LED Projector Retrofin of Bi-Xenon Headlights

RAH · 06-28-2023, 10:04 AM

From the wiring harness, four wires go to the ballast. Yellow and brown (12v and ground for normal light). And green and brown/purple for the shutter. At first I thought green was ground because it loops through from the ballast to the AHL module. But green is 12v for high beam. Brown/purple must be ground. But as far as I was able to measure, the brown/purple wire runs from the high beam connector on the xenon projector to the connector that goes to the ballast. It is not connected to te connector on the headlamp housing.

I now suspect that the ballast is looping the brown/purple wire through to ground. But since the ballast is not in there, no ground. But I will check that this afternoon and then share my findings.

RAH · 06-29-2023, 04:50 AM

It works! I was indeed missing a ground. The brown/purple wire should be ground, but because the xenon ballast is missing, that wire ends in mid air.

I have now mounted a contra plug that connects to the plug that normally goes on to the ballast. This way I keep the original wiring harness intact. I already had the 12v and ground for low beam in there. Now I made a loop from the low beam ground to the pin where the brown/purple wire connects. So now I have the 12v (already had that one) and ground on the original connector at the projector for high beam.

lnxguy · 06-29-2023, 10:41 AM

Glad you figured it out! Gotta love those simple fixes

Peter Morrin · 06-29-2023, 01:05 PM

Do you have any pictures or can you post a schematic of what you did? Many will find this useful information.

RAH · 06-29-2023, 04:18 PM

Ok, what I did to get it working. First, what I started with is important for anyone who wants to try this themself. It might be different for other chassis (E90/E91), E93 wil probably be the same. My car is an E92 (pre LCI) with factory adaptive xenon headlights with cornering lights.

This first picture shows the original connectors. The one outlined in red is the connector that connectors into the projector to control the shutter (high beam). The yellow outlined is the connector that comes off the ballast and connectors into the D1S xenon bulb.

I completely removed the yellow outlined connector with the shielded wiring up to the ballast. I also removed the ballast itself. The next picture shows where the ballast used to be. The black connector is from the original wiring harness and was among other things the power supply for the ballast.

This black connector has four pins and five wires. The wire colors are yellow, brown, green (2) and brown purple. I took a mating connector (the white one) (the black connector is of the same kind that powers motherboards in computers). Through the mating connector, I extended the yellow and brown wires and brought them through the lamp housing to the back of the projector. The yellow and brown wire are the 12v (yellow) and ground (brown) for low beam. You can just connect those directly to the LED projector (I put a connector connection between them but solid soldering is also possible). I don't know yet if the LED projector will lead to error messages because the car might think the bulb is broken.

Then the high beam must be connected. The red outlined connector in the first photo has two wire colors, green and brown/purple. Green is 12v. Brown/purple is ground but not connected because the ballast is gone. Any ground (from the angel eyes, for example) will work. You could also take the ground from the low beam. However, I wanted to be able to use the original connector connection and modify the original wiring harness as little as possible.

So I looped the brown wire (ground for low beam) from the white connector to the pin where the brown/purple wire is on the other side. See the picture below as an example.

So I looped the ground (that goes to low beam) and now I have ground on the original connector on brown/purple as well.

Eventually it looks like this behind the projector:

The red circled connectors are low beam and the yellow circled connectors are for high beam.

By the way, connecting is the easy part of the conversion. To get the new projector to fit, a bracket needs to be installed and quite a bit of grinding away as well.

RAH · 07-01-2023, 04:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RAH

The red circled connectors are low beam and the yellow circled connectors are for high beam.

Made an error there. The Yellow is low beam, the red is high beam.

Fordguy · 12-08-2024, 09:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RAH

Made an error there. The Yellow is low beam, the red is high beam.

Thank you so much for this info. I'm getting ready to retrofit some NHK m5 plus LED projectors in my adaptive lights.

Would you happen to have the name or type of the motherboard connector and pins you used to plug to the factory plug? I'd like to get everything here and in order before I start the retrofit.

RAH · 12-08-2024, 02:42 PM

The 4-pin connector is an ATX 4-pin 12V CPU power connector. The connectors for the low beam are ones I ordered from Aliexpress. After about a year, one of them started making poor contact, causing the light to flicker. I have since removed those connectors and soldered the wires together. The one for the high beam is also something you can find in a computer, where the power button, hard drive LED, etc., are connected. I don't know the exact name of those pins, but they were sold as a long strip with many pins, and I broke off two sets of three pins to use as contra connectors. These pins are actually meant to be soldered to the motherboard.

Fordguy · 12-08-2024, 04:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RAH

The 4-pin connector is an ATX 4-pin 12V CPU power connector. The connectors for the low beam are ones I ordered from Aliexpress. After about a year, one of them started making poor contact, causing the light to flicker. I have since removed those connectors and soldered the wires together. The one for the high beam is also something you can find in a computer, where the power button, hard drive LED, etc., are connected. I don't know the exact name of those pins, but they were sold as a long strip with many pins, and I broke off two sets of three pins to use as contra connectors. These pins are actually meant to be soldered to the motherboard.

Thanks for the info, I appreciate the fast reply.

How are these projectors holding up?

RAH · 12-10-2024, 09:06 AM

They work great. The only issue so far was the flickering of one lamp, which turned out not to be the projector but the connection. They've been installed for over a year now (mounted in August 2023, about 42,000 km ago). Sometimes I feel a bit embarrassed that my 17-year-old car has better light output than many newer models with LED lighting.

