Ultimate guide for those considering Euro projector headlights - all the basics in one thread!

[Blindeye_03]

About to be done with week 3 waiting to hear if I get a credit or a new headlight. This is getting pretty ridiculous to be honest. It'd be different if I was waiting on a headlight to be shipped or something similar.

 

[Blindeye_03]

My driver's side Depo LED daytime running light died approximately 5 minutes after installing them. I tried to split open the headlight a couple months ago in an attempt to swap out the LED with a diode dynamics LED strip and morimoto projectors, but ended up destroying the headlight entirely. If you have happened to purchased the black housing Depo headlight, and want to go in 50/50 with me on a new set, PM me. I tried ordering a replacement driver's side headlight only and they wouldn't sell it to me solo, just as a pair.

Same story with my black depos. My retrofitter completely butchered the headlights with the retrofit plus led replacement and blamed the quality of the headlights. Goodluck.

How did they destroy the headlights? Nah mine were the chrome.

 

[KyleS]

How did they destroy the headlights? Nah mine were the chrome.

Warped plastic, adjuster arms broke, etc. The LED strip does not lend itself for easy replacement because it is a huge acylic diffuser the needs to be trimmed to put a strip behind it. The retrofitter I used definitely didn't do his best work but the quality of the headlights didnt help at all. Cutting my losses on these headlights and going with Hella projectors.

 

[TyphoonFiST]

Warped plastic, adjuster arms broke, etc. The LED strip does not lend itself for easy replacement because it is a huge acylic diffuser the needs to be trimmed to put a strip behind it. The retrofitter I used definitely didn't do his best work but the quality of the headlights didnt help at all. Cutting my losses on these headlights and going with Hella projectors.

How much will those set you back?

 

[KyleS]

How much will those set you back?

Around $550 shipped supposedly. Listed as special order from the vendor linked earlier in this thread.

 

[NousDefions]

As of now i've also cut my losses, roughly $500 shipped for the smoked DEPO LED projector headlights, plus the $200 or so I spent on the morimoto projectors and dyode dynamics LED strips I have sitting around. I have a perfectly good passenger side headlight sitting unused in my garage. If anyone is interested in purchasing it outright from me or going in half on a new pair and letting me hang onto the drivers side, let me know.

 

[TyphoonFiST]

As of now i've also cut my losses, roughly $500 shipped for the smoked DEPO LED projector headlights, plus the $200 or so I spent on the morimoto projectors and dyode dynamics LED strips I have sitting around. I have a perfectly good passenger side headlight sitting unused in my garage. If anyone is interested in purchasing it outright from me or going in half on a new pair and letting me hang onto the drivers side, let me know.

What happened?

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[Blindeye_03]

Guess who's LED strip started working after plugging it into the drivers side plug? :-|. I still want it replaced because there has to be some reason why it stopped working right? It works now in the pass side again.

Weird..

 

[Intuit]

Especially considering the fact that you were in the wire harness moving the pin, consider that maybe you've developed a bad connection on that pin. Just because you can read 12v, doesn't meant that enough amperage will be able to get through to power whatever is plugged into it.

 

[Blindeye_03]

Especially considering the fact that you were in the wire harness moving the pin, consider that maybe you've developed a bad connection on that pin. Just because you can read 12v, doesn't meant that enough amperage will be able to get through to power whatever is plugged into it.

That pin is in there solid. It's not just going to work and then not work.

I could see if the harness was pulled but it was just sitting in the car.

It's something with the light.

 

[Intuit]

That pin is in there solid. It's not just going to work and then not work.

I could see if the harness was pulled but it was just sitting in the car.

It's something with the light.

Weak connections develop excess heat. The heat in-turn serves to further weaken the connection... until the connection (between wire and pin) is no longer sufficient to carry amperage. Outside of the protection of the harness, it doesn't take much flexing between a pin/wire joint for damage to occur. If you put your tester on it with no load, you don't see a problem... it reads a solid 12~14v depending on whether the alternator is running. Voltage drop testing is used to pinpoint bad connections however there may not be an accessible point, post wire harness, for you to probe.

