[sid93]

Originally Posted by H_Dogg72

With all due respect. It's not the best option. They're halogen projectors. These are bixenons. A world of difference in between them.

Well, i didn't mean it in terms of performance. Peace of mind matters the most for me and i don't want to buy a spare headlight, open it up and fixing it again and later worrying about failure or water seepage. Of course, if done properly like how they do in foreign land its the best solution. But in India with no professional retrofitters, i would buy these aftermarket ones. Its just my opinion, am not comparing both

[H_Dogg72]

Just get all the support you can from Vinod. Tell him if the projectors aren't working properly, you'll order the morimotos and he'll fit it for you. Get a refund of the cost for the allegedly replica projectors.

[vin_b]

I have been using same setup like yours with DRLs from Lumen since a year. They have been holding up pretty good and haven't come across any issue. I am being an optimist and just hope that its one of failure and get it replaced

[graaja]

Originally Posted by vin_b

I have been using same setup like yours with DRLs from Lumen since a year. They have been holding up pretty good and haven't come across any issue. I am being an optimist and just hope that its one of failure and get it replaced

Thanks. That is some good news. I really hope this is a one time failure, and the new replacements work for at least a few years without trouble. Fingers crossed!

Originally Posted by H_Dogg72

Just get all the support you can from Vinod. Tell him if the projectors aren't working properly, you'll order the morimotos and he'll fit it for you. Get a refund of the cost for the allegedly replica projectors.

Sure. Morimoto DIY is sort of a last resort. Vinod has told that the replacement projectors are in transit and he expects them in 4 to 5 days. Then he will have to schedule a visit to Coimbatore for the replacement. Hope the replacement is done in the next 2 weeks.

[graaja]

Headlight Leveling Motors Installed

I would like to thank @sunilsoft for providing the part numbers and AliExpress links to the motors and connectors.
I would like to thank Gannu for providing the wiring diagram for the motors in his BiXenon DIY thread

A little background first. The dual barrel headlights that came with my Polo GT TSi had in built leveling motors. When I did the projector retrofit, I had got the previous generation single barrel headlight assemblies and had fit the projectors to these. The single barrel headlights have external leveling motors. The headlight assemblies I got did not come with these motors. So the headlight leveling function was not functional in my GT. Because of this, when I had passengers in the rear seat, the headlights used to point up glaring oncoming traffic. I decided to do a DIY installation of leveling motors.

Got the headlight leveling motors from the below AliExpress link.

Headlight Leveling Motors

Total cost $66 for two motors via DHL. The original cost with DHL shipping was $94. Thanks to information from sunilsoft, I requested for a discount and the vendor agreed to reduce the price to $66.

The headlight motors required a connector. As the motor vendor did not have the connectors, ordered the connectors from below AliExpress link.

Motor Connectors Without Wires

This package comes with 5 connectors, and require wire crimping. There is another source with wires crimped.

Motor Connectors With Wires

I decided to go with the connectors without wires, so that I can have 3 spare connectors.

The motors arrived within a week as they were shipped through DHL. The connectors took 3 weeks to arrive.

The motor


Connectors without wires


Connectors after crimping wires


First job was to fix the motors to the headlights. The headlights come with a dummy plug in place of the motor.


This plug has to be first rotated a quarter turn in the clockwise direction, and the plug becomes free. Along with the plug, the reflector also becomes free. Holding the projector from behind to keep the reflector stable, the plug has to be first pushed down to release it from the lock in the reflector.

The removed plug.


Fixing the motor is the reverse sequence of removing the plug. Motor fixed to the headlight assembly.




Next job is to connect the motor signals to the main 10 pin headlight connector. Below picture shows the motor signal connections.


Picture courtesy: Gannu in his BiXenon DIY thread.

I crimped three wires with terminals for the 10 pin mating connector and soldered these to the wires that were already crimped to the motor connector. Then I plugged in these wires to the 10 pin mating connector.


During the earlier wiring cleanup operation, though I had used heat shrink sleeves to insulate the solder joints, the wires were still exposed to heat. I had got TESA tape from below AliExpress link.

TESA Tape.


Used the tape and covered up all the exposed wires.


Plugged in all the connectors and fixed the headlight back, and voila, headlight leveling works.

