Has anyone gone from OEM BI-xenon headlights back to the standard OEM Halogens I am doing this because they are allot cheaper and I need RHD I moved to Japan and shipped my car now I need the lights to point other direction. I was going to buy them and did not know if I could just plug them in and would they work or do I have to change wiring. Man I hope not.

 

It should be just as difficult as if you go form Halogen to HID, not good. There will be a control box in place for a lower wattage system to drive the HIDs and you will need higher wattage for the halogens to burn the filament at the right temp and brightness.

I comment on your other thread about changing the cutoff shield. It's it really expensive to register a car in Japan and it gets more expensive as the car gets older? Isn't it mad expensive to ship a car there? Dumb question, but if it is so expensive or such a big deal to get the proper equipment there, can'y you buy the same car but Japanese market specific to not have to swap all of this stuff?

I hope that doesn't sound mean or rude, but it is a genuine question I asked myself.

 

Look up me and bearhero's writeup to switch to xenon....The work would be opposite of what we did. You would have to move a few wires around on the harness and then code the CAS and FRM modules by removing $522 from the vehicle order so the FRM module knows it now has halogen lights, or else you will have many error messages.

I have a set of halogen housings for the countryman, would you be interested in a swap for your headlights?

 

If you are handy you could just remove the cutoff sheild inside the projector and mod it. Let me know if you want to get rid of your lights zenon's!

 

This. I couldn't imagine wanting to ditch the projectors. You'd need to remove the housing, but it's doable and probably easier, and cheaper, than changing the headlights. While you're at it, you can remove the RV shield and sharpen up the cutoff.

You'll need to get creative with either making a new, or modding the existing, cutoff shield. However, if I was in your position, this is what I would do. You might contact The Retrofit Source, to get their advice on possibly acquiring some RHD shields.

Take a look at this thread. The guy is replacing the lens on a similar projector.
http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/show...enon-projector

 

Do you have the adaptive xenons? That's what I have and they're more complicated than the non-adaptive ones (the startup sequence is both up/down and right/left).

 

I can only imagine that the projector itself is the same, so the OP can probably still just mod the cutoff shield and be done. It's still gonna require taking apart the headlamp, but IMO it's a better, cheaper, option than replacing the headlights.

 

I posted a photo of the cutoff shield in place in a right (USA) headlight in the thread:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...djustment.html

It's not the easiest thing to access and I wouldn't envy anyone putting the xenon headlight assembly back together, but there it is. Obviously it would be possible to add blockage to the shield to cut off the right side of the beam, but getting to it is at least half the battle...

 

I agree, but either option isn't easy. And buying two housings might cost a bit, while the cutoff mod might require more tedious work.

What about just aiming them a lot lower? The OP might lose some lighting but could install HID fogs (or just always run the halogen fogs) to make up for it.

Just throwing that out there.

 

With my adaptive xenons, the lights go through a sequence on power up to adjust up/down and left/right when they first come on. I suspect it's to compensate for the load in the car (required in some states for xenon). I had two units that had incorrectly configured processors and the resulting alignment was unusable - no manual adjustment involved. Only replacing them solved the problem.

 

So, do fully adaptive lights not have a white nylon manual up/down adjustment?

 

The startup motion is to calibrate the motors with the sensors on the front right and rear right lower control arms. The left and right startup motion does the same.

I feel like there should still be a manual adjuster screw for up/down. If so its on the rear inside of the housing and will accept an allen or a small phillips.

 

(checking on the adaptive xenon) Yes, there is an exposed phillips white nylon screw down to the inside that (looking inside the light system) moves the motor body. There is also, on top to the outside, another white nylon screw (under a small, black rectangular cover), that moves the other motor body. They, basically, shift the associated mechanisms. I assume that, on the non-adaptive xenons, they shift the adjustment frame directly.
Good call.

 

I should note, before someone goes tweaking this adjustment too far, what I learned (not firsthand) on my old car, a 2008 GTI with level adjusting xenon projectors.

Some folks that had installed suspension on their cars, and somehow tweaked the level sensors, causing the leveling motors to move the lamp far downward. Thinking that they just needed to manually re-adjust the lights (when you sometimes do when lowering with self-leveling lights), they turned, and turned, the adjustment screw to attempt to get them correct. Quite a few people I read about turned the screw too far and effectively broke the leveling mechanism.

(When I lowered my Mini and GTI, I had to adjust mine upward a bit with the manual adjustment screw.)

I just mention that because you should keep that in mind when adjusting the lights with this manual screw. If you go to the extreme with the adjustment for whatever reason, you might break something.

That said, you won't need to adjust them downward very far to make them "usable" in the RHD market, I think. OP, do you think aiming them downward will bandaid the issue, for free, and allow you to not have to spend a bunch of time modifying the headlamps?

 

To the op...
Since you moved to japan, and a headlight swap seems to be needed to pass inspection, if you have the $$, i would keep the old housings, cause if/when you move back (in the military?) You will have to swap them back....so best thing might be to bite the bullet, and just buy a pair, use them, then sell them when you leave....

 

Thanks all for the advice. I did attempt to open the housing. They are sealed good. they are the adaptive Bi-xenon lights. I tried lowering the beam even with that the test failed. They test low beam and high when you adjust one it effects the other. So the only real solution is modifying the cut off or new headlights. I was looking into buying the halogens. didn't want to modify the wiring. not just yet anyway. I bought some eurolites to apply to the headlight to deflect the beam from on comming traffic I will try to pass with them istalled see how that goes. otherwise. I will attempt to modify the cut-off i am just worried of damaging the housings now good directions on disassembly. I will also check out the tread posted by xenon. Does any have RHD Bi-Xenon lights for sale?

 

Getting the lights apart isn't hard. Remove the bulb and ballast and bake em for 5 minutes at 250 degrees.https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...od-r56-11.html

 

Not sure about R60 stuff but my MINI headlights (R56) were the easiest to bake off of all the headlights I have opened, 5-7 min at 200. Heck on a hot summer day in FL I can probably remove them in a parking lot.