I'm just mentioning a possibility. It could very well be something wrong with the LED. LEDs, so long as they're not pushed to their temperature limits, are generally extremely reliable. But sometimes bad connections develop with the solder joints on the PCB, and/or IC controller. But this usually takes a lot of time to occur.

 

[Blindeye_03]

Weak connections develop excess heat. The heat in-turn serves to further weaken the connection... until the connection (between wire and pin) is no longer sufficient to carry amperage. Outside of the protection of the harness, it doesn't take much flexing between a pin/wire joint for damage to occur. If you put your tester on it with no load, you don't see a problem... it reads a solid 12~14v depending on whether the alternator is running. Voltage drop testing is used to pinpoint bad connections however there may not be an accessible point, post wire harness, for you to probe.

I'm just mentioning a possibility. It could very well be something wrong with the LED. LEDs, so long as they're not pushed to their temperature limits, are generally extremely reliable. But sometimes bad connections develop with the solder joints on the PCB, and/or IC controller. But this usually takes a lot of time to occur.

When/If it cuts out again ill test the wire. Other people had board issues with their depo lights - if I had to guess that'd be the culprit.

 

[Fraybie]

I got my Depot headlights in Dec, didn't get around to installing them until today. No one has mentioned the low beam connecter in the headlight unit is rectangular? Or are mine special?

 

[Blindeye_03]

I got my Depot headlights in Dec, didn't get around to installing them until today. No one has mentioned the low beam connecter in the headlight unit is rectangular? Or are mine special?

Youre using H7s for the low beam right?

 

[danbfree]

I got my Depot headlights in Dec, didn't get around to installing them until today. No one has mentioned the low beam connecter in the headlight unit is rectangular? Or are mine special?

Stock reflectors take H11 for low beam, the Euro projectors take H7's, it listed everywhere, my man.

 

[Fraybie]

That's....that's not even the dumbest thing I did with the car this week. Thanks for pointing out my reading fails.

 

[danbfree]

Just speaking in general to all the discussion about splitting/retrofitting Euro's etc, after weighing options for almost 2 years, I personally wouldn't and would advise, with some exceptions, against importing Euro's *brand new*, of any brand, with the intention to immediately split to use for a project... let me explain my logic.

First, even the replicas aren't "super" cheap and take weeks to import. They also get handled a lot being shipped 2/3rd of the way around the world. Cars245 doesn't drop ship from Taiwan at all, they all get shipped from Taiwan to Latvia and then all the way to the US. So, we know many arrive damaged as it is, and if not, I think they are likely going to be more susceptible to damage trying to split/modify after all the shipping. Especially with more sensitive stuff packed into there like the controller boards and leveling motors (that we can't really use at all) that the reflectors don't even have is unneeded complexity. Why mess up something that's not easy to replace within a couple of days?

Cheap aftermarket replacement, TYC are like $84 each side new in both silver and black interiors available or used/junkyard OEM reflectors would be a better start to mod. I think our regular reflectors are common across all Fiestas, so very common to find cheap anyway. So why not just go that route if you are going to upgrade almost everything anyway and have far fewer complications? Like what would be the point of going Euro at that point anyway? The reflectors also have the US legal amber corners if you want to stay legal.

With a cheapie reflector to start with, you can do whatever custom DRL, high beam retrofit, low beam projector upgrade, etc. Sounds like maybe even the pro's would prob be more familiar working with those as well. So while maybe a little more reliable to split/upgrade with to begin over a Euro, they are also much lower cost and easier to replace if all goes south, LOL, amirite?

