My silver car’s OE projectors were shit, and I was under the impression that there weren’t good upgrade options for the 2.5” single xenon lights. Replacing the bulbs with Osram Nightbreakers didn’t help. A few months ago, a member on here informed me that Lightwerkz had upgraded a single xenon car with Bosch Mini projectors, with the option to get bi-xenon/quad high beam functionality. Reached out to Lightwerkz, and they told me exactly what to buy:
1. Morimoto Mini D2S projectors
2. Brackets - select the “Bosch Low Beam” option
3. Splitters - select “9005M > 9005F/9006F” (for bi-xenon functionality)
4. Osram D2S bulbs. I went with CBIs.
NightBreaker (OE/4300k/warm white)
CBI (neutral white)
CBB (cool white/modern day color).
5. JB QuikWeld to attach the projector shroud to the projector
Everything comes in pairs, so you only need to add one of each to your cart. My total ended up being $360. I think having Lightwerkz do the install almost doubled the cost of the retrofit. If I could go back, I would spend the extra money to have them do the install..DIYing this wasn’t worth it to me. However, if you do decide to DIY, you’ll find a couple of DIY guides, Morimoto projector setup guide, Lightwerkz video on how to aim your headlights, and my tips below.
https://thebuildjournal.com/diy-inst...g5-r-brackets/
https://www.theretrofitsource.com/co...z70rwrlEVzZOdd
1. If you have headlight washers, I found that removing and installing the headlights isn’t too bad if you pry out the small trim piece that covers the nozzles, remove the small trim, hold the nozzle arm out to reduce pressure while you loosen up the rest of the lower trim, then pull the headlights out with one hand as you are extending the washer arm/nozzle + lower trim with the other hand.
2. Wear CLEAN gloves when handling the chrome projector shroud. If you get a smudge on it, godspeed. If you wipe it too much, you’ll see the chrome turn hazy. Continue wiping, and poof, the chrome is gone and now you have clear plastic showing. This is one of two reasons why I highly recommend you have Lightwerkz install the projectors.
3. The only trimming that needed to be done was shaving a few mm off the two lower screw posts with a dremel (see first photo), and removing a tab and the lower plastic guide off the back of the projector shroud. If this doesn’t make sense, just test fit the stuff and everything should make sense. I didn’t really have a guide, so I had to figure this stuff out myself. With the bracket attached to the projector, do some test fitting to see how much of the posts need to be shaved down. Make sure that when the projector is attached to the housing via bracket, no part of the projector is touching the housing.
4. Wear PPE when trimming everything. You don’t want to inhale the plastic dust. It’ll also be messy, so having a shop vac running with nozzle near the dremel might be a good idea. The mess from trimming was the second thing I hated about this DIY.
5. Don’t lose the red spacers
6. On the brackets, it may seem that you need to expand the holes to make the parts fit. However, with patience you’ll be able to mount it to both the projector and the housing without modification. My cutoff line appears to be perfectly horizontal, or at least close to it, without modification to the brackets.
7. I applied some JB QuikWeld at the 12, 3, 6, and 9 o’clock positions of the projector/projector housing. Per Caesar, a little bit goes a long way.
8. When reinstalling the inner housing piece to the headlight housing itself, don’t turn the adjustment wheels too much or you’ll break the plastic screw. Just screw in the inner housing enough on both the vertical and horizontal adjusters so that you’re confident it won’t fall off. If you do happen to break the screw, the 3D printed screw linked below will do the job and costs like $0.26 to print. I’ve also attached the file to this post in case the link ever goes down.
9. To get bi-xenon and quad high beams to work, you’ll use the splitters, which are plug and play. The projectors come with the wiring and plug for the cutoff shield. That plug and the H7 bulb on the inner high beam bowl will hook up to the splitter. If you don’t care for bi-xenon and quad high beams, don’t get the splitter, and the lights will function just like your stock single xenon lights (with the benefit of upgraded low beams). If you don’t like quad high beams and want the lights to function just like the stock bi-xenon headlights, consult with Lightwerkz bc I can’t help you.
The end result is the following - When low beam is on, high beam is both the inner bowls and the outer projectors with cutoff shield lifted (quad high beams). When low beam is off, pulling the stalk to flash lights only activates the inner bowl lights, just like how the stock single and bi-xenon lights work. Both lows and highs are much better than the OE setup on both my single xenon 01 and bi-xenon 05 M3s.
Hope that helps someone who wants to upgrade their single xenon lights. 🤙
Posts that need to be shaved down. Instead of cutting off the entire post, I scalloped the contact areas until there was about a 1-2 mm gap between post and projector.
