MAVS19 ... this is my beam pattern on the grass out the front of the house at night .... I know it's not on the road ... but it's a fair idea of how I have it set up.



I get the distance out of the left headlight ... it is still shining low though ... nothing above bumper height ... but as the beam shines off the road further to the left it raises slightly.

ALSO ... I don't see that dark patch on the left near the bonnet either .. as the camera was sitting on the roof of the ute ... but it was partly on the driver's side of the roof as well. When in the cabin ... the road is lit up ... the driver's side shines right down (doesn't reach a car in front - if about 3-4 car lengths away ... BUT ... angles up to the left more)

What is needed:

Some brain: Somewhere between Homer Simpson and Einstein. To think with and plan what and how to do things. (In some cases this is a BIG ask).

A set of eyes: Somewhere between Mr, Magoo and a Hawk. (As long as the difference between total darkness and light is distinguished, it would do).

A pair of steady hands: Somewhere between a drunk and a brain surgeon.(If you can hold a can of bear, you’ll do fine).

Ok let's get serious now.

Tools required:

Pen and paper and some cardboard or a couple of empty ice cream containers

A dremel or something similar.
The usual tools to remove the headlight assy.

An oven (look in the kitchen for one, if you can’t find one, go to your mums or your neighbours for one).

Parts needed:

2 x Xenon or Bi-Xenon projectors. ( Bi-Xenon if you want Hi beam).
2 x Xenon bulbs with a base that fits your projectors.
2 x Ballasts made to fit the bulbs you have.
ALL THE WIRING Necessary.

Better yet, a COMPLETE set of OEM Xenon or Bi-Xenon Projector kit from a BMW, Audi, Honda etc…..


Now before we start cutting anything let’s look at what, why and how….

There are many unsafe, illegal and noncompliant products on the market, mainly consisting of an HID ballast and bulb for "retrofitting" into a halogen headlamp.
Time and again, these products are advertised using the name of a reputable lighting company ("Real Philips kit! Real Osram kit!") to try to give the buyer the false impression of security.
While some of the components in these kits are sometimes made by the companies mentioned, the components aren't being put to their designed or intended use.

Reputable companies like Philips, Osram, Hella, etc. NEVER endorse this kind of "retrofit" using their products.

Halogen headlamps and HID headlamps require very different optics to produce a safe and effective - not to mention legal - beam pattern.
This is due to the very different characteristics of the two kinds of light source.

A halogen bulb has a cylindrical light source - the glowing filament.
The space immediately surrounding the cylinder of light is completely dark, and so the sharpest contrast between bright and dark is along the edges of the cylinder of light.
The ends of the filament cylinder fade from bright to dark.

A HID bulb has a crescent-shaped light source - the arc.
It's crescent-shaped because as it passes through the space between the two electrodes, its heat causes it to try to rise.
The space immediately surrounding the crescent of light glows in layers...the closer to the crescent of light, the brighter the glow.
The ends of the arc crescent are the brightest points, and immediately beyond these points is completely dark, so the sharpest contrast between bright and dark is at the ends of the crescent of light.

When designing the optics (lens and/or reflector) for a lamp, the
characteristics of the light source are *THE* driving factor around which everything else must be engineered.
If you change the light source, you've done the equivalent of putting on somebody else's eyeglasses - they may fit on your face OK, but you won't see properly.


! In many lamps, especially the projector types, the cutoff will remain the same regardless of what light source is behind it. Halogen bulb, HID capsule, cigar lighter, firefly, hold it up to the sun - whatever.
That's because of the way a projector lamp works.
The cutoff is simply the projected image of a piece of metal running side-to-side behind the lens. Where the optics come in, is in distributing the light (under the cutoff). And, as with all other automotive lamps (and, in fact, all optical instruments), the optics are calculated based not just on where the light source is within the lamp (focal length) but also the specific photometric characteristics of the light source...which parts of it is brighter, which parts of it is darker, where the boundaries of the light source are, whether the boundaries are sharp or fuzzy, the shape of the light source, etc.

There are more "Got ya’s" when pondering halogen-to-HID "retrofits".
The only available arc capsules have an axial (fore and aft) arc, but many popular halogen headlamp bulbs, such as 9004, 9007, H3 and H12, use a transverse (side-to-side) and/or offset (not directly in line with the central axis of the headlamp reflector) filament, the position and orientation of which is physically impossible to match with a "retrofit" HID capsule.
Just because your headlamp might use an axial-filament bulb, doesn't mean you've jumped the hurdles - the laws of optical physics don't bend even for the cleverest marketing department, nor for the catchiest HID "retrofit" kit box.

