ES300 HID RetroFit Pictures/Questions
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static1646 (09-15-24)
08-31-04 | 03:46 PM
#33
Pole Position
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 2,381
Likes: 16
From: Chicago, IL
Originally posted by tonytony
As for my actual projectors, is there anything printed on the projectors that would help me find out what type/brand they are? I was told they are the Valeos ECE.
In the meantime...more pictures =)
As for my actual projectors, is there anything printed on the projectors that would help me find out what type/brand they are? I was told they are the Valeos ECE.
In the meantime...more pictures =)
For projectors, the Valeo usually has the darker one as left vs the lighter color which is right. Some of them have factory stickers on them something like LF RT something like that. I don't remember for Valeo. Its been a while since I've had a set to examine. I may switch projectors to this type this weekend. So if you wait until then, I can post pics and show you. Good luck. LEt me look at your pics and I'll give you my opinion
09-16-04 | 07:33 AM
#34
Thread Starter
Driver
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 181
Likes: 2
From: Pennsylvania
Update
Here is an update of what happened to this "problem" with attached pictures. First the electrical problem, well, turns out its the wiring harness that was causing the problem. Johnny setup and sent me seperate wiring harness for each headlamp and its been working for almost 2 weeks without any problems at all. It fires up perfectly with no flickering during startup. I even chanced it during a rainstorm without any problems. I am very happy about this. I'm actually using the 20amp fuse to the passenger side and a 15amp fuse to the driver side. I don't know why Johnny decided to go that route, but it works completely fine.
Now, for the sharpness/aiming issues. As you can see from the pictures, the sharpness improved quite a bit, you can actually see the cutoff whereas before all i saw was a big blob of light from the driver side. Its still not matching the passenger side in terms of cutoff and color, so I guess work still needs to be done. Instead of swapping the driver and passenger side, Johnny had me take out this metal ring that the bulb was sitting on in the driver side headlamp. To me, the metal ring may have acted a washer, I'm not sure of its purpose, but there wasn't one on the passenger side. I also checked the bulbs themselves, no markings indicating left or right side. According to Johnny, the metal ring just messed with the the driver side bulb enough to throw the focus off.
I also noticed another thing, if you look closely at the pictures that are of the individual sides, you can see that there is a bright spot, which I am assuming where the majority of the light is hitting on the wall. On the driver side, the bright spot is "fuller" or "brigher" and on the bottom half of the slant, while on the passenger side, the bright spot is must more defined by the cutoff, less brighter ( i actually want to say less glare) and on the top/middle part of the slant. Is this significant?
The aiming is still wacked, as you can see the driver side is lower than the passenger side. I have had NOBODY flash me since this new aiming pattern, and I am not liking how it no longer lights up far enough for me. I may raise the passenger side a little bit more to hit further and match the driver side to the passenger side. I'll experiement with this a little and drive around a bit to gage how other drivers are reacting to my lights and if they highbeam me.
Well...that's what happened so far, I'm updating Johnny on this as I'm typing this up as well. Thanks for the help on this.
Now, for the sharpness/aiming issues. As you can see from the pictures, the sharpness improved quite a bit, you can actually see the cutoff whereas before all i saw was a big blob of light from the driver side. Its still not matching the passenger side in terms of cutoff and color, so I guess work still needs to be done. Instead of swapping the driver and passenger side, Johnny had me take out this metal ring that the bulb was sitting on in the driver side headlamp. To me, the metal ring may have acted a washer, I'm not sure of its purpose, but there wasn't one on the passenger side. I also checked the bulbs themselves, no markings indicating left or right side. According to Johnny, the metal ring just messed with the the driver side bulb enough to throw the focus off.
I also noticed another thing, if you look closely at the pictures that are of the individual sides, you can see that there is a bright spot, which I am assuming where the majority of the light is hitting on the wall. On the driver side, the bright spot is "fuller" or "brigher" and on the bottom half of the slant, while on the passenger side, the bright spot is must more defined by the cutoff, less brighter ( i actually want to say less glare) and on the top/middle part of the slant. Is this significant?
The aiming is still wacked, as you can see the driver side is lower than the passenger side. I have had NOBODY flash me since this new aiming pattern, and I am not liking how it no longer lights up far enough for me. I may raise the passenger side a little bit more to hit further and match the driver side to the passenger side. I'll experiement with this a little and drive around a bit to gage how other drivers are reacting to my lights and if they highbeam me.
Well...that's what happened so far, I'm updating Johnny on this as I'm typing this up as well. Thanks for the help on this.
