Non-BMW Stuff on a BMW Forum

[Boris3]

Not clear what size that bar is. Popular sway bars to upgrade an e30: Suspension Techniques, Ireland Engineering, UCC Sway Barbarian, just to name a few.

[The Full Banana]

It appears to be 22.37mm thick, at least in the part being measured in the photo.

[Boris3]

Thanks, my eyes and a small phone screen...

[gilber33]

Stock is 20mm and  most sway bar upgrades I found are 22mm.

[Boris3]

SE30 race series runs 22f/19r which is a common upgrade kit. With a bigger bar you'll also want the weld in subframe reinforcements

[gilber33]

According to the seller, the subframe has already been reinforced. And when I was working on it, I believe I noticed the reinforcement plates welded in. So I'm good on that.

I think I'll get this one.

[gilber33]

Wagon got new brakes tonight. In desperate need of new control arms, too. Thankfully I have those coming next week. 

[SteelBlue]

gilber33 said:

Wagon got new brakes tonight. In desperate need of new control arms, too. Thankfully I have those coming next week. 

Is this delphin?

I love this color. Smoked head lights look great.

[gilber33]

SteelBlue said:

Is this delphin?

I love this color. Smoked head lights look great.

Yup! That's all courtesy of the PO. I can't take credit for the headlights.

[gilber33]

Finally some visible progress. Everything else lately has been little things that didn't really make it feel like I've accomplished anything. 

All I really need to do in the engine is bolting up the exhaust, plugs, plug wires, and radiator. New clutch master cylinder is in. Need to do the soft line between the two. Its so close. 

[YoungCR]

Bay is looking great

[gilber33]

So, 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.

[Jdesign]

gilber33 said:

So, 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. 

Yes, normally there are rubber caps on the back sides of each beam.

HIDs use a conversion harness. The ballasts plug into your existing socket, then the Ballast has a connection between the HID bulb and the ballast. 

That opening does look chewed up from someone probably using the wrong bulb. Although thats bad, it shouldn't affect much. the caps seal on the backside of the light, and the spring wire that holds the bulb in will still hold the back of the correct bulb.

You shouldn't need different plugs from the car, they look like they are still the factory plugs clipped into the ballast harness.

[gilber33]

Jdesign said:

Yes, normally there are rubber caps on the back sides of each beam.

HIDs use a conversion harness. The ballasts plug into your existing socket, then the Ballast has a connection between the HID bulb and the ballast. 

That opening does look chewed up from someone probably using the wrong bulb. Although thats bad, it shouldn't affect much. the caps seal on the backside of the light, and the spring wire that holds the bulb in will still hold the back of the correct bulb.

You shouldn't need different plugs from the car, they look like they are still the factory plugs clipped into the ballast harness. 

Thank you. Well, the other downside is the spring is very broken on the bulb with the opening chewed up. lol.

Anyways, I learned that the plugs in the car are the factor plugs for US ellipsoid headlights. Soooo, my goal is now to find a set of clean US ellipsoids that I can just plug in and go. BUT, it appears those are much harder to find than the Euro ellipsoids that use entirely differently plugs.

If anyone has a set of US ELLIPSOIDS they'd like to sell, you can have my Depo smileys as a project!!!!

[straight6pwr]

agreed, those are stock US ellipsoid plugs there

agreed, that high beam bowl is F*K'D. looks like someone couldnt get the 9005 bulb to fit in the H1 bulb spot, so they mangled it. Wow. The bulb needs to be aligned really well to get good light, so fixing that might be tough.

the light output of standard bulbs in DEPO lights is hilariously terrible.  personally, I'd keep running a HID kit, even if you need to replace it. there are good cheap options out there.

because no one on the planet who sells DEPO lights actually supports them (no one sells individual parts), i bought a whole second set for parts when one of my lenses got smashed last year.  i could part with an entire high beam assembly and a rear cap for the low beam, if you want to go the route of fixing them. on the flip side, if you ended switching to US ellips, i'd be interested in buying the DEPOs from you.

[gilber33]

straight6pwr said:

agreed, those are stock US ellipsoid plugs there

agreed, that high beam bowl is F*K'D. looks like someone couldnt get the 9005 bulb to fit in the H1 bulb spot, so they mangled it. Wow. The bulb needs to be aligned really well to get good light, so fixing that might be tough.

the light output of standard bulbs in DEPO lights is hilariously terrible.  personally, I'd keep running a HID kit, even if you need to replace it. there are good cheap options out there. 

because no one on the planet who sells DEPO lights actually supports them (no one sells individual parts), i bought a whole second set for parts when one of my lenses got smashed last year.  i could part with an entire high beam assembly and a rear cap for the low beam, if you want to go the route of fixing them. on the flip side, if you ended switching to US ellips, i'd be interested in buying the DEPOs from you. 

Would you have the high beam assembly and caps for both low beams?

I don't mind HIDs, I just don't feel like they fit the car. If I kept them, I'd need different temp bulbs; the ones in there were blue.....blue blue blue.

Otherwise, I'd take a high beam assembly with the cap and run HIDs with different temp bulbs. From my little bit of looking this morning, finding US Ellipsoids is not easy. Everything for sale are euro retrofits.

[Jdesign]

I have DDM tuning 55w 55k in my car and I love them. Not super blue, and good light output.

[gilber33]

Jdesign said:

I have DDM tuning 55w 55k in my car and I love them. Not super blue, and good light output.

If I can fix these with a new high beam assembly from Dan and able to figure out what HID bulbs I have/need I may keep the HIDs. But definitely needs a temp that has no blue to it.

My preference is halogen bulbs; I think they fit the car better.

[The Full Banana]

Knowing your preference, which is pretty close to mine, I wouldn't go over 5000K if you try HIDs. That said, quality high-wattage halogen bulbs in quality housings with a good power source (aka: relayed harness with power direct from battery) can work very very well. There is a ton of variance in light output--it's definitely not just a question of HID vs halogen. 

Also some cheap (eBay) manufacturers aren't exactly accurate with their representation of color temperature. I've purchased 5500K bulbs that were really more like 6500K.

[jc43089]

If the housings were designed for halogen then HID bulbs may have a poor light pattern.  The Depo lights on my e36 have better output and cut off with H1 halogen bulbs that they were designed for.  Now a proper HID projector housing with HID is going to be better still but my point is that it isn't as simple as "HID is always better".