HID Projectors

[Bl4ck4rm4]

the problem is alot of people just leave the lights on and not move, also when you use 50w hid kit, the bulbs run alot hotter, any aftermarket bulbs dont have the same uv protection like oem bulbs. i run 50w ballast, but i use only oem Osram or Philips bulbs, they take the abuse better.
i would just take apart the lights and put some good hid projectors, you got d2s 5.0,g5-r, tl-r, those should require the least amount to do since they have brackets to adapt, the others like mines s2000, rx350, rx330 requires lots of mod, i wouldn't recommend you to do that if you dont have a spare headlight to practice first. once you have that lighting bug, its never going to stop. you want better and better.

I have kept that in mind. In general, the whole reason I went with HID originally last year was difficult seeing at night. Thought I was getting at that age my eyes are starting to fail. Initially I switched to a 35w kit XenonHID ballasts and supposedly Phillips bulbs 6000k. I was a recommendation when looking at a kit for my daughters car with the stupid tinted lens headlights. When I had them they worked, but not bright thought maybe it was because I was in the wrong housing. I went 50w cause after reading here a lot of people were using them in there oem assemblies. When I saw I got a little be more light, not really blinding light, that’s why I turned to you guys.

To be honest few of you guys kept saying the projectors were burnt but no visible evidence unless I removed the whole headlight out.

In the end I think my projectors were burnt before the HIDs and got worse. Wife drove the car daily never turned the headlight off. They stayed on all the time when driving.

For me doing the work. I just need to take a little finesse getting the lens off. It is unknown first time territory with this. Been around the block though, with mechanical work, electrical trouble shooting and retrofitting parts.

Thanks again


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[zachary.mikel]

I just finished up a full retrofit of some inexpensive bi-xenon H1 projectors into some Depot / eBay headlight housings. I ended up using 6500k H1 LED bulbs, and the light output is phenomenal compared to the stock halogen projectors.

I posted a quick and dirty explanation on reddit: Finished my headlight retrofit! : 4thGen4Runner. I'll be throwing a writeup on here in a day or two with more detail. The whole project cost around $350, new headlight housings included.

 

[Too Stroked]

I have kept that in mind. In general, the whole reason I went with HID originally last year was difficult seeing at night. Thought I was getting at that age my eyes are starting to fail. Initially I switched to a 35w kit XenonHID ballasts and supposedly Phillips bulbs 6000k. I was a recommendation when looking at a kit for my daughters car with the stupid tinted lens headlights. When I had them they worked, but not bright thought maybe it was because I was in the wrong housing. I went 50w cause after reading here a lot of people were using them in there oem assemblies. When I saw I got a little be more light, not really blinding light, that’s why I turned to you guys.

To be honest few of you guys kept saying the projectors were burnt but no visible evidence unless I removed the whole headlight out.

In the end I think my projectors were burnt before the HIDs and got worse. Wife drove the car daily never turned the headlight off. They stayed on all the time when driving.

For me doing the work. I just need to take a little finesse getting the lens off. It is unknown first time territory with this. Been around the block though, with mechanical work, electrical trouble shooting and retrofitting parts.

Thanks again


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Yup, your reflectors are shot and that would explain at least part of your problem.

Another thing you may want to look at since you mentioned that you have difficulty seeing at night is the color temperature of the light sources you are using. 6000k is getting pretty blue and although some folks think they can see better with that kind of light, science says otherwise. This is especially true in inclement weather. Truth be told, closer to 4000 - 4500k is much better - and easier - on your eyes.

 

[Bl4ck4rm4]

Yup, your reflectors are shot and that would explain at least part of your problem.

Another thing you may want to look at since you mentioned that you have difficulty seeing at night is the color temperature of the light sources you are using. 6000k is getting pretty blue and although some folks think they can see better with that kind of light, science says otherwise. This is especially true in inclement weather. Truth be told, closer to 4000 - 4500k is much better - and easier - on your eyes.

I will say 6000k was bright but difficult to see. I dropped to 5000k which looked promising took a lot of blue out, showed a more definitive spread of light but not that bright blinding light seen with HID. Hence after a lot of help from you guys and gals here it helped point me in the right direction. Burnt out chrome reflective ness takes the brightness right out. Plus with more information on why this happened seems plausible. Leaving the headlights on all the time driving deteriorate then after 14yrs. Thinking of how many road trips we had taken, TX to FL or toNew Orleans, or head north to Cleveland, Ohio. majority of it in day light I can see why. Plus my lack of experience with projectors lights


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[riceandpho]

just swap out to some good projectors, use d2s bulbs, and use a projector that takes d2s bulbs, the H1 is ok, but remember if you use quality bulb, you get the max performance. keep your ballast, with osram cbi bulbs, or cbb bulbs will be pure white, with philips white vision, its a little warm, but still white. now if you use the regular bulbs at 50w, its warm, warmer colors do better in all weather conditions.

 

[Bl4ck4rm4]

just swap out to some good projectors, use d2s bulbs, and use a projector that takes d2s bulbs, the H1 is ok, but remember if you use quality bulb, you get the max performance. keep your ballast, with osram cbi bulbs, or cbb bulbs will be pure white, with philips white vision, its a little warm, but still white. now if you use the regular bulbs at 50w, its warm, warmer colors do better in all weather conditions.

Ok, that is what I have coming this week projectors and bulbs to match. I just hope they arrive before I head back to work.
Thought of taken the easy route, just buy new assemblies, but too many options. I dont like the halo, they might look good on sports cars and mopar crowd, dont think they would look good on a 4Runner. Personal preference. I think the blacked out insides look good, but anything with a tinted or smoke lens needs to be destroyed.

