Headlights

[sheepdog]

Recently I have been looking into upgrading the sealed beams.

First thing I have noticed is that there is a LOT of junk information regarding our headlights. We need a faq. Post what you can to fill in the blanks, as I have been going in circles.

Here are some suggestions based on what I have gotten lost on...




What bulb systems are available to us in general.

What came on which vehicles, model, euro or US. etc...

What are the upgrade options and paths for sealed and elipsoids.

What is does changing to elipsoids accomplish, what exactly is required to convert?

Good places to buy the parts necessary.




Once we get some infor I will compile it and add it to the article section.

[Febi Guibo]

hi... I had to interrupt this post but I'll try to fill in some stuff later....

a long time ago (well, not that long) I used to sell lightbulbs and ballasts, including HID sytems, but nothing for automotive.

Lighting on the E30 is my one real pet-peeve about the car... I'm on my 3rd set of headlights, and in about a week, heading to my fourth. This is in less than a year!

So, take a look at the following and with sheepdogs help we can turn this thread into a real reference:

the information below is incomplete!

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Original Equipment

type                manufacturer       features               bulb                    notes
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
sealed beam         unknown            none                   sealed 5.25"lamp        stock for US 318is
US ellips           Hella              DOT                    9006 low/9005 high      can take HIR lamps
Euro ellips         Bosch              smiley & citylight     H1 low / H1 high        steel projectors
Euro ellips         Hella              smiley & citylight     H1 low / H1 high        plastic projectors
Smoked Euro ellips  Hella              smiley & citylight     H1 low / H1 high        smoked reflectors
Euro ellips         unknown            citylight              H1 low / H1 high        no smiley

known facts!

The low beams on the ellipsoidal fixtures are a two-piece design, with a projector in the rear, a cut-off plate (more later), and a reflector in the front to shape the light output and prevent excess glare from oncoming traffic.

The different ellipsoidal fixtures are physically interchangable with their respective mounting buckets; you cannot put ellipsoidal fixtures in a sealed beam mounting bucket; the wiring plugs vary as follows (more later)



upgrades from sealed beams
(keep the sealed beam mounting buckets)
------------------------------------------------
sealed beam to hella h4 conversion fixtures
sealed beam to cibie e-code conversion fixtures


putting new headlight assemblies in
------------------------------------------------
any of the above


upgrading to different bulbs
------------------------------------------------
for euro ellips:
osram silverstar h1
100-watt halogen bulbs

for US ellips:
HIR 9012 / 9011 bulbs


upgrading to HID
------------------------------------------------
mcculloch
prolumen
kaixen
E46 single xenon retrofit

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