Materials to Maintain Your ZHP IIIII Hand Protection IIIII Tools to Maintain Your ZHP
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  1. #1
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    E90 ZKW projector bowl retrofit- My progression...

    Ok folks, I've been doing a ton of research on this and trying to find the best way to retrofit my lights as my output is horrible. Well, I'm going to take my time, do it VERY slowly so as to make sure I document and capture every detail. From there, hopefully, I can do some sort of a DIY/write up for others... I was only able to find a few pictures on E46f, so hopefully I can make something a little more informative to others...

    So, I've heard that the E90 retrofit is nice because there are no electrical modifications as all parts are ZKW... But, the E90 cars use a D1S bulb as opposed to our D2S bulb, so from what I understand, mounting and securing the bulb will be a bit different. I'll learn more about this as I go. For now, I kept the projector, bulb securing bracket and the lens (who knows, maybe I can sell them on eBay)...

    First step is to acquire E90 projectors. I found a drivers headlight housing with busted tabs on eBay for $70 shipped. I picked that up and then had to get the projector bowl out. This turned out to be a massive challenge as I found ZERO write-ups, you tube vids, or info ANYWHERE on this, so after a few hours of prying and poking at the thing, I got frustrated... Pics show my results...

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    But, after a few hours of some intense jigsaw action and prying, I finally got down to what I needed. I feel really bad hacking up some OEM parts, but it was a busted unit already and not of interest on eBay from what I could see. Plus, I got what I needed, no damages to those parts, so I'm happy. As you can see, the projector bowl is in perfect shape, and it is metal, so hopefully this retrofit will be a forever fix. I need to get new bulbs, but I'm going to wait until I get my OEM lights out and apart. I'll have to see if there's a way to fit the D2S bulb in there or if I will need to buy new D1S bulbs..

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    2011 E90 Lemans Blue/Bamboo Beige M3- Harrop Supercharged IG: lmb_zcp
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  2. #2

  3. #3
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    Thanks Charlie... You are my inspiration and guiding force thus far! And just a quickie update, the headlight JUST now made its way to the workbench. Going well so far. More pics and writeup to be continued soon.
    2011 E90 Lemans Blue/Bamboo Beige M3- Harrop Supercharged IG: lmb_zcp
    2013 F25 Alpine White/Chestnut X3 35i- Family Hauler
    2006 R53 British Racing Green/Panther Black Mini Cooper S FOR SALE! DM for details!
    Past: 2010 X5M, 2014 328d, 2003 330i ZHP, 2004 330i ZHP, 2012 X3 35i
    WTB!! 2009-2012 E91 328i Touring Contact me with info!

  4. #4
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    I bought e90 projectors 2 weeks ago and am waiting until I have a free weekend to do this mod. I'll be watching closely, keep up the good work.

  5. #5
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    Ok, made a little more progress this evening, more than I expected actually. And, I'm feeling good about it! But, I hit a snag, so its time to put the tools away for the night so I don't get frustrated and break anything. Basically, I started removing the drivers side headlight on my car in preparation for the retrofit. I got the headlight out and also got it part of the way disassembled. I am currently hung up on the auto leveling arm/ball joint. That is where I'm stuck currently. But anyway, let me at least catalogue what I've done thus far. I'm a super newbie as this is the first thing I've done on the E46 platform, so I am including a few steps that I didn't find in other DIYs...

    1. Remove the Corner marker assembly. Its one screw, accessed through a port in the fender, on the top just under the hood edge. I didn't know this until I looked around a bit, so I took a picture as I didn't see it in the other DIYs. Shown here. Once you loosen the screw down in this hole, the corner housing slides towards the front of the car. Pull gently and disconnect the bulb. Then remove it altogether.

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    2. After this, remove the 4 screws that hold the headlight in place. Many of the other DIYs have nice pictures of these screws, so I didn't take my own. Two are right on top, one down low behind headlight in the middle. It was right next to the forward outer corner of the air box. The last one was wedged down between the kidney and inner headlight edge. The two lower screws were Torx and the two upper were hex head.

    3. Next was to unplug everything (all the bulbs and whatnot connected to the housing. Upon initial look, there was NO room to do this, so I unbolted the air box and slid it towards the back of the car about an inch to give myself some extra room. it worked perfectly. Pics below show what I did here.

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    4. Once this was done, technically, nothing was holding the headlight in place, at least according to another DIY I read... Well, the pesky headlight washer assembly still had to be reckoned with. According to another DIY, I found a pretty good explanation and a pic that helped out immensely. Basically, you have to pop the trim off under the light where the washer is. It won't completely come off, but just pops the two ends free of their clips. Then, with one hand, pull the trim and extend headlight washer assembly. You will feel the spring pulling it back in, but pull it gently out, about 3-4". This takes one hand... The other hand will be used to work the headlight housing out of its resting place. The following pic is one I got from another DIY, but I'm reposting it here so the info is not lost.