The latest gimmick is HID arc capsules set in an electromagnetic base so that they shift up and down or back and forth.
These are being marketed as "dual beam" kits that claim to address the loss of high beam with fixed-base "retrofits" in place of dual-filament halogen bulbs.
What you wind up with is two poorly-formed beams, at best.
The reason the OEM has not adopted the “movable-capsuleâ€￾ designs is because of the near-impossibility of controlling the arc position accurately so it winds up in the same position each and every time.
There are single-capsule dual-beam systems (wrongly marketed as "Bi-Xenon"), but these are merely a combination of Halogen (Hi) and Xenon (Lo) bulbs on one base.

The OEM engineers have a great deal more money and resources at their disposal - if a movable capsule were a practical way to do the job, they would have done so long ago.
The "retrofit" kits *certainly* don't address this problem anywhere near satisfaction. And even if they did, remember: Whether a fixed or moving-capsule "retrofit" is contemplated, solving the arc-position problem and calling it good is like going to a hospital with two broken ribs, and a crushed toe and having the nurse telling you: "Well, you're can go home now, we've put your ankle in a sling!".

Remember that Focal length (arc/filament positioning) is ONE out of several issues.

The most dangerous part of the attempt to "retrofit" Xenon headlamps is that sometimes you get a deceptive and illusive "improvement" in the performance of the headlamp.
The performance of the headlamp is perceived to be "better" because of the much higher level of foreground lighting (on the road immediately in front of the car).
However, examining isoscans of the beam patterns produced by this kind of "conversion" reveals *less* distance light, and often an alarming relative minimum where there's meant to be a relative maximum in light intensity.

When you *think* you can see better than you can, you're then in real danger.

It's tricky to judge headlamp beam performance without a lot of knowledge, a lot of training and a lot of special equipment, because subjective perceptions are very misleading.
Having a lot of strong light in the foreground, that is on the road close to the car and out to the sides, is very comforting and reliably produces a strong *impression* of "good headlights".
The problem is that not only is foreground lighting of definitely secondary importance when travelling much above 50Km/h, but having a very strong pool of light close to the car causes your pupils to close down, *worsening* your distance vision...all the while giving you this false sense of security.
This is to say nothing of the massive amounts of glare to other road users and back dazzle to you, the driver, that results from these "retrofits".

Regardless of claims by these marketers that their systems are "beam pattern corrected" or the fraudulent use of established brand names to try to trick you into thinking the product is legitimate. In order to work correctly and safely, HID headlamps must be designed from the start as HID headlamps.

The only safe and legitimate HID retrofit is one that replaces the
*entire* headlamp - that is lens, reflector, bulb...the WHOLE shemozzle - with optics designed for HID usage.
It IS possible to get clever with the growing number of available products, such as Hella's modular projectors available in HID or halogen, and fabricate your own brackets and bezels, or to modify an original-equipment halogen headlamp housing to contain optical "guts" designed for HID usage.
But just putting an HID bulb where a halogen one belongs is bad news all around.

And anyone who chooses to try to argue with the laws of optical physics isn't worth wasting time on.

Pointing people in the right direction is the best.

An HID capsule that comes in the kits you see on eBay, and some retail outlets, just use rebased d2r bulbs to fit stock housings.
These kits only create a TON of glare.

All you need to do is to get OEM parts.

You can search eBay for private sellers (some times you may get lucky) or try to find outlets offering a COMPLETE OEM designed package.

And the difference between an OEM retrofit, and Xenon bulb in stock Halogen housings, is really like night and day.

Its not rebased d2r bulbs that will blind everyone.
The key to a COMPLETE OEM designed kit, besides having Hella ballasts or Osram or Phillips bulbs, is that it comes with projectors that are used in factory BMW, Mercedes, Audi, etc….

Most people think of a HID kit as just plug into your stock harness, and have a rebased bulb that sits in your stock housing, which was never meant to handle HID capsules. Wrong presception.

Here is a brief of what needs to be done to retrofit a PROPER HID Xenon (or Bi-Xenon) Projector kit.
Which, in time we will go through in MUCH MORE detail.
You need to:
Take your lamps apart, Cut your reflector and install the projectors.
Make sure to shield the open space between the reflector bowl and the lens.
YOU WILL HAVE TO DO SOME DRY RUNS before you epoxy the projectors into the housings to make sure you have the cutoff lined up right.

Then,, if you want, you can paint the remaining part of the reflectors in gunmetal, graphite, black, or something that matches rest of your vehicle.
If you decide to paint, make sure that you cure the paint so it wont fog your lenses.
Connect your electrical wiring.
Basics, use a harness. DO NOT run them off your stock wires.
Make sure that your ballasts get power if the lights are on low, or high beam. If they loose power for a split second, they restart, and you will be without light for few seconds. Use diodes and wire the hi and low to the relay.
Then, reassemble your headlights,
Then comes the part of adjusting your beam pattern etc. and you are done
That about covers the important stuff.

