Big thank you for this video. I bought the ZKW lens from TRS and initially said "no way" I'm doing a full disassembly to install. In fact I was not happy that TRS didn't explain more clearly what was needed. Fast forward a couple of months and I noticed the internals on the pass side were very loose, assembly was moving all around. Took a look and all adjuster attachments had come loose. Once I was there I figured let's try to do the lens. Took a good while but got it done and somehow reattached the center adjuster, much less movement now. Crisper cutoff. Never would have known how to reattach level adjuster clip without your video. Will now to other side eventually. TRS should pay you to use your video and show what is really required. May you have good karma.
You have either made me a very happy man by saving 1080$ on a new headlight, or made me waste 55$ and smashing my old headlight to about 1080 pieces. Cheers from Sweden.
Jake - TitaniumCranium from fanatics. Just a note about Bosch/AL headlights. Now that our cars are getting on in the years the AL headlights ARE starting to burn. I had to replace my bowls because they had turned brown on the top reflective surface leaving a black spot on the road on each headlight. Thanks for the vid! Used it to get the headlights apart, replaced the bowls, AND put in OE ZKW lenses at the same time. Cheers!!
Great video. Thank you! I just did the disassembly and found you can push the auto-leveling ball up and out of the socket by turning the inner dial counter clockwise tilting the the light all the way up (removes pressure making it easier to pry the ball up with a flathead screwdriver). Then tilt all the way down (clockwise) to remove the housing.
Jake, I have a 2001 BMW convertible, with what appears to be Single Xenon headlights. I have watched several videos on the subject but I am unclear on a couple of points. 1. One video suggested I could clean out the AL Xenon Projector with something like windex and towel and perhaps the lens and then put back together. The single Xenon has a 2.5 " lens so I could not find a ZKW 2.5 " lens to replace my lens. The other video suggested these metal projectors could still get a dust or some other residue that might diminish the light output. 2. Alternatively, the Retrofit Lab has a replacement kit for the single Xenon Bosch AL unit. They are suggesting replacing the Projector Bowel with the Mini 6.1 HD1 Bi-xenon projector and the corresponding X1 xenon bulbs. However on a different video, it should the actual light output of the Bosch AL Bi-Xeon replica with its D2S bulb had better light output. Please advise.
Hey Rich. The OEM projector lights on the E46's are much better than the mini projectors (the H1 that you mentioned). You think your light output is bad because of the projector itself? Starting with the headlight lens, if it is pitted/yellowed/hazy etc it's best to just replace it. It's only held by a few tabs and you can get the replacement pair from KHOALTY for about $85 shipped. That will transform the front of the car. Besides that how old are the xenon bulbs? If they're over 4years old with a lot of use I would replace them. Theretrofitsource sells genuine OSRAM CBI D2S bulbs for about $110 which is insanely cheap considering they are the king of all xenon bulbs. I definitely recommend them. (I'm actually selling mine with low hours on them since I'm selling my E46 this week and getting a newer car that doesn't use the D2S type bulbs). Before doing the first two steps I would remove the headlights, remove the bulbs and see if there are any burn marks where the bulbs go.
Thanks, there is one issue that I can see - the 2.5 inch lens is frosted. I don't know if the projector is damanged. Another video suggested that they can get dirty over time, so a simple cleaning might help. I have not taken the headlights out of the car to do a visual inspection. I had bought the H1's but I am trying to return them for a couple of reasons. 1. They seem designed for a more universal retrofit of cars without factory HIDs. 2. The bulbs are smaller and the mechanism of holding them in seems weak, relative to the factory AL Bosch single xenon unit. Today I found a comparison video from Retrofit Labs, where I purchased the H1's from and they show the D2S being brighter than the HI, so going through all that effort to retrofit seems pointless. The Xenon bulbs are about 3 years old, but they are not the original OSRAM units that was in the car ( I still have them - 16 years). These were something fairly inexpensive I got off of Amazon. This was my first thought in how to improve the light output since the original bulbs were still in the car. Its possible that the light output from the bulbs plus the frosted lens is the easiest and most sure fit thing to do to improve the light output.
The frost is normal, just the design from those manufacturers. It definitely won't impede on the light output as compared to burnt bowls. Aftermarket bulbs are much weaker than original bulbs such as Philips and Osram. When my friend bought OEM AL headlights for his facelift sedan they had aftermarket D2S bulbs, once we put in CBI's massive difference not only in brightness but the overall spread of light was better.