Headlight leveling in action.

https://youtu.be/-x7fnS5q_kk

[vin_b]

Hi Graaja,
I encountered a strange issue with my HIDs and would like to know what you think of it. I drove through heavy rains recently during the evening and the HIDs where working all fine . I got stuck in really bad traffic (post rain) and hence turned off the car for it to move. When turned on the headlamps, I noticed the illumination had reduced and only after reaching home did I realize that RHS HID wasn't working
Since, I was busy the following day, didnt take car around but after 2 days when I took it out, the RHS side was working again. I couldnt figure out what could be the issue. I have notified Vinod of this odd behaviour but my worry is that it could be a wiring issue. Can you throw some light on this

[graaja]

Originally Posted by vin_b

Hi Graaja,
I encountered a strange issue with my HIDs and would like to know what you think of it. I drove through heavy rains recently during the evening and the HIDs where working all fine . I got stuck in really bad traffic (post rain) and hence turned off the car for it to move. When turned on the headlamps, I noticed the illumination had reduced and only after reaching home did I realize that RHS HID wasn't working
...

I had the same issue where the right side light would not turn on occasionally, and I doubted the ballast. On Vinod's request, I swapped the ballasts and the problem was still on the right side, which pointed to the HID bulb. Vinod sent me a replacement bulb and it is fine now.

Try turning on and off the headlights every 10 seconds (10 seconds on - 10 seconds off), for maybe 10 times and see if the light randomly does not turn on. Still the issue could be with a loose contact in the wiring, a bad ballast or a bad HID.

[graaja]

Update: Projectors Replaced under Warranty

Vinod of Lumens Systems shipped the replacement projectors to Coimbatore and a technician from Coimbatore came to my place and installed the replacement projectors. I checked the failed projectors and found the shutter mechanism in both the projectors had become tight. Because of this the solenoid was not able to pull the shutter completely.

The technician said a drop of oil in the mechanism will keep the shutters working smooth. I hope he is right.

Noted some differences with the new replacement projectors. In the old projectors the lens holder was in plastic, whereas in the new ones, the lens holder body is also metal. Below picture shows the comparision.



I found the quality of the solenoid and shutter components to be the same as the old projectors, but found some minor design changes to the shutter components. Maybe these changes were done to improve the life of the mechanism.

Vinod told me that this is the first time he has seen such a failure and has promised me that the replacement projectors will not have any issues. The technician who installed the projectors also said as he has placed a drop of oil in the shutter mechanism, the shutter will not fail.

For now, I am going to trust them and hope these projectors do not fail again. Fingers and toes crossed!

[keeru]

Originally Posted by graaja

Used the tape and covered up all the exposed wires.

Hi raja, hope you are enjoying your drive with the upgraded projectors.

Will this tape be any helpful from rat bites? My GT's right headlamp's complete wiring has been chewed and cut off by bloody rodents during the rains at last week. Which includes Projector wiring, Indicator and parking wiring too.
I am looking for a permanent solution to save the electrical wirings from these creatures hear on. Any inputs you can share?

[graaja]

Originally Posted by keeru

Hi raja, hope you are enjoying your drive with the upgraded projectors.

Will this tape be any helpful from rat bites? My GT's right headlamp's complete wiring has been chewed and cut off by bloody rodents during the rains at last week. Which includes Projector wiring, Indicator and parking wiring too.
I am looking for a permanent solution to save the electrical wirings from these creatures hear on. Any inputs you can share?

Thanks Keeru. The new projectors were installed only this afternoon. I am yet to test them in the night.

The tape is good for the high temperatures inside the engine bay. But I doubt if it will be of any use against rodents. The tape is just made of cotton. For rodents, why dont you check out the below threads? You may find a solution.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techni...-car-rats.html

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/modifi...nt-menace.html

BTW, how are your projectors doing? Are they working fine?

[keeru]

Originally Posted by graaja

BTW, how are your projectors doing? Are they working fine?

I have mixed feelings with the projector experience so far.

