Kompre_sor

I'm waiting to hear back from SI. I'm really just looking for "plug and play"(can you tell i'm a computer geek) mods. which is why the Speed Tuning package looked so attractive.

BadAssC230k

understood. just be weary of cost to gains. if it means ur car is out for a day or two longer, but ur gonna have great gains... lace up them shoes and have a bus pass in hand. its totally worth it, lol

Kompre_sor

You have a good point.

pugguy2001

Nice choice of mods! Read my sig for my mods. I am currently trying to find someone to tune my ECU on top of my k-box. The shop that is installing your mods offers an ECU tune for $1000. What company ECU tune?

I think Flip does have his ECU tuned on top of his k-box. I am actaully speaking to Nick from Jlevi (Speed Innovations) about tuning my ecu on top of the k-box. Let me know what your options are with your ECU tune.

Kompre_sor

The guy that I'm talking to mentioned a Kleemann ECU upgrade with the Kleemann header, but I don't know of any Kleemann ECU for the 1.8L. Maybe he was talking about the K-box. I'm still waiting for him to get back to me.

pugguy2001

Let me know what ECU tune he was talking about. I feel our cars can benefit from having our timing advancedans shift points changed. Even with the sprint booster after a while our cars ecu adapt and it doesnt let the car shift into the next gear as fast ,it steps back for a sec and then shift.
Are you having the fuel pressure regulator installed also. What pulley kit are you getting. If its Kleemann then you should be getting the FPR and the k-box with it.

Saprissa

please read every thread from 2001 to present,
and tell me something about DEPO lights...

Glad someone is reading my smart-*** posts !

teknician

wats up ppl
can someone post a picture of this "trimmed" bulb that helps the beam pattern on the Depo headlights?
i really cant understand what is meant by "trimming" the bulb

lfe136

It doesn't fix the beam pattern. Look at the pictures in this thread and you will see. But if you want to try all you need to do is take out your H7 bulb. If you look at the base there are 3 prongs that stick out which help you mount them. Cut the top one so that you can turn the bulb 180 and it will fit into the socket. Does that make sense?

WhatTheHulk

It actually does fix the beam pattern. I'll get better pics to prove my case by the end of the week. I'll also try to get a side-by-side comparason of my DEPO tweak v. OEM BMW xenons.

lfe136

Can you get a before and after pics or your tweak with the DEPO headlights?

drexappeal

Ray, trust me pare. Saprissa has been around on the forums long enough to know what he is talking about.

He's just indicating that, unless people know exactly what they are doing with regards to modifying the depos, the quality is not good.

And if you were considering getting some of those, I would highly suggest against it.

Ryanr317

Coming from someone who has Depos, if i could do it all over again, i'd go with OEM Bix.

WhatTheHulk

thankyou.

WhatTheHulk

RDSBENZ

I'm not questioning what he knows and I totally agree to what he is saying. OEM is the best way to go. The reason why I opened this thread was to see if DEPO corrected the problems with their projectors. Yes, I'm considering it but it doesn't mean I'm going to get it. BUT if it performs as close to OEM and somebody found a fix for it, Why not? Who doesn't want to save $$$?

My only problem was the sarcasm and the smart *** comments. Knowing a lot does not give you the right to be sarcastic and insensitive to other people. There's other ways to get your point across. Sarcasm in a way is like bragging, "I know a lot and you don't know **** so keep quiet".

You know what? I can go on forever on this thing and I'll be wasting a lot of people's time. So let's just get back to the problem at hand. REY

raymond g-

my familiarity with Depo has been mostly with W210 headlights. I have purchased,
then opened them up (about a dozen) merely to pull the Depo halogen projector
out and to toss them in the garbage. Yes, they are that bad. It's not even
worth the trouble of selling. In its place I drop in a similarly sized, bona fide HID
projector, and I seal it back up.

In my opinion, Depo is in it for the short term gain. They have no compelling
reason to put in R&D and retool and redesign their mediocre projector bowl,
nor their sucky projector lens. It is these two crucial components which shape
and focus the light.....and they've done a poor job.

Whether they are horrible (as is) or sux big time (by flipping bulb upside down)
doesn't change the fact that you're just putting lipstick on a pig. The improve-
ment is still quite bad and an embarrassment to those who drive such a fine
car as we do. But as one poster said "...I dont give a *****..." Everytime I
see an HID wannabe fitted on a quality ride....it hurts. The lack of beam
precision is....well....glaring, and quite easy to spot.

w203elegance

awesome post! I gotta use that "lipstick on a pig" sometime

XenonBenz

Actually, the Depo projectors are not as bad quality as everyone thinks. The flaw is not a poor lens, or projector bowl. The flaw is in the manufacturing process. Unfortunately, for the W203, it is not possible to fix this flaw with the Depo headlights.

The flaw is the projector bowl is installed 180 degrees in the wrong direction during assembly at the factory. This is what causes the hotspots and poor beam pattern. While WhatTheHulk's tweak does help significantly, it does not give you OEM quality light.

Ultimately, Depo's are not worth buying for our W203's because the bowl is not "fixable". If it was fixable, they would be almost as good as OEM.

If you look at this picture below, it is off of a VW Depo projector. The bowl was flipped 180 degrees, and does give OEM quality HID lighting.

XenonBenz

rdscklasse,

The answer to your question at hand is....

No, the Depo's have not been fixed. They still suck.

OEM Bi-Xenon is really the only way to go. I learned the hard way, and sold my Depo's after 2 weeks, and lost $200 in the process.

I just got an email from Steve, he's got Euro spec Bi-Xenon's for $1,350 shipped Fedex to the US in stock right now. See the link below for what the Euro Spec beam pattern looks like.

http://groups.msn.com/MBenzNL/europa...o&PhotoID=1682

RDSBENZ

* * * *

Thanks XenonBenz for clarifying that. rdscklasse

drexappeal

Rey, I completely understand what you are saying, but don't waste your money. Saving money on some things is one thing. Saving money on headlights, brakes or wheels is a BIG no-no when it comes to car.

Headlights = visability/safety
Brakes = Stopping/safety
Wheels = Drivability/stability/safety

Those are 3 things I simply wouldn't ever "skimp" on when it comes to a vehicle. Other cosmetic things (i.e. aero parts, audio, etc...) are a different story. Save on those, if you choose to "save", but when it comes to things that help the functionality of the car, don't go the "cheap" route. You'll regret it in the long run.

WhatTheHulk

...oh yeah, I'm going to die driving at night because I was cheap and got DEPO's.

drexappeal

If you're driving at night and you miss a person walking across the street at night because the visibility on those headlights are poor...I'd say you'll have a lot of regrets. And no matter how much people feel they are "good" drivers, having good lighting can mean the difference between seeing someone that much sooner vs. being "too late".

You can be sarcastic all you want, but that's just reality my friend.

RDSBENZ

Thanks Drex.

I'm just trying not to go mod crazy on this car because I know I'll probably change cars again. You've seen my W202, http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2418392/1. I was about to spend a lot of money in modding it but I decided not to when I saw your car. I'm already thinking of getting a C55 after I sell my 350Z. Anybody interested?

Anyway, I already decided I'm not going to change my headlights, for now.

rdscklasse