I did not know if the "frosted lens" is the issue or not. I have not taken the projectors out of the headlight assembly, or even out of the car. The light is not as bright as new cars and the color has a slight more greenish cast, but its still brighter and more white than the halogen high beams. Perhaps one simple approach is to replace the cheap after market DS2 lamps with the Philips. The original Osram were in there 13 years and were never touched.
Hey man, great video. I've been watching it step by step as I disassemble my lights. I have ZKW lights, but using your video to do the burnt bowl replacement... Anyway, I'm having a hell of a time getting the auto leveling arm popped out of the hinge (4:23 in your video)... Can you shoot me a message or reply with more detail on how hard it is? Did you pop it up to the top or bottom of the hinge? I don't want to break anything! Thanks in advance! Your video is great!
Terrific video! Thanks for posting this for us. I've got an '05 with badly burnt ZKW reflector bowls. To fix the problem I plan to buy a set of used AL headlight assemblies and do some parts swapping. My question to you is, does it make more sense to: 1) keep my ZKW assemblies and simply replace my burnt bowls with the AL bowls, or 2) pull out my ZKW clear lenses (along with their armatures) and mount them to the AL assemblies. I'm not which would be an more effective/easier swap.
Thanks. I recently did a RHD to LHD conversion by reversing the cut-off shields. Prising out the adjuster arm seemed a bit too heavy handed for me and I found it just pops out if you push the top of the inner section out of the housing once it's free from the up/down left/right adjusters.
Also it just pops right back in on reassembly once you have the up/down left/right adjusters in. When you put the xenon glass back in those red rubber things allow you to adjust the dipped beam versus the main beam so it's a good idea to hook it up to the car to check and adjust before you reassemble everything.
@Steve Ladders What can you tell to me about your Rhd to Lhd conversion,are you driving without problem how long did you drive after conversion,are you satisified with that.And how much did the conversion cost(which land its done) Thnx
@dmirocha Whats up. The high beam lights are only on if the DRL feature if on from factory. I have mine disabled, but when I pull back on the stalk they work as flash to pass. If I press forward I have my bi-xenon high beam.
Well yea that's what I was getting at. Oh btw I just did this and I think I blew up my adjuster motors when I disengaged them from the bowl, now they make a clicking noise. Think I broke them?
Question: Do your inner halogen's turn on with the brights? I have a the same set up as you. Halogen on the inside, Bi-xenon's on the outside. The only time my inner halogens turn on is when I pull my turn signal stalk toward me for the "flash to pass" mode. When I push it to bright light mode, only the bi-xenons go to bright. The inner halogens don't come on then. Seems like a waste of space and engineering to use them for "flash to pass" only. Thoughts?
Hi Xion, please help me a bit. I bought a car that had an accident and my xenon headlight casing have almost all the clips broken. The headlights are fit with screws and metal clips so they work but I would like to have my car neat so the question is is is possible to buy cheap second hand normal headlights and replace the interior with my stuff, are the xenon and normal headlight casings the same?
i have a 2003 330i with out a projector light in the headlight compartment, its just your basic two light bulbs. my question is can i just swap it out with original BMW headlight that come with the projectors, is there any harness needed to be swapped or is it just plug and play? thanks
is vht nightshades safe to spray inside the headlamp? i know it is flammable but dont know if it would combust after dried. thanks in advance knowledge bearing viewers.
I'm also from e46fanatic ...I have a quick question for you . I'm changing my e46 facelift coupe headlight out and using sedan facelift bixenon guts. I was told all I have to use is the housing guts with my insert and lense . I do notice that the xenon projector housing is much robust than my non xenon so will this effect my corner lights, as they are flush mount under the front main lense . I hope I can square this off as I have zero info on this via internet .
That is a difficult modification due to the mounting points of the sedan projector and the overall shape/size. It would have been to just put in an aftermarket xenon bulb into the oem facelift coupe headlight, but if you can manage to do the swap that would be great. Personally I would have bought an FXR projector since they are better than the AL projectors.
Jake somehow when I check my headlight all the housing is screwed up ..where the bulb is mounted that piece separated from the actual projectors housing . Therefore my bulb just sitting inside that area
Question: I have an '03 ZHP. It's very obvious that the reflector bowl is burned out on both lamps. I want to convert them to AL or something that doesn't suffer from that burnout issue. Are you aware of any good resources on how to do that with as little "customization" as possible while not spending $1100 for each light?
