Just to share my experience in retrofitting my projector lens with xenon bulbs. I spent 6 hours or more at BVO 2 Saturdays ago retrofitting the cluster and colour-coordinate the xenons, the Angels' Eyes, and the fogs. A painful process but worth it.
Please note the specific characteristics of such aftermarket parts when you contemplate to buy one...... might help you to prepare yourself...... Perhaps Prof Steven Wu can shed some lights in this subject......
The headlight cluster is branded Depo (made in Taiwan). The bulbs and ballasts are made by Techone. Colour temperature are like 8,000 K because they emit a bluish tint. Some of the percularities that you must take note:
(1) The light cluster might come in clips instead of screws in the adjoining section to the side indicator. The older E46 rides were using clips. Hence owners of newer E46 rides have to be aware of this. Nonetheless, this could be overcame by simple modification in replacing the clips with a screw socket.
(2) The light cluster comes with the lens housing, projector lens, the xenon bulbs, relay cables and ballast. However, the projector lens have in-built angel eyes - a circular slot and grooved lens-tube covering the slot. Here comes the problem. The built-in angel eyes run on the older bulb system, emitting yellowish light. They looked like those fitted on E39s. With a bluish might emitting from the xenon bulbs, the yellowish rings became quite an eyesore. No, you cannot retrofit an aftermarket CCFL (flourescent-based) onto the cluster, given that the built-in lens-tube stands in the way. The only solution is to remove the 3 bulbs in each slot, and retrofit the flourescent tube within the new generation CCFL (stripped off the grooved housing tube) into the circular slot. However, the tube is extremely fragile (Ah Wee broke 2 tubes in the installation process). Plus, you have to used the CCFLs meant for E39 to untake this process. The circumference / diameter of the Depo cluster and the CCFLs do not fit. This is a long process as well, but could be overcome.
(3) Autolevelling : your autolevelling function will not be working anymore, if you install such aftermarket kit.
(4) Titanium Trimming: you can transfer your titanium trimming (if you have one) underlying the light clusters. In fact, you could transfer the entire Borsch plexiglass headlight housing......
(5) Projector Lens: The Depo projector lens are smaller than the German brand by at least 1 cm in diameter.
Also found some tutorial links that could be useful......
http://www.umnitza.com/tutorials.php
http://faqlight.carpassion.info/hl-general.htm
http://faqlight.carpassion.info/projector-unit.htm
Please note the specific characteristics of such aftermarket parts when you contemplate to buy one...... might help you to prepare yourself...... Perhaps Prof Steven Wu can shed some lights in this subject......
The headlight cluster is branded Depo (made in Taiwan). The bulbs and ballasts are made by Techone. Colour temperature are like 8,000 K because they emit a bluish tint. Some of the percularities that you must take note:
(1) The light cluster might come in clips instead of screws in the adjoining section to the side indicator. The older E46 rides were using clips. Hence owners of newer E46 rides have to be aware of this. Nonetheless, this could be overcame by simple modification in replacing the clips with a screw socket.
(2) The light cluster comes with the lens housing, projector lens, the xenon bulbs, relay cables and ballast. However, the projector lens have in-built angel eyes - a circular slot and grooved lens-tube covering the slot. Here comes the problem. The built-in angel eyes run on the older bulb system, emitting yellowish light. They looked like those fitted on E39s. With a bluish might emitting from the xenon bulbs, the yellowish rings became quite an eyesore. No, you cannot retrofit an aftermarket CCFL (flourescent-based) onto the cluster, given that the built-in lens-tube stands in the way. The only solution is to remove the 3 bulbs in each slot, and retrofit the flourescent tube within the new generation CCFL (stripped off the grooved housing tube) into the circular slot. However, the tube is extremely fragile (Ah Wee broke 2 tubes in the installation process). Plus, you have to used the CCFLs meant for E39 to untake this process. The circumference / diameter of the Depo cluster and the CCFLs do not fit. This is a long process as well, but could be overcome.
(3) Autolevelling : your autolevelling function will not be working anymore, if you install such aftermarket kit.
(4) Titanium Trimming: you can transfer your titanium trimming (if you have one) underlying the light clusters. In fact, you could transfer the entire Borsch plexiglass headlight housing......
(5) Projector Lens: The Depo projector lens are smaller than the German brand by at least 1 cm in diameter.
Also found some tutorial links that could be useful......
http://www.umnitza.com/tutorials.php
http://faqlight.carpassion.info/hl-general.htm
http://faqlight.carpassion.info/projector-unit.htm