1. Though the illumination is good but finding it inadequate at high beam.
2. Peace of mind is gone due to alignment problems that crop up during the drive over humps. I should have applied the sealant to fix the projectors permanently to the reflector bowl like how Gannu did.
3. Solenoid issue was there initially but it got rectified by itself (or) may be I'm not stressing the shield so much by reducing the frequency of switching between low and high beam.
4. Have noticed a slight reduction in the illumination (10-15%) and it could be because of the bulb but not the ballast.
5. While manaully adjusting the left headlamp beam horizontally, the screw lost its thread and rotating freely without adjusting the beam pattern. Therefore can see a blindspot between right and left horizontal beams
6. On top of all these, due to the extra electrical wirings hanging around the back of headlamp assembly due to retrofitting, the rodents in my parking area are not happy and chewing them off while they play in my engine compartment area.

Over all, there is some 25% improvement in illumination department while compromising in other departments as mentioned above.

[graaja]

Originally Posted by keeru

I have mixed feelings with the projector experience so far.

Since the projector replacement, I have been doing lot of reading in the HID forums. Here are some things I learnt.

1. 55W HID setup provides about 20% more light than 35W setup, but with a huge penalty on bulb life. While a 35W bulb may last 3000 hours, a 55W bulb may last only 1000 hours. Also, the light output starts decreasing as the bulb ages.

2. Most of the Mini H1 replica projectors cannot take the heat from a 55W setup.

3. Though 55W bulbs give good brightness, too much brightness is also not good. As foreground light is very bright, you loose on distance vision. People use techniques like foreground limiters to address this issue. 35W setup does not have this issue.

4. In terms of light output, a 4300K gives 3200 lumens, whereas a 5000K bulb gives 3000 lumens. Also 4300K is closest to sunlight and is good for visibility in rain fog etc.

Because of all the above, though a 35W system produces about 20% less light than a 55W system (still this is many times more than the stock halogens), most experts (including many TBHP members in the Xenon thread) recommend 35W HID setup.

So I have decided to replace the 55W ballast and bulb with a 35W bulb and ballast setup with 4300K bulbs. From reading expert opinion in the Xenon Kit thread, CN lights is the best in aftermarket HID bulbs and Hylux is a very good brand in aftermarket ballasts. Both are available in XenonPlanet.in. The ballasts cost 4.8k for a pair and the bulbs 2.1K.

Hylux Ballasts

CNLight bulbs

Hopefully, with this replacement, the reliability of the system goes high with a little sacrifice in light output.

It is turning out to be an expensive affair, but I think it is better to spend some money in getting reliable components than endure frequent failures.

Vinod of Lumens Systems has been good with his after sales support, but I would like to avoid any further failures.

[graaja]

35W Hylux Ballasts and 35W 4300K CN Bulbs Installed

High Beam Failure
Projector replacement

As I have explained in the earlier posts, the high beam in the projectors failed and Lumens Systems replaced the projectors under warranty free of cost.

Though I am very happy with the after sales support of Lumens Systems, being an engineer, I started looking for reason why the projectors failed, and how to prevent (atleast try to prevent) similar failure in the future.

When I had inspected the failed projectors, I found that the shutter mechanism in both the projectors had got stuck. As member sid93 had pointed out earlier, this could be due to the shutter mechanism expanding and deforming due to heat. Maybe the projectors are not rated for 55W HID system. When I looked up the specifications of Mini H1 projectors from Morimoto, (the ones installed in my car are Mini H1 replicas), these projectors are rated only for 35W HID systems. Only the latest v7.0 Mini H1 is rated for 50W HID system. In the many threads on various HID forums, people always suggested FXR projectors for 55W. When I analyzed the quality of the failed projectors, the plastic lens holder, the flimsy shutter mechanism etc further strengthened this theory that the projectors are not designed for a 55W system.

Though the new replacement projectors had a better construction with metal lens holder, and though Vinod of Lumens Systems insisted that these projectors will withstand 55W HID, I decided to play it safe and change to 35W. I had read in the "Best Xenon HID Coversion Kit" that in aftermarket kits, Hylux ballasts are of very good quality and CN Bulbs are the best in HID bulbs. Thanks to member Sam.k, I got the link to XenonPlanet who are located in Chandigarh and deal with Hylux ballasts and CN bulbs. Ordered the below from their website.

