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BMW 3-Series and 4-Series Forum (F30 / F32) | F30POST > Technical Forums > Cosmetic and Lighting Modifications (exterior & interior) > F30 Projector Angel Eye Headlights!
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      05-23-2019, 02:25 PM   #2025
ryangeef2
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Stay away from the Depo projector headlights, youll be disappointed

I just got these installed 5/22/2019 from a guy here locally.

Heres my $0.02. You get what you pay for.

People that will be satisfied with this are as follows:
1) Never seen the OEM HIDs
2) Just care about night time aesthetics
3) Dont care about daytime performance
4) Have REALLY LOw expectations

My options were these for $1,200 installed. Or OEM onversion for $3,500 installed. I should have done the OEM.

Housing says Depo on the glass underneath the low beams so you know they are aftermarket. That was a bummer.

Below are a bunch of pictures in all different types of sunlight and all different angles. If I were an oncoming car I wouldn't even be able to see these on at all. The DRLs are totally weak AF and because the LEDs are so underpowered compared to the OEM it just screams aftermarket.

Honestly as I was browsing some of my pictures I couldn't tell in which one's the Halos were on and in which one's the Halos were off. Can you? See yourself in the pictures below.

Second pic is with noon sun directly overhead so it shouldnt hurt visability. And I am parked under a cover. Still can't see the drls. Nor would an oncoming car. I am standing about 40-50 feet away.

The projectors are also pretty sub par. I didnt go with halogens, but upgraded to H7 HIDs with a 6,000K. We have a 2017 Audi A4 and a 2015 Acura RDX. Both of those OEM housings blow these aftermarket out of the water in terms of cutoff crispness and beam spread. The projectors just cant cut it here. Clearly my expectations were way off. But the spread pattern is so narrow on these housings and the break is so jagged and uneven even after aligning it properly. It just looks cheap.

I also have a picture which shows OEM HID lights with the Depo aftermarket ones.

To really hit home my disappointment in the LED Halos on the Depo housing just consider that in some of these pictures the reflection of the Chrome eyebrow above the housing is actually brighter than the Halos themselves.....just let that sink in....then...get the idea of Depo out of your head. Move along.
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      05-23-2019, 02:36 PM   #2026
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Notice how the stock image from USR all at night super up close or at dusk. That's the only way these lights are visible is in the dark or up close. My pictures are case in point. Enough said ::mic drops::
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      05-23-2019, 02:37 PM   #2027
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I've noticed the exact same thing. The beam is very narrow compared to other modern headlights from OEM. My mom has a Toyota Corolla that seems like it doesn't go as far but the beam is much wider which is probably safer in the end.
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      05-24-2019, 09:08 AM   #2028
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Where on earth did you these for $1200 installed? It's about as simple of a DIY job as you can get. These out perform the stock Halogen units by far and the aesthetics alone over the Halogen make them worth the price. You can also code the led rings to be brighter.
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      05-24-2019, 09:18 AM   #2029
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To be fair, I would have never paid $1200.
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      05-26-2019, 03:24 PM   #2030
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I was about to pull the trigger and order these Depo’s but after reading the comments from Ryan I’m not so sure anymore.
Especially the part about the brightness of the halo rings worries me.
Is there somebody who has a side to side picture available with the Depo’s next to the OEM lights with the Halo’s in DRL mode?
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      05-26-2019, 06:29 PM   #2031
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After reading through all of this I think I'm going to just go OEM LED and do the install myself.
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      07-22-2019, 01:48 PM   #2032
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Where do you get the OEM LEDs from?

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Originally Posted by SteveInfante View Post
After reading through all of this I think I'm going to just go OEM LED and do the install myself.
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      07-22-2019, 07:06 PM   #2033
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Quote:
Originally Posted by herculeus View Post
Where do you get the OEM LEDs from?

Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveInfante View Post
After reading through all of this I think I'm going to just go OEM LED and do the install myself.
There are plenty of sellers of OEM light units on eBay. I've also found them used on CarPart for decent prices. I'm that guy that is willing to spend the cash for OEM for this car. Especially when you can't get a new touring in the US anymore.
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      07-23-2019, 06:17 PM   #2034
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Yeah agreed. I did find a company though that takes your stock headlights and coverts them. Only reason I might consider this is because they are roughly 1.5 hours away from me in Miami. They are called OssDesigns.

