Depo Ellipsoid Installation

[achtunge30]

you say if your Depos shatter, you'll spend another $150?!? why not spend the good $ on good headlights and protect them rather than run shitty low quality headlights and replace them or have to deal with bad lighting or leaks?

are you special ed?

No just very frugal when it comes to accessorizing a beater....$150 buys brand new headlights....crap quality or not they're brand new. What's the average going price of a set of used real deal smilie bosch ellips, $200-250? Mind you, your buying used, unknown, sight-unseen condition headlights from Germany, if your lucky, someone in the US will score you a better deal, but thats not always the case...if those shatter, your out 1/2 what you paid....oh lets not forget, used lights are typically pitted, foggy, have rusty adjusters.

Now, lets talk about new, smoked bosch ellip. smilies...seen those goin for $350-400 for a new pair...once again, impractical for my needs, maybe you enjoy spending 1/3-1/2 the price of your car on headlights, but i don't. $$ for $$ its all relative to me.

In the 3mo i've owned my e30, I truly, honestly did shop around for a set of euro smilies, and gave up because of price / availability. I don't think the Depos I have are crap. Thats my bottom line.

[achtunge30]

wow, it cuts to the heart, it really does. am I supposed to reply that my automatic ix four door (no! not four doors!) would eat your car alive or something?

I dunno, perhaps, since your are mentioning it :D

and you're basing your assumption on ONE guy who had them for a short time (and even you admit to only having them a month)? you're also glossing over the fact that the lighting quality isn't up to par (the highbeams are worthless for example) and other problems (cheap plastic makes the adjusters melt/crack). the leaking is just 5% of the overall issue here, but you are focusing soley on that.

Actually I've counted 3 people on this particular thread including me who say the Depos didn't leak on them, which is the basis of this whole bashing thread, now your starting to spew out more detailed reasonable facts, which this thread lacked until we started arguing. Time will tell if my adjusters will melt/crack, that I can't really admit to yet as I have them a short time so far. The high beams are fine for my use, I live in an urban area so the ellips light up the road fine for me. I dont see a problem there.

waste your money, I really don't care. I for one would rather have spent $300 on real ellipsoids in the first place rather than $150 on depos plus $300 on the lights I ended up with.

Cool beans dude, glad you feel that way. I'll be posting pics up tomorrow once I finish wiring the city lights for all you haters. Can you tell me why some of the people on here believe they are "ugly" when they look almost like the real deal?

[Skafrog]

If you know what you are doing, you can get a set of depos to perform perfectly. You just have to know more than what you read off of r3v. Take a look at the lights, disassemble them, seal them, clean the reflectors et al, and then re-install. No leaks, good lighting, good cutoff.

[nando]

that's the same logic I used when I bought my depos - why pay $200 for USED lights when I could get NEW ones for $150? but after a year and a half of realizing what a mistake I had made (they didn't leak right away, FYI), I ended up picking up a NEW set of ellipsoids for less than $300 shipped. you just have to wait around and have money, deals pop up now and then, and there are plenty of used sets in mint condition.

if I had just kept the sealed beams for another 1.5 years (which realistically were okay enough), I would have saved $150 and still had the lights I wanted to begin with. the first time I turned on my real ellipsoids at night, I realized how much of a difference in lighting there was - not even comparable. to be honest I thought the sealed beams were a bit brighter than the depos, but I didn't want to admit it because it would have meant I had wasted $150 (and that's exactly what it was, a waste of money).

as far as shattering, spend $45 on the 3M stonegaurd from bavauto, and you'll never have to worry about it (and don't even try to tell me lamin-x is as good, I've had both, it's not even comparable). I live in an area with lots of gravel trucks, and they also put down sand/gravel during the winter - I've taken some pretty huge rocks and it hasn't even marred the stonegaurd much less broken my lights.

and if you only paid $600-$900 for your car, you either got a really good deal or your car is a total pile of shit..

[achtunge30]

ok, ill play along, tomorrow night, ill snap a pic of my unaimed beam pattern which is pretty damn good, although slightly mis-aligned, and id like to see your bosch beam pattern.

ive used 3m stongard on cars protecting both paint and headlights, so i concur...kept my more expensive cars looking like new for years / protecting the $1000+ euro HID headlight glass housings

[nando]

that's silly, trying to take pictures of light output with a digital camera = worthless.

nice try though.

[Skafrog]

Hell, I have one depo and one bosch. I will take a pic. It will be close enough.

[achtunge30]

that's silly, trying to take pictures of light output with a digital camera = worthless.

nice try though.

Why not, i'm not looking to measure light output in lumens, I want to see the spread of light with the Bosch optic vs. the Depo optic in the visual sense.

If my suspicion is correct and they are damn close...even if my adjusters do melt, i'm going to set them once and forget about them. I will still enjoy a decent beam pattern and still have only paid $150 for headlights.

You afraid to admit humility? Because I'm not. This whole argument began because you resorted to name calling which is uncalled for.

[achtunge30]

Hell, I have one depo and one bosch. I will take a pic. It will be close enough.

Please do!

[sticksdaman]

i cant wait to see the results

[thumper3ld]

that's the same logic I used when I bought my depos - why pay $200 for USED lights when I could get NEW ones for $150? but after a year and a half of realizing what a mistake I had made (they didn't leak right away, FYI), I ended up picking up a NEW set of ellipsoids for less than $300 shipped. you just have to wait around and have money, deals pop up now and then, and there are plenty of used sets in mint condition.

if I had just kept the sealed beams for another 1.5 years (which realistically were okay enough), I would have saved $150 and still had the lights I wanted to begin with. the first time I turned on my real ellipsoids at night, I realized how much of a difference in lighting there was - not even comparable. to be honest I thought the sealed beams were a bit brighter than the depos, but I didn't want to admit it because it would have meant I had wasted $150 (and that's exactly what it was, a waste of money).

as far as shattering, spend $45 on the 3M stonegaurd from bavauto, and you'll never have to worry about it (and don't even try to tell me lamin-x is as good, I've had both, it's not even comparable). I live in an area with lots of gravel trucks, and they also put down sand/gravel during the winter - I've taken some pretty huge rocks and it hasn't even marred the stonegaurd much less broken my lights.

and if you only paid $600-$900 for your car, you either got a really good deal or your car is a total pile of shit..

Had this been ur response to his review of the depos, then this whole stupid argument could've been avoided. All he was simply saying was that he hasnt had a bad experience with them yet. Instead of insulting him, everyone could've simply responded by "give it time" or whatever. Some of the responses in this thread are the reason why people hate r3v.

[nando]

Had this been ur response to his review of the depos, then this whole stupid argument could've been avoided. All he was simply saying was that he hasnt had a bad experience with them yet. Instead of insulting him, everyone could've simply responded by "give it time" or whatever. Some of the responses in this thread are the reason why people hate r3v.

did you even read this thread? all of those points were brought up several times before there was any argument, broken adjusters, leaks, bad lighting geometry, etc.

people hate r3v because they get their panties in a twist when they want to do something stupid and they get called out on it.

[achtunge30]

Sorry for the long wait folks...had some family issues to attend to...here are some shots on the car...









and the beam pattern pics...shaky because its hard to shoot a decent pic while driving.
conditions: 1st pic no street lighting till the next traffic light and my headlights arent even properly aimed..
Using H1 55w with old/cloudy ellipsoid foglight lense. 2nd pic, stationary, mild/poor street lighting

[nando]

wow.. how do you drive at night with such awful lighting? :(

[achtunge30]

Haha, here comes the Moderator/Troll.....Lets see your beam pattern...