FTO AUSTRALIA

Does anyone have any technical information about the dimensions of the OE projector housings?
Anyone with pictures of a dismantled headlight housing?

Would like to know what the Fresnel lens diameter is on the OE housings, or even if it's a common legacy unit like a Hella projector (commonly found in BMWs and Benz' of the era). Or, what the shroud looks like. This is where a picture would be worth a thousand words. Can't find pics online.

Appreciate it if anyone's got old project pics handy. I could just break down the spare, non-HID unit that I took out of the car, but I know that the projo housings are likely going to be different. (D2S vs H-something).

Thanks in advance.

Sounds like you have too much time on your hands......

Yes. Wrenching is my therapy, thanks

Tired of these muddy headlights. No hotspots, just a blurry mess. Comparing the OEM HID housings to the halogen ones, I suspect they're really no better, regardless of headlight intensity. (Already swapped out 66240CBIs in place. Heat looks nicer, but still no better from a performance perspective.)

I've several old projo units lying around. Older designs, but they work. Else, some of the newer housings or even LED-based AIO units might be an interesting project. I'd much rather see what I'm working with first before I tear these headlights apart.

http://ftoaustralia.com/v3/viewtopic.php?t=3162

It works nicely.

Thanks man, and appreciate that redirect.

I'm just resolved at this point to replace the unit. Switching to a high-lumens bulb will increase light output - and I've already done that with the D2S CBIs. But on a muddy projector lens (vs. clear) with a rather outdated shroud and dome design just won't compete with modern lighting capabilities in terms of transmittal of all the potential lumens out to the road (lux).

For instance:



From an Evo VII to IX:




(These are both on low-beam btw, as evidenced by the clear cutoff line --- which you don't have... at least clearly... with the FTO projectors either.)

Lenses can be replaced easily, but that's only part of the equation. It's just like cylinder heads - you can only increase performance marginally if the design of the heads themselves is what's limiting you to a low ceiling.

In any case, I'll just find time to do a tear-down on the standard projectors. Some of the RHD projectors I'm looking at are on backorder anyway.