Enable me: new headlight retrofit

[MINIz guy]

So this is what my X5's headlights look like right now. Running on Hella RS6 projectors, blacked out high beam bowl, white CCFL angel eyes, amber turn signal bulb, and amber sidemarkers.







My cutoff is sharp, but my hotspot isn't focused as much as I'd like on one projector. I've read up recently and found that RS6 bowls are still nice since they are chromed compared to E55 projectors. I can fix the hotspot by bending my cutoff shield towards the bulb, or by spacing out my lens. I also need to rotate my cutoff shield to get a level beam since now it has gotten off by 1-2 degrees on one side. I also have a burnt out CCFL angel eye, so I've been only running the outer pair.

So I'm at a predicament with what I should do.

1. Keep the RS6 projectors and tune them properly. Add amber demon eyes and run amber LED angel eys on the high beam bowl only.
2. Upgrade to FX-R projectors. Add amber demon eyes and run amber LED angel eyes on the high beam bowl only.
3. Pick your projector and lighting option for me to retrofit!

[Ricky Bobby]

All depends on your budget man.

You should be able to fit 120mm and 140mm angel eyes easily to replace, amber ones won't be as easy as they aren't as readily available, TRS versions are pricey.

I'd say EvoX-r as an easier swap but you almost have that now with your clear lens RS6 projectors.

I can't see a pic of your cutoff but if your bowls are like the EvoXR you should be able to slot the mounting holes, and shift the bowl upwards to expose more hot spot (and even them out between sides), as well, to fix your rotation instead of bending the shield I would adjust at the shield stop, or fix rotation laterally by shifting the bowl.

Hope that helps but your projectors are pretty damn good as is, telling you to spend 150 on FXR's that would be harder to fit is not good advice from me lol

[X5SND]

I weighed moving to an FX-R but since the EvoX's bolt right up, ended up going for the semi-lazy retro.

IMO the Evo's are a good all-around projector with a seriously rockin highbeam. Like your RS6 bowl, the EvoX bowl is also a mirror finish rather than the matte-ish finish found on the E55.

What kind of lens' are you using on your projectors? I went with the clears the first time around, but with the set of Evo's im currently working with, swapped in a set of OEM E55 lens'. Since the OEM lens has a tiny notch at the bottom to throw a small amount of light upward, it aids reading signs above the cutoff. Also, I found after a while, my eyes tend to feel strained with the super sharp cutoff.

Heres what the current set im working with:

~8-10ft with notch (sign reader thing I mentioned) blocked:



~8-10ft with notch unblocked:




Below is the same evoX's with the E55 lens' installed at about 50ft. I know they aren't level, they were just laying loose on a table at this point, as I was still tuning them and was working on color consistency.

~50ft EvoX w/E55 lens:



Same as above. The color looks a bit more on the top projector as the bottom has light bleeding into it, thus reducing the band. Look closely at the hotspots though, you can see how close they really are in shape and size. When you stick these out on the road, they will appear identical (my goal):



Now here's when things get really cool. When you move to about the 80-100ft range the E55 lens removes all other colors and rewards you with a single band of violet. Also, because the E55 is a fresnel lens it smooths out the cutoff and some of the streaks you can get with a mirror finish bowl:





I've discussed this at length with Ricky Bobby many times and from pretty much every possible perspective.... and we've come to the conclusion that if you're after a "True upgrade" in terms of function, the EvoX with the E55 lens is the way to go. It gives you the mirror bowl (brighter output), but also the function of a factory lens, also enabling you to read signs easily at night. It's for that reason I'd recommend this route for the best of every world!

[MINIz guy]

Alibaba and eBay. I'm looking at $80 FX-Rs and $20 for angel eyes or demon eyes.

I'm using ZKW-R clear lenses on my projectors. I have long sold my OEM fresnel lenses, but could probably cop a pair from my E55 halogen projectors I have sitting around. I haven't noticed any problems reading signs from far away and I do enough night driving at 4-5AM in the morning. I do see the benefit of some light bleed to read signs better, but I think I'd rather keep the sharper cutoff and more light output with a clear lens. Definitely a debatable topic though.

