Buying Smileys

[Blackout]

So if the Bosch are metal and the Hella are plastic, which is prefered? The metal would rust and the plastic could crack or distort. Just curious. Does one give better light dispersement?

BOSCH. Metal is coated. It rusts only where the paint is flaked. Its just surface rust.

[Steve Corbett]

So if the Bosch are metal and the Hella are plastic, which is prefered? The metal would rust and the plastic could crack or distort. Just curious. Does one give better light dispersement?

[e34john]

What is the difference if any between the Bosch or Hella Euro Smileys?

Metal vs. Plastic reflectors

[Steve Corbett]

What is the difference if any between the Bosch or Hella Euro Smileys?

[Court M3]

^^^ Post 15

[ethurtee]

Bosch Smi

Ravuk a member here sells authentics for $200 pretty good deal.

Where do I find this man?

[C!ph3r]

thanks for the info guys. I ended up just buying a new pair of US ellipsoids low beam from bavauto. It was more expensive but at least they are new OEM. so i am good with that. Hopefully they are what i expect them to be and hopefully the part i need. guess i'll see when they get here. if they dont work out i suppose i will go with depos.

[reelizmpro]

OEM is best...no doubt but even I realize time is not on our side. DEPO's are the only OEM style lights available and they are an exact copy. It's like replica wheels, you can bash them all you want but they are new, look great and they work! They are also cheap compared to 30 year old originals. So not only are they an acceptable alternative, in a few years they will be the only alternative. OEM is best but soon good used sets are going to go up in price to a point where the DEPO's are going to start looking real good. If you live in a mild climate as I do, DEPO's are fine. Maybe not so much if you see extreme cold/hot, snow, rain, etc. This is coming from someone who has owned several Bosch, Hella euro lights over the past 15 years and just recently looked into DEPO's last year.

[Alex Mc]

C!ph3r, JinormusJ can only be referring to used Smileys. If you keep an eye out on the classifieds forum on R3V you'l see they come up for sale pretty regularly, though I've never seen a set for $170 that weren't well worn.

[C!ph3r]

OEM Bosch/Hella Smilies are proven: I've never heard of a set of the OEM smilies go bad, ever
And they only cost $50 more most times. I'd rather have. Headlight that I know is perfect than have one that will be trash in 2-3 years

i have OEM US ellips on my e30 and need to replace them. i do not want depos. where might i find the lights you are referring to at this price point? best i can find they are like $600 and thats if i can find them.

[rav320uk]

^^^^ That sums it all, Quality Matters^^^^

[Golfer_705]

DEPO are junk

What the hell..? Since when were DEPO acceptable replacements for the OEM smilies?

First off, they may be new, but the quality, or lack thereof, is noticeable right out the box. The quality of material is no where near even the old 20+ year old originals. The beam is okay, but the light output fades quickly because of the quality. More over, the molds they have used for the light brackets aren't very well and the sealant used corrodes and cracks over time; this allows leaks into the housings that fog up an destroy the projectors.

OEM Bosch/Hella Smilies are proven: I've never heard of a set of the OEM smilies go bad, ever
And they only cost $50 more most times. I'd rather have. Headlight that I know is perfect than have one that will be trash in 2-3 years

I was using the Bosch H4/H1 conversion since 2006 and couldnt have been happier with them. About a year ago i swapped in PIAA 4000K H4/H1 halogen bulbs, visibilty was great. unfortunaly it became time for new lenses in january. thinking it was a good time to update the look of the lenses I purchased a new set of DEPO euro smilies with 6000K H1 HID (lows) from Stealthauto. The headlight adjusters were of very poor quality, half broke during the initial aiming of the lights after installation. The DEPO's seem to put out a much wider and brighter inital low beam pattern, however I was extremly disappointed to find that the DOPO HID projector low beams cut off was about half that of my old Bosch lenses with PIAA bulbs. I reused my PIAA H1 bulbs for the DEPO hign beams. The range was decent, the beam pattern was very similar spot lamps, however the light output was again a disappointment from my Bosch lenses. After about 6 weeks of the DEPO`s installed in my car both low beam projector leses cracked a day apart. i went out the first morning swept the snow off and started my car to let it warm up leaving the lights on. when i returned to leave for work i was shocked to see the passenger low beam lens split in a complete circle around the out side of the lens. the very next morning warmed the car again with the lights on, came out to leave and found the drivers low beam lens spidered into about 8 pieces. Overall i was extremly disappointed by the DEPO lights: field of vision, quality and durability. I called and emailed STEALTHAUTO about the quality and durability of the lights. Noone has been bothered to return my calls or emails in over 2 weeks now. In conclusion I CAN NOT reccomend the DEPO headlight Brand to anyone or dealing with STEALTHAUTO.

[Bailz84]

Awesome thanks for the insight guys. I'm a huge noob in the realm of E30's and appreciate being pushed in the right direction. I agree with putting out the extra $$ in order to assure myself in what I'm buying won't fail. Thanks again.

If the guy from Federal Way sees this, PM me if you wanna meet up or roll to a meet in Tacoma together here in a couple weeks when I'm home over spring break.

S/O to the guy in Salem, I got to school at WOU if you know of any meets down here

[Blackout]

What the hell..? Since when were DEPO acceptable replacements for the OEM smilies?

First off, they may be new, but the quality, or lack thereof, is noticeable right out the box. The quality of material is no where near even the old 20+ year old originals. The beam is okay, but the light output fades quickly because of the quality. More over, the molds they have used for the light brackets aren't very well and the sealant used corrodes and cracks over time; this allows leaks into the housings that fog up an destroy the projectors.

OEM Bosch/Hella Smilies are proven: I've never heard of a set of the OEM smilies go bad, ever
And they only cost $50 more most times. I'd rather have. Headlight that I know is perfect than have one that will be trash in 2-3 years

Exactly my point. Nothing comes close to OEM quality. Period.

[JinormusJ]

What the hell..? Since when were DEPO acceptable replacements for the OEM smilies?

First off, they may be new, but the quality, or lack thereof, is noticeable right out the box. The quality of material is no where near even the old 20+ year old originals. The beam is okay, but the light output fades quickly because of the quality. More over, the molds they have used for the light brackets aren't very well and the sealant used corrodes and cracks over time; this allows leaks into the housings that fog up an destroy the projectors.

OEM Bosch/Hella Smilies are proven: I've never heard of a set of the OEM smilies go bad, ever
And they only cost $50 more most times. I'd rather have. Headlight that I know is perfect than have one that will be trash in 2-3 years