DO NOT get a kit. If you do, and drop them in your stock headlights.
everyone you point your car at, with your lights on, will salute you, either by flashing their Hi beam at you or using a finger or 2 instead.

As soon as someone finds a set of Xenon or Bi-Xenon projectors we will, step by step, and in detailgo through, how to retrofit them in your reflectors with least amount of pain, agony and hiccups.

As I have said all along, YOU MUST TAKE your time and plan in detail what you are going to do, before you do something in haste and have to regret it later.

Last edited by mavs19 on Sat Sep 17, 2005 10:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Even if both the Xenon and Halogen bulb are of the same length the problem with the focal point being changed is there due to the fact that Halogen emits light from it’s filament, which is sort of in middle of the bulb. As Xenon emits light, mainly from the top but also some from rest of the bulb.
Another factor is that the source of light the reflector was designed for, has been changed as well.
You now have Xenon instead of Halogen bulb.
So, like it or not, the focal centre has been changed,

If you place your vehicle in front of a wall and take a picture of the light patter on the wall, you can easily see what goes on.

All of these major and minor problems will be fixed as soon as you retrofit a Proper Xenon designed Projector Kit.

went in a mates parents new subaru with projectors.. not hid. They where terrible could barely see infront of us my au lights where 1000x better/

I totally agree with you.

As I mentioned earlier in a very good day Halogen Projectors produce 10-15% more light. Which is not much.
Not 250-300% more, which a real Xenon setup produces.

Also, AU is known to have one of the best headlight assys in amongst Fords.

Try a real vehicle, i.e.. a BMW 5 or above series WITH Xenon System or a similar vehicle.

Halogen Projectors are a glorified Halogen setup for manufacturers who are not yet ready with their development and research of a real Xenon system, or for cost reasons involved.

I am sure that you would love a Real Xenon Projector setup, once you see one in real life.

Of all the Honda Euros running around at the moment ... you can see when following them how their beam is and how bright it is as well (without dark patches .. all uniform brightness across the entire beam).

Oh well .. if i can't get me a set of Bi-xenon projectors ... and jsut get the Xenon (low-beam only) projectors ... I've got a great set of driving lights for the front of my ute anyway ... hee hee

i will get some pics of tghe beram spread when i get my car back tommorrow.

Mavs19 if i purchased a set of au head lights and the projectors and stuff required would you build me a set? Im only offering this as a chance to write up a hole doco and how to do it properly... plus that way i dont have to do it

Thanks for your offer of me doing the job and you writing a whole doco.

Unfortunately, in this case, I wrote a comprehensive doco on this subject a couple of years ago.
Some of if has been already published on this and some on other threads.

Thinking about your offer, I find a few minor problems.
I am in WA, you are in Qld. If I do the job how do you know what I did?
So you can write a whole doco about it??
The only way that is going to happen is that I also take pictures and write what I have done and send it to you, so you can re-write and publish it……
Or, send you a copy of what I wrote a couple of years ago…. Hmmmmm

Then again, if I do the whole job, you are going to miss all the fun.
I have already done few retrofits so it is no longer fun.

Don’t worry about if you think you can or can’t do a good job of it.
The instructions are very easy to follow and the job is both easy and a lot of fun.

Once you got the bitz, let me know and I will walk you through the procedure step-by-step.
Not only you are going to love doing it, but, you are going to be very proud of yourself and you can then write your own doco.

Just let me know when you all the necessary bitz and pieces.

And once again thanks for both offers.

Hay thats cool turns out my parents are taking the au now anyway so gonna be chaning cars soon prolly to the much hated... wrx. As soon as I changed ill give it a shot for sure... with a spare set of headlights of course

I've taken 2 weeks off werk and i finally got around to reading the 14 or so pages of info on all this.. From what i've read i think i will prolly try get a hi/low BiXenon Kit for mine, probably around 8,000k mark

Are you referring to:
1- retrofit a proper and complete Bi-Xenon Projector kit or
2- are you referring to inserting 8000K bulbs in your Halogen reflectors??

Please explain which option you are referring to??


By the way, having read the entire 14 pages and then choosing 8000K bulbs, you must have missed a page or 2.

Some good news.

I was just informed that there is a seller on US eBay that is selling Bi-Xenon Projectors, Xenon bulbs and ballasts etc.... from BMWs.

Anyone of you guys want to give it a go here is the link.
I had a look at his store and his prices look very good.

http://motors.search.ebay.com/_W0QQsass ... hQ21Q21Q21

WHY must you tempt me

Which kit do i need to buy?

You need to get:

2 BMW Xenon Ballast kit
2 Bosch Bi-Xenon Projectors 3"
2 D2S Xenon bulbs.

Rest we will manufacture here.

Unless you can find a kit containing all the above as one kit.