I will have to do more tuning on my RS6 projectors as you can see the large yellow hotspot where my step is, so my step isn't that defined by everywhere around it is defined very well. I get the same hotspot from 18ft all the way to 30-40 feet. Slotting wouldn't help in this case as it sounds like the shield is too far away from the bulb or too close to the lens, so I would need to bend back the shield. It does make sense about slotting the shields so I could get back the rotation that way since the mounting holes are assumed to be level. I should take new pictures showing what I'm talking about with my rotation though.

One other issue I have with my RS6 projectors, and the E55 versions in general, is the foreground lighting. There is just way too much of it and I feel that I've lost distance because of it. Have you found it an issue, and do you have foreground limiters installed on your projectors?

[MINIz guy]

Here are some pictures of what I'm talking about. Still out in St. Louis for school, so I don't have a good camera and only have a parking garage to take pictures at. It is more level than my driveway at home though, to see the rotation better.









As you can see, the hotspot on my driver's light isn't very clear. Over 25ft back, it is still yellow and unfocused. Output is great and the low and high beam are level.

My passenger projector has much weaker output. The cutoff is defined and focus is correct. The rotation on the low beam is clockwise, yet the high beam is level. This is why I want to bend my cutoff shield to get it level without rotating the high beam. Do you guys know why my passenger projector is much weaker in output though? Bulb seating should be fine as the hotspot is correct, so why would it be so much dimmer?

One key thing is that they are mismatched projectors off different cars. However, they are still both the same part #.

You can also see the foreground light that I would light to harvest back and send further down the road. Would it be a good idea to take some aluminum flashing and make foreground limiters using the originals as a template? The original RS6 foreground limiters don't fit in the headlight housing.

[Ricky Bobby]

I think this is a post needed for HIDPlanet, they are going to have much better input that we could here.

As far as making a foreground limiter go, search the posts by user name "satrya" on HIDP as he has detailed making the foreground limiters for the E55 projectors.

However that being said I think your bowl on the passenger projector needs to be shifted downwards to expose more hotspot which should even out your low beams and make the high beams match. Then fix the rotation by adjusting the shield stop perhaps?

[MINIz guy]

Originally Posted by Ricky Bobby

As far as making a foreground limiter go, search the posts by user name "satrya" on HIDP as he has detailed making the foreground limiters for the E55 projectors.

I saw his posts on those already, and that is why I was asking. I guess I will have to experiment with that to see.

Originally Posted by Ricky Bobby

However that being said I think your bowl on the passenger projector needs to be shifted downwards to expose more hotspot which should even out your low beams and make the high beams match. Then fix the rotation by adjusting the shield stop perhaps?

This sounds like a reasonable post that the HIDPlanet guys would also say. It seems that most of my issue is with the passenger projector needing tuning.

I sometimes shy away from HIDPlanet as those guys are so knowledgable that I don't understand their replies. Once they start to go into the physics of lenses, I get lost of what to do with the projector. Moving "this" up or down is easy for me to understand.

[X5SND]

It looks like you've got a couple things goin on.

Maybe it's the pics, but to me it looks like both your hotspots are off center. The drivers side is just right of the step, while the passengers side is left of center.

What have you done so far in terms of playing with the shields or spacing out the bowl/lens?. If you look at your passenger side high-beam, since the slanted sides are completely unfocused and not well defined so to me that would suggest you've got some spacing and/or alignment issues.

As far as the rotation of the cutoff goes, if you're highbeam is level but the low beam isn't you need to adjust the stop for the shield.

[pezho405]

Make it european and just have it be a straight cut

[MINIz guy]

The bulbs I'm using are Morimoto 3Five 4300k bulbs. I've done no lens tuning or modifications to the projectors besides put the clear lens on. It may be possible that I tweaked something when doing it; I wasn't aware how delicate all this retrofitting stuff is. Keep in mind I did this retrofit 2+ years ago, when I was just starting out with this stuff.

What do you suggest as a fix for the driver's side? I know I need to either bend the shield back towards the bulb, or space the lens further away from the shield to get a more blue cutoff. Do you think it is a bulb seating issue with the hotspot?

What do you suggest for the passenger side? Would lowering the shield expose a brighter hotspot? Do you think it is also a bulb seating error to center the hotspot?