Converting headlight wiring back to original spec?

[turke]

Bought my car back in February and one of the previous owners converted the headlights to use a different bulb/ballast than what is found originally (to my knowledge). Here are some pictures of what it looks like now:

Just a general overview behind the passenger side headlight, the bulbs have a wire tail coming off, unlike normal D2S bulbs which have a plug-in connection

This is a better shot of what comes from the bulb, the black side goes to the bulb and the red side goes to the ballast

The ballast pack itself. Note that there is absolutely no-where to mount them securely, this one is currently cable-tied to the battery support bar.

The connector itself

And the voltage regulator(?) which also comes off the ballast

On the drivers-side connector, it seems to be loose, as you have to jiggle it around a bit for the headlight to actually turn on.
As far as I'm aware the actual headlight enclosure is untouched, however one of the previous owners decided to completely seal off the headlight (as far as I know the front clear plastic is supposed to be able to separate from the rest, which this can't) probably due to moisture getting into the headlight which when I bought it, was the case, but the moisture in the headlight was cleared for the most part by me. THis is both of the headlights on (the headlights are NOT green/blue in anyway, it's just how it came out in the picture, plus I also seem to have taken the pictures at different heights, so one looks dimmer than the other, this isn't the case either.)

WHen driving at night (which I rarely do anyway) the highlights compared to each other seem very out of level. As far as I know (this could be wrong) headlights are a little asymmetrical anyway, but this is extreme.

So back to the question, would it be a big job to take the wiring back to what it has originally, or has it been modified that much that it wouldn't be worth the hassle? I'm not very electrically inclined to begin with so tackling this, even if it is easy is pretty daunting anyway. This is one area I think I could fail on an MOT, which is due in February so I have plenty of time to sort it out.

 

[bozothenutter]

that is an aftermarket hid kit mate, your headlights aren't made for hids (oem had projector units)
best bet would be to follow the cables to if they were spliced in somewhere , or just used a converter plug (if you're lucky)

 

[fairm010]

I call bullshit at 23000 volts in there

 

[BoatNonce]

Bin the HIDs. They just blind people because they're in the wrong type of headlight.

The plastic lens is glued to the rest of the cluster from the factory.

Headlight alignment is massively out either because the servo is disengaged from the linkage, the servo arm has fallen out completely, or the linkage has shattered inside the headlight. If you're lucky it's just really badly adjusted but a lot of the time it's one of the above.

 

[turke]

that is an aftermarket hid kit mate, your headlights aren't made for hids (oem had projector units)
best bet would be to follow the cables to if they were spliced in somewhere , or just used a converter plug (if you're lucky)

Ah, I see how the enclosure is different now after a quick google. I'll try following it back, but the lack of space behind them really isn't helping

Bin the HIDs. They just blind people because they're in the wrong type of headlight.

The plastic lens is glued to the rest of the cluster from the factory.

Headlight alignment is massively out either because the servo is disengaged from the linkage, the servo arm has fallen out completely, or the linkage has shattered inside the headlight. If you're lucky it's just really badly adjusted but a lot of the time it's one of the above.

Yeah, I want to get rid of them as someone else mentioned how bright they actually were at night
As for the enclosure being glued, wasn't too sure so I asked anyway, cheers for clearing that up
If the things are relatively intact, would it be possible to buy a set of the correct headlights as found originally, and fit those?

 

[bozothenutter]

bumper off to remove the headlights, 3 bolts and the unit comes out....much easier access.

 

[turke]

Will be back in a mo with better pictures, removed the bumper

 

[turke]

A better picture of the back

Back of the bulb

The wires from the headlight going into some cable cover and under a mountain of electrical tape (and a fucked arch liner)

All I could get at with a decent picture really, plus I had to move the car because others needed to access the alley so I had to pack up quick.

 

[Budgie]

Those should just unclip and leave you to plug regular bulbs in.

Every set i've seen has been like this anyway

 

[BoatNonce]

Yeah, just remove the bulb, pull those crimps out of the plastic connector, and bob's your teapot.

 

[turke]

So its good to do a straight swap with the original headlight enclosure (with the different ballast too)? i.e ones like these (those are the projector ones previously mentioned, right?)

 

[BoatNonce]

Yup, straight swap.

Don't get them posted though, the linkages in them, as previously mentioned, have a habit of shattering in the post.

 

[turke]

Alright, thanks for the help, now to just find some for sale locally I guess

 

[turke]

Just curious, are phase2 172s and 182s the same setup?

 

[BoatNonce]

Yup, but the 182s have grey plastic on the front rather than the black in the picture above. (Or the other way round, I forget)

 

[turke]

Thanks again

 

[turke]

Got it all sorted, ended up simply going with standard clio bulbs for now and they work fine, the beam is reflected nicely and isn't blinding like the other bulbs were
A nicer alternative than spending £100+ right now

 

[Djw John]

That should have the projector lenses as standard, it kinda points out that its been in a front ender and repaired on the cheap in my opinion. The headlight washers only came with factory fit xenons.

 

[turke]

I have no idea why they were changed, but it makes my heart sink just thinking about stuff like that when people mention it.

 

[Djw John]

Sorry to bring it up but it seems a strange thing to do otherwise.
It's the sport grille, bumper and headlight washer system though so maybe it's something as daft as the old ones went cloudy and they bought normal Clio ones to replace them.

 

[turke]

The washers on the bumper aren't actually connected up, there's a section on the piping where you can see the T section taken out and just a straight through has been used to connect it. The fog lights are though

The car feels fine though and it's had a check over by a renault (not a renaultsport/clio sport specialist mind), aside from an alignment which needs to be sorted

It's not the only time i've seen a 182 with this headlight cluster though

I'll probably never know why, and some time in the future I will probably put the originals in, but for now it seems alright