Bi-Xenon HID retrofit

TrackSprinter

2016 Motovan Boondocker
Morimoto Mini D2S 5.0 (plug and play :yell: :censored: )

This is not meant to be a tutorial but rather a simple documentation of a successful retrofit of Sprinter halogen headlight assemblies. I would actually go as far to dissuade you from attempting this if you do not work with your hands a lot, or have the necessary tools, or a basic understanding of 12volts (because polarity matters). That being said, I will answer any questions if asked.

However, I will say now that all the pain and aggravation of executing this mod was well worth it because I can actually phacken see down the road now! FAR down the road and so much more on both sides. The halogens were terrible (I recently acquired this van). For those of you without factory HID's, I don't know how you can drive this van at night.

I didn’t know wtf I was doing and either had to think a long while about the end assembly in reference for the next step, and/or just made it up as I went along. There were several reasons for my approach to making each modification, some were well thought out, and some shortsighted and I was pretty stressed out about every step. But if you must have retrofit HID’s, practice on somebody elses vehicle first before performing on your own. Im only half kidding.

But, if you too want half a chance at avoiding catastrophe at night and are intent to make retrofit a reality, you should watch a lot of youtube on the subject, and then find and watch even more reference material - this cannot be understated and will make your experience much more enjoyable.
 

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sepudo

Member
Very cool.

I agree the stock bulbs are useless.

I didn't wanna tackle a full retrofit so I just swapped some hid bulbs with ballasts and am very happy with the result.

Not as *crisp* as retrofits but a easy 20 min swap.


#drivingdharma
 

TrackSprinter

2016 Motovan Boondocker
I didn't wanna tackle a full retrofit so I just swapped some hid bulbs with ballasts and am very happy with the result.

Not as *crisp* as retrofits but a easy 20 min swap.
:thinking: see why didn't i just do that?

okay, i just thought about it. i have a few years old E350 with factory HID's and i am just spoiled with how well i can see. i guess i just wanted the best i could get without having to do the coding and everything else. and it was 1/4 the cost of going factory retrofit.
bonus: i also found a factory bumper w/ foglights that i just installed yesterday. the 9600lumen led's came in today. so between the led foglights and hid projectors, i should be set.

(ill be scratching my head over your reply for awhile though.....)
 

TrackSprinter

2016 Motovan Boondocker
How did you adjust the beam?
In the plan/review stage before I got started, I chose the bottom bay of the two bulb reflector housing because the outer diameter of the projector threads coincidently matched the inner diameter of the reflector bulb holder (if you dremel'd the inner part out). My thought was there was a much more robust reflector connection and support of the projector for installation.

During modification and fitment, there is a tab on the back of the reflector upper bulb holder that matches up perfectly with the geometry of the lower bulb holder, I used that tab as reference when clamping the projector shaft threading to the reflector (there is a channel for a tabbed lock washer). This keeps the projector leveled horizontally and is a great general starting point for alignment.

To answer your question, I haven't made the time just yet to perfect the alignment, I just eyeballed the levels against each other in my garage for continuity, and have been taking brain data against the few times I have driven now at night. I am not blinding oncoming traffic or filling rearviews with xenon white so its okay for now. But I sure can see everything at night!

There are easy to reach adjustment screws on the back of the headlight assemblies, and after I watch and comparing a few tutorials, I will perfect the adjustment. :thumbup:
 
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bajaguy

Active member
Morimoto Mini D2S 5.0 (plug and play :yell: :censored: )

This is not meant to be a tutorial but rather a simple documentation of a successful retrofit of Sprinter halogen headlight assemblies. I would actually go as far to dissuade you from attempting this if you do not work with your hands a lot, or have the necessary tools, or a basic understanding of 12volts (because polarity matters). That being said, I will answer any questions if asked.

However, I will say now that all the pain and aggravation of executing this mod was well worth it because I can actually phacken see down the road now! FAR down the road and so much more on both sides. The halogens were terrible (I recently acquired this van). For those of you without factory HID's, I don't know how you can drive this van at night.

