Opening your headlights

[WyrreJ]

I know at least a couple of people here have recently purchased spare headlight assemblies for modification. Has anyone opened one up yet? Looks like there are a lot of tabs holding the lens on, but before I start prying at it with a set of flat-head screwdrivers I was wondering if anyone had already done it and if there were any caveats.

THanks

[Dallas4u]

Not sure exactly what they use to hold them on, or how they bind them, but it is probably tabs + heat or a type of glue = be careful or they will break!

[ron]

I've read in one of the Japanese VX sites that they boiled the entire light assembly in, I'm assuming, water to separate the housing and the clear lens. Theoretically, the heat from the boiling water will soften the glue enough to separate the lens. Don't know for sure if it will work or not. But, I've ordered a single headlight assembly to try it out. I have a few ideas that I'd like to try out if I can successfully separate the parts. If you're willing try it out on your own lights, more power to you. But, if you're willing to hold out a little longer til I try it, I'll let you know whether the technique works out or not. I've already got the spare light enroute to my work address and should arrive sometime next week.

[WyrreJ]

I can wait. I just ordered the iris I plan to implant, so it will be a while before I can actually do anything with an opened headlight. But, in the meantime if anyone else has already opened their's please post.

[Joe_Black]

I've located several bi-xenon assemblies that are OEM to other makes and will probably end up using a good portion of the rear section to mount them. Haven't got my light yet, but just had the VX's nose apart re-gluing my headlight gaskets. Looks like we'll have a pretty straightforward time modding this one, depending on how creative each chooses to be. Maybe we can keep a thread going to share our ideas/findings?

[Dallas4u]

Man, I would love to see something like the WRX projector headlight conversion...

[Joe_Black]

That's real close to what I have in mind for my conversion. I'm pretty confident that two bi-xenon assemblies will fit into each housing. My only issue is the possibility of having to mount SIX ballasts! One for each bi-xenon and the pair of Hella Micro DE running lights. Anyone know if there are multi-driver ballasts?

[WyrreJ]

Why two bi-xenon per assembly?

On the hidforum.com a poster mentioned being very disappointed with the hella de xenons. Claimed the beam pattern was very poor and that glare was pretty bad, he claimed that the de halogens were much better in both departments.

Also on hidforum.com there was discussion of a ballast that runs at 35W and 50W, you could even switch while it was in use. Maybe that could be used at 50W to drive two lamps.

[vx69]

I am not sure if this helps but a lot of my WRX friends are putting there lights in the oven at 200 deg. preheated for 10-15 minutes to loosen the glue, and then prying them open.

[paultvx]

Ron is correct.. boiling the light assembly in whater is what's been done in the import crowd. The heat softens the glue enough to allow you to pry the light housings open with greater ease.

If you want to put aftermarket lights in there, I'd recommend the Hella 90 mm projector lamps. www.rallylights.com has them. They're the same units used in the Saleen S7 and S7R endurance racer. Come in high and low beam units... bulb size is a bit odd, H9.

There may be a Hella HID version for either the high or low beam... can't remember which it is. Good luck.

[Joe_Black]

I'm familiar with the Hella 90mm modules but the Hella website lists the HID version only in the low-beam. Do you have part numbers for the HID high-beam? The rallylights site only has the halogen 90mm modules.

[paultvx]

You don't want HID in high beam configuration. Light towards white in the specturm has a tendency to scatter. High beam is suppose to be a spot light, you don't want it to scatter. The greater the distance, the more scattering of light you'll have. I'd keep the high beam in halogen.

