[Route 16]

Decided I'll do the Umnitza, then a year down the line sell them and use my OEM and send to OSS with RGB LEDs.

[jaceaholic]

Wow, great find

Originally Posted by mapleridge

http://www.ebay.com/itm/140641301114...#ht_500wt_1413


It was actually $800 plus $50 shipping.

[jaceaholic]

I meant anyone

Originally Posted by ecaedus

nah im good, i won't be changing lights for at least 3 years lol

[Simon.bmw]

anyone knows why i cant gather in front of the car, it is just sepreat........... damn!!!
see the pics!!

[Simon.bmw]

Originally Posted by Simon.bmw

anyone knows why i cant gather in front of the car, it is just sepreat........... damn!!!
see the pics!!

I adjusted it thousand times!!!

[deceptiv.335]

No disrespect to the people on this forum who got the retro fit.. but I'm going with OEM.... I'd rather save up the extra 500-600 and get a solution I know I'll def be happy with it. Sad part is for the people that got their car with halo's all of the BMW's shoudla just came with Xenon's and we'd avoid this entire mess but alas they didn't..

Weird thing is it may be because of the DEPO housing.. I did a retrofit and seen many retrofits on diff cars that come out fine, not sure why these retro look bad.. but between the cutoff and the guy whos AE fell off.... it looks like Umnizta may need to go back to the drawing board..

[umnmatt]

Originally Posted by Simon.bmw

I adjusted it thousand times!!!

you may have received the wrong bulb, why don't you call them and make sure they give you teh right one?

[ecaedus]

people, i URGE u to get OEM, save for another month and go OEM, umnitza isn't worth the trouble.

ANOTHER TWO ISSUES occured to my lights today!!

1. the driver's side housing is FOGGING UP extremely bad, the whole inside cover is completely blocked and any light can barely get through...

2. the driver's side corner lights isn't functioning! when i make a left turn, the blinkers on my car's dash, car's side corner light and car's rear corner light blinks three times as fast when the corner light of the driver's side headlight doesn't blink at all. Finally, the corner lights STAYS ON and drain the battery even AFTER i TURN OFF the car and locked it....

needless to say i'm extremely disappointed at Umnitza's product.

good ppl of the forum, do yourselves a favor and spend $4000 at dealership to change to xenons, because $770 POS from Umnitza isn't worth the trouble.

oh, according to their policy i'm not going to be able to return this shit. so i'll be stuck with it and figure all these little problems out one by one, how fun! lmaf

[Trevendous03]

Originally Posted by ecaedus

people, i URGE u to get OEM, save for another month and go OEM, umnitza isn't worth the trouble.

ANOTHER TWO ISSUES occured to my lights today!!

1. the driver's side housing is FOGGING UP extremely bad, the whole inside cover is completely blocked and any light can barely get through...

2. the driver's side corner lights isn't functioning! when i make a left turn, the blinkers on my car's dash, car's side corner light and car's rear corner light blinks three times as fast when the corner light of the driver's side headlight doesn't blink at all. Finally, the corner lights STAYS ON and drain the battery even AFTER i TURN OFF the car and locked it....

needless to say i'm extremely disappointed at Umnitza's product.

good ppl of the forum, do yourselves a favor and spend $4000 at dealership to change to xenons, because $770 POS from Umnitza isn't worth the trouble.

oh, according to their policy i'm not going to be able to return this shit. so i'll be stuck with it and figure all these little problems out one by one, how fun! lmaf

Did you do any coding? You may have to code out all the bulb checks in the front turn signals for them to work properly. That's what I did. I have had mine on for a month now, and after I coded out all the errors, they work perfectly fine (knock on wood). Maybe I just got lucky, but mine have been fine. I did notice a small amount of fogging in the passenger headlight but just in one corner, and that was only when we had a torrential downpour. It's been raining nonstop here for the last 3 days, and they haven't fogged up. It's been a medium rainshower.

The way to fix the fogging would be to take them out, bake them, and re-seal them yourself. I would contact Umnitza first though and demand your $$ back. I guarantee they just have that no-refund policy to deter people from demanding they're $$ back if they hit something and the headlight busts. But if you're not satisfied with the product because of something they did not do right, then that's their fault, and they should give you a refund. They have been nothing but kind to me throughout all of my questions/error-removal, so it makes me think they would do something to rectify your situation.

