CCFL's on E36s

[Shuriken]

Hey, we (me and 4 pot fury) are trying to fit our CCFLs to 4 pot's headlight units at the moment. After hours of fun with shitty tape templates we've finally got the halos taped and gluing in the lenses (Hoorah!). We have now come to fitting the power pack and seems we could be having a fun moment. It seems that the power pack will not fit inside the headlight unit, fine - put it on the outside. However, that means we need to drill through the headlight unit casing, breaking the moisture seal created by the 2 big covers. Any ideas?

If we get these in and they don't work I'm actually gonna hurt someone, a whole day of working on these and we haven't even got near a car.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated, I won't be here to respond 'cos I'll be working on the lights but I will check as frequently as possible.

Shuriken.

[444bhp Ray]

Hey, we (me and 4 pot fury) are trying to fit our CCFLs to 4 pot's headlight units at the moment. After hours of fun with shitty tape templates we've finally got the halos taped and gluing in the lenses (Hoorah!). We have now come to fitting the power pack and seems we could be having a fun moment. It seems that the power pack will not fit inside the headlight unit, fine - put it on the outside. However, that means we need to drill through the headlight unit casing, breaking the moisture seal created by the 2 big covers. Any ideas?

If we get these in and they don't work I'm actually gonna hurt someone, a whole day of working on these and we haven't even got near a car.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated, I won't be here to respond 'cos I'll be working on the lights but I will check as frequently as possible.

Shuriken.
No advice BUT GOOD LUCK

[BigFas]

Best thing to do, run a search on www.e36coupe.com (it's back up and running). A ton of guys have done this and there's a load of info on there.

[Shuriken]

It's sorted now but having connected it up to his car we now have an outside halo which is dimmer than the others and goes dimmer still if the indicator is on. I remember reading about this but can't seem to find it, anyone know off-hand what the problem is? 4 Pot thinks its an earth problem, I think its time for a beer. We're gonna replace the connectors with bullet connectors tomorrow, not much faith in those red things.

Anyway, can anyone confirm that it is an earth problem or otherwise? Any help greatly appreciated.

By the way, it looks bloody amazing! Tape mod on an e36 is :eek: :cool:

Shuriken.

[Shuriken]

4 Pot's CCFLs are now fully fitted and look spanking gorgeous!! :cool: :eek:
Mine are fitted but due to a loose connection not fully working. :mad:

So at the moment, 4 pot is: :cool: :cool:
..And I am: [crackmeup

I'd like to apologise to Teddy for assuming a duff power pack when we were trying them without the engine running. :o

All [bow Teddy!!

A group photo will be coming along after we've cleaned em up and made em look presentable. :rolleyes:

Shuriken.

ps. Do you think I used enough smileys :D ..Nice one Durgesh!

[Defector]

Yes, they're fitted and working on both our cars now.

Took a bit of time, mainly due to the fact that i'm electronically and mechanically inept! [bang

However, it was well worth it. CCFLs are amazing, im still shocked by how bright they are! Great bit of kit.

Again, big thanks to teddy for selling such a cool product and putting up with us being thick and not turning my engine on! [crackmeup

Pictures to follow...once i've cleaned the 3 tonnes of salt off my car (thank you council gritters).

[Two_Stripes]

Yeah, finally got round to connecting up the CCFL's on my e36 which I installed a few weeks ago.

Was a bit worried for first few minutes when I switched them on (with engine running) and on the passanger side one light up and one didn't and on drivers side they both light up but only half way round, gave them couple of minutes and they all light up. They're pretty bright, nice items.

I couldn't find anywhere inside the headight to hide the power pack away even though someone on different forum said you could so I just drilled a hole in back of headlight, poked wires through and sealed around them and inside hole with silicone. Mounted the pack on the back of the removable cover for the sidelight and poked red & black wire through a tiny drilled hole in the back of it, sealed around this as well.

Lights do look v. nice, v. white but the only problem is the new side lights do make the low beam and high beam headlights look very yellow. Teddy - I see you sell a replacement side light (now not needed) but do you sell replacements for two main headlights?

Or does anyone else have any recommendations for headlight bulbs - I know Halfords do some which they claim are more white - any tried them or equivelents?

