DIY - Euro Ellipsoid Headlight Installation

[Aleman]

My 84 has three wires for the high and low.

I just checked my '90, and it also has three wires on BOTH the high and the low beams. I'm planning to install some Euro smileys this summer, and if I understand this procedure right, the following should work:

For each LOW beam:
1) Turn the ignition switch to 'ON'
2) Turn on the low beam headlights
3) Use a 12V probe on each of the non-brown wires to see which one is getting power.
4) Wrap-up/terminate the non-powered low beam wire (with electrical tape) and don't use it.

But I'm not sure if I can follow that exact procedure for the HIGH beams. Can anyone who's done this let me know if I can find the 'dead' high beam wire by turning on the high beams and checking the wires with a probe? Or will BOTH non-brown wires be live? I will try it for myself this weekend...

7/7 10pm Update:
I just checked the high beam wires with a probe, and with the high beams turned ON, both non-brown wires were live. Another write-up says "On the high-beams, just twist both ends of the white wires together (if there are 2 as there are on sealed-beam cars). One runs off to the one you capped on the low beams, but do not bother wrecking the wire wrappings trying to remove it." (big thanks to bmwman91 article at http://bmw.e30tuner.com/articles_eurolight.php)

[cddallara]

Maybe stupid question?
On the '3wire low beam' setups- when switching to smileys, why can't one splice the two hot wires in to one? They never see 12 volts at the same time, right?
So the bulb would turn on with either hot, and the only issue would be the respective relay being back fed 12 volts, but what harm would that do?

Don't get me wrong, the directions in this thread are simple enough, I just don't see what I'm missing by not fiddling around with jumping relays and capping off wires?

[Spaceman]

I'm working on a project converting to Euro Smileys and came across this article. If you are converting to Ellips or Smileys, check this out, it's got more detail than anything else I've seen on the subject.

http://users.rcn.com/nifftylion/headlights/E30%20Lighting%20Conversion%20Information%20-%20X%20Mon%20-%20Pub.pdf

[Aviator]

Will Work fine.

Here is a mini writeup I wrote awhile ago to help somebody else with it.


Look at the rear of your headlight assembly. You should have 3 sets of connectors


2 wires for the Running Lights (top of the elip)
2 wires for the low beam
2 wires for the high beam.

Next lets look at your bmw stock wiring.

for your high beam you will have 2 wires, those two wires will be spliced into the connector for the new elip high beam.

Do that for each side. got it? okay high beams are done =)

My 84 has three wires for the high and low.

[Aviator]

Is there any way to make the lowbeams a double filament? I like how the low beams stay on when highbeams are on. I guess you can't just splice into the highbeam wiring to keep them on?

H4's?

[blazinxpk]

Sorry for digging up an old thread. But I have a couple questions...

1. I just received a set of hella euro smileys with no bulbs. Do I get H1's? Somewhere I remember someone saying use H4's for low beams. Or is there better bulbs that I can use than them like xenon or whatever? (I'm obviously clueless on lighting technology).

2. I bought a wire set from Guten parts, I don't see anybody using this set. Did I need to spend the $80 for the wire set???

3. What bulb do I use for the city light?

Thanks.

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=291567

no need for wire sets. find what wires are positive and negative, make your own connectors then plug them in. search!

[Aviator]

Sorry for digging up an old thread. But I have a couple questions...

1. I just received a set of hella euro smileys with no bulbs. Do I get H1's? Somewhere I remember someone saying use H4's for low beams. Or is there better bulbs that I can use than them like xenon or whatever? (I'm obviously clueless on lighting technology).

2. I bought a wire set from Guten parts, I don't see anybody using this set. Did I need to spend the $80 for the wire set???

3. What bulb do I use for the city light?

Thanks.

[mightywhitey]

I just got a set of euro elips as well. Is there anyone that just makes a plug and play kit with pigtail and all. Seems like one of you crafty fuckers would be all over this.

[Acidblast]

could someone with the pics rehost them. i'm guessing lots of people will be looking to this DIY since Levent's euro ellips are starting to arrive. thanks

[IminDiegoTriick]

Yeah.. I got a question. I have a parts car.. right next to my cabrio. My 1991 Cabrio had the sealed beam connectors and my parts car has euro ellipsoid connectors. can I just take the whole harness.. or just solder off the heads.

this is the parts car (ellipsoid connectors)








this is the cabrio (sealed beam connectors )





What do I do to Convert to ellipsoids?

[IminDiegoTriick]

I need a bump for pictures.. planning to do this today.. THANKS!

[stumble_t]

is the ground pin connected inside the housing cap?

[Majjic]

im having a little problem, no light output from the headlights.
just purchased a set of smilies used they had no connectors at the back
so i was able to get the correct connectors and wires today from ETK since i work for BMW
so i wired them all up using "M42 sport" method.( since i have a 318is)
I measured voltage right at the new (yellow or white) connector where it plugs to the back of the beam.i checked voltage with my multimeter its good around +-12 volts. so the wiring is sending power through but it stops at the headlights??
i checked and traced the correct wire to hook up, brown(ground) with brown.
bulbs look ok?

what has happened?

thanks for the help.

[quikveedb2]

the " 2 male prongs" thats not a specific BMW part number is it?
you can get those anywhere

nope, i just had some laying around my garage that worked fine. and it was super easy, took more time to find where i put the spade connectors than to hook them up.

[Majjic]

OK heres a SUPER EASY way to hook up your ellipses. No splicing involved.

1 take out your sealed beams.

2 attach male prongs to harness wires

3 plug these into the sealed beam harness



As for the city lights, the same principle applies. You just plug into the sidemarker harness.

this way seems really easy, i have to try this.

the " 2 male prongs" thats not a specific BMW part number is it?
you can get those anywhere