Of course, one specific exception could be if you really specifically want the factory chrome instead of the amber on the US sides. Keep in mind Premium Auto Styling makes nice corner blackout decals that fit the US ones better than Euro's too, see my avatar pic... what you can't see though is the pass side decal doesn't fit the Euro quite perfectly but I didn't want all that chrome with my dark themed car so that's why I used them. With reflectors, you can used them to cover the amber as intended and even leave the little bulb out if you want or maybe there are some universal DRL's that can plug into that socket maybe? If not then would still be easy to use that marker power wire to power an added universal strip DRL. May be pretty easy to go further and do a single wire mod, similar to Euro's, using the wiring diagram to split off power separately to the added DRL brow, and have what was the combo DRL/marker and turn signal becomes just the blinker like on Euro's... Not even sure if universal DRL strips can handle 2 levels of brightness switching. So if not, or to keep it simpler just tap into a DRL power in the harness and maybe add switchback DRL/turn signals... Also, like doing the simplest auto high/low DRL's on the Euro's, you can also run power off the fuse box with an Add a Circuit to our one open F27 spot ('16+) that gets switched on and off with ignition if you need to... lot's of options!

Just my $.02 of ideas... any thoughts?

 

[danbfree]

That's....that's not even the dumbest thing I did with the car this week. Thanks for pointing out my reading fails.

LOL... love the grammar that set the tone clearly on that one, I've had those days too!

 

[PlatinumFiST]

Just speaking in general to all the discussion about splitting/retrofitting Euro's etc, after weighing options for almost 2 years, I personally wouldn't and would advise, with some exceptions, against importing Euro's *brand new*, of any brand, with the intention to immediately split to use for a project... let me explain my logic.

First, even the replicas aren't "super" cheap and take weeks to import. They also get handled a lot being shipped 2/3rd of the way around the world. Cars245 doesn't drop ship from Taiwan at all, they all get shipped from Taiwan to Latvia and then all the way to the US. So, we know many arrive damaged as it is, and if not, I think they are likely going to be more susceptible to damage trying to split/modify after all the shipping. Especially with more sensitive stuff packed into there like the controller boards and leveling motors (that we can't really use at all) that the reflectors don't even have is unneeded complexity. Why mess up something that's not easy to replace within a couple of days?

Cheap aftermarket replacement, TYC are like $84 each side new in both silver and black interiors available or used/junkyard OEM reflectors would be a better start to mod. I think our regular reflectors are common across all Fiestas, so very common to find cheap anyway. So why not just go that route if you are going to upgrade almost everything anyway and have far fewer complications? Like what would be the point of going Euro at that point anyway? The reflectors also have the US legal amber corners if you want to stay legal.

With a cheapie reflector to start with, you can do whatever custom DRL, high beam retrofit, low beam projector upgrade, etc. Sounds like maybe even the pro's would prob be more familiar working with those as well. So while maybe a little more reliable to split/upgrade with to begin over a Euro, they are also much lower cost and easier to replace if all goes south, LOL, amirite?

Of course, one specific exception could be if you really specifically want the factory chrome instead of the amber on the US sides. Keep in mind Premium Auto Styling makes nice corner blackout decals that fit the US ones better than Euro's too, see my avatar pic... what you can't see though is the pass side decal doesn't fit the Euro quite perfectly but I didn't want all that chrome with my dark themed car so that's why I used them. With reflectors, you can used them to cover the amber as intended and even leave the little bulb out if you want or maybe there are some universal DRL's that can plug into that socket maybe? If not then would still be easy to use that marker power wire to power an added universal strip DRL. May be pretty easy to go further and do a single wire mod, similar to Euro's, using the wiring diagram to split off power separately to the added DRL brow, and have what was the combo DRL/marker and turn signal becomes just the blinker like on Euro's... Not even sure if universal DRL strips can handle 2 levels of brightness switching. So if not, or to keep it simpler just tap into a DRL power in the harness and maybe add switchback DRL/turn signals... Also, like doing the simplest auto high/low DRL's on the Euro's, you can also run power off the fuse box with an Add a Circuit to our one open F27 spot ('16+) that gets switched on and off with ignition if you need to... lot's of options!

Just my $.02 of ideas... any thoughts?

Completely agree. If these black Depos end up not working out for me (I will leave them alone unless they fail), I plan on going crazy on a pair of cheap usdm used reflector headlights. Quad projector Fiesta ST concept headlights..the renderings for those were so cool.

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[Blindeye_03]

Finally got my replacement light last week and installed only to take it out again..might be trading my car in, lol. Good timing though.