Sorry, didn't really know what to label this thread...

I've been messing around with my projectors for the past couple of days (soldering on connectors, shrink wrapping) mainly just wiring stuff...I wired an LED to each of my low-beam circuits, because everything else I've ever wired has had at least one problem...so I put them in there just to help me determine any wiring problems I may have. As some of you with e36s may know, there's a low-beam bulb, hi-beam, and some have a city/driving (at least mine does). It's a 194 bulb, I chose amber.

I've been looking at other Maximas on cardomain with e36s, and because of the reflector around the hi-beam bulb (where the driving light sits), when the driving light is on, it's very bright (or at least seems to be). I want this bulb to be kind of subtle, I'm going to have it turn on with the parking lights, and don't want it to be bright at all, whether during the day or at night...

Now from what I know with LEDs you put a resistor in the positive lead to keep them from blowing, and also to determine the amount of power that gets to the LED itself (is this true?). I was wondering if I can put a resistor into the positive lead of the driving light, to keep it very dim. Would this work? Also, if it would work, what size/kind of resistor would I use?

Just incase anyone is curious, I plan on running new (thicker) wires to these headlights, because you all know how bad the stock wiring harness is.

P.S. Craig, if you're reading this I hope you feel proud I'm learning! Lol.

 

Well my city lights are not bright to begin with, but you could dim them with a resistor. However, unless you know the current running through the bulb and what kind of light output that current has, you can't really tell what size resistor to put in. The best you can do is trial and error. Maybe start with a 300 ohm resistor and go from there, whether you want it brighter or dimmer.

 

Anyone else? Craig? I'll get some pics up of the wiring and my e36s later, I'm really bored and have nothing better to do, here's what they look like for those who are interested in projectors:

 

First, I dont think a 194 would be that bright in night (or day), but I've never seen the city light ones in person. You could, in theory, use a resistor to dissipate some of the power going to the bulb, but bulbs draw a lot more current (and power) than LEDs. Your 194 probably draws 3-4W total (running on 12V, that makes about .25-.3A P=VI). Normal resisors are rated at 1/4W so that would probably burn up before too long. You can get 'power resistors' for a couple watts and could put one of those in.
I'd say look for other bulbs at Pepboys or wherever and pick a dimmer one that might be a similar shape (might still have to do a little custom work, but should be no problem for a master fabricator like yourself )

But like I said, 194 really isn't that bright. It's the same bulb that's in the orange part of our corner lights and that's not very bright. Maybe try spray painting the bulb if you want to reduce it's brightness (use high temp paint). Give it a thin coat and it would dim it but probably still let some light through. You could experiment with that pretty easily and could get those bulbs cheap enough to mess up a few of them on trial and error.

 

I know that the 194 bulb is not that bright itself, but the area it's in (see below pic) is very reflective, and tends to look very bring at night, IMO. Here's a picture from Brad's cardomain, notice how the bulb almost looks as bright as the lo-beam area, this is what I don't want:

http://memimage.cardomain.net/member...24_31_full.jpg
(Sorry, had to link it to keep this all one post)
Here are the pics I promised, and yes, I know I'm a loser :attention

Where the driving/city light is, notice it's very reflective surrounding:


Where the LED assembly is located (very sexy install, don't ya think? ), and my scuffed up shoe:


LED assembly wiring:

--Craig, is this wired correctly? ^^ [I'm 100% positive the red lead is ground, and the black lead is power (has the resistor in it). Not sure why they did it this way? Kind of confusing, I think.]

The wiring that make up the e36 harnesses are 18 gauge, and the wire I'm gonna use to relay the power are 14 gauge. I'm using H1 silverstars in the lo-beams, and probably some generic $7 Sylvania H1 hi-beams...anyone have any questions? I'm hoping to test the wiring sometime this week..

 

I cant really say if that's wired correctly or not. It's very different from the stock E36 lights so I dont know. I've seen a document somewhere online (search google or BMW forums bimmer.org and dtmpower.net) that shows wiring for the euro lights. I am really surprised the red is ground and black is power. If it's just a 194 bulb though, then power and ground can be reversed and it wont matter since there is no polarity on there.
I know you want to do it with wiring tricks, but I'd just go for a thin coat of paint over the bulb and be done with it Looks like a clean install on the LED. Is that just the one you added for test purposes or does that go to angel eyes or something?

 

When I asked, "Is this wired right?" I was talking about the LED, I was wondering if it was fine to just throw it into the lo-beam circuit, or if I probably should have used a relay (seemed like too much work for me lol). Not sure why the LED leads came that color, probably just to confuse the **** out of people like me, right? The LED assembly is just for test purposes, as the Silverstars are pretty prone to blowing, and since this isn't original wiring, I'll know if it's the bulb or the wiring by just looking at the LED The brown wires in the harness are the grounds, the yellow is the lo-beam, the white is the hi-beam, and the grey is the power for the driving/city light (the ground for the 194 bulb is integrated into the other 2 brown ground wires). Now all I need to do is shave the BMW mounting tabs and install these bastards, lol. I wish it were as easy as it sounds. And are you sure they aren't any wiring tricks I can learn?

 

It looks like you are figuring it out. Good call upgrading the wiring and that's creative using the LEDs for testing purposes. Now I need to get me some projector E36s.

 

The 194 bulbs are no where near as bright as the low beams. The picture just kind of makes the lights appear blurrier than they are, so they look brighter. They are pretty visible at night, but the light output is minimal.

 

I just went and tested my wiring (it's about 1:30 P.M.) and everything worked great; the lo-beams looked very bright, and the city light wasn't as bright as I thought (as Brad and others have said). Only thing that confused me was the LED wasn't lit...although I'm not sure if I'll be able to tell now, I tested it earlier in the cig lighter and it was a very dim LED. I'm going to try it later tonight to see the hi-beam and the lo-beam again and possibly take a pic...hopefully the LED is lit just too dim to see...I'll update this tonight.

 

Here are the pics:





Taking these pics has gotten me excited again about putting these in, they've been sitting in the basement so long I've almost lost interest with them. The driving light seems to be almost more of a red than an amber, though. The stupid LED is not lighting up at all...I don't know if it's whether somehow the assembly itself is blown (don't know if thats possible) or what, but the lo-beam is getting power and ground, and that's what the LED is hooked to, so it should be on too...I'm still stuck on this part, anyone?

 

The projectors look good, but I am not really feeling the orangy-yellow light. Put them in already, yo!

 

just cop the wide wedge ultra white led 194 bulbs...
i used the ultraviolet purple 194 to enhance my angel eyes.
get'em on ebay...

 

purple hazin baby..rip black maxine!!!

 

After a couple of nights of testing, I have some information:

The LEDs do work, but are very hard to see as they're very dim. This had me stumped but I was too busy looking at the lights to notice the LED.

One of my Silverstars has already burnt out (with not even 15 minutes of use!), not entirely sure why, but the metal base seems to have burnt, I believe because of the ground/power wires constantly being yanked from the battery...the base of the other bulb is starting to do the same...luckily I have some XD5's on the way from ebay.

The light output is amazing! I took a couple of pics to show this; this one lo-beam is almost better than both stock bulbs put together! Hope you enjoy.
P.S. I'm going to get some pics up of the cut-off soon, I keep forgetting about this when I'm testing them.

http://community.webshots.com/album/195402187huyApz

 

looks nice....good luck man!

 

i need me some of those projectors!!!