I’m curious though, is it as easy as putting xenon Bmw OEm into our f30 replacing the halogen headlights without any modification? Are they plug and play?

Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveInfante View Post
There are plenty of sellers of OEM light units on eBay. I've also found them used on CarPart for decent prices. I'm that guy that is willing to spend the cash for OEM for this car. Especially when you can't get a new touring in the US anymore.
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      07-24-2019, 12:04 AM   #2035
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Quote:
Originally Posted by herculeus View Post
Yeah agreed. I did find a company though that takes your stock headlights and coverts them. Only reason I might consider this is because they are roughly 1.5 hours away from me in Miami. They are called OssDesigns.

I’m curious though, is it as easy as putting xenon Bmw OEm into our f30 replacing the halogen headlights without any modification? Are they plug and play?

Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveInfante View Post
There are plenty of sellers of OEM light units on eBay. I've also found them used on CarPart for decent prices. I'm that guy that is willing to spend the cash for OEM for this car. Especially when you can't get a new touring in the US anymore.
I believe there are some wiring loom changes that are required for the xenon or LEDs to function as well as coding that needs to be addressed. I'm not sure though. It seems that the heat sync wiring and/or leveling motor wiring would need to be addressed as the halogen housings don't require those elements.
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      08-12-2019, 09:36 AM   #2036
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Hey guys , does any know if the Depo headlights led rings can be coded brighter ? Is it actually possible ? Or can the led modules be replaced by OEM on the actual headlight (depo) ?
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      11-11-2019, 04:04 PM   #2037
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Sorry to bump this post, but is there a difference at all between USR's Depo Headlights vs Kies Motorsports' Depo Headlights?
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      02-02-2020, 04:48 PM   #2038
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ghöst View Post
Just installed the LED low beams today.

I went with the Cougar Motor kit on amazon.

What a world of difference!

The kit fits perfectly in the housing and is much brighter than the halogens. Not to mention the price is great. I’m just mad that I didn’t opt to do it before installing but it’s really simple once you have the front wheels off.

I’ll post more pics when it’s dark, I could use some advice on what to do about my beam pattern. I can’t seem to get it right.

Sorry to bring up an old thread but I just purchased these USR lights and I also have the cougar lights that you bought. Did you have to buy a separate H7 retainer kit or did the lights fit perfectly?
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      03-10-2020, 07:40 PM   #2039
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Where is the best place to buy Depo LED headlights? the ones on USR always seem to be sold out . I've seen some on bodykit.com and andysautosport but have not seen any reviews on them so i haven't pulled the trigger. What do you guys recommend? Thanks in advance
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      03-22-2020, 05:57 PM   #2040
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So I finally installed my depo headlights with morimoto HID that I bought several months ago. After install everything worked fine but eventually I started getting error on the driver side low beam at startup. Low beam would not turn off and error in dash. Oddly enough it went away after driving for a while.

Anyhow huge props to BunkerJ for tip on turning off DRL in idrive! This fixed my problem. In addition to this, I checked connections (everything was fine). Also coded off warm and cold checks for low beams, which removed error, but headlight would still be off.

I am guessing that there is a problem with charging the capacitors in the morimoto Canbus with DRL. Not enough voltage or something with DRL on.


Quote:
Originally Posted by BunkerJ View Post
You went into iDrive to turn them off? Not just flipping them off, but actually disabling them. If so, then maybe. I would again just ensure all connections are correct. Everything is grounded to the correct spots and getting power.
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      05-08-2020, 02:22 AM   #2041
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Just installed these and wanted to chime in on those planning to install an HID kid.

As for the headlights themselves, installation is pretty straight forward. Theres a few videos on YouTube that already explain how to take off the front bumper/remove headlights. Only additional advice I can add is to use a wrench or pair of long nose vice grips to hold on to the locking nut on the bottom of the headlights before you start unscrewing them. Also, removing a few more screws in the wheel well so you can pull back the liner further also helped a lot. Oh, and also if you're not planning to take off your wheels, I found that for some screws turning the wheel fully outward instead of inward can give you more room and better angles.

