OEM HID retrofit with exoX-R , awesome
03-10-2014, 10:00 AM
#1
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Join Date: Oct 2007
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OEM HID retrofit with exoX-R , awesome
My 10 years old OEM HID system was starting to show it's age. I had changed bulbs 2 years ago and never got good light output. lately, it was very poor. Very bad light.
(and dont even tell me about those hid bulbs on eBay, they were blue, worse than my worn bulbs, and failed in 6 months)
I decided to change all parts with quality parts from the retrofit source.
As a replacement for the OEM E55 projectors, I got the new hella evox-R because they were supposed to be quite close to a direct fit.
They were quite close. Holes match. I had to remove 2 bolts and move 2 other bolts around on the projector so I could use the OEM holes in the housing, but the holes line up and it's all good.
Only one issue, you have to grind the projector bracket a bit or the original heat shield will not fit. The evo projector has a "rounded bent lip" that interferes"
Make sure you remove the reflector bowl and protect the lens when grinding, or you will destroy those. also, make sure you do not heat it up too much or the bracket will distort. (happened to me a bit, had to re-bend with pliers).
Then, screw the projector, and without the lip, the OEM heat shield will just screw on top of the projector no problem.
ballasts, got the new Panasonic Matsu****a gen V as a dierct replacement. Plug and play.
Bulbs, I got the Osram xenarc nightbreaker CBI. They are AWESOMELY bright. The light is pure white. No blue, no yellow.
Cost of the upgrade including shipping to canada, and some butyl glue I ordered (but didnt have to bake the lens to do the swap), approx 600$ US, 680$CAN (our money is worth less now damn :P).
The lights are now AWESOME. Cutoff is clean, blue, light is awesome, it's like I drive a completely new car. really. There is so much light.
Is it worth that amount of money? You decide. I wanted to try it.
When I sell the car I might just put back the old OEM stuff in it and keep the new parts (like the bulbs) for another car.
Just letting you know.
(and dont even tell me about those hid bulbs on eBay, they were blue, worse than my worn bulbs, and failed in 6 months)
I decided to change all parts with quality parts from the retrofit source.
As a replacement for the OEM E55 projectors, I got the new hella evox-R because they were supposed to be quite close to a direct fit.
They were quite close. Holes match. I had to remove 2 bolts and move 2 other bolts around on the projector so I could use the OEM holes in the housing, but the holes line up and it's all good.
Only one issue, you have to grind the projector bracket a bit or the original heat shield will not fit. The evo projector has a "rounded bent lip" that interferes"
Make sure you remove the reflector bowl and protect the lens when grinding, or you will destroy those. also, make sure you do not heat it up too much or the bracket will distort. (happened to me a bit, had to re-bend with pliers).
Then, screw the projector, and without the lip, the OEM heat shield will just screw on top of the projector no problem.
ballasts, got the new Panasonic Matsu****a gen V as a dierct replacement. Plug and play.
Bulbs, I got the Osram xenarc nightbreaker CBI. They are AWESOMELY bright. The light is pure white. No blue, no yellow.
Cost of the upgrade including shipping to canada, and some butyl glue I ordered (but didnt have to bake the lens to do the swap), approx 600$ US, 680$CAN (our money is worth less now damn :P).
The lights are now AWESOME. Cutoff is clean, blue, light is awesome, it's like I drive a completely new car. really. There is so much light.
Is it worth that amount of money? You decide. I wanted to try it.
When I sell the car I might just put back the old OEM stuff in it and keep the new parts (like the bulbs) for another car.
Just letting you know.
Last edited by Kryogen; 03-11-2014 at 04:30 AM.
03-10-2014, 11:57 AM
#3
there is another version of the CBI (night vision or something) that is suppose to be bluer. Good to know the EVOx-rs are good upgrade. I was debating on those ones but my output is still decent (I haven't checked to see if my bowls are burned). Please take a picture of the cut-off when you can.
