Projector Halo Headlight Install

Repository of 'how to do' articles relating to the Z3 and M roadster/coupe
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Jonttt
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Joined: Sun 28 Dec, 2008 16:32
Posts: 6554

  M roadster S54
Location: Liverpool

Projector Halo Headlight Install

Post by Jonttt »

Well I finally got around to installing my new headlights.

I ordered them off eBay from the USA but they were delivered direct from the far east (I was not charged any import duty). The cost was c£200 delivered and I paid £5 for silver indicator bulbs (also off eBay as unit came with orange bulbs). It took approx 2 weeks for delivery from placing the order. The units seem to all be build in the far east and you can get them from stockists in the UK if you don't want to wait long for delivery but costs seem to be a little higher (around £235).

The units seem very well made (nb indicator bulb is removed in this picture pending silver bulbs). There are 2 bulbs in the main beam part of the unit, one of which seams redundant on mine and I presume is a sidelight for those models without the sidelight fitted to the bumper :?:




The rear showing wiring. The units are supposed to be direct connect to exising wiring apart from Halo's of which there are two on each unit, each having its own wires giving x2 red +ve and x2 black -ve wires on each unit. It is normal to patch these into the existing sidelights which I did. I did have a problem connecting the connection block for the automatic light adjustment (up/down) which I will detail later.




To remove the headlight units there are 4 securing screws. The top two are screwed into adjustable plastic "sockets" which can be screwed in /out of the bodywork to adjust the beams in conjunction with some adjustment which can be made directly on the units (for up/down and left/right). I used a spanner to keep these adjustable sockets in the original position whilst undoing the screws. Note I parked my car approx 1.5 metres from my garage doors and marked the middle of the sidelight and main beams to give me an idea of the correct height / left&right of the beam from the new lights.

Here is one of the top screws being undone




A socket extension is needed to remove the bottom screws through the access holes. Note the outside screw is the most difficult to access and required the old bluetack trick to hold the screws in the socket to replace back later (this was on an S50 ///M and access may be easier on other engine bays?)

The difficult outside lower screw (difficult to put back not get out)




and the much easier inside lower screw




Hear you can see the sockets for the screws to go, the top two being adjustable in/out




I used scotch locks to patch in the halo wires to the sidelight wiring (nb when the headlights are removed the sidelight wiring is easily accessible as it goes under the units to the corner of the front bumper.




Wires patched in. Note on BMW's the "live" wire is the one with a stripe, the colours can be very misleading and are different on each side so just connect the black -ve wire from the new units to the "solid" coloured wire and the red +ve wire to the wire with a stripe. Also remember that the sidelights are "live" without the ignition on so make sure the lights are turned off (easy to forget if you've been messing around with the lights beforehand)




Next is a matter of connecting the other wires to the original connectors. These were straightforward apart from the block for the auto height adjustment. The original block has a 3 pin female connector and the new headlight has a 2 pin male connector. The original block can be dismantled so that each of the 3 connectors is seperate but these will still push onto the new male pins (even though they look the correct size). I therefore decided to leave these at this stage and worry about the auto adjustment another day as I never use it anyway. Here are some picks if anyone has got the auto adjustment working any advice would be appreciated.

The two blocks, cars 3 pin female and new units 2 pin male




The cars 3 pin female block dismantled




With all of the wires connected (apart from the auto adjuster) it was time to test all lights working.

Note that I did this in pretty bright daylight and at first I did not think the halo's were working but they were, you just have to look really carefully to see them in bright light.




It was then a matter of installing the unit with the 4 screws. I replaced the hard to get at lower screws losely first to ensure the units was general aligned and then with the lights on adjusted the top screw sockets to get the centre of the beams aligned with the originals on the garage door. Note that the headlights are closer to the dipped beams on the new units but you can get both dead on for height and use the dipped beam to get the left/right. I had to adjust the left/right on the unit by 1 full turn to get the units spot on.




The other side was a lot easier to do once you know what you are doing.

Note I "masked" off the top of the bumper under the units to protect the paint as you do quite a bit of "resting" the unit on the bumper messing around behind it.


Here is a before shot




One new unit fitted




Lights on. Note that in the picture the old unit looks brighter but this is very misleading. In practice the new lights are much brighter and I couldn't believe the difference at night.




Both new units fitted






Sidelights on, this is misleading as the flash from the camera is reflecting from the dipped beam. In fact the halo's look superb at night. Also note I have LED sidelights fitted in the bumper which are much brighter than OEM.




Dipped Beams on




Full beam on




I really chuffed with these, they give the front a more updated agressive look and are much brighter at night.

I just have to figure out how to connect up the auto adjust :head:

Also with the lights being on for so long I ran my battery flat :head: so in hindsight I should have run the engine :idea: but I think must have needed a recharge anyway as its not a daily drive and had been sat for 2 weeks on original battery.
Happiness is not around the corner........happiness is the corner
Image Video or Journal Garage: 2015 FFRR Black Edition, Porsche Boxster GTS, 1997 Porsche Carrara C4S, Ex 2001 BMW S54 Z3m Roadster
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Jonttt
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Joined: Sun 28 Dec, 2008 16:32
Posts: 6554

  M roadster S54
Location: Liverpool

Post by Jonttt »

Thanks to c_w on another post

"The spare two pin plug is for a 5w sidelight bulb in the main beam unit.