Evening. I have the perfect solution for you assuming it's a sedan. Go to the site theretrofitsource dot com. Look under projector kits - retroquick kicks. There's one for the ZHP repair. Process is similar to my vid and the kit costs $170. Can't beat that!
@@XionUnjust Hi. Thanks for the quick reply. I have seen that kit. However, I was under the impression that is also a ZKW kit, which are subject to the eventual burnout issue. Am I wrong?
@@ragtop63 they're made by Morimoto which is a good company. They don't have the same issue as the ZKW made projectors. These are made to fit ZKW housings as AL is different. Another option is finding used AL projector headlights. Those are problem free but costs more than the retrofit
@@XionUnjust Ah ok. Thank you for the clarification. I looked up the cost of some used AL headlamp assemblies and I found some for $300 for the pair. That's not bad if they're just a straight swap and no modifications need to be done. I guess I'll have to decide which way I want to go. Thanks for your help.
7m 35s into the video = Three broken plastic pieces on the "cover", well, they don't have the most important function as the "cover" sits on ok without them, but dude, is it so hard doing stuff the right way?
+The401Kidd Left and right movement or up and down? For left and right it's only on OEM projector headlights for 2004-2006 coupes. For up and down it's on all OEM projector headlights
Big thank you for this video. I bought the ZKW lens from TRS and initially said "no way" I'm doing a full disassembly to install. In fact I was not happy that TRS didn't explain more clearly what was needed. Fast forward a couple of months and I noticed the internals on the pass side were very loose, assembly was moving all around. Took a look and all adjuster attachments had come loose. Once I was there I figured let's try to do the lens. Took a good while but got it done and somehow reattached the center adjuster, much less movement now. Crisper cutoff. Never would have known how to reattach level adjuster clip without your video. Will now to other side eventually. TRS should pay you to use your video and show what is really required. May you have good karma.
You have either made me a very happy man by saving 1080$ on a new headlight, or made me waste 55$ and smashing my old headlight to about 1080 pieces. Cheers from Sweden.
Jake - TitaniumCranium from fanatics. Just a note about Bosch/AL headlights. Now that our cars are getting on in the years the AL headlights ARE starting to burn. I had to replace my bowls because they had turned brown on the top reflective surface leaving a black spot on the road on each headlight. Thanks for the vid! Used it to get the headlights apart, replaced the bowls, AND put in OE ZKW lenses at the same time. Cheers!!
Great video. Thank you! I just did the disassembly and found you can push the auto-leveling ball up and out of the socket by turning the inner dial counter clockwise tilting the the light all the way up (removes pressure making it easier to pry the ball up with a flathead screwdriver). Then tilt all the way down (clockwise) to remove the housing.
Thanks a whole lot for this, i changed my hid igniter using this video. would not have been able to do it otherwise. Awesome work and great effort!
Jake, I have a 2001 BMW convertible, with what appears to be Single Xenon headlights. I have watched several videos on the subject but I am unclear on a couple of points.
1. One video suggested I could clean out the AL Xenon Projector with something like windex and towel and perhaps the lens and then put back together. The single Xenon has a 2.5 " lens so I could not find a ZKW 2.5 " lens to replace my lens. The other video suggested these metal projectors could still get a dust or some other residue that might diminish the light output.
2. Alternatively, the Retrofit Lab has a replacement kit for the single Xenon Bosch AL unit. They are suggesting replacing the Projector Bowel with the Mini 6.1 HD1 Bi-xenon projector and the corresponding X1 xenon bulbs. However on a different video, it should the actual light output of the Bosch AL Bi-Xeon replica with its D2S bulb had better light output.
Please advise.
Hey Rich. The OEM projector lights on the E46's are much better than the mini projectors (the H1 that you mentioned). You think your light output is bad because of the projector itself? Starting with the headlight lens, if it is pitted/yellowed/hazy etc it's best to just replace it. It's only held by a few tabs and you can get the replacement pair from KHOALTY for about $85 shipped. That will transform the front of the car.
Besides that how old are the xenon bulbs? If they're over 4years old with a lot of use I would replace them. Theretrofitsource sells genuine OSRAM CBI D2S bulbs for about $110 which is insanely cheap considering they are the king of all xenon bulbs. I definitely recommend them. (I'm actually selling mine with low hours on them since I'm selling my E46 this week and getting a newer car that doesn't use the D2S type bulbs).