Anyway, I wanted to chime in on HIDs because I couldn't find a single guide or good explanation online, and some info I found is just completely wrong. Unfortunately I didn't take many pictures of my installation which I regret, so this will just be some brief tips that should get you going. If anyone has any questions let me know. Like most, I went with the Morimoto H7 Elite purchased from The Retrofit Source.

There are two things you are going to need.

The kit itself:https://www.theretrofitsource.com/h7...-H7?quantity=1
H7 Euro Adapters: https://www.theretrofitsource.com/h7...APT?quantity=1
For the kit, I went with the most probably the most popular options. This is what I selected:

35w/AMP
H7B XB 5500k bulbs
Canbus H7 Wire Harness
You do not need the Anti-Flicker Capacitor Link

I went with 35w because I heard the 55w may be too hot for aftermarket headlights + 55w tends to have a shorter lifespan than 35w

5500k is the most popular option for HID kits. Not too yellow, not too blue, just a nice white. 6500k could look cool if you want a little more blue. I wouldn't go with 4500k because they might not match the Angel Eyes too well having a little more yellow.

Canbus works fine for our F30s, plus less wiring than the relays, so get these.

Now I cannot stress this enough, GET THE H7B'S. I have absolutely no freaking idea how everyone in this thread is buying H7A's. The only way I got the H7As to fit correctly were to install them upside down (the difference between the H7A and H7B is where the return wire is. On H7A it is on the top, H7B is on the bottom. There is a pic on TRS's product page showing the difference). I originally bought the H7A's and had to install them upside down with the return wire upwards and the light output sucked. Luckily I was able to exchange them for H7B's. To make this clear, for correct HID installation the return wire on the bulb must be on the bottom when it is inserted into the housing. I'm pretty sure the some of people in here having issues with output or cutoff is because they have H7As installed upside down. Because of the way the adapters were, I found it impossible to install H7A's the correct way

When I was installing the HID kit I was following this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbZh0Vtqz0k&t=204s
I'm a bit reluctant to recommend you follow it since he skipped over explaining some things and got things wrong, but I'll try to cover them here. The only real thing I'd follow in that video is his wiring in the end and the way he mounted the canbus harness and ballast. Other than that, he got the parts you need wrong in the beginning as well as not explaining how to get the adapters to fit onto the bulbs.

In the kit there are pairs of 5 things: The Ballast, the bulbs, the igniter, the canbus harness, and some extra cable that looks like this:


You do not need these wires for installation. At (3:11) in the video above he says you need them but you don't. I'm pretty sure they're for some testing purposes but I can't remember exactly. Just throw them aside.

The first thing I'd do is to put on Euro Adapters on the bulbs. I was a bit confused on how to install them, but the way you have to do it is to fit them on from the back of the bulb. In order to do this, you must pass the adapter through the wires the bulbs are attached to.

However, the first thing I noticed is that the H7 wire that connects to the Canbus harness is too big to fit through the adapter (see below pic)

In order to get around this, I had to make a small cut on the rubber seal around the igniter wires to free the bulb and igniter wires from the seal. I made the small cut here:

I didn’t cut the entire seal because I still wanted it for at least some waterproofing because they're suppose to cover the hole in the headlight cap that you make later on. Once I got the adapter through to the back of the bulb, I pushed the igniter wires back through the rubber seal where they were before.

Now before you get the adapter on the back of the bulb, there is a bit of plastic behind the bulb that you have to slide off.

The plastic is just a cover that can be slid off with a little bit of force. Then pretty much jam that plastic through the adapter so the adapter can fit flush with the bulb. You can technically fit the adapter over that piece of plastic, but from what I found it stretches out the adapter a little bit and didn’t allow it to fit into the headlight properly.
This is the plastic piece that I'm taking about which you can slide off:


Once you get the adapter to the back of the bulb you can slide that plastic piece against the adapter to prevent it from falling off. I would not recommend you cut it off or remove it as it helps you twist the bulb into the headlight housing during installation.

Next step is to drill the hole on the headlight cap so you can feed the wires through. I recommend a 7/8 inch spade drill bit.

Once you feed your wires through, fit the bulb with adapter into the headlight housing. If you're having issues twisting the adapters into the two screws that secure the bulb to the headlight, I'd recommend loosening them. In my case, I had to loosen them otherwise it would have been impossible to twist the euro adapter behind the two screws. The screws are on pretty tight, so you'll probably need a drill at first to loosen them up. Make sure to try to get the adapters/bulbs as flush as possible in the headlight or else you'll get some cutoff problems.

