2014+ T4R Tri-LED Projector / Sequential Headlights

[papadop88]

California gets a burr up their ass every once in a while and periodically starts rolling enforcements of vehicle laws - actually the only place in the US I ever saw cars getting pulled over for an all out safety check was in Huntington Beach a couple of years ago when I was there for a fraud conference.

We were sitting in the Denny's and watched a couple of motorcycle cops pulling over cars that looked modified. they had tint meters and tape measures and what I assume was a decibel meter, sniffer and OBDII scanner.

They had a regular ticket writing party going on there and everyone got one.

Let's hope that you don't get stopped by one of those checkpoints or you meet a cop that had a fight with his wife that morning.

If they are really pissed, then they'll impound your car and inventory it.

Huntington Beach is the absolute worst. They are notorious for pulling anything over. I ride Harley's and mob once in a while down there and we've been pulled over at least a handful of times. Good thing is, 60% of my buddies are LE...:usa2:

I own nothing that isn't heavily modified from motorcycles to cars...my belief is, you ride like an ahole, you get treated like an ahole.

 

[mynameistory]

Tried calling The Retrofit Source again today, their automated phone line says they're now only taking calls between 10AM to 1:30PM eastern standard time. They're "working overtime to get to requests and if you can't reach us, please send an email".

I've sent 8 emails and none of them have been responded to. I don't know what their definition of overtime is but in California it's not 2½ working hours per day. Ah, well. I'll try again tomorrow.

 

[97BlackAckCL]

Tried calling The Retrofit Source again today, their automated phone line says they're now only taking calls between 10AM to 1:30PM eastern standard time. They're "working overtime to get to requests and if you can't reach us, please send an email".

I've sent 8 emails and none of them have been responded to. I don't know what their definition of overtime is but in California it's not 2½ working hours per day. Ah, well. I'll try again tomorrow.

Good luck, they ducked me for 2 months after I PAID for my order with zero response or contact

 

[Mudhorn]

I do not know a lot about electrical issues, but I wonder if the issues are due to the 4R giving a PWM signal vs voltage drop.
Guess I will upgrade my OEM bulbs for now until the assembly is muy bueno (thank you all early adopters for testing and sharing).

This doesn't address the shipping/customer service problems.

1 year for v2 to be released?

 

[cb1111]

Tried calling The Retrofit Source again today, their automated phone line says they're now only taking calls between 10AM to 1:30PM eastern standard time. They're "working overtime to get to requests and if you can't reach us, please send an email".

I've sent 8 emails and none of them have been responded to. I don't know what their definition of overtime is but in California it's not 2½ working hours per day. Ah, well. I'll try again tomorrow.

File a complaint with NHTSA and do a chargeback on your credit card citing the NHTSA complaint and the FMVSS 108 violations.

As it is illegal to sell these, you'll have a good chance at getting your money back.

 

[mynameistory]

File a complaint with NHTSA and do a chargeback on your credit card citing the NHTSA complaint and the FMVSS 108 violations.

As it is illegal to sell these, you'll have a good chance at getting your money back.

Oh, this is for an unrelated (illegal) drop-in LED bulb (Morimoto 2stroke). I noticed it was falling apart after about a year of use, so I requested a repair/replacement under warranty. They promptly responded and said they'd send a replacement, but only after I submit pictures of the bulb completely destroyed (all wires cut) with the serial number legible. It's been nearly a month since then with no response. I've since switched back to all halogen bulbs, which- in addition to retaining legality, actually function correctly and focus usable light down the road. I can also replace them at any auto parts store without jumping through ridiculous hoops. I consider this drop-in "upgrade" as a learning experience for me, and hopefully for others.

I'd like a full refund at this point but I'm not holding my breath. This is just to relay my experience with TRS (who now owns Xenon Depot) in general.

Also I appreciate your input on FMVSS 108. My response wasn't intended to be snarky, it was to hopefully learn more about compliance.

 

[ForRun]

This is just to relay my experience with TRS (who now owns Xenon Depot) in general.

I know headlight revolution, xenon and TRS are (one) company now, heard rumor diode dynamic is as well but have not personally researched. Its stinks because back when they were all competition the service was good!

 

[cb1111]

Oh, this is for an unrelated (illegal) drop-in LED bulb (Morimoto 2stroke). I noticed it was falling apart after about a year of use, so I requested a repair/replacement under warranty. They promptly responded and said they'd send a replacement, but only after I submit pictures of the bulb completely destroyed (all wires cut) with the serial number legible. It's been nearly a month since then with no response. I've since switched back to all halogen bulbs, which- in addition to retaining legality, actually function correctly and focus usable light down the road. I can also replace them at any auto parts store without jumping through ridiculous hoops. I consider this drop-in "upgrade" as a learning experience for me, and hopefully for others.

