Whats going on everyone? just a quick and simple question for you knowledgable people out there. I just installed some Depo Helix blacked out projector headlights and installed HID bulbs in them. After drilling through the back cover for the bulb area and mounting the ballast to the outside of the housing, I decided to try and fit the entire ballast and all other contents into the housing itself. I managed to squeeze it all in there but here is my question.

Will the ballast produce to much heat if it is in a confined space like the headlight housing? does the ballast produce heat at all? lol. I just don't want to put the headlight in and find out things are melting that shouldn't be. Thanks for any input!

 

Yes LOTS of heat

 

Tons of heat. Also those lights are super easy to unbolt the projector and bolt in a real HID bi-xenon projector. That projector is made for halogen bulbs, the HID bulb will burn up the chrome coating inside the projector bowl over time.

I have the same headlights and had that issue. I have swapped in real HID projectors, since you've already got the ballasts all you need is the projectors and new bulbs.

You can get decent projectors from Theretrofitsource for 25 bucks for a pair and cheap bulbs for like 20 from ebay for the time being.

 

Low beam retrofit projector, just one light being tested after installing new projector.

 

Both lights done, this is just low beam

 

High beam

 

Damn that light output is insane! looks great. and i only see maybe two different projectors around the price you mentioned. They are universal kits. The other ones are all in the hundreds. which did you end up getting?

 

Acme H1 from theretrofitsource.com they were the $25 ones, they are currently out of stock though.

 

Just the projectors, not a kit.

 

ok and then obviously you have to heat up the headlight and pull the housing apart to install correct?

 

Not with the depo. You can unscrew the projector out of the back through that square access panel. Just need to make a bracket to bolt the new projector in after out of sheet metal.

 

oh no way really? thats awesome lol! so you no longer use h7 bulbs but h1? am i understanding that correctly?

 

Yes, you will need ballasts and harness adapters as well for the HID system

 

Was this with halogen or HID high beams? I thought the housings in question came with projectors for lows, and normal halogen for high?

 

There are different designs of projectors, not all projectors can use HID bulbs. The Depo lights come with halogen projectors. HID bulbs will burn the chrome out of the bowl on a halogen projector after a year or so making them useless. I have pulled the halogen projectors out of the housings and replaced them with proper HID projectors with a solenoid that flips a shield up and down for low or high beam, as well as tied into the halogen separate high beam bulbs, so I have 4 different bulbs on for my high beams.

That particular picture was just the HID highs though, I had not tied into the halogen highs as well yet.

 

What housing did you have in your car before you swapped to these housings? I want to do the swap, but am unsure how it will go from the xenon stock housings with headlight washer

 

I had those, but it would have been a lot more work to retrofit those than the depo lights.

 

So you basically put in a Bi-Xenon projector, replace the halogen projector, and left the halogen high beam, from the bottom unplugged or?

 

Couldn't I just swap the housings out, like the entire headlight housing, instead of trying to out the projector in the stock housing?

 

Okay, I'm gonna need to break this down a bit more.

I bought Depo brand projector headlights.

The projector in those headlights is a halogen low beam only projector.

I took the depo light apart and took the low beam halogen projector out.

I replaced the halogen projector with an HID projector.

The HID projector has a shield on a motor that flips up and down to create a low beam and a high beam pattern.

I then tied the halogen high beam into the signal for the projector shield so the halogen high beam cuts on at the same time the projector switches to the high beam.

MAIN NOTES;
The depo projector headlights are halogen projectors.

HID bulbs will burn up a halogen projector.

I removed and replaced the halogen projector with an aftermarket HID projector.

 

Lighting lessons coming your way;

There are quite a few different headlight housing designs, which are engineered to put out a good beam pattern for each style of bulb.

Different style bulbs put out light at different wavelengths which will affect output and housing design.

Some of the style housings are;

Halogen reflector
HID (xenon) reflector
Halogen projector
HID (xenon) projector
LED projector

The different bulbs cannot be interchanged with the different housings. Each housing is specifically designed for each light source to provide the best output while also conforming to DOT regulations as well as not producing a ton of glare and blinding oncoming traffic even with the low beam on.

Now you can take some housings and convert them to another with the right parts if you are set on a particular bulb style.

You can put projectors inside reflector housings,
And you can swap projectors out for other design projectors.

 

Also just because you can buy HID or LED bulbs that will fit in halogen reflector headlights does not mean they are going to give adequate output. LED bulbs may seem to give brighter light but it's only for a few feet. The light output drops off dramatically after a short distance. As well as casts a lot of glare above the low beam pattern, blinding on coming traffic.

These style bulbs are also not DOT legal. You can fail and inspection if the inspector knows what he's looking at or be ticketed if an officer knows what he's looking at.


A lot of people think it is expensive to do a proper headlight setup.

This is incorrect.

A decent set of projectors to swap into your housings can be purchased for as little as $25. And an eBay or Amazon HID kit with the proper bulb for the projectors can be had for around $30-$40. The only other thing you could possibly need is the new glue to seal the lenses back to the outer housing if you have to separate them to install the new projector.

But luck for mini people, the halogen projector in the Depo housings can be pulled out and replaced through the bulb access panel at the back of the light.

 

If you do not want to do all that work you can still get amazing output from the depo lights with quality halogen bulbs. I recommend Phillip Xtreme Vision or Osram Nightbreaker in h7 for the depo lights.

 

The Depo lights are great lights even if you stick with the halogen bulbs. You can take factory Xenon housings off and install the Depo lights.

 

Okay, thanks for the great write up, how do the projectors come out from the housings also? Are they just screwed in? Lots of great info here, just finished reading another thread you were apart of also! Haha