Then, you can chose where you want to mount the ballast and canbus harness. Many people like to chose the the metal rod behind the front bumper before they reinstall it back onto the car, but I chose to install them above the headlight with some 3M adhesive. That way if I ever need to swap out the ballast or take out the HID kit, I won't need to take off the front bumper and can just pop the hood. (The guy in the video I linked above also chose to mount his on top of the headlight, watch it for reference.)

IF YOUR CUTOFF/BEAM PATTERN IS BAD
Honestly, don't expect an OEM cutoff or projection. These are still aftermarkets at the end of the day. If something looks unusual or your bulb is curved or something like that, its most likely because the bulb's aren't correctly placed into the headlight. I'd recommend turning on the headlights and fiddling around with the bulb inside the housing until you get a nice projection or pattern. Tightening/loosening the two screws also can help as you're adjusting the bulb position. Once your projection looks good, you can adjust the vertical and horizontal with the two screws on top of the headlight.

USR actually released a video explaining how to do this here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6K4zdRp61gY

My projection is looking pretty good, but my cutoff seems to have a slight incline towards towards the right side. I'm gonna do some more tinkering this week and see if more adjustments to the bulb can fix this. It kinda looks like an ECE projection, but I'm pretty sure these DEPO's are supposed to have DOT projection? I'm honestly not extremely worried about is as I'm satisfied with the projection itself.


I'll let you guys know if I can get the cutoff any better. I honestly just wanted to share this guide so people can at least get the HID's install correctly in the first place. Here's what mine looks like so far:



If you guys want a laugh, here's what my projection looked like when I first installed them. This happened because the adapter wasn't flush with the housing inside the headlight. All I had to do to fix this was angle the bulb further down inside the housing and tighten the screws to lock it in place. If your beam is curved like this its probably because the bulb is angled upward inside the headlight. Again, doing some micro adjustments/fiddling with the bulb can help a lot.

Last edited by FKI; 05-08-2020 at 02:38 AM..
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      05-09-2020, 12:24 PM   #2042
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FKI - Great post! This post puts together a lot of info spread out through the 90+ pages of the thread.

I have the same setup as you and had similar beam pattern problem. After fiddling with the screws, my pattern is slightly worse than yours with slight curve at both ends also. How did you “angle the bulb further down inside the housing”? With the bulb and holder screwed in tight in the housing, I noticed that if I tilt the bulb base up (so that the actual bulb tilts down) the curve goes away. But you can only do this so much without mangling the metal holder.
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      05-11-2020, 12:45 PM   #2043
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FKI View Post
Just installed these and wanted to chime in on those planning to install an HID kid.

As for the headlights themselves, installation is pretty straight forward...
Thinking about taking on this retrofit in this downtime. Great timing and post/ review FKI much appreciated.
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      06-01-2020, 10:33 AM   #2044
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Just put these in this weekend. LEDs are plenty bright and the overall look is super nice. I purchased the Morimoto Elite kit but both lights kept going out anywhere between 30 seconds to 90 after startup. They would only come back on again after restarting the vehicle but I couldn't get them to stay on perpetually. Has anyone else experienced this issue or have any idea why this happened?
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      06-03-2020, 07:05 AM   #2045
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Thanks for the nice summary. One question left: how many bulbs do you need for the DEPO lights? Do you need two pair in total? So 4 bulbs?

Quote:
Originally Posted by FKI View Post
Just installed these and wanted to chime in on those planning to install an HID kid.

As for the headlights themselves, installation is pretty straight forward. Theres a few videos on YouTube that already explain how to take off the front bumper/remove headlights. Only additional advice I can add is to use a wrench or pair of long nose vice grips to hold on to the locking nut on the bottom of the headlights before you start unscrewing them. Also, removing a few more screws in the wheel well so you can pull back the liner further also helped a lot. Oh, and also if you're not planning to take off your wheels, I found that for some screws turning the wheel fully outward instead of inward can give you more room and better angles.