If I had to do it all over again, I'd probably save a little longer and get OEM xenons from ProjectM, just for peace of mind. But, these Umnitzas have been working well for me... so far.

[milly]

I actually had some fogging up on my driver side one as well but today I put some clear silicone all the way around the headlight. Hopefully that stops it!

[deceptiv.335]

its hit or miss with these kind of products....

oem build is nearly the same quality every build everytime... but something is off here, and it may either be the person installing the projector or the depo housing themselves..

like i said, i had a 2008 civic si and i sent my oem headlights in for a retrofit, and they came back like a dream... why cant anybody make a REAL alternative to oem on the bmw?

[Trevendous03]

Originally Posted by inimeg

its hit or miss with these kind of products....

oem build is nearly the same quality every build everytime... but something is off here, and it may either be the person installing the projector or the depo housing themselves..

like i said, i had a 2008 civic si and i sent my oem headlights in for a retrofit, and they came back like a dream... why cant anybody make a REAL alternative to oem on the bmw?

Yeah, it does seem to be hit or miss. Umnitza was the only company that told me they could do a FX-R retrofit inside a OEM halogen setup, but a lot of companies told me it'd be too difficult or it was going to end up costing so much labor, that the total cost would be more than the OEM xenon conversion from ProjectM.

I guess the OEM headlights cannot be baked open... they have to be cut open.

[jaceaholic]

I have an extra set avail for those that may be interested. They are BNIB, and about 150 less than Umnitza.. I ended up with an extra set from insurance

[srohang1]

Seems like the Umnitza projectors are more of a pain than anything. I just bought my first BMW (06 325i) and wish it had HID headlights (BMW should have made them standard!). Many people on this thread are recommending getting OEM lights.

I am extremely confused because my car has regular halogen light bulbs and I want to upgrade to HID. Is it possible to go from OEM halogen bulb headlights to OEM LCI xenons headlights? If so, where can I buy these, if not, what are my options? I have spent many hours researching and I keep getting confused. Can anyone confirm that E90 Andy & ProjectM sell these and any other ideas?

Looks like coding will be involved as well?

[Trevendous03]

Originally Posted by srohang1

Seems like the Umnitza projectors are more of a pain than anything. I just bought my first BMW (06 325i) and wish it had HID headlights (BMW should have made them standard!). Many people on this thread are recommending getting OEM lights.

I am extremely confused because my car has regular halogen light bulbs and I want to upgrade to HID. Is it possible to go from OEM halogen bulb headlights to OEM LCI xenons headlights? If so, where can I buy these, if not, what are my options? I have spent many hours researching and I keep getting confused. Can anyone confirm that E90 Andy & ProjectM sell these and any other ideas?

Looks like coding will be involved as well?

I've been pretty pleased with my Umnitzas, but then again, they're hit or miss it seems.

You can go from Pre-LCI halogen to LCI xenon no problem. Contact Jay from ProjectM. Do not contact E90 Andy. He is infamous on this forum... in a bad way. It'll be around $2,500 for the headlights with OEM ballasts, bulbs, and a harness. You still will need to code out some errors I'm sure. It's always good to code even if you don't get errors, so the car knows it's running xenon. Just a precautionary measure. And you don't want the LED turn signals to suddenly not work. If you code the VO for xenon and code out those bulb checks, they'll work fine.

For me, it was... spend $800 on Umnitza FX-R or $2,500+ on OEM. I figured if it didn't work out for me, and I didn't like the Umnitzas, I could take them out and sell them for maybe $500 and not lose much $$ and save up for the OEM.

If I were you, if you can install headlights yourself, I'd take a chance on the Umnitza FX-R (not the regular). Just be sure to email them after you place your order, so they know exactly what you want. They might be just want you want, and you could save yourself a boatload of money! Yeah OEM would be your best bet, but at least you wouldn't lose much money if the Umnitzas don't work out for you. The FX-R retrofit Umnitzas would sell like hotcakes on this forum.

[srohang1]

Originally Posted by Trevendous03

I've been pretty pleased with my Umnitzas, but then again, they're hit or miss it seems.

