BMW
X1 / X2
BMW Garage BMW Meets Register Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read
BMW X1 (F48) and X2 (F39) Forums General BMW X1 Forum (F48) Headlight not bright and fake inner bulb

Post Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
      05-08-2021, 04:23 AM   #1
victorngcm
Private
No_Country
30
Rep
78
Posts

Drives: F48
Join Date: Feb 2018
Location: somewhere on earth

iTrader: (0)

I dont like the inner fake bulb and the headlight is not bright enough. I dont even notice I switched on the light at city.

so I modified the headlight to this

it now has inner bulb and gives reasonable brightness
Attached Images
 
Appreciate 0
      05-10-2021, 11:47 PM   #2
trnguyen
Private First Class
76
Rep
155
Posts

Drives: BMW X2
Join Date: Aug 2020
Location: Canada

iTrader: (0)

How did you do it? Was it easy?
Appreciate 0
      05-14-2021, 10:02 AM   #3
victorngcm
Private
No_Country
30
Rep
78
Posts

Drives: F48
Join Date: Feb 2018
Location: somewhere on earth

iTrader: (0)

Quote:
Originally Posted by trnguyen View Post
How did you do it? Was it easy?
not easy indeed

I started with some testing
this is the oem projector. The Valeo BiLed 2.0
this is the low beam LED chips. the controller supply 8.9-9 volt to each of the chips and it takes up about 0.5A of power. which means 4.5W per chip. The left hand sided chip is an signal chip (9V) while the centre one and the right chip were connected in serial (18V).

the High beam has 2 chips. in serial 18V

that's very important as I will use this to trigger the new projectors

The next step is to test the pin output of the connector of this valeo projector.
Attached Images
  
Appreciate 0
      05-14-2021, 10:17 AM   #4
victorngcm
Private
No_Country
30
Rep
78
Posts

Drives: F48
Join Date: Feb 2018
Location: somewhere on earth

iTrader: (0)

I started the collect the parts I need

1. light housing
2. transparent shell cover
3. 2 oem projectors
4. 2 aftermarket LED projector
5. cables of different awg
6. connectors
7. tools
8. a pair of oem headlight with plastic trims inside

in fact I really want to thanks 2 youtube channel which taught me alot to take apart
they are theretrofitsourse.com and flyryde

I took out all the parts out and wait for parts

I also opened a hole at the inner fake bulb
Attached Images
   
Appreciate 0
      05-14-2021, 11:01 AM   #5
victorngcm
Private
No_Country
30
Rep
78
Posts

Drives: F48
Join Date: Feb 2018
Location: somewhere on earth

iTrader: (0)

in this modification, I would like to
1. turn the fake inner bulb to a real one
2. make my headlight brighter
3. keep the auto mode and the auto leveling of the headlight functional.

the aftermarket led projector I chose is the Morimoto MLED 2.0. That's a very bright projector with wide light pattern. I bought a pair of LHD version and sanded down the light cut off shield and mount it into the housing. however, I am living in a RHD region which would still dazzling the up coming traffic.

luckily, TRS said the RHD version is one the way (in fact I waited 8 months to get that). so I got the RHD. the projector itself is so tiny what I can fit my modified LHD in as the inner bulb. making it totally 4 MLED.

4 MLED is too much on road. so I stick a small LED chip in the Mod. LHD housing for peripheral illumination. this could make the inner bulb useful and you can see it illiminated
Attached Images
 
Appreciate 0
      05-14-2021, 11:31 AM   #6
victorngcm
Private
No_Country
30
Rep
78
Posts

Drives: F48
Join Date: Feb 2018
Location: somewhere on earth

iTrader: (0)

each MLED takes 35W of power so I made a power cable with 20A fuse to the battery. I also install 2 touch buttons at the driver seat. one of them switches the inner MLED. the other one switch the other modification that I am going to make
Sorry that I didn't take photo of the power cable.

This modification is indeed the was between me and the controller.
and once again Sorry that I am not going to mention about how I am cracking it because I don't want BMW see this and make any meassure to prevent them. I think they just want you to pay more to get better lighting. yes that's reasonable but even adaptive LED (the 4 bulb version) cannot compair with 1 pair of MLED on brightness and width.

what I can tell is
1. The controller has gyrosensor to detect the headlight angle. it has to be sit on the headlight location during testing.
2. the power output of the controller is too small to drive MLED. so external power is needed.
3. the power feeding to the OEM LED chip is a pwm power.
4. the OEM projector has to be kept inside the headlight housing
Attached Images
    
Appreciate 1
MJE60678.00
      05-14-2021, 11:36 AM   #7
victorngcm
Private
No_Country
30
Rep
78
Posts

Drives: F48
Join Date: Feb 2018
Location: somewhere on earth

iTrader: (0)

I added some heat sink for the oem projector chips

there are 2 holes at the housing and I just blocked them and use some gortex sticker for air ventilation and water proof.
Attached Images
    
Appreciate 0
      05-14-2021, 11:48 AM   #8
victorngcm
Private
No_Country
30
Rep
78
Posts

Drives: F48
Join Date: Feb 2018
Location: somewhere on earth

iTrader: (0)

the first one is the oem headlight and the second one is the modified one, 1 pair

the picture were taken by my phone at 1.6a/ 0.125s/ 200iso

it is bridger and the cutoff light is much sharper
Attached Images
   
Appreciate 2
MJE60678.00
      10-05-2023, 06:14 AM   #9
ssjr0498
New Member
2
Rep
6
Posts

Drives: x1 xdrive 20d Msport
Join Date: Jul 2023
Location: India

iTrader: (0)

Can we not use a simple bulb in the dummy one and make it as a projector setup?
Appreciate 0
      10-06-2023, 11:40 AM   #10
victorngcm
Private
No_Country
30
Rep
78
Posts

Drives: F48
Join Date: Feb 2018
Location: somewhere on earth

iTrader: (0)

No...the mod you mentioned has to be dessemble the whole headlight housing.

Even you willing to do that you need extra power supply to your light bulb to power it on which is a complicated mod.
Appreciate 0
      12-30-2023, 05:03 PM   #11
Ryan Emad
New Member
0
Rep
6
Posts

Drives: BMW X2 18i
Join Date: Dec 2023
Location: Tunisia

iTrader: (0)

Damn that’s sick how much would you charge to do this if you don’t mind?
Appreciate 0
      01-01-2024, 10:59 AM   #12
victorngcm
Private
No_Country
30
Rep
78
Posts

Drives: F48
Join Date: Feb 2018
Location: somewhere on earth

iTrader: (0)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryan Emad View Post
Damn that’s sick how much would you charge to do this if you don’t mind?
800 for four mled 2.0
200 for 2 housings and cover
300 for 2 used 2nd hand headlight
200 Wiring, connectors and other parts
100 for 4 cooling fans
Hours of design and work
Appreciate 0
Post Reply

Bookmarks

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off



All times are GMT -5. The time now is 10:15 AM.




xbimmers
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
1Addicts.com, BIMMERPOST.com, E90Post.com, F30Post.com, M3Post.com, ZPost.com, 5Post.com, 6Post.com, 7Post.com, XBimmers.com logo and trademark are properties of BIMMERPOST