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2002 e46 330d - projector retrofit

10K views 21 replies 8 participants last post by  Ianbuckwell 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Been thinkinh lately im tired of my lovely yellow halogen headlights on my facelift e46 330d and would like projectors and xenons lik ei had on my coupe. Only thing is idont want to shell £400 odd again on a set of depo headlights. Had a look round for some oem xenons and they aint coming in any cheaper. After a bit of diggin round on tinternet as you do i noticed that retrofitting projectors in America seems to be quite popular and wondering if anyone here has done it or tried it or even for that fact where to get projectors over here.
 
#2 ·
Oem xenons do come along on eBay etc, but as you say are usually expensive. But vastly superior to depo which are just taiwanese copies.
HID kits are a no no too, super glaring (&not legal) when put into a halogen reflector, better when in halogen projector, but light output will still be out compared to a true xenon projector.

Swapping projectors is huge in the US, there are loads and loads of individual parts available, for sure most is only suitable for lhd US cars but there's plenty of rhd stuff too. Those FX or FX-r projectors have a great reputation for light output and also ease of installation, though installation is for the brave. At around only £100 plus shipping it does look an attractive option though. You've may/probably have seen plenty more over at fanatics, but also see hid planet too.

My suggestion would be to keep an eye on eBay or breakers for some bmw ones, especially if you find only one for sale as a set of 2 will usually fetch much more than just one odd headlight. Even damaged ones are Ok as can replace the outer plastic and repair mounting points.
 
#3 ·
Yeah seen those fxr before, vastly superior to the depos i had in my coupe:thumbsup. Found one website a while ago that sold them but come to over £200 with shipping and didnt seem to do rhd but cant imagine its too hard to modify. Have been toying with the idea of going to the local scrappy and seeing what headlights i could get from other makes of cars purely to rip the projectors out of them (something like a b6 audi a4 or a vw passat) but was trying to see if anyone knew a place that sells projector kits first. Will check out hid planet though, thanks:thumbsup
 
#5 ·
found the fxr ones on ebay.com, works out just over 100 notes just waiting to hear back about delivery. Yeah the plan was just buy complete headlamps from scrappy to pilfer the projectors from :thumbsup. what ever route i go i will update as i go along:cool.
 
#8 ·
Nice one mate, keep us updated as this something that I have been looking at!

At the moment I have a H7r kit installed in the standard reflector housings and I have spent a fair amount of time getting the levels correct and they produce little/no glare to on coming traffic. Obviously the cut-off is no where near the OEM units, as they are a fantastic reflector. But for what I need they are OK, and havn't cost the earth.

I did look at making a metal mount to bolt into the headlight assy, but all the templates on the net were for the E36 and i'm not sure about the difference in dimensions etc.
 
#9 ·
The chap from TRS got back to me and can do the projectors with the e46 shrounds for £126 delivered :thumbsup know what im doing when i get paid. All i need to do after is free a weekend up to bodge, i mean re engineer my headlights:rofl
 
#17 ·
Since i finally have a week of from work (finally! last holiday was in may when i went to Turkey) i will be tackling this tomorrow so i throw some pics up for all interested to see. If it goes well enough ill try and do a step by step
 
#19 ·
i fitted projectors to my vert last week i found a guy who breaks M3`s not far from me and he sold me a mint pair complete with bulbs ballasts etc for £230 its the best mod ive done so far and they look real cool......also on ebay as we speak is a pair being sold separatly for £149 each if anyone fancies doing the swap,
 
#20 ·
Well ive fabricated the projectors into my reflector housings.....what a mare. Didn't get a chance to take any photos as my camera is dead and couldnt find my mini usb lead to charge it. To be fair its not a job for the faint hearted as to get the reflector housing out on its own it wouldnt be to hard to break the auto leveler. The headlights are still sitting on my floor also as one of my ballasts doenst work and now have to wait for a replacement. Fun times...
 
#22 ·
I have done a couple of retrofits on previous cars of mine, I have used TSX (like our accords) projectors and then more recently S2K (Honda S2000). I have also got LR3 projectors which are from a Land Rover Discovery and Honda Edix (same projector as TLs but rhd). Dependent on whether you want Bixenon or if only low beam projectors then try to get S2K projectors you will not be dissapointed.

Japanese Kioto and Stanley projectors tend to perform better than the european projectors like Bosch/AL and Hella, just need to watch the size of the projector as some are quite large, and also ensure you are purchasing rhd projectors as most are not switchable.

Hardest part is probably getting the cutoffs to be perfectly level, especially with projectors that have a small step with a straight sharp cutoff. I am very tempted to do a Quad retro to my M3 similar to a few others, just slightly nervous about hacking the lights up as not had the car that long.
 
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