e46 BMW Xenon projector HID headlights

[zedevan]

As we all know the stock Zed lights aren't bright enough at all, i initially bought some h4 reflectors off ebay and was going to upgrade the wiring and run some of those "xenon lookalike" bulbs or just high wattage ones, and eventually putting in a HID conversion kit, but after looking at my mates cars with all of the above i realised it wasn't really worth the effort.

i was impressed by igor's (007max on hybridz) retrofitting of 5 series projectors and lexus is300 ballasts into some 7" reflectors so i set out to getting some real HID's and a good quality projector lense for myself, either wanting a matching pair off a bmw or honda accord euros, and ended up with some off an e46 3 series, so now need to sell all the bits i dont need!

i eventually made one side fit and did the wiring (they are only 35w so the stock wiring works fine) after getting up the nerves to do so and here are the results, the comparison to the stock lights is unbelievable, which is what i wanted

now to fix it up and do the other side...

[Virto]

Oh wow.

That looks awesome. Nice work.

[Unkle]

So cool . Do you have both low and high beams using only the

one lense ? Was there much cutting / metal work if any ? I have

an aftermarket twin ballast / hid set up that really works well

except I can only run high beams aimed low , I'm missing the

daytime running ligh bulbs . The car gets lots of double takes

with the headlights on - old meets high tech !

[zedevan]

yeah it does give it a nice new look, mine are only low beams, then have driving lights for highbeams.

some bmw's have bi-xenon lights where when they flash their highbeams the normal light gets used, but if they push the stick forward or watever it removes the metal peice that cuts off half the light, so i think that would be a good thing to try to do

they really weren't that much work to install at all, just took awhile to work out how best to do it. the only metal work that was needed was cutting up some brakets to mount the ballasts and the metal holder that is at the back of the 260z lights had to be cut to let the globe stick out of it. i'll take some photos of the other side when its being put together

[zedevan]

[Pennyman]

Honestly, I think the Xenon low beams would be brighter than the OEM Z high beams.

Damn that's pretty.

[Alfadog]

I agree Pennyman!

Lets see some pictures of the car in the daytime with lights off

[zedevan]

i wouldn't say the zeds stock high beams are as bright as any cars normal beams, yet alone xenon lights. when i got my car i didn't know how to turn on or off highbeams (had to ring p/o to find out, i did think it may of been the right hand stick but it felt like it was going to break hehe and didn't want to do that) so it was stuck on highbeams, so i dont know if the p/o just used to drive around with them on all the time of what, but no one flashed me to say my lights were to bright hehe. the car also came with some 550watt hella driving lights which i'd have to say these are brighter than too (if i get them working again i'll put up some pics to see if this is true or not, the relay for them currently isn't working and dont have time to look into it atm and dont really care as i dont need them anymore!)

from what i've read xenon hi beams aren't actully brighter, like the bi-xenon lights just remove the cutoff, so the light can go everywhere.

there's some pics of my car in daylight in my gallery hehe, but it looks nicer in the dark :S here's one in atleast some light

[Alfadog]

Nah mate, I mean photos of it after the new headlights! Want to see how it looks in the daylight

[zedevan]

oh hehe, wasn't sure if i'd already linked to this pic or not, its still a night time photo though...

its not fully finished yet, still need to fill that hole at the top to stop the light going straight through. i'm wanting to put an indicator up there, tried putting vx commodore side indicators up there (pulled off my mums car) facing upwards but they are to long, so after looking at cars i'm stopped next to at lights i think i might try either 2002 wrx's or mazda 3's, but i dont really want to risk buying them and them not fitting, mayb i'll use gaffa tape as eyelids for now

the blue is from the standoffs i used to help secure it, i was going to paint them black but i dont really care to much now

[Alfadog]

Looks good! Now you need to get out the metal polish for those wheels

[e_racer1999]

MORE PICS PLZ!!!!!

awesome lookin!!!!