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Bought an e30 With Depo Smileys; Salvageable?

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    Bought an e30 With Depo Smileys; Salvageable?

    So, as I rebuild my e30, one thing that I needed to look at are the headlights. The PO wired up HIDs and I'm not a fan of those so I wanted to pull those out and put in standard bulbs. After looking at pictures of these lights and some of the wiring DIYs I'm afraid I may have an issue.

    So, first things first it looks like I'm missing the caps on the back of the low beams. Second, it appears the plugs wired in are specific to the HID ballast or whatever it's called. Am i correct? And third, the bulb mounting on the high beam on the driver side looks screwed.

    I guess I'm looking for some guidance on what to do. It seems if I keep these or get stock lights, i need different plugs from the car. But since I'm missing the caps on the low beams and the high beam retainer is messed up, I'm not sure I can reuse these lights. 







    Last edited by gilber33; 09-23-2018, 04:33 PM.

    #2
    1. You posted in the wrong section.
    2. You need to add a lower case "h" right before the .jpg of each image url.
    3. It's always fixable.
    AWD > RWD

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      #3
      Those are the factory US ellipsoid plugs. The depos use euro plugs because they are euro smiley clones. You could swap in a stock set of ellipsoids without changing anything.

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by AndrewBird View Post
        Those are the factory US ellipsoid plugs. The depos use euro plugs because they are euro smiley clones. You could swap in a stock set of ellipsoids without changing anything.


        Thanks for the reply. This is my first e30 and just so I know I'm correct, the ellipsoids are the factory lights that the e30 would have come with, correct?

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          #5
          Yes, those or sealed beam headlights, which are not desirable and won't work with your wiring without modification.

          Comment


            #6
            Your particular model came with ellipsoid projector low beams (9006 bulbs) which are desirable. However, the euro ellipsoid projectors, which DEPO's are based on, are better and use H1 bulbs. If you want to get rid of the HID kit, you would need to convert the wiring from 9006 to H1 and you would need to find the low beam caps to do it right.
            "I'd probably take the E30 M3 in this case just because I love that little car, and how tanky that inline 6 is." - thecj

            85 323i M TECH 1 S52 - ALPINEWEISS/SCHWARZE
            88 M3 - LACHSSILBER/SCHWARZE
            89 M3 - ALPINEWEISS II/M TECH CLOTH-ALCANTARA
            91 M TECHNIC CABRIO TURBO - MACAOBLAU/M TECH CLOTH-LEATHER

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by AndrewBird View Post
              Yes, those or sealed beam headlights, which are not desirable and won't work with your wiring without modification.


              I see that most DEPO Smileys (like the kit that ECS sells) comes with pigtails that plug into these connectors and would make installation quick.

              Originally posted by reelizmpro View Post
              Your particular model came with ellipsoid projector low beams (9006 bulbs) which are desirable. However, the euro ellipsoid projectors, which DEPO's are based on, are better and use H1 bulbs. If you want to get rid of the HID kit, you would need to convert the wiring from 9006 to H1 and you would need to find the low beam caps to do it right.


              Thanks for the info. It seems like I'll be replacing these as opposed to keeping them.

              Comment


                #8
                What would you be replacing them with??? $200 30 year old used US spec Hella ellipsoids? or new $400-600 US spec Hella ellipsoids? because those aren't better options than the lights you have now.
                "I'd probably take the E30 M3 in this case just because I love that little car, and how tanky that inline 6 is." - thecj

                85 323i M TECH 1 S52 - ALPINEWEISS/SCHWARZE
                88 M3 - LACHSSILBER/SCHWARZE
                89 M3 - ALPINEWEISS II/M TECH CLOTH-ALCANTARA
                91 M TECHNIC CABRIO TURBO - MACAOBLAU/M TECH CLOTH-LEATHER

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by reelizmpro View Post
                  What would you be replacing them with??? $200 30 year old used US spec Hella ellipsoids? or new $400-600 US spec Hella ellipsoids? because those aren't better options than the lights you have now.


                  Unless I can find a set of US ellipsoids for cheap, then just another set of the same depo euro spec smileys. The car is like a week out from being done, so I'm trying to find a quick solution to having working headlights that aren't HIDs.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Another option is find the brackets for a set of stock sealed beam lights and then get a set of Hella Vision Plus lights. They are cheaper than new stock lights, but still have great output.

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