You can go from Pre-LCI halogen to LCI xenon no problem. Contact Jay from ProjectM. Do not contact E90 Andy. He is infamous on this forum... in a bad way. It'll be around $2,500 for the headlights with OEM ballasts, bulbs, and a harness. You still will need to code out some errors I'm sure. It's always good to code even if you don't get errors, so the car knows it's running xenon. Just a precautionary measure. And you don't want the LED turn signals to suddenly not work. If you code the VO for xenon and code out those bulb checks, they'll work fine.

For me, it was... spend $800 on Umnitza FX-R or $2,500+ on OEM. I figured if it didn't work out for me, and I didn't like the Umnitzas, I could take them out and sell them for maybe $500 and not lose much $$ and save up for the OEM.

If I were you, if you can install headlights yourself, I'd take a chance on the Umnitza FX-R (not the regular). Just be sure to email them after you place your order, so they know exactly what you want. They might be just want you want, and you could save yourself a boatload of money! Yeah OEM would be your best bet, but at least you wouldn't lose much money if the Umnitzas don't work out for you. The FX-R retrofit Umnitzas would sell like hotcakes on this forum.

Thanks for your response. Is the Pre-LCI halogen the same as regular halogen bulbs (I do not have halos)? Do you send your OEM headlights to Umnitza for the FX-R retrofit or do they have housings (I think DEPO)? I would rather keep my OEM headlights in case something doesn't work. Also, do you have to code for any errors with the Umnitza lights? Seems like my car (2006) triggers codes from other posts I have read...

[Trevendous03]

Originally Posted by srohang1

Thanks for your response. Is the Pre-LCI halogen the same as regular halogen bulbs (I do not have halos)? Do you send your OEM headlights to Umnitza for the FX-R retrofit or do they have housings (I think DEPO)? I would rather keep my OEM headlights in case something doesn't work. Also, do you have to code for any errors with the Umnitza lights? Seems like my car (2006) triggers codes from other posts I have read...

Yeah Pre-LCI Halogen is 2006-2008 Halogen with no angel eyes. LCI Halogen is 2009-2011 Halogen with angel eyes.

Umnitza does the FX-R retrofit into the DEPO housing. And you will definitely have to code out errors. My 2006 required it.

[jaceaholic]

I was at Umnitza facility. Josh does amazing work getting these lights retrofitted, and in fact got my DEPOS (which come with loose headlight components straight from the factory) to work even better. He re aimed the projectors, realigned everything. They function beautiful, and look insane.. non stop compliments.

If you opt'd for the FXR upgrade, that's on you.. the projector the DEPOs come with work fine, and u shouldn't have changed em imo...

Originally Posted by ecaedus

UPDATE:

after 2 hours yesterday afternoon, me and another friend installed the lights.

I must say i'm NOT HAPPY with the results. and DON'T buy them from Umnitza anymore. I'll show you the beam patter and you'll know why

the pure look of the AE and the headlights is great. but when you turn them on they are not the quality that i had expected.

i've taken several photos with iphone last night:

Bumper off



testing headlights for possible issues such as "suddenly turning off after driving for 15 min" or "OBC error" i'm driving a 2008 E90 328i. my OBC is not very sensitive. right now i'm getting one error coming on immediately after i start my car and then it disappears after 5min of driving. besides that i don't have any other issues



Bumper on the ground


OK, here is the part to demonstrate the beam pattern and cutoff shape:

first up: E90 OEM Halogen


as you can see the cutoff is horrific and the beam is not that wide, the vast areas on both sides of the car receives very little light. and they dont go that far either. on the ground the best lighting condition is only limited to a small portion area directly in front of the driver. other places are either dim or not lit up at all

Second: my Fx-r retrofited lights


i think now you know why i don't recommend these lights, look at the poor cutoff on both side of the lights, and how it turns to RAINBOW at both sides, LOL. but they are bright enough, but the cutoff is no better than OEM halogen. not to mention OEM xenons

another one to show the lights dispersion on the side, TERRIBLE


cutoff was a bit better after intense adjustments, as Trev has shown in previous posts.