[Two_Stripes]

Sorry Teddy just seen you do headlight bulbs as well, any pics of bulbs installed with CFFL's to compare. Pretty pricey if you need 4 bulbs and no pics. Do they last as long as standard bulbs?

[Shuriken]

Yeah, we couldn't find any where to put the power packs inside the unit either. We've got ours on the top, above the main power connector. It's quite handy as the bulkhead hold it in place a bit, looks very neat :)

Shuriken.

[Two_Stripes]

Came back from work today and when I switched them on first time they were slow to light up and did it one by one. Is this usual?

Can anyone recommend any good white bulbs?

[uberbmw]

I think you can cut the wires down, so they light up quicker, but i havent done it yet. Someone must know as mine take about 20-30secs to light up fully.

[Two_Stripes]

That's about how long mine take to get going. When I installed them I conly cut about 1cm off the end to do away with the bare wire ends and made sure I kept all wires the same length One on each side lights up straight away, one comes on a bit after and then the last lights up half way round and then lights fully after about 20 seconds.

[Ali_]

From memory boys i think that slow light up is normal for the e46 crew Fas should be able to add his 2cents worth. Sounds like you guys have done a class A1 job ..nice .. GET THE PICS UP :D I think Teddy has some blubs for the e36 ?? dont quote me have a look in the specials !! :rolleyes:

[Shuriken]

From what I've read different length wires can cause one ring to be brighter than the other. So I personally wouldn't bother. I quite like the way that have to warm up anyway, very cool. :cool:

As for bulbs, it amazing, I go into the garage and I can see the headlights against the wall - they look normal. Turn the headlights off and theres a cool blue glow on the wall. Headlights back on - urgh, yellow! lol.

We're gonna get some group photos done 2moro so you will see them in all their glory then. :D

Shuriken.

ps, I find myself driving around in the day with the ccfl's on, is this a normal ccfl sympton dr evo? hehehe.

[Afif]

nice one guys! Yea i just need any excuse to turn on the ccfl's :D.

[Shuriken]

I don't bother with an excuse lol.

It's brilliant some of the looks you get as well: [jam [bow :confused: :eek: sum them all up pretty nicely.

Shuriken.

[Ali_]

Photo shoot, sweet :)

[Ali_]

nice one guys! Yea i just need any excuse to turn on the ccfl's :D.

Afif have you posted any pics of yours up yet??? i cant remember :confused:

[Afif]

no cool pics as of yet.... My camera doesnt seem to get in focus on them to well (or more likely i dont know how to get it to). Ill see if i can get someone else to do a better job.

[Shuriken]

Ok then, as requested, PHOTOS!!!!! :D:D

Photo 1 (http://www.kanukai.com/stuff/images/both_front_far.jpg)
Photo 2 (http://www.kanukai.com/stuff/images/both_front_left.jpg)
Photo 3 (http://www.kanukai.com/stuff/images/both_front_near.jpg)
Photo 4 (http://www.kanukai.com/stuff/images/both_front_near2.jpg)

..and possibly the best 2..

Photo 5 (http://www.kanukai.com/stuff/images/adams_front_closeup.jpg)
Photo 6 (http://www.kanukai.com/stuff/images/both_bonnet_near.jpg)

Suffice to say :cool: :cool: . And yes, I know, clear front indicators are coming soon. :D

Shuriken.

[Afif]

wow sweet pics :D. Maybe that was my mistake... i was trying to take the pics when it was to dark.

[Shuriken]

Yeah maybe, the camera might not have been able to cope with the contrast or something.

Shuriken.

[uberbmw]

heres some pics of mine, CCFLs from Teddy :)

http://www.digitalwerkz.eclipse.co.uk/technik/lights/thumbs/i2.jpg

http://www.digitalwerkz.eclipse.co.uk/technik/lights/thumbs/i1.jpg

http://www.digitalwerkz.eclipse.co.uk/technik/lights/thumbs/i8.jpg

[Ali_]

Good stuff guys, nice work all round from the e36 crew, you all must be pretty happy with the results [ok

[mysticm3]

one of the best pictures I have seen [cool

[Shuriken]

Cheers guys, yeah, I still haven't got over them yet. When I go to the car I'm like :D constantly..

Shuriken.

[uberbmw]

You will want HIDs next matey, lol I'll be getting mine some time next month or so. :D