You have to swap over the eletronic beam adjusters for those to work (twist out of the old lamps and disconnect the ball socket, and remove the "locking" adjustment screw on the new lamps). "


All makes sense now :D :rtm: :head: :dunce:

So what I thought was the connector for the auto adjust was in fact for the redundant bulb for those cars with sidelights in the main unit rather than the bumper.

I will install the auto adjust next week.

Why can't they give instructions :cry: still makes it more fun I suppose and hopefully will be clearer for others now :D
Happiness is not around the corner........happiness is the corner
Image Video or Journal Garage: 2015 FFRR Black Edition, Porsche Boxster GTS, 1997 Porsche Carrara C4S, Ex 2001 BMW S54 Z3m Roadster
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mrluke
Joined: Thu 11 Oct, 2007 14:44
Posts: 440

  Z3 roadster 1.8 TU
Location: Canvey-Island

Post by mrluke »

jonttt wrote:Thanks to c_w on another post

"The spare two pin plug is for a 5w sidelight bulb in the main beam unit.

You have to swap over the eletronic beam adjusters for those to work (twist out of the old lamps and disconnect the ball socket, and remove the "locking" adjustment screw on the new lamps). "


All makes sense now :D :rtm: :head: :dunce:

So what I thought was the connector for the auto adjust was in fact for the redundant bulb for those cars with sidelights in the main unit rather than the bumper.

I will install the auto adjust next week.

Why can't they give instructions :cry: still makes it more fun I suppose and hopefully will be clearer for others now :D
Indeed the auto adjuster is on the original headlights u need to twist and pull out ..

i still havnt readjusted mine yet !
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Jonttt
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Joined: Sun 28 Dec, 2008 16:32
Posts: 6554

  M roadster S54
Location: Liverpool

Post by Jonttt »

Thanks to c_w I managed to get my automatic beam adjustment to work :D

Here is a picture of the module as fitted to the original headlight unit




You simply twist to one side and pull (you have to pull quite hard as there is a ball at the end which clips into a socket and you have to pull with enought force to pull the ball out of the socket) - its a good job I new about this before I sell the old units :oops:

Here is the unit removed, you can see the ball at the end of the metal adjustable threaded "stem".




Here is the equivalent manual unit fitted to the new Headlights. It is removed in the same way by twisting and then pulling. Obviously with this manual unit it is only possible to adjusted the up/down of the beam by manually screwing the metal "stem" with a philips screwdriver (on both types, auto and manual, the end of the ball has a screw point and the "stem" is threaded so the length can be adjusted)




Here is the manual and automatic units side by side



It was just a matter of then adjusting the automatic unit by screwing the metal stem in/out to get the beam to the default height. (again I had marked the beam heights on my garage door to get the same heights as before). The original 3 pin connectors then just connect back on.

I can now adjusted the beam heights downwards using the auto dip dial on the dash :D

Job Done :rtm:
Happiness is not around the corner........happiness is the corner
Image Video or Journal Garage: 2015 FFRR Black Edition, Porsche Boxster GTS, 1997 Porsche Carrara C4S, Ex 2001 BMW S54 Z3m Roadster
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Jonttt
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Joined: Sun 28 Dec, 2008 16:32
Posts: 6554

  M roadster S54
Location: Liverpool

Post by Jonttt »

Well I went for a drive tonight on some country lans with no street lighting to test the new headlights.

With the dipped beams on I need to adjust the nearside (passenger) light to point a little more to the nearside curb as is currently pointly into middle of the driving lane (easily done via the top two adjustable screw sockets without removing the unit, the bottom two just need loosening as well to allow movement left / right). The offside (drivers) is spot on centre line.

Height wise both are ideal.

You really do get a distinct cut off with the projector lenses on the dipped beams (so no chance of blinding other cars) and the lights are much brighter then the originals.

The auto adjust is working perfectly as well.

I ran the same roads to compare the OEM projectors fitted to my 5 series and the Z3 units really do stand up well. The bulbs give just as bright and a little whiter light then OEM. The cutoff height on the dipped beam is perfect compared to the 5 series (which is self levelling)

Very very pleased indeed :D
Happiness is not around the corner........happiness is the corner
Image Video or Journal Garage: 2015 FFRR Black Edition, Porsche Boxster GTS, 1997 Porsche Carrara C4S, Ex 2001 BMW S54 Z3m Roadster
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Jonttt
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Joined: Sun 28 Dec, 2008 16:32
Posts: 6554

  M roadster S54
Location: Liverpool

Post by Jonttt »

I've had a few requests for info re the LED sidelights (fitted in the bumper).

They throw a lot more light than the standard ones at night (but don't look as bright during daylight).

Be warned though they make the standard headlight bulbs look very yellow in comparison.

size is

SUPERLUX T10 W5W 501 194 WEDGE XENON SIDELIGHT LED

I got them from eBay here

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0097884084

They are dead easy to fit. The light covers just pull off, they are spring loaded so you "push" the light backward (or forward can't remember which) against the spring and the unit just pulls out. The bulbs are a pull off / push on fitment. Note there are 2 pins that push in, if the bulb does not work at first then just remove and push on with the pins the other way around (ie -ve/+ve not marked and you have to get correct way around so just connect other way if don't work :wink: )
Happiness is not around the corner........happiness is the corner
Image Video or Journal Garage: 2015 FFRR Black Edition, Porsche Boxster GTS, 1997 Porsche Carrara C4S, Ex 2001 BMW S54 Z3m Roadster
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