Now here is a top quality, OEM, BMW X5 Xenon cutoff and beam pattern.



of course we all realize that the OEM xenons are $$$$ more expensive than these DEPOs but i was kind of hoping for a better quality projector after $770. and in the previous post the dude with the weird/terribad/horrific beam patter and cutoff(is there a cutoff lmao) has a DEPO headlights with no projector lens retrofit. so i guess i'm glad that i didn't go the stock DEPO way.

final verdict: these lights are NOT WORTH $770 that's DEFINITELY OVERPRICED if you want to have better FX-R projector retrofits, go to The Retrofit Source and buy their stuff, and retrofit them into your halogen lights(if anyone knows how that is...lol) better yet, just go and buy E90 OEM Xenon, they are better than these DEPO P90s w/ FX-R. don't be cheap on your car, if you want quality stuff just go buy quality stuff. DEPOs are NOT good quality and the FX-R lens from Umnitza are bad too.

i must say i'm regretting buying these lights from Umnitza, they are not what they were advertised to be, check this out:
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f9...twurkz/ghh.jpg

these are the pics umnitza sent me a month back when i was asking for these FX-R retrofit. they claim Lightwerks is a supplier of umnitza and stuff. LMAO these are either Photoshopped OR umnitza just got some cheap knockoff of FX-R projectors for my headlights.

So i say this again, Lesson learnt, next time anyone wants to change their Halogen to Xenon, GO THE OEM WAY!!!!! love your cars, stay away from Cheap Depo lights w/ bad FX-R projectors!!!!: lol:

[BMWWW]

Originally Posted by jaceaholic

I was at Umnitza facility. Josh does amazing work getting these lights retrofitted, and in fact got my DEPOS (which come with loose headlight components straight from the factory) to work even better. He re aimed the projectors, realigned everything. They function beautiful, and look insane.. non stop compliments.

If you opt'd for the FXR upgrade, that's on you.. the projector the DEPOs come with work fine, and u shouldn't have changed em imo...

WTF?--no way those are the actual FX-R's sold by theretrofitsource.

For comparison, here are the $100 MiniH1's that are sold from the same place on the beater:

[Trevendous03]

Originally Posted by BMWWW

WTF?--no way those are the actual FX-R's sold by theretrofitsource.

For comparison, here are the $100 MiniH1's that are sold from the same place on the beater:

That cutoff is really weak/fuzzy, and those must not have a clear lens. Other than that, the alignment is really nice and the beam pattern looks a lot better than my Umnitza FX-R. Idk what it is, but maybe Umnitza uses FX-R projectors that are the castoffs from the manufacturer, the ones with deformities. Otherwise, it could be the DEPO housing that messes with my beam pattern.

All in all, I like my Umnitza FX-R projectors. They're far from perfect, but I do get a lot of compliments on how sharply defined the cutoff is from my passengers. Granted they say, "Wow, you can really see where your beams are." I take that as meaning they can really see the cutoff (love it when it bounces on the back of people's cars... that's so nice!)

[DistantCube]

Hey guys, so I got my Umnitza's with FX-R retrofit a few days ago. Did a test run yesterday, i.e. just plugged them in without mounting them - and they worked great, didn't throw up any errors whatsoever and looked fantastic.

The following applies to the above lights on a 2007 (built in late '06) E90.

Errors
Then today, mounted them in - and got all the errors. Flickering, start-up error (which doesn't bother me so much) and the feared continuous beeping error. As far as I can tell, these errors are occurring predominantly as a result of the warm bulb check. The good news about the errors is I have a few more options up my sleeve;

1. I've got a cable coming next week, so hopefully code them out (Following Trevendous' posts)
2. I've got the optional wiring harness to bypass the Light Control Module.
3. I can get some gold resistors to simulate the wattage of the OEM halogens.
So I'm not so stressed about the errors yet.

Fogging
What has got me frustrated is the fogging of the housing. The drivers side more so than the passenger side. One user a couple of pages back mentioned that he was going to try to plug any gaps by sealing with silicone. Just wondering is there a better way? Silicone is messy and difficult to work with - and will probably need sanding to make sure everything is plugged and will fit properly. Anyone got any ideas for the fogging?

EDIT - the fogging is not THAT bad, but it shouldn't be happening and I'm really unhappy about it. Though I got another idea, might cover the entire headlight with a film. Waiting for Umnitza's response on this.

