nipples? , and clear Lamin-X to protect them from day one.

    I didn't take many pictures of the install since there are plenty here and on the web already. What I didn't see much of were direct comparison (before/after) pictures. The pictures below were just a sample of the many I took. If you're interested in seeing the whole bunch, click here: https://flic.kr/s/aHskYSsNhY. There's about 8 or so in that album that were taken with my phone instead of my camera just because it was easier to get to and I didn't think it was really necessary since I knew I wasn't going to make a how-to thread for this.

    The goods:





    Now onto the "funner" pictures, the comparison shots!

    I shot all the pictures (except the last one, and I'll explain why) in manual mode with the same exposure settings for both the before (picture on top) and after (picture on bottom).

    Camera: Nikon D750
    Lens: Nikon 50mm f/1.8
    Tripod: ....yes?
    Aperture: f/2.8
    ISO: 100
    Shutter: 1/2 (0.5) sec.

    Top picture: InPro/DJ Auto
    Bottom picture: DEPO with FX-R Retrofit

    Even with the lights off they look much closer to being OE, than the InPro/DJ Autos:



    Although the FX-R's are brighter, there's less glare because the bulbs are being used with an appropriate housing:



    What the car looks like at night (camera was at about "oncoming driver's height" if not a little lower to introduce as much glare as possible for an accurate representation of what you see when you're driving towards it/me):



    Against some sheetrock for aiming and glare comparison:



    This last shot was done at a slower shutter speed (0.8 sec). I did this because it let me see how the upticks overlayed on one another easier. I used this in order to "fine tune" the aiming a little better. By doing this I was able to get both upticks to nearly the exact same height as one another to have as flat as a cutoff as I could. Would it make a noticeable difference compared to how it is in the other shots? Probably not, but it makes me feel warm inside so I did it anyway :



    I'll update this post (hopefully later tonight) with some "road shots" so you can see what they look like on the road. There are already lots of shots of them in use online but I figured it would be nice to see some more using the same camera settings I used earlier for a more accurate comparison. I don't have any road shots of the previous lighting setup though. I never thought to take any before shots until after I started this project so you'll have to assume it sucked, and trust me, it did. Big time.

    Let me know what you guys think.

    Cheers!

  2. #2
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    Not the greatest pictures but man do these things light up the road.

    First shot was at a train station with plenty of street lighting available and they still stood out.

    Second. And third were down a highway with no lights other than my own and moon light.

    These were shot on my phone for obvious reasons.

    Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
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    gilbert,az
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    203
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    86 el camino, 95+98 m3
    Those look sweet! I wish I could do this. Idk if I possess the skills for this entirely

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Nov 2016
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    Seattle, WA
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    My Cars
    '01 530i 5spd, '96 328i
    Dang it now I want to do this to my car... adding it to the list!
    Instagram: @boston.media

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
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    Wyomissing,PA
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    122
    My Cars
    97 M3 Coupe
    I really need to do this, my depo headlights are garbage.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Oct 2017
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    Freiburg, Germany
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    36
    My Cars
    1989 325i, 1998 318i
    Very nice.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
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    Portland, Oregon
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    1984 318i, 1998 M3
    I just got finished up with my retrofit. I'm still adjusting the cut off beam and height to get it just right. A few questions for you: Does your cut off line bow a little upwards on the outsides? Mine seem to have that going on. And did you have to do any adjusting of the projector itself or were you able to fine tune it with the headlight adjusters? Thanks!

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by E34Kevin View Post
    I just got finished up with my retrofit. I'm still adjusting the cut off beam and height to get it just right. A few questions for you: Does your cut off line bow a little upwards on the outsides? Mine seem to have that going on. And did you have to do any adjusting of the projector itself or were you able to fine tune it with the headlight adjusters? Thanks!
    Sounds like you need to shim your bulbs. I'm guessing your hot spot is below the cutoff. A hot spot too high or low will cause the ends to bow in the opposition position of the hotspot (low hotspot = ends bow up. High hot spot = ends bow down).

    What kind of fine tuning do you mean? I had the car about 20-30 ft away from the wall and used the mounting pegs for a coarse adjustment and then the headlight Verticle and horizontal adjustment when further away to dial it in better.

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  9. #9
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    Dec 2008
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    Thanks for the quick response. I didn't know about bulb placement affecting the bow. I was reading on having to maybe rotate the projector itself but I'll double check the hotspot for correct position.

    Yes that's what I meant. I tried aiming them with just the vertical and horizontal adjusters on the headlights. The cut off was pretty low at first so I worried about running out of adjustment or having to reposition the projector.

    Thanks for the helpful info.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    May 2012
    Location
    Quebec, Canada
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    1
    My Cars
    1993 325 IS
    Did you cut the inner lens on low beam? I'm wondering if it is necessary for the fx-r to perform at their best (perfect cut-off and no reflection of incoming drivers).

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by jplekid View Post
    Did you cut the inner lens on low beam? I'm wondering if it is necessary for the fx-r to perform at their best (perfect cut-off and no reflection of incoming drivers).
    Yes, yes, and kind of.

    Yes, I cut the inner part of the inner lens to allow the projector to poke through a bit.

    Yes, it's necessary for it to perform it's best otherwise the beam pattern and intensity is deteriorated not only by having to go through an additional lens, by the lens is fluted making the light scatter even worse (meant for halogen projectors).

    How you aim them (vertically and rotationally) has more of an impact than cutting the inner lens. Leaving the inner lens will deteriorate the light output a bit but also introduce a bit of glare. Not so much blind incoming drivers but enough to affect your overall output.

    Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
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    New Zealand
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    1996 E36 M3 Evo
    With a bi-xenon mod like this, what are the inner (original) reflectors used for? Anything? Do they ever come on?

    Man, that retrofit site sure makes it difficult to work out what fits and what you need.
    '96 M3, S50B32, 6MT
    + good stuff

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by M3AN View Post
    With a bi-xenon mod like this, what are the inner (original) reflectors used for? Anything? Do they ever come on?

    Man, that retrofit site sure makes it difficult to work out what fits and what you need.
    I still use them, so essentially I have quad high beams.

    The way I have it wired the inner high beams always get power when activated. The bi-xenon High beams only activate when the low beams are on since they're bi-xenon projectors. The actuator still opens but nothing comes out since the bulb and ballast aren't powered.

    I wired it like this so that inner high beams still work during the day for flash-to-pass and all four at night for true high beam output.

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  14. #14
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    Oct 2003
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    Thanks, yes that sounds like a sensible setup.
    '96 M3, S50B32, 6MT
    + good stuff

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