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    Mine caught up on the rubber trim on the underside a bit, so watch for that. You kind of have to work it out gently, and then twist the front of the light up towards the ceiling as it comes out, to clear the trim and headlight washer assembly. Once this is done, the headlight is free and you can gently let the washer assembly spring back into place. You should have the following result.

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    5. After this step, you can start disassembling the headlight housing as per the other DIYs on this forum. Charlie has written a great one, referenced here..

    http://www.zhpmafia.com/forums/showt...r-Retrofit-DIY

    Also, I found a great video that helped a lot with headlight disassembly. It is located here.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Lcup1PYTC0

    Currently, I got the lens, trim, and bulbs out of my light. I rotated all of the adjusters so the projector assembly is in position, but I cannot get the auto leveling ball joint separated. So, that is where I am stuck at the moment. Just a couple of other pics though that show my bowls... Mine were not only burnt, but also CRACKED... Like I said, I have HORRIBLE light output, and its no wonder why! In the second pic, I shined a flashlight into the front of the projector/lens so you can see the light shining through the cracks in the projector bowl.

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    More progress will come in the morning. Thanks for reading!
    2011 E90 Lemans Blue/Bamboo Beige M3- Harrop Supercharged IG: lmb_zcp
    2013 F25 Alpine White/Chestnut X3 35i- Family Hauler
    2006 R53 British Racing Green/Panther Black Mini Cooper S FOR SALE! DM for details!
    Past: 2010 X5M, 2014 328d, 2003 330i ZHP, 2004 330i ZHP, 2012 X3 35i
    WTB!! 2009-2012 E91 328i Touring Contact me with info!

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mr Paul View Post
    I bought e90 projectors 2 weeks ago and am waiting until I have a free weekend to do this mod. I'll be watching closely, keep up the good work.
    Well, I will try my best to explain everything I've found, so as to help others. Good luck with your work and definitely let me know if this post needs any updates. I currently only have 1 E90 projector, so I'll do the drivers side for now and the passenger side as soon as I can get the parts...
    2011 E90 Lemans Blue/Bamboo Beige M3- Harrop Supercharged IG: lmb_zcp
    2013 F25 Alpine White/Chestnut X3 35i- Family Hauler
    2006 R53 British Racing Green/Panther Black Mini Cooper S FOR SALE! DM for details!
    Past: 2010 X5M, 2014 328d, 2003 330i ZHP, 2004 330i ZHP, 2012 X3 35i
    WTB!! 2009-2012 E91 328i Touring Contact me with info!

  7. #7

  8. #8
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    Ok folks, its been a couple of days since I have updated my progress on this retrofit. Well, good news, I have been working, and I've made quite a bit of progress, but I've also been busy with other stuff, so unable to post. I apologize for that... But anyway, I am actually on the downhill slope of this project. I've managed to successfully retrofit the E90 projector bowl into the E46 setup. Now I am stuck trying to find a way to secure the bulb. I'm working on a few setups still, so bare with me. Anyway, onto steps and pics.

    6. So when I left off, I was stuck getting the auto leveling arm and ball joint separated. Well, what I found to work was while prying at the ball joint with a long flat blade screwdriver, I also gently pulled on the lower portion of the projector housing from the front of the light. This way, as soon as the ball joint popped, it would pull out, as opposed to popping back into place. This was the trick. Of course, this did not completely free the projector unit as some of the DIY threads and the youtube video stated. I found there to be two other 'clips' that needed to be released. These are shown in the pics below. These pics are not mine, but ones I pirated from threads elsewhere. Just FYI, I mirrored one of the pics so that the 3 joints match up to each other. You will see in each pic, they are circled in red. The lower joint is the auto leveling ball joint. The upper middle one has two small tabs on the female side (back side of the projector body) that need to be released. The upper, outer one is kind of a funky joint. I just pryed it apart using a screwdriver. As with all plastic parts, be gentle!

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    7. Ok, with all of those joints finally separated, the projector housing will come out of the front and be ready for dissection. This is where the fun really begins. And by now you should be able to see the condition of your bowls. I disassembled them gently. You will first have to unclip the chrome shroud from the front (the piece with the word 'Xenon' down the side). Once this is off, you can remove the plastic trim piece between the projector and the halogen DRL bowl. I didn't take pics of these, its pretty self explanatory. Just poke around gently until you find all retaining clips and carefully pry them off. Once that is out of the way, you can take the screws out that hold the projector bowl, lens bracket, and projector frame altogether. There are 4 screws total, 3 larger ones, and one tiny on. As viewed from the back side, the small one is the lower left. Once you take them apart, everything comes apart. From here, I took a few comparison photos, just for reference. They are shown below.