I will post pics if anyone wants them - but they're similar to everyone else. I'm otherwise happy with the lights if I can fix the fogging and code out the errors. It all sounds doable though inconvenient - I will keep you guys posted if you're interested.

(Oh, I've been lurking this forum for like 2 years, and this has made me join)

[Simon.bmw]

Originally Posted by Trevendous03

I got rid of my "car on lift" error by coding the VO for Xenon.

Here's the instructions I wrote to Milly (this assumes you already know how to run the coding programs and know a little bit about the coding process)...

I would create a video tutorial, but I don't want to have to start all over with my coding, especially considering it's 30 degrees outside haha and starting over with my old VO would then take me a couple hours out in the cold to re-code everything I have done.

Here's what you want to do:

1. Install the headlights and enjoy the xenon.
2. Adjust the aim of your headlights using the adjustment arms that require a Philips screwdriver.
3. Connect the coding cable normally, and open NCSExpert with your profile as normal.
4. After you click CAS module in the beginning, you'll get to the screen where you see the Chassis, the FG (VIN), the FA string with all the $ signs and hash marks and numbers, and the "Get Coded" at the bottom with every module listed.
5. Click Process ECU and select CAS from the submodules.
6. Click Read ECU.
7. Once it is read, open your TRC file in notepad, clear it out blank, and save it as your MAN file.
8. Do the coapiRead and SG_CODIEREN stuff like normal. This will set the CAS submodule back to stock.
9. Click the F1 button which will allow you to change the ECU.
10. Select your chassis again (if it makes you do that) then select NFRM from the submodule listing.
11. Repeat steps 6-8 to set the NFRM submodule back to stock.
12. Back out with the F6 button Zur/Back, and you should see the window I talked about in step 4.
13. Press F1 VIN/ZCS/FA
14. Press F2 Enter FA
15. Choose the chassis E89
16. The VIN should auto-fill in the field... make sure Calculate checksum is NOT CHECKED and click OK.
17. Type $522 in the Attribute field and click "Add"
18. Scroll down the list to make sure it was added.
19. Click OK
20. Press F6 Back
21. Press F4 Process ECU and select CAS submodule.
22. Press F2 Change Job and select FA_WRITE
23. Execute Job
24. Once job has ended, press F2 Change Job and select SG_CODIEREN and Execute Job.
25. Once job has ended, you should be able to select F1 to change the ECU and select NFRM.
25. Repeat steps 13-20.
26. Press F4 Process ECU and select NFRM submodule.
27. Repeat steps 22-24.

That should change the VO for you and give you the proper codes when you go back in and Read the NFRM from the new VO.

After you have done your normal read of the NFRM ECU submodule. Open your TRC, save it as MAN like normal, and do this:

Search for the self leveling line of code AUTO_LWR_ENABLE and change to nicht_aktiv

To enable inner halogen light as high beam and essentially reactivate the bixenon...

Search for
PWM_ANST_FL_BIXENON
wert_02
wert_03

Change it to
PWM_ANST_FL_BIXENON
wert_01
wert_01

Coding for xenon is complete. You can now go back and add all your cool features again and disable all the bulb checks, etc.

I didn't go into complete detail, considering a lot of these steps are outlined in the Change the VO PDF (ftp://94.212.182.18/Other-Software/N..._Order_CAS.pdf), but that PDF file doesn't outline everything you have to do... it misses some steps. Be patient when you load that PDF, because it's so big that sometimes it crashes first, and you have to reopen that web page to download it.



Did you adjust with the adjustment arm? I'm surprised the AE would jump out, because it's not even a part of the projector assembly. That's strange!! I've adjusted my headlights a lot on each side, and nothing has happened to my AEs... they're still all connected. Then again, I have the FX-R retrofit, so obviously my setup is a little different.

I hope this never happens to me (knock on wood) cause I had to pay $450 to get my headlights installed.

Hi Trevendous03, finally i got my cable, but just now, i follow the Junior's NCS DIY PDF, and when i got to step 9. i just can not find my com 1 port, i m run a wins xp system, i have no idea how to find com1. can u give me some help? Thank you.