06-28-2023, 10:04 AM	#23
RAH New Member 3 Rep 10 Posts Drives: BMW E92 330xD Join Date: Jun 2023 Location: The Hague, Netherlands iTrader: (0)	From the wiring harness, four wires go to the ballast. Yellow and brown (12v and ground for normal light). And green and brown/purple for the shutter. At first I thought green was ground because it loops through from the ballast to the AHL module. But green is 12v for high beam. Brown/purple must be ground. But as far as I was able to measure, the brown/purple wire runs from the high beam connector on the xenon projector to the connector that goes to the ballast. It is not connected to te connector on the headlamp housing. I now suspect that the ballast is looping the brown/purple wire through to ground. But since the ballast is not in there, no ground. But I will check that this afternoon and then share my findings.
	Appreciate 0 Quote

06-29-2023, 04:50 AM	#24
RAH New Member 3 Rep 10 Posts Drives: BMW E92 330xD Join Date: Jun 2023 Location: The Hague, Netherlands iTrader: (0)	It works! I was indeed missing a ground. The brown/purple wire should be ground, but because the xenon ballast is missing, that wire ends in mid air. I have now mounted a contra plug that connects to the plug that normally goes on to the ballast. This way I keep the original wiring harness intact. I already had the 12v and ground for low beam in there. Now I made a loop from the low beam ground to the pin where the brown/purple wire connects. So now I have the 12v (already had that one) and ground on the original connector at the projector for high beam.
	Appreciate 0 Quote

06-29-2023, 10:41 AM	#25
lnxguy Colonel 604 Rep 2,234 Posts Drives: 2018 540i xDrive. Join Date: Jun 2016 Location: Barrie iTrader: (1)	Glad you figured it out! Gotta love those simple fixes __________________ '09 335D '18 540i xDrive
	Appreciate 0 Quote

06-29-2023, 01:05 PM	#26
Peter Morrin Private First Class 59 Rep 199 Posts Drives: 2007 E90(sedan) 328xi Join Date: Dec 2021 Location: Kingston, Ontario, Canada iTrader: (0)	Do you have any pictures or can you post a schematic of what you did? Many will find this useful information.
	Appreciate 0 Quote

06-29-2023, 04:18 PM	#27
RAH New Member 3 Rep 10 Posts Drives: BMW E92 330xD Join Date: Jun 2023 Location: The Hague, Netherlands iTrader: (0)	Ok, what I did to get it working. First, what I started with is important for anyone who wants to try this themself. It might be different for other chassis (E90/E91), E93 wil probably be the same. My car is an E92 (pre LCI) with factory adaptive xenon headlights with cornering lights. This first picture shows the original connectors. The one outlined in red is the connector that connectors into the projector to control the shutter (high beam). The yellow outlined is the connector that comes off the ballast and connectors into the D1S xenon bulb. I completely removed the yellow outlined connector with the shielded wiring up to the ballast. I also removed the ballast itself. The next picture shows where the ballast used to be. The black connector is from the original wiring harness and was among other things the power supply for the ballast. This black connector has four pins and five wires. The wire colors are yellow, brown, green (2) and brown purple. I took a mating connector (the white one) (the black connector is of the same kind that powers motherboards in computers). Through the mating connector, I extended the yellow and brown wires and brought them through the lamp housing to the back of the projector. The yellow and brown wire are the 12v (yellow) and ground (brown) for low beam. You can just connect those directly to the LED projector (I put a connector connection between them but solid soldering is also possible). I don't know yet if the LED projector will lead to error messages because the car might think the bulb is broken. Then the high beam must be connected. The red outlined connector in the first photo has two wire colors, green and brown/purple. Green is 12v. Brown/purple is ground but not connected because the ballast is gone. Any ground (from the angel eyes, for example) will work. You could also take the ground from the low beam. However, I wanted to be able to use the original connector connection and modify the original wiring harness as little as possible. So I looped the brown wire (ground for low beam) from the white connector to the pin where the brown/purple wire is on the other side. See the picture below as an example. So I looped the ground (that goes to low beam) and now I have ground on the original connector on brown/purple as well. Eventually it looks like this behind the projector: The red circled connectors are low beam and the yellow circled connectors are for high beam. By the way, connecting is the easy part of the conversion. To get the new projector to fit, a bracket needs to be installed and quite a bit of grinding away as well.
	Appreciate 1 J4mesW0.00 Quote

12-08-2024, 02:42 PM	#30
RAH New Member 3 Rep 10 Posts Drives: BMW E92 330xD Join Date: Jun 2023 Location: The Hague, Netherlands iTrader: (0)	The 4-pin connector is an ATX 4-pin 12V CPU power connector. The connectors for the low beam are ones I ordered from Aliexpress. After about a year, one of them started making poor contact, causing the light to flicker. I have since removed those connectors and soldered the wires together. The one for the high beam is also something you can find in a computer, where the power button, hard drive LED, etc., are connected. I don't know the exact name of those pins, but they were sold as a long strip with many pins, and I broke off two sets of three pins to use as contra connectors. These pins are actually meant to be soldered to the motherboard.
	Appreciate 0 Quote

12-10-2024, 09:06 AM	#32
RAH New Member 3 Rep 10 Posts Drives: BMW E92 330xD Join Date: Jun 2023 Location: The Hague, Netherlands iTrader: (0)	They work great. The only issue so far was the flickering of one lamp, which turned out not to be the projector but the connection. They've been installed for over a year now (mounted in August 2023, about 42,000 km ago). Sometimes I feel a bit embarrassed that my 17-year-old car has better light output than many newer models with LED lighting.
	Appreciate 0 Quote