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    The first pic shows the two bowls, obviously the E90 on the left, E46 on the right. The second pic shows the bi-xenon shutters, again, E90 on the left, E46 on the right. The third pic is the same from another angle, showing this funky stick out piece on the E90 shutter (in the background of pic #3). Being that it was different, I chose to stick with the E46 shutter so as to change as little as possible. Otherwise, they fit the same. Also to note, I read that the shutter solenoid is the same and requires no retrofitting or swapping. I did notice that the E90 solenoid has 3 pins in the connector and the E46 only has 2, so we will see how that works. The connector is the same and plugs in just fine though.

    8. An interesting tidbit, I noticed while taking this stuff apart that there was a very light film of soot on the inside of many of the parts. I assume this is from smoke accumulating in the light assembly when the ZKW bowl was slowly burning. This smoke left a layer of soot on the lens. You can see a couple smudge marks on my lens below. This obviously won't help light output, so I wiped it off. Surprisingly, a lot cleaner afterward, as shown by the soot left on my microfiber. Of course, make sure to use clean, soft cloths so as not to scratch the lens. If you've got it open, might as well clean it all up, right?? I thought so...

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    9. After looking at the picture of the two projector bowls, you will notice the E90 has a bunch of extra meat on it at the bottom. This stuff is all for the adaptive lighting motor. In addition, you can see the two pins that the lens swiveled back and forth on. Obviously, we don't have that feature, so a bunch of that meat has to be removed. Others were able to remove the pins, but I couldn't push them out, so I just cut off the E90 lens bracket and shaved the projector bowl smooth with the dremel. Some of the following pics show my closeup work.

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    10. From here, it was a matter of messing around the with the E90 bowl and the OEM lens bracket and projector frame to get it all to fit together. Of course, there are less screw holes on the E90 bowl, so you have to sort of do some makeshift stuff. I did something that might be a little 'ghetto' to some, but it is nice and tight and the projector will NOT move. I am more than happy with my securing. I ended up using the 3 large screws I took out, but not the small 4th one. Either way, it is still very secure with no wobble. Of course, the bi-xenon shutter still functions nice and smooth. The two top holes are just a touch closer together on the E90 bowl than they are on the E46 parts, so I had to open up those holes ever so slightly. I used a drill bit just big enough to widen the holes and allow the screws to go straight down into the holes on the projector frame. The pic below shows these screws installed.

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    Last edited by JupiterBMW; 06-28-2012 at 07:55 PM.
    2011 E90 Lemans Blue/Bamboo Beige M3- Harrop Supercharged IG: lmb_zcp
    2013 F25 Alpine White/Chestnut X3 35i- Family Hauler
    2006 R53 British Racing Green/Panther Black Mini Cooper S FOR SALE! DM for details!
    Past: 2010 X5M, 2014 328d, 2003 330i ZHP, 2004 330i ZHP, 2012 X3 35i
    WTB!! 2009-2012 E91 328i Touring Contact me with info!

  9. #9
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    10a. Once these two screws were secure, I checked into how the bottom half mounting was going to work. As you can see from the following pic, there was a gap on the left side. On the right, it did sit together (there's a small clear rubber grommet that was in there) but it just doesn't look it. So, I had to figure out how to get a screw in there. I initially thought I could put the screw in under the projector bowl assembly to hold the lens in (shown in the second pic below), but that allowed the projector assembly to wobble a lot, so I had to remove that and figure a way to secure the projector, lens bracket, and projector frame all together. Time to get creative. There was no place to drill a hole here in the E90 bowl, so I had to 'clamp' it by use of a finishing washer. This is all shown below. You will also notice this required some more dremel action, but that was not a big deal. The pics below show the result. It is VERY secure this way.

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    11. At this point I took a few minutes to admire my work. Basically, the E90 projector bowl retrofit was complete, at least the essential parts. A couple of pics show the fitment below. It looks great, everything is nice and true.

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    One thing to note, I started test fitting the projector assembly back into the main housing, and I think I'm going to have to do some more trimming of the E90 bowl unit. The whole bottom arm sticking down at the bottom, below the bi-xenon shutter solenoid in the pic below, is part of the adaptive light motor mounting. That is unneeded, and to fit into our housing correctly, it will need to get shaved off. I will do this tomorrow and post pics of that as well.

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    After that, the only thing left to do was to figure out how to mount/secure the bulb. The E90 lights use a D1S bulb which has an internal igniter, as opposed to the E46 which use the D2S bulb. The mounting and connections are a bit different, so this meant a little more creativity. I haven't been able to find any really GOOD solutions as of yet, but I am still working on it. I choose not to continue if I get frustrated (that's when you hurt yourself or break stuff), so this is where I left off.