09-17-04 | 04:06 PM
#39
Pole Position
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 2,381
Likes: 16
From: Chicago, IL
Looking much better. I just discovered that you are using the H7(original halgen spec) ECE Projectors made by Valeo. Their lense is unique in that it lets you use it for HID or halogen H7. The only differenct between this unit and the D2S xenon unit is that the xenon unit has brackets to hold its D2 capsules. Now, folks have gotten around this by using different methods to mount the D2 capsule in the H7 unit and gotten the exact output vs. D2S Valeo projector. I posted a thread a while back of a guy from hidforum.com with a grandam with the same units as yours. It looked good. to solve everything, they sell D2 conversion brackets on Ebay but they go for like 30.00 for two. You can buy one and use it for the left projector to bring it up to spec with the right. Here's a link
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...spagename=WDVW
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...spagename=WDVW
09-17-04 | 06:24 PM
#40
Pole Position
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 2,381
Likes: 16
From: Chicago, IL
heres how H7 E code Valeos with d2 capsule conversion should look
http://www.geocities.com/killroy_77audi/069.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/killroy_77audi/069.jpg
09-17-04 | 10:32 PM
#41
Pole Position
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 216
Likes: 0
From: California
The H7 projector that was used in this retrofit is not the H7 variant. You can tell if it is the H7 variant by looking at the rear of the bulb. There is usually a notch that allows for the H7 adapter to sit. Tony, Let me know how things go when you try out the recommendation in the email. Just member to be extremely carefull. Make sure the ballast is fully twisted onto the bulb.
01-13-05 | 04:45 PM
#42
Driver School Candidate
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 8
Likes: 0
Good thread! Thanks guys. I have a minor problem with my HIDs. They're......phillips I believe. I took them out of a 1997 bmw M3 I used to own before I sold it. They were an aftermarket feature on that car. They are now in my 1992 ES300. I have no problem with the funky blobs of light because on a 92 there are no hard mirrored surfaces, it's all round and smooth inside. No flat sharp angles. I simply put the bulbs in (same bulb type, fit no problem!) where the halogens were and by sheer dumb-luck it lined up perfectly with no adjustments. The driver side is slightly lower than the passenger side, but I think that's good, I don't blind other drivers that way.
The only problem I have is sometimes when I turn them on, only one comes on, swith the headlights off then on - maybe the other one comes on, off then on maybe none come on, off then on and they're both on. Sometimes just one, very rarely none, sometimes both. I don't get a flicker at all. It's all or nothing, so they either come on or they don't. I took the original +/- wires that hooked up to the halogens and connected that directly to the +/- balast leads. They are small wires. So I'm guessing the problem is the ballasts are just barely getting enough amperage when they work and definitely not enough when they don't come on.
To fix this and have them always come on when they should, can I simply rewire the + input on both ballast and run it directly to the battery? Or will they then be always on? Does the headlight switch cut the POS or NEG when you turn it off?
The only problem I have is sometimes when I turn them on, only one comes on, swith the headlights off then on - maybe the other one comes on, off then on maybe none come on, off then on and they're both on. Sometimes just one, very rarely none, sometimes both. I don't get a flicker at all. It's all or nothing, so they either come on or they don't. I took the original +/- wires that hooked up to the halogens and connected that directly to the +/- balast leads. They are small wires. So I'm guessing the problem is the ballasts are just barely getting enough amperage when they work and definitely not enough when they don't come on.
To fix this and have them always come on when they should, can I simply rewire the + input on both ballast and run it directly to the battery? Or will they then be always on? Does the headlight switch cut the POS or NEG when you turn it off?
01-13-05 | 08:52 PM
#43
Driver
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 148
Likes: 0
From: California
Originally Posted by mattolsen
Good thread! Thanks guys. I have a minor problem with my HIDs. They're......phillips I believe. I took them out of a 1997 bmw M3 I used to own before I sold it. They were an aftermarket feature on that car. They are now in my 1992 ES300. I have no problem with the funky blobs of light because on a 92 there are no hard mirrored surfaces, it's all round and smooth inside. No flat sharp angles. I simply put the bulbs in (same bulb type, fit no problem!) where the halogens were and by sheer dumb-luck it lined up perfectly with no adjustments. The driver side is slightly lower than the passenger side, but I think that's good, I don't blind other drivers that way.
The only problem I have is sometimes when I turn them on, only one comes on, swith the headlights off then on - maybe the other one comes on, off then on maybe none come on, off then on and they're both on. Sometimes just one, very rarely none, sometimes both. I don't get a flicker at all. It's all or nothing, so they either come on or they don't. I took the original +/- wires that hooked up to the halogens and connected that directly to the +/- balast leads. They are small wires. So I'm guessing the problem is the ballasts are just barely getting enough amperage when they work and definitely not enough when they don't come on.
To fix this and have them always come on when they should, can I simply rewire the + input on both ballast and run it directly to the battery? Or will they then be always on? Does the headlight switch cut the POS or NEG when you turn it off?
The only problem I have is sometimes when I turn them on, only one comes on, swith the headlights off then on - maybe the other one comes on, off then on maybe none come on, off then on and they're both on. Sometimes just one, very rarely none, sometimes both. I don't get a flicker at all. It's all or nothing, so they either come on or they don't. I took the original +/- wires that hooked up to the halogens and connected that directly to the +/- balast leads. They are small wires. So I'm guessing the problem is the ballasts are just barely getting enough amperage when they work and definitely not enough when they don't come on.
To fix this and have them always come on when they should, can I simply rewire the + input on both ballast and run it directly to the battery? Or will they then be always on? Does the headlight switch cut the POS or NEG when you turn it off?
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