03-10-2014, 08:06 PM
#4
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The nightbreakers are warm white (like oem), are a tad brighter.
the CBI are pure white, and just a tad dimmer (but still brighter than OEM/philips bulbs).
Yeah, I was scared to go CBI because I didnt want the blue ricer look. They are not blue at all like those **** 6000K chinese hids. They are really just pure white. No yellow, no blue, just white. (they show blue when warming up for maybe 10 seconds, thats it).
My cutoff is super nice, but I think I screwed something like 2 degrees of rotation with one projector for 2 reasons. It's barely noticeable, but on a straight wall if you pay attention, one projector has a few degrees of angle.
1: the holes on the projector and bowl didnt perfectly line up with the attached bolts in place.
I should have just untightened the lil bolts, and then align holes the best I could, and then re-drill to get a perfect hole. Instead, I kept it as-is and drilled hole to remove bur. This ended up giving me probably 2 degrees of rotation. I could remove the projector again and just align and epoxy the bowl to the projector and make sure I get the good alignment, but for 2 degrees, I will probably not bother... my error.
2: when grinding the little lip on the evox-r, I let one projector bracket overheat and it distorted. I had to re-bend one of the brackets. This probably distorted it a bit and contributed to the error again. Again, my error...
I cant take good pics, but here is one that is exactly like mine, that someone took with the same projectors and CBI bulbs.
See, nice cutoff, blue line, pure white.
the CBI are pure white, and just a tad dimmer (but still brighter than OEM/philips bulbs).
Yeah, I was scared to go CBI because I didnt want the blue ricer look. They are not blue at all like those **** 6000K chinese hids. They are really just pure white. No yellow, no blue, just white. (they show blue when warming up for maybe 10 seconds, thats it).
My cutoff is super nice, but I think I screwed something like 2 degrees of rotation with one projector for 2 reasons. It's barely noticeable, but on a straight wall if you pay attention, one projector has a few degrees of angle.
1: the holes on the projector and bowl didnt perfectly line up with the attached bolts in place.
I should have just untightened the lil bolts, and then align holes the best I could, and then re-drill to get a perfect hole. Instead, I kept it as-is and drilled hole to remove bur. This ended up giving me probably 2 degrees of rotation. I could remove the projector again and just align and epoxy the bowl to the projector and make sure I get the good alignment, but for 2 degrees, I will probably not bother... my error.
2: when grinding the little lip on the evox-r, I let one projector bracket overheat and it distorted. I had to re-bend one of the brackets. This probably distorted it a bit and contributed to the error again. Again, my error...
I cant take good pics, but here is one that is exactly like mine, that someone took with the same projectors and CBI bulbs.
See, nice cutoff, blue line, pure white.
03-10-2014, 08:10 PM
#5
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 1,531
I got the evox because they are a direct bolt on.
The 2 choices you have are:
nightbreakers: warm white
CBI: pure white
everything else is inferior.
They are brighter than any 35w hid I have seen.
03-10-2014, 09:16 PM
#7
I'm leaning CBI but it's an extra hundred bucks as opposed to the Philips 85122
But they're only 5 bucks more than the nightbreakers so 
Last edited by Amerikaner83; 03-10-2014 at 09:19 PM.
03-11-2014, 12:24 AM
#8
damn you are making me regret my Philips d2s purchase. I guess ill have to wait another 5 years.
03-11-2014, 04:29 AM
#9
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 1,531
well they are much better than the REAL 85122(and 100$ more), but unless you bought them on TRS, they are probably fake anyway.
They are MUCH brighter than the real 85122 (TRS), or insanely brighter than the fake chinese crap 85122.... which is probably what people buy when they think they are buying the real thing.
They are MUCH brighter than the real 85122 (TRS), or insanely brighter than the fake chinese crap 85122.... which is probably what people buy when they think they are buying the real thing.
03-12-2014, 12:45 AM
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