    Now, if only I could find myself a passenger side E90 headlight so that I can do this stuff ALL over again!
    2011 E90 Lemans Blue/Bamboo Beige M3- Harrop Supercharged IG: lmb_zcp
    2013 F25 Alpine White/Chestnut X3 35i- Family Hauler
    2006 R53 British Racing Green/Panther Black Mini Cooper S FOR SALE! DM for details!
    Past: 2010 X5M, 2014 328d, 2003 330i ZHP, 2004 330i ZHP, 2012 X3 35i
    WTB!! 2009-2012 E91 328i Touring Contact me with info!

  10. #10
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    Well folks, I didn't expect the rest of the job to take so little time, but I came up with a bulb holder solution, and did the extra trimming, and then it all went back together VERY quickly... So, I'm here to post up the remaining steps of my project.

    12. Ok, so when I left off last night, my biggest challenge was to modify the bulb clip to now secure the D2S bulb into the D1S housing. Well, I used a small nut/bolt as shown in the picture. In addition, I bent the clip into a loop, and then ran the bolt through that, giving it a little extra security. It looks a little ghetto, I'll admit, but this proved to be the ticket... You can see my result below...

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    13. Once that was done, it was time to finish trimming the bottom of the E90 projector bowl bracket. The lower portion has an extra arm that sticks down for the adaptive motor found on the E90 lights. Well, to fit into the E46 housing, that all had to go. Before and after pics below show the work I did. Nothing more than 5 minutes with the dremel to cut it off and smooth out any sharp edges...

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    14. Now that the retrofit/custom work was finally complete, it was time to reinstall the projector assembly back into the headlight housing! As I mentioned way up in Step 6 above, there are 3 joints total that hold the projector assembly into the frame. The pic below shows how I reinstalled the projector assembly at an angle so that I could easily reengage all the clips. The first one I did was the funky swivel at the upper outer corner (top right in the pic). From there, the upper middle connection was next. It just popped into place with some gentle pressure. Lastly was the auto leveling ball joint. To do this, I just pressed lightly on the bottom portion of the projector assembly and it popped back in. Pic below shows it all.

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    15. From here, it was just standard reassembly of the lights. Reconnect the bulbs, replace the dust caps, reinstall the front bezel around the lights, then the lens. Once the headlight was completely reassembled, it was time to reinstall.

    16. Reinstallation was the opposite of removal, but we all know its never that easy. Well, this time it was. I made sure the lower trim was unclipped and gently extended the headlight washer nozzle and trim piece out as far as they would go with one hand. Then I gently inserted the headlight back into place. I had to come in at a downward angle just a little bit, and it did take some wiggling and stuff to get into place. But, once it was in place, all was good.

    17. Reconnect the bulbs, remount the air box back into place (remember I removed it for additional room) and then reinstall the corner light. The car was now complete!

    18. Once this was done, it was the moment of truth. I popped in the key and checked all functions... Everything worked perfectly, including the bi-xenon shutter, with the exception of the auto leveling. Not sure why, but the light doesn't move up and down. I'm pretty bummed about that, but I will diagnose a little bit and figure out what to do. Other than that though, the light output is AMAZING... I still haven't even moved the car out of the garage or aligned anything really, but holy crap it is SO bright. Pics below show the result.

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    So all in all, the retrofit itself wasn't really that involved. And assuming you can get your hands on the E90 projector bowls for cheap, I definitely think this is THE MOST cost effective way to do it. Being that the auto leveling unit is something that wasn't swapped or modified, I'm pretty sure I must've boogered it up on disassembly. I'll look into that some more. So, assuming that it still worked, this retrofit would be 100% successful, and the light output is phenomenally better. Of course, that will depend on how bad your current output is. Based on the passenger side output in the pics above, you can tell that mine was VERY bad...

    Anyway, questions or comments are definitely welcome. I am open to ideas and suggestions of course, as I am still very new to the ZHP family, but I hope to help out as much as some of you have already helped me out. I hope this serves as some sort of a DIY write up for the rest of those that need to tackle this project. I of course will probably reference it myself for when I do the passenger side (still have to locate the E90 parts). I was already asked about doing a set for someone else... If people are interested, I suppose something could be arranged.
    2011 E90 Lemans Blue/Bamboo Beige M3- Harrop Supercharged IG: lmb_zcp
    2013 F25 Alpine White/Chestnut X3 35i- Family Hauler
    2006 R53 British Racing Green/Panther Black Mini Cooper S FOR SALE! DM for details!
    Past: 2010 X5M, 2014 328d, 2003 330i ZHP, 2004 330i ZHP, 2012 X3 35i
    WTB!! 2009-2012 E91 328i Touring Contact me with info!

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