Anyway, I wanted to chime in on HIDs because I couldn't find a single guide or good explanation online, and some info I found is just completely wrong. Unfortunately I didn't take many pictures of my installation which I regret, so this will just be some brief tips that should get you going. If anyone has any questions let me know. Like most, I went with the Morimoto H7 Elite purchased from The Retrofit Source.

There are two things you are going to need.

The kit itself:https://www.theretrofitsource.com/h7...-H7?quantity=1
H7 Euro Adapters: https://www.theretrofitsource.com/h7...APT?quantity=1
For the kit, I went with the most probably the most popular options. This is what I selected:

35w/AMP
H7B XB 5500k bulbs
Canbus H7 Wire Harness
You do not need the Anti-Flicker Capacitor Link

I went with 35w because I heard the 55w may be too hot for aftermarket headlights + 55w tends to have a shorter lifespan than 35w

5500k is the most popular option for HID kits. Not too yellow, not too blue, just a nice white. 6500k could look cool if you want a little more blue. I wouldn't go with 4500k because they might not match the Angel Eyes too well having a little more yellow.

Canbus works fine for our F30s, plus less wiring than the relays, so get these.

Now I cannot stress this enough, GET THE H7B'S. I have absolutely no freaking idea how everyone in this thread is buying H7A's. The only way I got the H7As to fit correctly were to install them upside down (the difference between the H7A and H7B is where the return wire is. On H7A it is on the top, H7B is on the bottom. There is a pic on TRS's product page showing the difference). I originally bought the H7A's and had to install them upside down with the return wire upwards and the light output sucked. Luckily I was able to exchange them for H7B's. To make this clear, for correct HID installation the return wire on the bulb must be on the bottom when it is inserted into the housing. I'm pretty sure the some of people in here having issues with output or cutoff is because they have H7As installed upside down. Because of the way the adapters were, I found it impossible to install H7A's the correct way

When I was installing the HID kit I was following this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbZh0Vtqz0k&t=204s
I'm a bit reluctant to recommend you follow it since he skipped over explaining some things and got things wrong, but I'll try to cover them here. The only real thing I'd follow in that video is his wiring in the end and the way he mounted the canbus harness and ballast. Other than that, he got the parts you need wrong in the beginning as well as not explaining how to get the adapters to fit onto the bulbs.

In the kit there are pairs of 5 things: The Ballast, the bulbs, the igniter, the canbus harness, and some extra cable that looks like this:


You do not need these wires for installation. At (3:11) in the video above he says you need them but you don't. I'm pretty sure they're for some testing purposes but I can't remember exactly. Just throw them aside.

The first thing I'd do is to put on Euro Adapters on the bulbs. I was a bit confused on how to install them, but the way you have to do it is to fit them on from the back of the bulb. In order to do this, you must pass the adapter through the wires the bulbs are attached to.

However, the first thing I noticed is that the H7 wire that connects to the Canbus harness is too big to fit through the adapter (see below pic)

In order to get around this, I had to make a small cut on the rubber seal around the igniter wires to free the bulb and igniter wires from the seal. I made the small cut here:

I didn’t cut the entire seal because I still wanted it for at least some waterproofing because they're suppose to cover the hole in the headlight cap that you make later on. Once I got the adapter through to the back of the bulb, I pushed the igniter wires back through the rubber seal where they were before.

Now before you get the adapter on the back of the bulb, there is a bit of plastic behind the bulb that you have to slide off.

The plastic is just a cover that can be slid off with a little bit of force. Then pretty much jam that plastic through the adapter so the adapter can fit flush with the bulb. You can technically fit the adapter over that piece of plastic, but from what I found it stretches out the adapter a little bit and didn’t allow it to fit into the headlight properly.
This is the plastic piece that I'm taking about which you can slide off:


Once you get the adapter to the back of the bulb you can slide that plastic piece against the adapter to prevent it from falling off. I would not recommend you cut it off or remove it as it helps you twist the bulb into the headlight housing during installation.

Next step is to drill the hole on the headlight cap so you can feed the wires through. I recommend a 7/8 inch spade drill bit.

Once you feed your wires through, fit the bulb with adapter into the headlight housing. If you're having issues twisting the adapters into the two screws that secure the bulb to the headlight, I'd recommend loosening them. In my case, I had to loosen them otherwise it would have been impossible to twist the euro adapter behind the two screws. The screws are on pretty tight, so you'll probably need a drill at first to loosen them up. Make sure to try to get the adapters/bulbs as flush as possible in the headlight or else you'll get some cutoff problems.