Before doing the first two steps I would remove the headlights, remove the bulbs and see if there are any burn marks where the bulbs go.
Thanks, there is one issue that I can see - the 2.5 inch lens is frosted. I don't know if the projector is damanged.
Another video suggested that they can get dirty over time, so a simple cleaning might help. I have not taken the headlights out of the car to do a visual inspection.
I had bought the H1's but I am trying to return them for a couple of reasons. 1. They seem designed for a more universal retrofit of cars without factory HIDs. 2. The bulbs are smaller and the mechanism of holding them in seems weak, relative to the factory AL Bosch single xenon unit.
Today I found a comparison video from Retrofit Labs, where I purchased the H1's from and they show the D2S being brighter than the HI, so going through all that effort to retrofit seems pointless.
The Xenon bulbs are about 3 years old, but they are not the original OSRAM units that was in the car ( I still have them - 16 years). These were something fairly inexpensive I got off of Amazon. This was my first thought in how to improve the light output since the original bulbs were still in the car. Its possible that the light output from the bulbs plus the frosted lens is the easiest and most sure fit thing to do to improve the light output.
The frost is normal, just the design from those manufacturers. It definitely won't impede on the light output as compared to burnt bowls. Aftermarket bulbs are much weaker than original bulbs such as Philips and Osram. When my friend bought OEM AL headlights for his facelift sedan they had aftermarket D2S bulbs, once we put in CBI's massive difference not only in brightness but the overall spread of light was better.
I did not know if the "frosted lens" is the issue or not. I have not taken the projectors out of the headlight assembly, or even out of the car. The light is not as bright as new cars and the color has a slight more greenish cast, but its still brighter and more white than the halogen high beams. Perhaps one simple approach is to replace the cheap after market DS2 lamps with the Philips. The original Osram were in there 13 years and were never touched.
you should do a DIY video on how to install angel eyes
Hey man, great video. I've been watching it step by step as I disassemble my lights. I have ZKW lights, but using your video to do the burnt bowl replacement... Anyway, I'm having a hell of a time getting the auto leveling arm popped out of the hinge (4:23 in your video)... Can you shoot me a message or reply with more detail on how hard it is? Did you pop it up to the top or bottom of the hinge? I don't want to break anything! Thanks in advance! Your video is great!
Thanks for the video, I got stuck on removing the chrome bezel and your vid got me through.
Awesome vid thanks a bunch...now if you can do a vid of projectror retrofit for the inners that would be awesome!
Look at ecs tuning, they should sell a headlight clip repair kit. If not get a set of used halogen lights and transfer over the xenon parts
Terrific video! Thanks for posting this for us.
I've got an '05 with badly burnt ZKW reflector bowls. To fix the problem I plan to buy a set of used AL headlight assemblies and do some parts swapping. My question to you is, does it make more sense to:
1) keep my ZKW assemblies and simply replace my burnt bowls with the AL bowls, or
2) pull out my ZKW clear lenses (along with their armatures) and mount them to the AL assemblies. I'm not which would be an more effective/easier swap.
Yes, it will be plug and play but you will need to have the car coded for xenon lights.
Thanks. I recently did a RHD to LHD conversion by reversing the cut-off shields. Prising out the adjuster arm seemed a bit too heavy handed for me and I found it just pops out if you push the top of the inner section out of the housing once it's free from the up/down left/right adjusters.
Also it just pops right back in on reassembly once you have the up/down left/right adjusters in. When you put the xenon glass back in those red rubber things allow you to adjust the dipped beam versus the main beam so it's a good idea to hook it up to the car to check and adjust before you reassemble everything.
@Steve Ladders What can you tell to me about your Rhd to Lhd conversion,are you driving without problem how long did you drive after conversion,are you satisified with that.And how much did the conversion cost(which land its done) Thnx
a opaque lens is good for illuminating the road signs and reflectors. Belive me, the German engeneers did not get their money for nothing :-)
@dmirocha Whats up. The high beam lights are only on if the DRL feature if on from factory. I have mine disabled, but when I pull back on the stalk they work as flash to pass. If I press forward I have my bi-xenon high beam.
@XionUnjust I have the halogens running all the time, they act as daytime running lights... Canadian norms.
Well yea that's what I was getting at. Oh btw I just did this and I think I blew up my adjuster motors when I disengaged them from the bowl, now they make a clicking noise. Think I broke them?