I didn’t know wtf I was doing and either had to think a long while about the end assembly in reference for the next step, and/or just made it up as I went along. There were several reasons for my approach to making each modification, some were well thought out, and some shortsighted and I was pretty stressed out about every step. But if you must have retrofit HID’s, practice on somebody elses vehicle first before performing on your own. Im only half kidding.

But, if you too want half a chance at avoiding catastrophe at night and are intent to make retrofit a reality, you should watch a lot of youtube on the subject, and then find and watch even more reference material - this cannot be understated and will make your experience much more enjoyable.
Nice job!..Sorry I missed your message on my page since I dont log in often and didnt get notified.

You are a brave soul for tackling the project I wanted to do it myself but didn't have the time or patience. I love my Morimoto projectors. My wife had an Acura TSX with factory clear lens Morimoto projectors back in the day and those were unreal and set the standard back in the day. Always wanted similar lights since then.
 
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Vanzer Pagen

Active member
:thinking: see why didn't i just do that?

okay, i just thought about it. i have a few years old E350 with factory HID's and i am just spoiled with how well i can see. i guess i just wanted the best i could get without having to do the coding and everything else. and it was 1/4 the cost of going factory retrofit.
bonus: i also found a factory bumper w/ foglights that i just installed yesterday. the 9600lumen led's came in today. so between the led foglights and hid projectors, i should be set.

(ill be scratching my head over your reply for awhile though.....)
Could you post up some pics P/N's for those fog lights? I'm guessing the canbus thought they were acceptable?
Grazi
 

TrackSprinter

2016 Motovan Boondocker
Could you post up some pics P/N's for those fog lights? I'm guessing the canbus thought they were acceptable?
Grazi
I will post some pics as soon as I get a chance.

The best part about swapping out the bumper is that it is NOT on the can bus (the original factory bumper did not option foglights, so no canbus connection and not wired to the headlight switch). So in this case, you can use whichever bulb you want without worry of canbus. Aghaaa!

The foglights (for me) are purely aesthetic as the fog lamp reflector doesn't do much for seeing down the road, more to the immediate sides. I haven't driven in fog for a long time, and hopefully won't ever again, but time will tell if the bulbs I chose really make a difference. The fog bumper looks way better though! (that and the previous owner popped a hole in the facade foglight location and put a fan with dryer flex hose to "cool" the aux battery... it was pretty ugly.)

Side note: I recently bought some "white" philips halogens off amazon for the high beams to compliment the ultra white HID's and the fricken things wouldn't work. I popped the originals back in and I got my high beams back. Either they are defective, or counterfeit, or both.
 

jjg214

New member
how difficult was the process of pulling the front lens off and resealing it after installing the projector?
 

TrackSprinter

2016 Motovan Boondocker
how difficult was the process of pulling the front lens off and resealing it after installing the projector?
effing difficult. and the other side was even more effing difficult. i hadn't considered that all those youtube videos were examples of CAR headlight removals, and not ginormous van headlights. so there is literally twice as much glue to pull apart. and if you don't use the correct tools, you will chew up both sides of the assembly pretty good. i warped the bastard difficult assembly, did an okay job of unwarping it however, it will always be in the back of my mind of not being close to perfect.

resealing it was A LOT easier. the warped one was a bit more difficult for obvious reasons.

so, lesson learned: use a lower oven temp for a lot longer and if possible, find someone with a gas oven because convection don't work so well for this type of work. and also, use a panel spreader. JHC, why didn't i just use my panel spreader??? :bash:
 

jjg214

New member
effing difficult. and the other side was even more effing difficult. i hadn't considered that all those youtube videos were examples of CAR headlight removals, and not ginormous van headlights. so there is literally twice as much glue to pull apart. and if you don't use the correct tools, you will chew up both sides of the assembly pretty good. i warped the bastard difficult assembly, did an okay job of unwarping it however, it will always be in the back of my mind of not being close to perfect.

resealing it was A LOT easier. the warped one was a bit more difficult for obvious reasons.

so, lesson learned: use a lower oven temp for a lot longer and if possible, find someone with a gas oven because convection don't work so well for this type of work. and also, use a panel spreader. JHC, why didn't i just use my panel spreader??? :bash:
Yeah i figured these headlights would be a bear to pull apart.