Thanks for everyone’s help on this.

Hopefully these two post might get referenced for future use.


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[Bl4ck4rm4]

Here’s an update. So I replaced the passenger projector with GR5 bi xenon projector. Night and day difference, had to modify the mount bracket a lot to make them fit, at least until proper brackets come in.

Here is what the passenger projector looked like. I think worse that the borescope shown

Unfortunately, this was my problem from the start. Even before HID’s.

Thanks again everybody with help and advice on this.


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[chris in ky]

I've had a 'pre owned' Xenon Depot kit in my '06 now for about four years. The color is very slightly blue, not as bright as a modern LED cars but acceptable...certainly better than incandescent.

Mine had an issue with the lens being cloudy so I bought a used one off ebay and it was a huge difference.

 

[riceandpho]

if your not the original owner, it could be the first guy did the same thing, threw in a 50w kit with cheap bulbs, or even the 35w kit, back then the coatings arent even great, this is why i recommend using oem bulbs when running hid projectors. sure youll save a few bucks with morimoto or cn light or yeaky, but at the end you pay for quality and proven performance.
i wish i can see some pics of your progress on the retrofit, hopefully you did some good aiming and you see increase performance, what did you end up buying for projectors and bulbs.

Here’s an update. So I replaced the passenger projector with GR5 bi xenon projector. Night and day difference, had to modify the mount bracket a lot to make them fit, at least until proper brackets come in.

Here is what the passenger projector looked like. I think worse that the borescope shown

Unfortunately, this was my problem from the start. Even before HID’s.

Thanks again everybody with help and advice on this.


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[riceandpho]

I've had a 'pre owned' Xenon Depot kit in my '06 now for about four years. The color is very slightly blue, not as bright as a modern LED cars but acceptable...certainly better than incandescent.

Mine had an issue with the lens being cloudy so I bought a used one off ebay and it was a huge difference.

you might need to swap bulbs by now, depending on how much you used your lights, bulbs do require swapping when they loose brightness.

 

[Bl4ck4rm4]

if your not the original owner, it could be the first guy did the same thing, threw in a 50w kit with cheap bulbs, or even the 35w kit, back then the coatings arent even great, this is why i recommend using oem bulbs when running hid projectors. sure youll save a few bucks with morimoto or cn light or yeaky, but at the end you pay for quality and proven performance.
i wish i can see some pics of your progress on the retrofit, hopefully you did some good aiming and you see increase performance, what did you end up buying for projectors and bulbs.

No I’m the original owner, since it drove off the dealership lot. However I’m not the main driver until now. When I purchased my first HID, I wasn’t impressed and it was a 35w kit, due to research I did on HID lights for my daughter’s car, which had aftermarket headlights with tinted lenses. Long story, want to smash those light assemblies with my BFH.

The big problem is my wife when she drove the 4Runner she left the lights on all the time. No turning them off until needed. I switch last year to HID, cause I noticed that the halogens were dim, even with cleaning the lenses. I just thought that maybe I’m getting old, my eyes are getting more adjusted to other people using LED’s or HID’s.

I only did the passenger side headlight for now. I was so eager to start that I forgot the brackets are being shipped separately. I modified the original bracket on the old halogen projector, which is a lot of cutting. There is enough material for the upper portion of the new projectors to bolt to the other ones I got creative and made simple clamp, screw washer nut for the bottom.

I won’t get into the back portion cause the rear is recessed in the inside, had to reverse the locking nuts and silicone washer to work.
I also ended up doing to D2S bulbs due to the new projectors so the H11 bulbs are now packaged away.

I have enough brightness now, that I can get by until I get the brackets get sent. Worst case scenario I make my own from sheet metal. The cutoff were decent with the halogen projectors, very sharp and clear with the HiD ones. Makes me wander if I should take advantage of the bi xenon features.

There are so many videos on converting non projector headlights to hid projector, and hardly non for converting halogen projectors to HID, let alone replacing bad projectors.


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[riceandpho]

when you wire the high beams up together, and blast your high beam once, youll see some light from quad output. make sure to try this on a dark road, youll be amazed by the high beam output when you use it.

No I’m the original owner, since it drove off the dealership lot. However I’m not the main driver until now. When I purchased my first HID, I wasn’t impressed and it was a 35w kit, due to research I did on HID lights for my daughter’s car, which had aftermarket headlights with tinted lenses. Long story, want to smash those light assemblies with my BFH.

The big problem is my wife when she drove the 4Runner she left the lights on all the time. No turning them off until needed. I switch last year to HID, cause I noticed that the halogens were dim, even with cleaning the lenses. I just thought that maybe I’m getting old, my eyes are getting more adjusted to other people using LED’s or HID’s.

I only did the passenger side headlight for now. I was so eager to start that I forgot the brackets are being shipped separately. I modified the original bracket on the old halogen projector, which is a lot of cutting. There is enough material for the upper portion of the new projectors to bolt to the other ones I got creative and made simple clamp, screw washer nut for the bottom.

I won’t get into the back portion cause the rear is recessed in the inside, had to reverse the locking nuts and silicone washer to work.
I also ended up doing to D2S bulbs due to the new projectors so the H11 bulbs are now packaged away.

I have enough brightness now, that I can get by until I get the brackets get sent. Worst case scenario I make my own from sheet metal. The cutoff were decent with the halogen projectors, very sharp and clear with the HiD ones. Makes me wander if I should take advantage of the bi xenon features.

There are so many videos on converting non projector headlights to hid projector, and hardly non for converting halogen projectors to HID, let alone replacing bad projectors.


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