I'd like a full refund at this point but I'm not holding my breath. This is just to relay my experience with TRS (who now owns Xenon Depot) in general.

Also I appreciate your input on FMVSS 108. My response wasn't intended to be snarky, it was to hopefully learn more about compliance.

I didn't take it as snarky. In many ways, I'm in a difficult spot on forums.

I believe in modding a car to fix the things that I find as deficient, but I also believe that you must understand the law, the reasons for the law and the possible consequences before you decide to break the law.

I also believe that everyone needs to make their own determination about what mods to do and what their consequences might be. I always find it funny how somebody talks about tint and tells people to "just do it" when they have no clue about what the enforcement in my area might be.

Unfortunately, this also makes me come across to some people as some anti-mod nazi.

The only mods that I'm really passionate about is lighting ad visibility as they affect others on the road.

 

[david05111]

New guy here.

Is the conclusion on these at this point that they're mostly crap with some serious issues for the money?

So far just scanning the thread I've read about:

- Blown/broken LEDs
- Hyperflashing
- Improper fitment with gaps
- Gaps in light coverage
- Questionable high beams
- Questionable customer service
- Questionable sales practices by making people think they might be DOT legal


Am I missing anything? The money really isn't the issue for me; I just want a reliable, durable product that does what it's advertised to do.

 

[Steel28]

Does anyone have extra set of resistors from Xenon Depot? I tried calling them but nobody picked up the phone.

Love these lights btw but both, non sequential and sequential turn signals are hyper blinking.

 

[VB.TRD.Pro]

New guy here.

Is the conclusion on these at this point that they're mostly crap with some serious issues for the money?

So far just scanning the thread I've read about:

- Blown/broken LEDs
- Hyperflashing
- Improper fitment with gaps
- Gaps in light coverage
- Questionable high beams
- Questionable customer service
- Questionable sales practices by making people think they might be DOT legal


Am I missing anything? The money really isn't the issue for me; I just want a reliable, durable product that does what it's advertised to do.

Haven't experienced any of the issues yet and hopefully it stays that way. High beams and light coverage is better than stock in most situations. They could have done slightly better but, as cb1111 had mentioned, this is what you get at this price point from the aftermarket for the most part. Also have to keep in mind that only a small % post their feedback and those are the mostly negative, unhappy ones.

At the end of the day, it's your time and money and if that's what you've concluded without actually trying for yourself, then there's nothing else to say. If you go into something with an open mind, that can go either way after evaluating the product. Once you start on the negative side of the scale, it's much harder to fight confirmation bias.

 

[Steel28]

Haven't experienced any of the issues yet and hopefully it stays that way. High beams and light coverage is better than stock in most situations. They could have done slightly better but, as cb1111 had mentioned, this is what you get at this price point from the aftermarket for the most part. Also have to keep in mind that only a small % post their feedback and those are the mostly negative, unhappy ones.

At the end of the day, it's your time and money and if that's what you've concluded without actually trying for yourself, then there's nothing else to say. If you go into something with an open mind, that can go either way after evaluating the product. Once you start on the negative side of the scale, it's much harder to fight confirmation bias.

Completely agree on small % of users post their negative feedback.

Just to confirm, after your install you never needed resistors? I installed mine today and both, non sequential and sequential turn signal blink to fast compare to my hazards.

 

[VB.TRD.Pro]

Completely agree on small % of users post their negative feedback.

Just to confirm, after your install you never needed resistors? I installed mine today and both, non sequential and sequential turn signal blink to fast compare to my hazards.

No resistors needed thus far. I have the blinkers set to sequential but I also have a 2019 which I learned from the guys here seems to have avoided the hyper blink issue for the most part. If a 2020, between here and FB groups it seems more likely you'll need resistors. Some have reported that the hyper blink is not always consistent which sounds to me like the resistance without resistors installed is right at the threshold of what will trigger it.

 

[david05111]

Haven't experienced any of the issues yet and hopefully it stays that way. High beams and light coverage is better than stock in most situations. They could have done slightly better but, as cb1111 had mentioned, this is what you get at this price point from the aftermarket for the most part. Also have to keep in mind that only a small % post their feedback and those are the mostly negative, unhappy ones.

At the end of the day, it's your time and money and if that's what you've concluded without actually trying for yourself, then there's nothing else to say. If you go into something with an open mind, that can go either way after evaluating the product. Once you start on the negative side of the scale, it's much harder to fight confirmation bias.

