ZKW retrofit complications...

[nsk040]

After having a friend point out just how bad my ZKW bi-xenons had become, I ended up with the e46 kit from TRS for ~$175.

At this point I have the new bowls installed (was quite a pain), but as I was splicing the new solenoid (to actuate the bi-xenon shutter) wires into the OEM ones, I noticed that the insulation on the OEM solenoid actuation wires has worn off in a number of places throughout the housing (the OEM solenoid wires wind around the inside of the housing a good bit) and I’m confident that they are “shorted” in multiple places (i.e. both solenoid wires touching each other metal to metal).

I’m not qualified to re-wire the solenoid wires throughout the entire assembly. I see my options as:

1) send to lightwerkz and see if they can re-wire the whole thing? (may be a pain as the new shrouds are glued on per the instruction of TRS)

2) find someone to code the LCM to make my center lights my highbeams and leave the bi-xenon shutter permanently closed…[anyone know someone in Charlotte, NC who could code this LCM function?]

3) sell the full OEM assemblies I have with a full disclosure for the actuator wire issue and just buy new OEM assemblies

Any other options? Thanks.

[Tnhl1989]

Photos would really help on this one.

[nsk040]

[IMG]C:\Users\Nick\Desktop\IMG_1372.JPG[/IMG]

Do photos have to be "hosted" someplace else to post them? I tried uploading but the above is all I got.

Regardless, 95% of the solenoid wires (there are 2) which have had the insulation wear off in several places are inside the now fully assembled headlight...so the picture doesn't really show much.

[brettbimmer]

I did an E90 bowl swap on my ZKW lights a couple of years ago. Can you gain access to replace the wires from the rear of the housing? Here are multiple photos that I took while I had the bowls apart, and it shows a little bit of the wiring. I cannot imagine it being too difficult to replace the bad wiring, if you are comfortable with working with 12 volt wiring. If not, perhaps a friend with a bit of 12 volt wiring knowledge would be able to help. **Note that the rear of my lights are a little bit different mounting for the headlight bulb and socket as I had to modify the bracket for the E90 bowls, but it shouldn' t matter as the wiring in my car is unchanged.**

[brettbimmer]

A couple more. Let me know if I can answer any questions.

[jakksfor20]

I think my recommendation would be to to use male/female connectors and get rid of the connector that is no longer used. Before doing the actual connections, put heat shrink on the wires and that should last you another 10-15 years. Trying to get all the pieces out and de-pinning the connection on the housing is more trouble than I think the heat shrink method would be.

[nsk040]

The issue is the red and green wires (in the above pictures from Brett) would have to be replaced throughout the entire assembly on mine.

From what I can recall from when I had the headlight apart, the red and green wires start over behind the high-beam, connect to the ballast and I believe one other place, before they make their way over to the solenoid area. Hopefully this is an easy re-wiring fix if I ship them out to lightwerkz but I'd probably just create more problems if I started snipping and soldering on my own.

One area of potential complication if I send to lightwerkz is that TRS required I use JB Quickweld (i.e. epoxy) to glue the shrouds onto the projectors. This would make taking them apart a bit more complicated.

Appreciate the help guys!

[jakksfor20]

Unless they changed things and provided an adapter that connects the plug in the pics to the hi-beam solenoid then they are still sending a clip-on that you connect the two wires onto the green and red wires, you are better off doing as I said. Those clip-ons are crap. I had to take mine apart again after one didn't make good enough contact.

I mean if you want to spend more money and send them off than buying a decent set of stripper/crimpers and a couple of insulated spade terminals and some some heat shrink (maybe $20 total) then go for it.

Where are you located?

[LivesNearCostco]

I had a similar issue with my headlight, several wires (not just the bi-xenon shutter) had worn insulation. I ended up pulling out some of the wiring (including disconnecting some of the plugs from the back of the headlight housing) and wrapping a lot of the wires in electrical tape. I only had two colors of tape at the time--should have bought the 5-color tape pack from WalMart before doing this. It was not technicall difficult but it was a lot of tedious work to get the wires out, separate them, wrap them, and put them back. In some cases where they wrapped around a ring magnet, I could not rewrap the wires.

[nsk040]

I spoke with Lightwerkz. Apparently there is a way to wire the solenoid 100% outside of the headlight assembly by going from the solenoid straight to one of the plugs I disconnected when I pulled the headlight assemblies out of the car.

Anyone have any experience with this?