From: John Hudson

To: ...

Sent: Sunday, November 18, 2007 11:17 AM

Subject: RE: [bmw02] Alternator question

Hi Guys,
Just to clarify a point about headlamp wiring and relays. Cars (68 to 71) with a narrow single row fuse holder did not have a relay for the headlamps form the factory. A lot of these cars where modified later on and had relays fitted. (Look for wires with green/yellow colour coding)
Cars with a double row of fuses, ie; late 71 on had a headlamp relay and it is usually fitted next to the alternator regulator and is about 30mm round with 2 mounting lugs.
If you are concerned about low voltage at the bulbs, switch on your lights (with the engine running) and check with a voltmeter to see how many volts are there. If you are getting around 11 volts plus, your wiring is fine. Anything lower than 10.5v and you have an issue somewhere. Usually the connections on the relay or possibly a poor earth on the headlamps.
Changing the bulb holders to accept other bulbs is an option, but its very fiddly to do and if not done properly, you will get a lot of beam bounce when you drive over bumps in the road as the bulb vibrates.
Cleaning up the alternator regulator contacts will not help your headlamps at all unless you have a charging issue.
 
When converting your headlamp units to H4 6 inch units, the lens sit further back in the front panel and do not protrude outside the headlamp grill opening. There will be a gap of 20/25mm towards the car centre line and 10/15mm on the outside edge.
 
Cheers,
John.

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Date: Sun, 18 Nov 2007 00:21:20 +0000
From: ...
To: ...
Subject: Re: [bmw02] Alternator question

To John's point about the headlight reflectors, you can see the
before and after on the car I bought recently. The original
reflectors were really bad and would not even pass the road safety test. I bought new ones from Jaymic (thanks again Fay) along with their custom badge/light bar and I fitted driving lights. To install and replace the reflectors it took maybe 40 minutes in total and the badge bar about 15 minutes with no holes drilled into the bumper. These are very easy upgrades that deliver a huge improvement in night driving and overall appearance to the car..
John – thanks for the extensive detail on the headlights. I have printed that as a reference tool.
Regards, Brad


On 17/11/2007, at 11:56 PM, John Hudson wrote:

Hi,
All 2002s had alternators, but the E21 and E30 alternators had a
voltage regulator built into it. The stock 02 alternator has the
regulator mounted in the nearside inner wing and it's an oblong box
with 3 wires attached via a plug to the underside of the regulator.
Some people change to the later style due to parts availabilty and
some models have a higher amperage output. This does not effect the
brightness of your lights unless the battery is flat or the
alternator is not charging.
To get decent headlights, you need to check the condition of the
reflector in the headlamp unit as the silvering slowly burns off
after a few years. You can buy replacement ones or even get the old
ones replated but it is costly.
You can put a higher wattage bulb in and it will make the lights
brighter but the problem is that the higher wattage bulbs give off
more gas which 'eats' the reflective coating quicker than the
standard bulbs.
The later 02's had a different lens that has H4 marked on the
outside and a black metal rim that covered the outer edge of the
headlamp. This was done to colour code the visible part of the
headllamp with the black plastic grill. The lens is a slightly
better design than the earlier headlamps.
To convert your headlights to a newer style is very difficult. I
have used VW Golf Mk1 lamps and welded the VW base to the 02
headlamp unit, but when you fit the grills back, the lens do not
follow the contour of the grill.
The reason why is that the headlamp beam adjustment on the original
BMW lamp is done by moving the reflector in the headlamp base unit.
When you fit a modern headlamp such as the VW Golf unit, you need
to be able to adjust the whole lamp assembly to give you the
correct beam postion.
In America, due to their headlamp requirements, the headlamps must
be the typical 6 inch units and the lamps are different to the
European ones.
I have used the American 02 headlamp holders which bolt straight in
to the stock position and then used Bosch/Hella headlamp units with
a left hand dip. The lens still does not follow the contours of the
grill, but at least I can see in the dark.
This is the area where a lot of confusion is generated about
replacement lamps as in America, it is easy to change as they have
the base units that accept standard 6 inch lamps allready fitted to
their cars as standard.
Your other option is to fit a pair of driving lights to the bumper
and that will help alot.
Hope this helps to clear up a lot of miss-information etc.
Cheers,
John.
Date: Sat, 17 Nov 2007 14:46:34 +0000
From: ...
To: ...
Subject: [bmw02] Alternator question
I have a 73 touring which has an alternator. Was this a standard
fitment or were they Dynamo? The reason I ask is that my headlights
are totally useless! I have read about the H4? conversion but
apparently the grill then doesn't fit properly. I've also read
about an alternator upgrade (E21 or E30?) but how do I know if this
has been done already & is it a straight swop? I have checked the
obvious earth connections & put new bulbs in. Any help would be
handy, thanks, Kev.
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