just wanted to say thanks for an awesome how-to... the headlights are complete except for the wiring and i couldnt be happier w/ the way they look...

 

Do you mind posting what you paid for each individual part?
Thanks.

 

i may have to attempt this. Anyone know where you can get halo rings at??

 

FINISHED!!!! it was raining a lil bit so there is a lil bit of glare on the lense but they look great, and i love them










and a pic w/ the ss brake decals

 

man I want my lights so bad!

that looks good...

 

wow those look mean. i may have to put eyelids on mine now.

 

They look really good dude , nice job

 

thanks.... they look mean from the side and tired from the front lol...

 

They look great man! I had eyelids on my lamps before I did mine and I was debating doing it but now I know it looks great! Congrats on succesfully creating them! Have any beam shots against the wall?

 

i dont have any beam shots yet because it was still pretty bright outside when i was taking the pics and the white light didnt show up to well on the white garage... i will get some pics of the beams tonight.

 

I have a question for ya Merc . Im getting to the point of at least mocking up the wiring . Looking at the stock Astra wiring , the Hella ballasts in this case anyways are getting 12 volt power from the body control module . The power wires run directly to the ballasts with no relays in between . Id like to do the same with my swap and use the power wire from the stock headlight off the BCM and use the stock ground wires . I vaguely remember you saying something about how thats not good . I dont mind making a separate harness , its not a big deal if I have to ...but could you elebaorate on why using the stock power wires are not a good thing .

Thanks dude .

 

I was wondering about the diode between the L/H beam and wondered its exact purpose in the wiring... are there different kinds of diodes or just one? I am doing this to myHHR soon using the bi-projectors from a Infinity FX35. Thanks Merc for making this how-to!

 

the diode allows you to lower the shields for bi-xenon projectors when the high beams are triggered. just connecting wires from the high beam and low beam to 85 on the relay would cause the shields to stay lowered since power would find its way from the low beams into the line for the shields. the diode makes the power only go one way. which would be from the high beam on the 9007 connector to the relay. It keeps the power from the low beams from triggering the shields to lower.

 

The stock wires on the astra were made for xenon(35w). So that is why your headlamps are like that. The cobalt on the other hand was designed for halogen (55w). The reason you need to upgrade your wiring is because upon ignition of the xenon, the ballast can draw up to 3x the amount of a standard 55w halogen bulb. Also, if something shorts out on your ballast, the only wires that will be harmed will be the wiring harness you made, and not your entire wiring harness in your cobalt.

 

Ok , now that makes sense then . I didnt know they spiked that much when they fired up . Thanks for the info . OH and hey , I stand corrected on the DS2/ DS1 deal ...you were right , it is a DS1 set up . I just assumed because it said DS2 on the bulb

 

What value resister should I get? I have Devons lights built, aimed, and ready to be resealed and installed but I'd like to know wht resister I should get. Thanks and this is an awesome mod!

 

thanks for the awesome writeup! I used e46 bixenon projectors and ballasts. Found out the bixenon part of these projectors is a little more advanced then it needs to be. Hidplanet forums helped out there. The wireing harness just have brights is pretty complicated since it is a 3 wire hookup. Anyways, they are amazing!

 

nice job , that looks amazing

 

I'm really considering this for my summer project since I have no more school. For those who have done this I have a few questions.

1) Are you having trouble with condensation with sealing them back up?
2) Are you guys getting a good aim out of them? Like the perfect crossover beam thing?
3) How hard is it to get the wiring done and can a noob basiclly do it?
4) Do the hi and low beams run off the switch in the car like a typical cobalt?

Thanks for your help. Now just to get money and a junkyard to find a decent bi-xenon and projector deal.

 

1) YES, I did, i had to re-dry my driver's side at least 3 times and seems fine now
2) Seems fine, I could have made it better if I wasn't living in dorms at the time i was doing this project. Didn't have a good area to see how they were aiming.
3)Wiring isnt hard but depends what kind of projectors you get. Im pretty electrically inclined so i was fine, but I wouldnt recommend it if you can't read schematics. I had to make a fairly complex but basic circuit for my high beams because e46 bi-xenon projectors have a 3 wire hookup for high beam functionality
4) Yes

feel free to pm if u have any other ?s

 

Pm sent.

 

I'm really having problems w/ the headlights fogging up. What did u guys do to seal up the back and the main seals? I used clear silicon in the little squeeze tubes from lows. Any recommendations or help? pm me, thanks

 

For that back I plan to use a circular rubber gasket and a cap , where the old headlight retainer mounted . To seal up the lens , Ive never had very good luck with straight silicone . I have used Permetex Ultra Black to reseal the lens .

This is worth a try as it worked for me once , and you wont have to pull apart your headlight lenses again . Use permetex window sealer . Its in a smallish blue tube , and its made to seal up the seals around windsheilds . Its like silicone , but its not firm .....it has the consistency of saaaaaay .....pancake syrup . Lay a bead around the entire perimeter of the headlight right over the silicone thats already there , it should flow into any areas where it may be allowing moisture in . Obviously , make sure to dry the inside of your headlights out completely before sealing them up completely . If any water is left in there , it will take 4-ever for them to stop fogging up .

 

It's no Cobalt but we did this on a HHR. Just waiting to make custom fiberglass covers for the projector assemblies! Thanks for this GREAT write up Merc!

 

Once you get the projector assembly hidden it will look mad sexy!