How the adjusters look. Don’t pull a smoothbrain move like I did and break the screw
Done. Ignore the sticker residue, it’s gone now.
Low beam cutoff. This was taken after vertical adjustment but before horizontal adjustment.
Low beams adjusted
Quad high beams
1. Morimoto Mini D2S projectors
2. Brackets - select the “Bosch Low Beam” option
3. Splitters - select “9005M > 9005F/9006F” (for bi-xenon functionality)
4. Osram D2S bulbs. I went with CBIs.
NightBreaker (OE/4300k/warm white)
CBI (neutral white)
CBB (cool white/modern day color).
5. JB QuikWeld to attach the projector shroud to the projector
Everything comes in pairs, so you only need to add one of each to your cart. My total ended up being $360. I think having Lightwerkz do the install almost doubled the cost of the retrofit. If I could go back, I would spend the extra money to have them do the install..DIYing this wasn’t worth it to me. However, if you do decide to DIY, you’ll find a couple of DIY guides, Morimoto projector setup guide, Lightwerkz video on how to aim your headlights, and my tips below.
https://thebuildjournal.com/diy-inst...g5-r-brackets/
https://www.theretrofitsource.com/co...z70rwrlEVzZOdd
1. If you have headlight washers, I found that removing and installing the headlights isn’t too bad if you pry out the small trim piece that covers the nozzles, remove the small trim, hold the nozzle arm out to reduce pressure while you loosen up the rest of the lower trim, then pull the headlights out with one hand as you are extending the washer arm/nozzle + lower trim with the other hand.
2. Wear CLEAN gloves when handling the chrome projector shroud. If you get a smudge on it, godspeed. If you wipe it too much, you’ll see the chrome turn hazy. Continue wiping, and poof, the chrome is gone and now you have clear plastic showing. This is one of two reasons why I highly recommend you have Lightwerkz install the projectors.
3. The only trimming that needed to be done was shaving a few mm off the two lower screw posts with a dremel (see first photo), and removing a tab and the lower plastic guide off the back of the projector shroud. If this doesn’t make sense, just test fit the stuff and everything should make sense. I didn’t really have a guide, so I had to figure this stuff out myself. With the bracket attached to the projector, do some test fitting to see how much of the posts need to be shaved down. Make sure that when the projector is attached to the housing via bracket, no part of the projector is touching the housing.
4. Wear PPE when trimming everything. You don’t want to inhale the plastic dust. It’ll also be messy, so having a shop vac running with nozzle near the dremel might be a good idea. The mess from trimming was the second thing I hated about this DIY.
5. Don’t lose the red spacers
6. On the brackets, it may seem that you need to expand the holes to make the parts fit. However, with patience you’ll be able to mount it to both the projector and the housing without modification. My cutoff line appears to be perfectly horizontal, or at least close to it, without modification to the brackets.
7. I applied some JB QuikWeld at the 12, 3, 6, and 9 o’clock positions of the projector/projector housing. Per Caesar, a little bit goes a long way.
8. When reinstalling the inner housing piece to the headlight housing itself, don’t turn the adjustment wheels too much or you’ll break the plastic screw. Just screw in the inner housing enough on both the vertical and horizontal adjusters so that you’re confident it won’t fall off. If you do happen to break the screw, the 3D printed screw linked below will do the job and costs like $0.26 to print. I’ve also attached the file to this post in case the link ever goes down.
9. To get bi-xenon and quad high beams to work, you’ll use the splitters, which are plug and play. The projectors come with the wiring and plug for the cutoff shield. That plug and the H7 bulb on the inner high beam bowl will hook up to the splitter. If you don’t care for bi-xenon and quad high beams, don’t get the splitter, and the lights will function just like your stock single xenon lights (with the benefit of upgraded low beams). If you don’t like quad high beams and want the lights to function just like the stock bi-xenon headlights, consult with Lightwerkz bc I can’t help you.
The end result is the following - When low beam is on, high beam is both the inner bowls and the outer projectors with cutoff shield lifted (quad high beams). When low beam is off, pulling the stalk to flash lights only activates the inner bowl lights, just like how the stock single and bi-xenon lights work. Both lows and highs are much better than the OE setup on both my single xenon 01 and bi-xenon 05 M3s.
Hope that helps someone who wants to upgrade their single xenon lights. 🤙
Posts that need to be shaved down. Instead of cutting off the entire post, I scalloped the contact areas until there was about a 1-2 mm gap between post and projector.
How the adjusters look. Don’t pull a smoothbrain move like I did and break the screw
Done. Ignore the sticker residue, it’s gone now.
Low beam cutoff. This was taken after vertical adjustment but before horizontal adjustment.
Low beams adjusted
Quad high beams
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