Just wondering if anyone has seen/heard of a full HID retrofit for the R56. I understand that you can't just take an aftermarket HID kit and throw it in the halogen housing, so I am just wondering how to do a retrofit. If anyone has any information on a retrofit for the new housings, I would appreciate it. Thanks.

 

I think there's already a thread for this here.

 

I understand there is a thread "like" this, but it doesn't exactly deal with what I'm asking. I just wish more people looked to help and answer first rather than just look for another similar thread and post it. If you don't want to help or can't, than just leave it alone.

 

Sorry dude. Thought that was what you were looking for. I'm not seeing any difference between what you asked for and what's in that thread. Are you looking for a DIY?

And I was trying to help, and so are other people that post links to similar threads since there's already abundant information there. Thought maybe you just missed that thread. No need to get your panties in a wad.

 

What kind of retrofit are you talking? retrofitting the OEM xenon headlights, or actually doing your own custom retrofit of projectors from a better car?

 

Well i found that the only way is to put the factory HID's in because no one makes a Projection headlight for the R56. So you like you said first is that you cant put the HID bulb in a halogen housing because most of the time it makes it worse. So it sucks that it will cost about a 1000 dollars to retrofit. But don't worry im in the same boat.

 

As stated in my original post, I'm talking about retro-fitting a halogen housing for HID.

 

Yah, but what do you mean by retrofit a halogen housing?

Just putting HID bulbs into the halogen reflector won't work well. It will have massive amounts of poor light output.

So are you looking for info on how to install projectors into your headlight housings? If so, the best place to check for information is www.hidplanet.com. They have an extensive amount of information regarding retrofitting other cars' projectors into OEM halogen housings.

 

Aaaaaahhhh ha! There we go. That's where the confusion was. I'd be interested in how this winds up working out. Sorry, again.

The only problem I can think of in doing this is that you'd have to do some kind of bi-xenon kit (unless you weren't concerned about the brights). I'll do some looking into this. I may interested in doing this farther down the line.

 

Yes, that's what I'm talking about. Retrofitting the OEM halogen housings I have for HID. I'm not too worried about Hi/Lo, but I was just wondering if anyone has seen/heard of anything for the R56 yet. I have seen plenty of others. I looked on hidplanet.com, but couldn't really find any information about the R56.

 

I'm still not understanding you. There isn't, and never will be an actual KIT or product to retrofit your halogens for HID with projectors. The only way to retrofit your headlights with projectors is to find projectors from another car and develop your own mounting system. That's why I linked to hidplanet. Check their forums and you'll find a bunch of people making their own custom headlight housings. Probably no R56 owners, but you can learn the process and apply it to your own headlights.

Some ways down the line a company might make an aftermarket headlight housing with projectors in it that you could REPLACE your halogen headlights with.

Do you have any links of examples of the kind of kit you're thinking of?

 

I don't think he's necessarily talking about "projectors." You don't have to have a projector lens to use HID bulbs. I think what he's asking is if someone makes an HID bulb that fits in the halogen housing (with a new wiring harness and all that stuff, too).

 

No no no, Rally is right about what I'm asking. I know you have to take projectors from another car and modify the halogen housing to use it. I was just wondering if anyone knew of anybody doing this for an R56 yet. Maybe I will wait a while until aftermarket projectors come out on the market.

 

The answer is "no, not really", and he already notes that in the first post. There are cheap brands that make bulbs that fit into halogen housings, but the reflectors in our halogens are not shaped to accept the longer HID bulb. The result is a bunch of glare, pencil shaped light, and very poor (worse than stock halogen) light output. They just aren't meant to properly reflect the light that comes out of an HID bulb. The HID bulb is very different in the way it emits light when compared to a halogen, so the shape of the reflector in a halogen housing isn't up to the task of properly reflecting that light. It was designed to reflect light the way it comes out of halogen bulbs.

He mentions:

So I figured he knew that these kits were garbage and was looking at doing it properly which would involve retrofitting projectors that are meant for HID bulbs.

 

Gotcha.

 

Yah, I don't think I'ver ever seen anyone do it for the R56 yet. I've only seen ONE person do it for the R53 and I don't see him post since he finished the project.

I think you're unfortunately going to be the first person in the realm of projector retrofits if you want to take this on. It really shouldn't be that hard to apply what you learn about other cars and just make it work for your R56. I have another link that I will share with you that has a GREAT walk through with pictures for a VW jetta, but the site is currently down. I'll post when it's back up. It should be pretty easy to take those steps and put them to use on your own headlights.

Your best bet for the projectors is to search ebay for Acura TSX projectors, or maybe Porsche projectors. I don't know of any companies that make projectors that are meant for retrofits. I believe the only option is to use OEM parts from other cars.

 

Thanks Rally. Now just one more question. If I purchase the OEM Xenon headlight housings, and just purchase a HID kit for them, will that be ok, or is that still going to look and perform crappy?

 

Those would perform just as well as any stock housing. Those kits are great as long as they are in a housing that is designed to work with HID bulbs. If you're putting it in a xenon-specific projector, they will work as intended.

 

Good deal, I just wish the housings were not $600 each.

 

Yah, it's really a shame. They should almost advertise that when you're ordering. It makes the $500 upgrade seem much better when you find out that the parts are way more expensive than that.

 

Exactly. What do you think the odds are of finding a pair from a salvage yard or what not in the Orange County area?

 

It's possible. I've seen them pop up from time to time on ebay for far less than the price from the dealer. I've also seen them on various online salvage companies. They're rarely in a pair, but they sell separate sides for around $250 if you look hard enough.

 

Do you have any recommendations or ideas? I have searched on ebay, but I didn't know about online salvage companies.

 

In time, I'd be willing to bet that some will pop up on eBay. Just depends on how soon you want to do this. Although, I'm a little surprised that none have popped up already. Were the R53 xenons cheaper or easier to build than the R56 or something?

 

Not really, when I wanted xenons for my r50 I just kept searching and every once in a while they would appear for sale on ebay.