HID retrofit Qs

[bawachhe]

I'm in the [at least semi-, if not] final stages of thought concerning whether or not to mod my lights with some halos and some HIDs but I was wondering:

I see all these folks doing retrofits (true HID projector lenses) and I have heard some people are ok too with just stuffing those Phillips HIDs in without changing anything about the enclosure out.

Anyone had any experience or thoughts (without too much unfounded opinion please :] ) about whether or not to do the full projector retrofit or whether my 4.5gen projector lenses are enough? Obviously if there isn't too much advantage to changing projectors I'd like to keep the ones I have. Less money, y'know?

Mostly I'm looking at two things here: with having the default '07 projector lenses, will the light pattern be significantly terrible, and/or will the housings melt from that extra HID heat?

 

[Mike07SE]

I've been through the PnP method. They were OK, better than stock, but then again what wouldn't be. I stepped up to the TRS Morimotos in my setup. Now I went a little overkill overall, but the I did replace the stock projector with the RetroQuick setup and that alone did do a great deal of improvement. I went this route as I simply wanted to remove and replace and not go through the cutting and heavy modifications that can be done. Others will certainly chime in on this and suggest other routes that will require more time and effort (but will yield even greater results).

 

[iBison]

I slapped some 08 headlights in my 04 and put in 5k (pure white) Volt lights from Xenon Depot in. I'm sure a retrofit would be better, but I'm extremely happy with them. The light output and range is outstanding. Steve from ZD is super helpful and super fast to respond to emails and PMs. I would not hesitate buying from them again.

 

[kevinpt]

there are some adjustments to the stock projectors that be made for some cutoff improvement. the one thing i would do if i changed the projectors would be adding high beam to them

 

[riceandpho]

stock projectors 06-09 is ok with hid, but better with the mini d2s quick retro from trs, best results would be s2k project or rx projector, alot more better light with these compare to mini d2s and stock. droping in cheap bulbs with less uv protection will hurt the reflector bowls.

 

[mreno02]

I too purchased Volt lights (6K cool blue) from Xenon Depot and I HIGHLY recommend them! They produce a great pattern with some insane intensity compared to my stock 06' headlights. Best $100 I've spent.

 

[gaterose]

I was pretty happy with the '06 OEM projectors with the squirrel finder mod and quality H11 HID setup. I upgraded to the mini-morimoto D2S retro-quik system and the cutoff is much sharper and the output is somewhat better.

It wasn't much work really, but I'm not sure the price difference is justifiable for all people. I picked them up through a tacoworld group buy and got 25% off I believe.

Here's a writeup I did showing the output.

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/4th-gen-t4rs/135396-mini-morimoto-retroquik-bi-xenon-projector-swap-06-headlamps.html

Mini Morimoto on left, OEM with squirrel finder and Phillips HID kit on right at about 20-25'

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8242/8472732412_54c7393792_b.jpg