I understand and agree for the most part. I haven't picked up my truck from the dealer yet, but I've known for a while now that I wanted to swap the headlights when I did so. The XBs were the first ones I saw and desperately pined for.

But as a result, I've been trying to read as much as I can about them. One common theme seems to be the light coverage and not covering the corners. Considering the lights were first released over a year ago, I would have thought a V2 would have been released at this point to address that issue.

The hyperflashing isn't a big deal; a resistor will solve that if it comes up. The gaps in the fitment aren't a huge deal either. The one thing that would really drive me up the wall is an LED going out on the strip. If you've ever seen Cadillacs from the past 15 years, they have that strip of lights across the decklid of the trunk that light up. And it looks great new, until they start blowing and then it just looks like absolute junk. At least on the Cadillac, fixing it probably isn't a big deal. On these with them being sealed, it seems like it could be a problem.

But I digress. I'm tempted to order a set and give them a try, but I'll probably mull it over a bit more. The more overlanding videos I watch, the more I realize that you need to be able to fix stuff on the fly. It's easy to run in and get a bulb at any auto store to fix a stock headlight; if one of these goes down, that's more of a problem. I just wish it was a bulletproof solution you could count on 100%. They just haven't really been out long enough to know for sure.

 

[VB.TRD.Pro]

I understand and agree for the most part. I haven't picked up my truck from the dealer yet, but I've known for a while now that I wanted to swap the headlights when I did so. The XBs were the first ones I saw and desperately pined for.

But as a result, I've been trying to read as much as I can about them. One common theme seems to be the light coverage and not covering the corners. Considering the lights were first released over a year ago, I would have thought a V2 would have been released at this point to address that issue.

The hyperflashing isn't a big deal; a resistor will solve that if it comes up. The gaps in the fitment aren't a huge deal either. The one thing that would really drive me up the wall is an LED going out on the strip. If you've ever seen Cadillacs from the past 15 years, they have that strip of lights across the decklid of the trunk that light up. And it looks great new, until they start blowing and then it just looks like absolute junk. At least on the Cadillac, fixing it probably isn't a big deal. On these with them being sealed, it seems like it could be a problem.

But I digress. I'm tempted to order a set and give them a try, but I'll probably mull it over a bit more. The more overlanding videos I watch, the more I realize that you need to be able to fix stuff on the fly. It's easy to run in and get a bulb at any auto store to fix a stock headlight; if one of these goes down, that's more of a problem. I just wish it was a bulletproof solution you could count on 100%. They just haven't really been out long enough to know for sure.

The DRL strip is something that concerns me as well and I do occasionally check to make sure nothing is amiss. Good on you for doing the research. If I were in your shoes at this point, I'd hold off on pulling the trigger just a little bit longer until someone posts a review and pictures of the NOVAs to see if there is a significant change (improvement) in performance. That's if the looks are something that is in line with what you're going for. Of course it'd be hard to gauge reliability on those since they're new to market as well. Tough decision...

 

[david05111]

The DRL strip is something that concerns me as well and I do occasionally check to make sure nothing is amiss. Good on you for doing the research. If I were in your shoes at this point, I'd hold off on pulling the trigger just a little bit longer until someone posts a review and pictures of the NOVAs to see if there is a significant change (improvement) in performance. That's if the looks are something that is in line with what you're going for. Of course it'd be hard to gauge reliability on those since they're new to market as well. Tough decision...

Yeah I’m going to wait to see how those stack up, but as I mentioned in the thread on them, they only back the lights for 2 years. That’s not much confidence in the product you make and that worries me for $1200, especially when if the led chip goes the whole damn headlight has to be replaced. Madness

 

[Whippersnapper02]

I've been following along because I like these lights...as far as fitment goes, the OEM lights have the same gaps.

 

[papadop88]

Here's the light output of the Morimoto XB LED headlight assemblies. This was taken last night at 10:30p on the 5 freeway with barely any traffic and no overhead street lamps. Don't know what you guys are expecting, but for LED headlights, this light output is super impressive. If you need more light output than this, maybe some guys should see an optometrist.

Plenty of light for me and comparable to my last three vehicles with stock LED 5700K from the factory. When pointed correctly, they provide plenty of output.

People need to also know that LEDs operate differently than HIDs. HIDs cast a wider output vs LEDs with LEDs even from the factory having strict cutoffs.

(Sorry in advance for the blurred image, I was driving at 80mph and felt like snapping a picture when I noticed how much output there was on a dark freeway. Felt cute, might delete later...)

 

[swampy_swimmer]

High or Low beams?

 

[papadop88]

High or Low beams?

low beams