My 3rd Gen Retrofit Projector Project

[octanejunkie]

After reading through and reviewing this building budget retrofit thread posted by [MENTION=121873]trd4x4[/MENTION], and reviewing the parts on the Amazon links provided I ordered them right up!

The pricing was indeed great, but I was a little skeptical of these parts with limited warranties, so I returned the parts to Amazon for a refund (thanks to Prime) and kept looking.

Reading about DDM on another thread here, I found a very similar-looking projector and HID kit/components; although with Lifetime Warranty. So I called DDM and verified that they do also sell the same items that I found on Amazon; but they only offer a lifetime warranty when purchased from DDM direct. However they recommended a different kit than the H1 projector.

So after talking to DDM and doing more research, I have decided to go with their D2S Projectors V1 with HID Kit which is a 3" D2 projector with 35W 5000K bulbs and a lifetime warranty. To power these, I grabbed an H4 High/Low relay harness from DDM, as seen below.

NB, it is worth mentioning that they did recommend upgrading to their Ultra CANBUS HID kit for $90 more, but I decided to go with their regular 35W HID kit and leverage their lifetime warranty - plus I like the smaller ballasts, which are fully potted.

For shrouds chose to go with DDM's Panamera V1 Shrouds w/Cree LED Halo Rings. I will configure the halos to turn on with the marker lights, via separate relay, and turn off when the headlights are powered on ala factory DRLs. This way I will save headlamp bulb and ballast life and run lower wattage DRL rings for safety and visibility on the road.

All the parts are ordered and now we wait. I will update this thread with all steps unique to this project, as others have done this and the swap is well-documented

 

[4runner001]

In for updates! I just finished my build using the parts in the budget retrofit thread. I got a different harness which was plug & play. Good luck!

 

[octanejunkie]

Yours looks great [MENTION=143426]4runner001[/MENTION]

Was it easy to pry the marker housing apart for painting? I wanna do that too, maybe even my turn signal housings to go for the total Scorpions look :guitar3: (black out)

Sorry bad joke :shocked:

 

[IBallEngineer]

After reading through and reviewing this building budget retrofit thread posted by [MENTION=121873]trd4x4[/MENTION], and reviewing the parts on the Amazon links provided I ordered them right up!


The pricing was indeed great, but I was a little skeptical of these parts with limited warranties, so I returned the parts to Amazon for a refund (thanks to Prime) and kept looking.

Reading about DDM on another thread here, I found a very similar-looking projector and HID kit/components; although with Lifetime Warranty. So I called DDM and verified that they do also sell the same items that I found on Amazon; but they only offer a lifetime warranty when purchased from DDM direct. However they recommended a different kit than the H1 projector.

So after talking to DDM and doing more research, I have decided to go with their D2S Projectors V1 with HID Kit which is a 3" D2 projector with 35W 5000K bulbs and a lifetime warranty. To power these, I grabbed an H4 High/Low relay harness from DDM, as seen below.

NB, it is worth mentioning that they did recommend upgrading to their Ultra CANBUS HID kit for $90 more, but I decided to go with their regular 35W HID kit and leverage their lifetime warranty - plus I like the smaller ballasts, which are fully potted.

For shrouds chose to go with DDM's Panamera V1 Shrouds w/Cree LED Halo Rings. I will configure the halos to turn on with the marker lights, via separate relay, and turn off when the headlights are powered on ala factory DRLs. This way I will save headlamp bulb and ballast life and run lower wattage DRL rings for safety and visibility on the road.

All the parts are ordered and now we wait. I will update this thread with all steps unique to this project, as others have done this and the swap is well-documented

I have the Morimoto set up on my wife's 2000, been hoping to get something for my 99 but haven't wanted to pull the trigger on 4 bills. I'm curious what your total cost will be and of course the quality once you've set it all up.

:rockon:

 

[4runner001]

Yours looks great [MENTION=143426]4runner001[/MENTION]

Was it easy to pry the marker housing apart for painting? I wanna do that too, maybe even my turn signal housings to go for the total Scorpions look :guitar3: (black out)

Sorry bad joke :shocked:

Thank you! The headlights were easy to pry open. I baked them at 240 degrees for 8 minutes, tried to open them, and then baked them again in 4 minute increments until they cracked open. Really simple since our headlights are rectangular.

The corner lights are made out of plastic so you have to be really careful. I melted one of my original ones and had to buy another set. Also, you can see that the old glue becomes visible after you seal the corner lights.

 

[octanejunkie]

I have the Morimoto set up on my wife's 2000, been hoping to get something for my 99 but haven't wanted to pull the trigger on 4 bills. I'm curious what your total cost will be and of course the quality once you've set it all up.