Thanks! this video made my life much easier haha :D
Thank you!
ZKW projectors bowls burn out no matter what. There was never an update for them.
Only thing you can do to stay OEM is get AL projectors.
Please, could you show us how did you pull it up ?
Question: Do your inner halogen's turn on with the brights? I have a the same set up as you. Halogen on the inside, Bi-xenon's on the outside. The only time my inner halogens turn on is when I pull my turn signal stalk toward me for the "flash to pass" mode. When I push it to bright light mode, only the bi-xenons go to bright. The inner halogens don't come on then. Seems like a waste of space and engineering to use them for "flash to pass" only. Thoughts?
Thank you very much !!!
If you replace them without getting a new version, wouldn't they just burn out again?
Hi Xion, please help me a bit. I bought a car that had an accident and my xenon headlight casing have almost all the clips broken. The headlights are fit with screws and metal clips so they work but I would like to have my car neat so the question is is is possible to buy cheap second hand normal headlights and replace the interior with my stuff, are the xenon and normal headlight casings the same?
i have a 2003 330i with out a projector light in the headlight compartment, its just your basic two light bulbs. my question is can i just swap it out with original BMW headlight that come with the projectors, is there any harness needed to be swapped or is it just plug and play?
thanks
where to find only the glass or can it be bought only with the projector ?
Dinu Ioana the zkw glass can be bought at the retrofit source dot com. It's either 40 or 25 for b stock if I remember correctly
is vht nightshades safe to spray inside the headlamp? i know it is flammable but dont know if it would combust after dried. thanks in advance knowledge bearing viewers.
Zkw come with a clear lens with no line in the lens stock
Any video of the output?
Is the any major difference on a 2000 model e46?
is there a switch to convert rhd to lhd ? Do you know that?
What's so great about zkw? Thx
I'm also from e46fanatic ...I have a quick question for you . I'm changing my e46 facelift coupe headlight out and using sedan facelift bixenon guts. I was told all I have to use is the housing guts with my insert and lense . I do notice that the xenon projector housing is much robust than my non xenon so will this effect my corner lights, as they are flush mount under the front main lense . I hope I can square this off as I have zero info on this via internet .
That is a difficult modification due to the mounting points of the sedan projector and the overall shape/size. It would have been to just put in an aftermarket xenon bulb into the oem facelift coupe headlight, but if you can manage to do the swap that would be great. Personally I would have bought an FXR projector since they are better than the AL projectors.
Jake somehow when I check my headlight all the housing is screwed up ..where the bulb is mounted that piece separated from the actual projectors housing . Therefore my bulb just sitting inside that area
Question:
I have an '03 ZHP. It's very obvious that the reflector bowl is burned out on both lamps. I want to convert them to AL or something that doesn't suffer from that burnout issue. Are you aware of any good resources on how to do that with as little "customization" as possible while not spending $1100 for each light?
Evening. I have the perfect solution for you assuming it's a sedan. Go to the site theretrofitsource dot com. Look under projector kits - retroquick kicks. There's one for the ZHP repair. Process is similar to my vid and the kit costs $170. Can't beat that!
@@XionUnjust Hi. Thanks for the quick reply. I have seen that kit. However, I was under the impression that is also a ZKW kit, which are subject to the eventual burnout issue. Am I wrong?
@@ragtop63 they're made by Morimoto which is a good company. They don't have the same issue as the ZKW made projectors. These are made to fit ZKW housings as AL is different. Another option is finding used AL projector headlights. Those are problem free but costs more than the retrofit
@@XionUnjust Ah ok. Thank you for the clarification. I looked up the cost of some used AL headlamp assemblies and I found some for $300 for the pair. That's not bad if they're just a straight swap and no modifications need to be done. I guess I'll have to decide which way I want to go. Thanks for your help.
What size of the lens
7m 35s into the video = Three broken plastic pieces on the "cover", well, they don't have the most important function as the "cover" sits on ok without them, but dude, is it so hard doing stuff the right way?
Does anyone know how to turn the inner headlight on e46 when you turned the light on switch on?
+The401Kidd Left and right movement or up and down? For left and right it's only on OEM projector headlights for 2004-2006 coupes. For up and down it's on all OEM projector headlights
You have AL’s
I said that in the video description....
Those are not zkw
Is there a difference in beam patern with new lenses? More sharp?
Is the glass the same on Bosch Xenon? I think mine are a bit hazy