Potential mod: Amber HIDs in center lenses

[mikeinsf]

The Bright White Fog Lights thread got me thinking about the fact that our center lenses aren't used for anything at all. There are just a couple of angel eyes hanging out for some accent lighting, and a couple of perfectly good projector lenses that are currently going unused. It also occurred to me how much I liked having amber fogs on my old 5-series, so the wheels are turning on how I might get some amber HIDs installed in the center position. I'd like to be able to turn them off independently of any of the stock lighting arrangement, and don't want to disable or mess with the auto-leveling of the outer housing. Does anyone know how plug-and-play it might be to slot some HIDs into those center lenses? Is the housing set up to accept a bulb in that spot? I'm talking via email with a guy at http://lightwerkz.net, but he hasn't dealt with our cars yet so it's a learning experience for him also. I realize true "foglights" would be lower to the ground to get under the fog, so what I'd really getting out of this is some alternative lighting effect. I think it'd look pretty cool with just the running lights and ambers HIDs on. I'd want to make sure I have a good cut-off, and don't want some jenky mod that'll cause me to blind oncoming drivers or get pulled over. Amber color temps are easier on eyes of oncoming traffic, so I figure this is a mod that will "play well with others." I'd also need to figure out where to run the switch to, as there isn't really an obvious place either in the center console or up on the dash where the light switch is.

Any input is appreciated.

[mpower03]

ALightwerkz does good work. .. This is exciting new for us!

[AirOpsMgr]

Whether or not that housing can accept a bulb and how that projector is aimed would be the first question (and if that housing has adjustments to aim the beam if a bulb can be installed) - unfortunately I can't help on this as I have different headlights.

The next hurdle to jump would be sourcing the parts needed to supply power and switch (I assume that there is no wiring present for the dummy housing).

Since a regular HID plug & play kit is designed to use your existing headlight wiring, you would need to replicate said wiring (like the current head-lights) to add a plug & play kit.

To make your wiring, you could use a relay wiring harnesses (made for HID kits so that you can run power directly from your battery if the car's wiring might not handle the load for ballast start-up). That would get you the power, but these require a connection to the car's wiring for switching, so, you would need to add a switch to the relay and create your own circuit.

I attached a picture (sorry, low quality camera-phone) of a relay harness that I ended up not using for my HIDs. As you can see, it has 2 male connections for both HID lights, a POS, a NEG and then 1 female to connect to one of the ballasts (normally wired to the OEM wiring) for switching ..... add a switch to this and you can make it work.

Cool idea, interested to see how it works out for you

[psygnosis]

AirOps do you have halogen lights or those ebay aftermarket ones?

[v3.0si]

as a reminder -

the lens for that inner lamp is the same lens for the halo. assembly is as follows...

(back of headlamp)
socket and wiring
bulb
blue-tinted lens
blacked-out disc (directly behind "projector")
contoured lens (halo and "projector")
headlamp housing
(outer headlamp lens)

you will need to remove the blue lens and the black disc to use the center "projector" lens. once you remove the black disc, the blue tinted lens will no longer fit properly in the housing.

the center "projector" is not a true lens, and will not actually focus (project) anything.

if you change the color of this bulb, you will also change the color of the inner halo ring, because it's the same bulb.

[AirOpsMgr]

Originally Posted by psygnosis

AirOps do you have halogen lights or those ebay aftermarket ones?

Psygnosis, not sure what you are specifically asking, so to describe: I had the BMW OEM halogens when I bought it; didn't like the output, upgraded to an HID kit for the OEM halogens (loved it), ...... then I switched over to e-bay Sonar/Spyder "E-bay headlights" using the same HID kit as they had angel-eyes.

In any event, I bought the Sonar/Spyder/E-bay head-lights to try out, didn't like how dim the angel eyes were, sent my OEM halogen headlights to Tekarbon, which are due back next week with their angel eyes, and I will then put the HID kit back in those and be done.

[mikeinsf]

So it looks as though the sealant used in our headlights makes it impossible to open them up for surgery with destroying them. Sad. I was hoping for a max budget somewhere in the $500 range for this mod, but that's looking somewhat unrealistic at this point.

[Kgolf31]

Originally Posted by mikeinsf

So it looks as though the sealant used in our headlights makes it impossible to open them up for surgery with destroying them. Sad. I was hoping for a max budget somewhere in the $500 range for this mod, but that's looking somewhat unrealistic at this point.

I know this is going to exceed your priceline...(or actually it may be cheap) but just continue reading.

If you really want to do surgery on the headlights...I suggest ripping that whole inner "projector" out and replace it with FX-R projector lens. They cost a pretty penny (like $400 IIRC) but then you'll have fully function inner lens that you can program to come on with the low-beams, or have them turn on with the high-beams.

The nice thing is that they are bi-xenon as well...so I'd wire them accordingly to turn on with the low-beams, and then you can use their full function.

Cons -
I don't know if they would actually fit
May have extreme modding of the inner bezel
Complete failure of the headlight.

I emailed lightwerkz when I have my E46 to do a quad projector set-up on my E46...they wanted about $1200 for parts and labor for 4 FX-R projectors. I don't know if they would even attempt our headlights...but for sure it'd be a neat project if it worked