Hylux 35W Ballasts - INR 4800 for a pair
35W 4300K CNBulb HID - INR 2100 for a pair

Here I should mention about the excellent customer support from XenonPlanet. I had placed the order and had gone on a 10 day business travel, hoping to see the package when back. But due to some issue with their online ordering tool (not a great tool, I could place the order only on the third attempt), they were not aware of the order and had not shipped them. I messaged them on their FB page, and they responded within 10 minutes. They tracked the order, apologized for the issue and shipped the items by air the same day. I received them in two days after this.

This is what I received. Two ballasts and two HID bulbs


Hylux ballast with 3 year warranty (hope I never need to claim the warranty)




CN Bulb




Replacing the ballasts and bulbs was a straightforward job and took about 30 minutes.

Before I went for the downgrade to 35W some friends advised me against this saying the brightness will be too low. I had read in various online articles that a 35W HID system would give about 20% more light for 60% more power. So, I decided to do some tests to know how much will be the reduction in illumination in 35W. As I did not have a proper Lux meter to measure brightness, I downloaded an Android App called "Lux Meter" from Google Play. This App uses the light sensor in the phone (located near the front camera) to measure light.

Important Note: As the phone's light sensor is not a calibrated light meter, the absolute Lux readings from this app will be meaningless. For example, the meter may show 20000Lux for an actual brightness of 4000Lux. However, as my intention of this experiment was only to find the relative brightness between the 55W and 35W systems, I was not concerned about the actual values. The only requirement was that I take the measurements under same test conditions for both the systems.



I parked the car in my portico and measured the illumination near the hotspots of both the beams that were projected on the wall about 10 feet away. I moved the phone to various points in the hotspot and let the App record the highest value. As I did not move the car between measurements and took the measurements in total darkness in the night, I can now tell the % reduction in light. The results were very interesting indeed.

Below is the screenshot of the App for the 55W system for the left and right lights.



The left light had a intensity of 24523 max and the right 9396. The right side was just 38% of the left side. Ever since the projector installation, I had problems with the right side setup. Once the light completely failed and Vinod replaced the bulb. Even after replacement, I felt that the right side light was dim, but I had never made any tests to quantify this. Just to make sure that my measurement was not wrong, I made several measurements and the outcome was consistent - the right side light was indeed 40% of the left side. Maybe the ballast also was not good.

Below is the screenshot for the 35W Hylux/CNBulb system.



The left side has a max value of 19527 which is 79.6% the brightness of the 55W system, consistent with the information I got online. Also, the left and right sides are closely matched. The right side has a max value of 18876 which is 96.6% of the left side. I think this 3.4% drop could be because of the voltage drop in the wiring harness as the wire for the right side is longer than the left side.

Finally, took the car out for a test ride. It was just after some heavy rain and I found the light to be quite bright and distance visibility was very good as well.

https://youtu.be/-an12eNGyeI

As for the reliability, I will be able to comment only after may be a year of use.

Conclusion: We cannot expect consistent performance from aftermarket components while upgrading to projectors. If you are lucky, you can end up with good performance (like the left side light in my 55W setup). If consistent performance is desired, then we have to go for tested products - for example, Morimoto projectors, Hylux ballasts, CN bulbs etc. Though these may be on the expensive side, you will get the satisfaction of better performance.

PS: I have now ordered a DC clamp meter and a proper Lux meter. Once I get these, I will do another set of tests to compare the current consumption and light output of the 35W ballasts and also the 55W setup from Lumens systems (I know a few friends who have this setup), and also the light output from my Jetta which is a 35W 4300K BiXenon setup.

[sid93]

Awesome. I hope you have trouble free experience with 35w bulbs and the output is on par with the 55w bulbs, which are not worth considering the risks involved (reflector damage due to high UV output and solenoid malfunction due to heat). And indeed bi-xenons are no match for my quad projector setup considering i have halogens on high beams. See how Osram night breakers looks when High beam is turned on :(

Low beam only(5500k,35w Morimoto ballast and bulbs) :


With high beams( Osram night breaker 55w halogen):

[graaja]

Originally Posted by sid93

...
See how Osram night breakers looks when High beam is turned on :(

The 35W 5500K Morimotos on the low beam looks awesome! The light spread is also superb!

Maybe you should plan to change the high beams as well to HID. The only drawback is the warm up time required. It takes about 10 seconds for the HID to reach full brightness. So, if you frequently turn on and off the high beams, you will not have full brightness on each operation. But on long drives where you keep high beam on for longer duration, you will see very good performance.