[WyrreJ]

I'm sorry but that's wrong. First, there is no "white" in the spectrum. There is, however, blue and that does tend to scatter more than red. HID's are perceived as being more blue than halogen's and their color temperature is generally somewhat higher (and thus bluer) than halogen, but not by that much. Halogen tends to have a color temp around 3200K and OEM HID is around 4200K (which is the average color temp of sunlight in the middle of a summer day on Earth, exactly what human eye is adapted to best see). However, the common perception that HID's are "blue" does not come from their 4200K color temp, but rather artifacts produced by the projector mechanism such that the edges of the light beam get a bluish, even purplish sparkle to them. That phenonmenon is the reason people think HIDs are "blue" and all the ricer madness to get higher color temp bulbs comes from that side-effect of HID projectors (not HID reflectors, just projector systems).

I bet that Hella does not have a high-beam HID lamp at all, the reason is that HIDs take a while to warm-up and achieve full brightness maybe even 20-30 seconds depending on the mechanism (although there are apparently some military-grade short-arc systems that do have a kind of instant ignition, these aren't used in either military or commercial headlights, only in spotlight systems, so far). While the common use of high-beams is to need the extra brightness RIGHT NOW, not 30 seconds down the road...

The common commercial implementation of HID high-beams is to shift the shield in the projector to open up the vertical aperature in the projector by a few degrees (or at least shift it upwards by a few degrees, depending on the implementation). So that there is no ignition required, you are just changing the beam pattern of the currently ignited bulb. These are usually called bi-xenon systems.

From what I have been able to learn, going with the Hella 90mm system buys a nice heavy-duty projector with all of the appropriate pieces made "to last." But, if you go with an OEM system (like from a BMW or Audi or Lexus) then you often get a projector that works just as good, if not better, but the surrounding hardware is optimized for the specific car that it was designed to go into and as such may have lower design tolerances because the rest of the headlight assembly is expected to compensate. So, if you go with OEM headlights you may find that you have to custom build other parts like the shroud or mounting gear in order to make it work reliably. But the benefit is that you can get smaller lights and better performing lights than the Hella commercial parts.

For what it is worth, I'm looking for a small bi-xenon setup myself. Today I saw a bunch of 350Zs (driving by a dealer) and noticed that they have teeny-tiny projectors, probably less than 50mm, but I haven't been able to tell if it is bi-xenon. Apparently the bi-xenon's off the previous design bwm 740 series are highly prized for looking good and for being relatively small, althought I'm sure they don't come anywhere near the lens size of the 350z's.

Along with hidforum.com which is primarily interested in retrofiting cards, here is a good forum dealing with HIDs, they can get real technical - often far beyond hidforum.com's level and car headlights is not their focus, rather more into handheld spots and floods:

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/ubb...at=&Board=UBB7

they also have other forums for other types of lights, including halogen and LEDs.

[paultvx]

You're right. I'm wrong. What I wrote was based on hazy recollections of a very long report I read some 4 years ago. Can't really flash to pass with HID highbeams since, as you said, they take a while to warm up. Most cars in the European market have halogen high beams not HID.

The easier thing to do would be to run a hi/lo H4 retrofit kit. Although small compound lights would definitly look more up-to-date.

[ron]

Just an update...

I managed to disassemble the entire spare headlight housing successfully without breaking any tabs and what not. Basically used a large steel bowl and submersed 1/2 the entire light housing while bringing the water to a boil. Took about 15-20 minutes before water starts showing signs of tiny boiling. Mean time I take a flat-head screwdriver and pry between the seems where the poly lens and the shell are joined. There is a gum-like glue that gets soft when the water is pretty hot. I let one 1/2 remain submerged and about 15 minutes I rotate the other 1/2 under the boiling water. Again, I pry with a screwdriver around the seams and you can see that the glue starts to soften. I upward til I can't go any higher with the tool. So, I use a spoon which helps pry it higher. The lens slowly pulls away and you work yourself all around, while keeping 1/2 the light under the water. The lens will start to pull away as the glue is softened. Here's some pics:



Showing how the lens is removed.


Here's the break down of the assembly.


I can imagine anyone wanting to paint this part to match their VX.


Here's a couple of possible areas to install a projector light. Anywhere else, there isn't too much room.


Another view of the entire assembly.