Did you get any warning lights on the dash? Are you using factory wiring to power the ballast or a relay setup?
 

TrackSprinter

2016 Motovan Boondocker
Did you get any warning lights on the dash? Are you using factory wiring to power the ballast or a relay setup?
Using the factory wiring however, the kit parts ordered along with the projectors also included the 35W ballasts, HID bulbs, and canbus harnesses. I made a y-harness to be able to use stock hi-beam when activating the projector hi-beam (the bulb is there, why not?)

I tried to install some 55W 5000K hi-beam bulbs but they would not work, threw the dash light. I think they were counterfeits, got them from Amazon. I may try again with some store bought bulbs but difficult to find the 5000K white to match the projectors.

I do have a glitch whereby when you first activate the headlight switch, it seems the canbus harnesses and/or ballasts seem to juice up, and until they get "full power" will blink 4-5 times before staying on.

The representative I spoke to seemed convinced that I needed a different harness, I think another $100something which would solve this problem. It included two additional relays and another several feet of (re)wiring. But I passed. So far, I think it is a minor glitch compared to the benefit of how much better I can see now. There is no "problem" actually as the lights come on and stay on (with a few seconds of warm up). I will live with it.
 

Krystof

New member
Morimoto Mini D2S 5.0 (plug and play :yell: :censored: )

This is not meant to be a tutorial but rather a simple documentation of a successful retrofit of Sprinter halogen headlight assemblies. I would actually go as far to dissuade you from attempting this if you do not work with your hands a lot, or have the necessary tools, or a basic understanding of 12volts (because polarity matters). That being said, I will answer any questions if asked.

However, I will say now that all the pain and aggravation of executing this mod was well worth it because I can actually phacken see down the road now! FAR down the road and so much more on both sides. The halogens were terrible (I recently acquired this van). For those of you without factory HID's, I don't know how you can drive this van at night.

I didn’t know wtf I was doing and either had to think a long while about the end assembly in reference for the next step, and/or just made it up as I went along. There were several reasons for my approach to making each modification, some were well thought out, and some shortsighted and I was pretty stressed out about every step. But if you must have retrofit HID’s, practice on somebody elses vehicle first before performing on your own. Im only half kidding.

But, if you too want half a chance at avoiding catastrophe at night and are intent to make retrofit a reality, you should watch a lot of youtube on the subject, and then find and watch even more reference material - this cannot be understated and will make your experience much more enjoyable.

Thank you for you post, it’s hard to find anything online... couple questions, I did find a pic of someone else’s retrofit but the retrofit was done on the top flood opening not the bottom. Why did you use the high beam location instead? Also, did you have to put the headlight assembly in the oven to loosen any glue or are they serviceable using tools?
Ty! I have a 2016 2500 w/ halogen headlights.
 

TrackSprinter

2016 Motovan Boondocker
Thank you for you post, it’s hard to find anything online... couple questions, I did find a pic of someone else’s retrofit but the retrofit was done on the top flood opening not the bottom. Why did you use the high beam location instead? Also, did you have to put the headlight assembly in the oven to loosen any glue or are they serviceable using tools?
Ty! I have a 2016 2500 w/ halogen headlights.
Apologize for the late reply. If you haven't figured out for yourself already, I will go ahead and say that it is 100% impossible to remove the cover without heating the glue.

A confession I have regarding placement in the bottom bay is that I hadn't fully considered which bay was hi/lo beam when deciding where to put it. I chose the bottom because after honing out that location to fit the morimoto, it was a perfect fit for the threading and the assembly would stand flat, and I wouldn't be guessing if I had the correct vertical/horizontal alignment with glue. In fact, by using the lower bay I didn't have to glue it in. Its held firmly in place with the thread lock washer and the headlight assy backing.
 

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