Then, you can chose where you want to mount the ballast and canbus harness. Many people like to chose the the metal rod behind the front bumper before they reinstall it back onto the car, but I chose to install them above the headlight with some 3M adhesive. That way if I ever need to swap out the ballast or take out the HID kit, I won't need to take off the front bumper and can just pop the hood. (The guy in the video I linked above also chose to mount his on top of the headlight, watch it for reference.)

IF YOUR CUTOFF/BEAM PATTERN IS BAD
Honestly, don't expect an OEM cutoff or projection. These are still aftermarkets at the end of the day. If something looks unusual or your bulb is curved or something like that, its most likely because the bulb's aren't correctly placed into the headlight. I'd recommend turning on the headlights and fiddling around with the bulb inside the housing until you get a nice projection or pattern. Tightening/loosening the two screws also can help as you're adjusting the bulb position. Once your projection looks good, you can adjust the vertical and horizontal with the two screws on top of the headlight.

USR actually released a video explaining how to do this here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6K4zdRp61gY

My projection is looking pretty good, but my cutoff seems to have a slight incline towards towards the right side. I'm gonna do some more tinkering this week and see if more adjustments to the bulb can fix this. It kinda looks like an ECE projection, but I'm pretty sure these DEPO's are supposed to have DOT projection? I'm honestly not extremely worried about is as I'm satisfied with the projection itself.


I'll let you guys know if I can get the cutoff any better. I honestly just wanted to share this guide so people can at least get the HID's install correctly in the first place. Here's what mine looks like so far:



If you guys want a laugh, here's what my projection looked like when I first installed them. This happened because the adapter wasn't flush with the housing inside the headlight. All I had to do to fix this was angle the bulb further down inside the housing and tighten the screws to lock it in place. If your beam is curved like this its probably because the bulb is angled upward inside the headlight. Again, doing some micro adjustments/fiddling with the bulb can help a lot.
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      07-01-2020, 09:32 AM   #2046
idopullups
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Quote:
Originally Posted by idopullups View Post
Thinking about taking on this retrofit in this downtime. Great timing and post/ review FKI much appreciated.
Just completed my install of DEPO projectors and the Morimoto HID kit yesterday.

My inputs on top of FKI's post.

1- You don't need to cut the rubber seal to get the H7 euro adapter clip on. I simply pulled the wires out of the plastic connector that was too big to slip the clip over. The rubber seal can be squished and squeezed through the H7 clip. The connector I'm talking about is seen below. You can remove the wires by applying slight backward pressure on the wire while inserting a tweezer or bent paperclip etc into the inside hole on the tip of the connector (red square) and applying pressure with the bent paperclip towards the outside of the clip. I've put an arrow pointing to the holding clip you are trying to depress in order to slide the wire out.




2- H7 bulbs just don't fit well in these headlights. I don't know why DEPO used this janky bulb holder and didn't just put in an H7 bulb mount. They knew they were building a headlight for a car that used H7 bulbs. I digress, no H7 bulb fits what I would call 'properly' I tried my OEM low beam bulbs and even they didn't fit super well. Bad beam patterns are caused by this ill-fitting. In the end with some fiddling and frustration you can get them to fit securely and reasonably well, but not perfect. I don't know why DEPO didn't use the same bulb holder that they used for the high beam, this one is simpler and I had no issues clamping in my LED high-beam bulbs.

3- Install was relatively easy, I chose to remove my front wheels and bumper. I can't imagine doing this without the wheels off and bumper off, it would be 1000% harder.


Final thoughts. If you are planning on doing this I would seriously consider installing LEDs in the low beams. Installing some high-quality LED's would eliminate the need for the ballasts, canbus harness, and the other little plastic box. So MUCH less stuff to mount to somewhere on the car around the location of the housing. Although the HID's are kinda cool once its all said and done. LEDs will require coding unlike the HID kit but again...way easier.

Angel eye rings look bluer in my images than they are in real life, much more white in person.






If anyone has questions ask away. Can post more pictures as well.

Last edited by idopullups; 07-01-2020 at 09:52 AM..
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