:rockon:

$200.80 with tax and shipping coz CA to CA

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

[octanejunkie]

The corner lights are made out of plastic so you have to be really careful. I melted one of my original ones and had to buy another set. Also, you can see that the old glue becomes visible after you seal the corner lights.

So bake and pray on the corners... maybe a heat gun on low?

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

[4runner001]

So bake and pray on the corners... maybe a heat gun on low?

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

That's it! This video was helpful: https://youtu.be/PRP5Uxe-BkU

 

[White Stripe]

After reading through and reviewing this building budget retrofit thread posted by [MENTION=121873]trd4x4[/MENTION], and reviewing the parts on the Amazon links provided I ordered them right up!

The pricing was indeed great, but I was a little skeptical of these parts with limited warranties, so I returned the parts to Amazon for a refund (thanks to Prime) and kept looking.

Reading about DDM on another thread here, I found a very similar-looking projector and HID kit/components; although with Lifetime Warranty. So I called DDM and verified that they do also sell the same items that I found on Amazon; but they only offer a lifetime warranty when purchased from DDM direct. However they recommended a different kit than the H1 projector.

So after talking to DDM and doing more research, I have decided to go with their D2S Projectors V1 with HID Kit which is a 3" D2 projector with 35W 5000K bulbs and a lifetime warranty. To power these, I grabbed an H4 High/Low relay harness from DDM, as seen below.

NB, it is worth mentioning that they did recommend upgrading to their Ultra CANBUS HID kit for $90 more, but I decided to go with their regular 35W HID kit and leverage their lifetime warranty - plus I like the smaller ballasts, which are fully potted.

For shrouds chose to go with DDM's Panamera V1 Shrouds w/Cree LED Halo Rings. I will configure the halos to turn on with the marker lights, via separate relay, and turn off when the headlights are powered on ala factory DRLs. This way I will save headlamp bulb and ballast life and run lower wattage DRL rings for safety and visibility on the road.

All the parts are ordered and now we wait. I will update this thread with all steps unique to this project, as others have done this and the swap is well-documented

I am doing the budget retrofit too. I ordered the stuff from Amazon, except the bulbs I got from ddm. All the Amazon stuff showed up after a few days. It's been about ten days and still no bulbs. I then looked up ddm reviews and now realize I should have gone another route. They're shipping is expensive-20 bucks for two bulbs standard shipping. According to reviews it's not uncommon for ddm stuff to take 6 weeks To arrive!!:mad2::barf: good reviews on the actual products but the shipping time is often beyond ridiculous.

 

[octanejunkie]

DDM themselves told me that product out of China would take weeks vs. products shipped out of CA would me a day or two to me in LA. Free shipping would be nice, however, that almost seems the norm everywhere else these days.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

[octanejunkie]

Making progress, sort of...

I had some unexpected free time today, so I decided to tackle "black out" painting my marker housings.

Here's the step-by-step thread I wrote about it http://www.toyota-4runner.org/3rd-gen-t4rs/224646-painting-3rd-gen-front-marker-housings.html

 

[octanejunkie]

DDM order arriving today!

Got an email notification from DDM that my parts shipped from their CA warehouse and will be in my hot little hands today

The plan is to tackle the swap this weekend, along with hood struts and dipping my rims.

I'll post threads and pics of each project

 

[bentos1]

Those shrouds look like the same think I ordered from my Chinese kit.
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Car-...2393306302.html?spm=2114.13010708.0.67.RE8Lcf
The hardest part of the whole install was routing the wires through my firewall, everything else was just time consuming.
I baked my lights @ 300 for 7 mins I think. I took the advice from someone over at hidplanet.com.
I used a cheap trailer wiring kit for the angel eyes, I didnt want to tie in to any stock wiring. I did cut the DRL wire as the headlights would come on when the truck was started. You might not have the DRL issue if you have a US 4Runner.

 

[octanejunkie]

Those shrouds look like the same think I ordered from my Chinese kit.
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Car-...2393306302.html?spm=2114.13010708.0.67.RE8Lcf
The hardest part of the whole install was routing the wires through my firewall, everything else was just time consuming.
I baked my lights @ 300 for 7 mins I think. I took the advice from someone over at hidplanet.com.
I used a cheap trailer wiring kit for the angel eyes, I didnt want to tie in to any stock wiring. I did cut the DRL wire as the headlights would come on when the truck was started. You might not have the DRL issue if you have a US 4Runner.

Yes, they do look the same. My kit came with D2S bulbs and a different bulb harness, otherwise it looks similar.

Did you route through the firewall to put the halos on a switch?

I do know I paid more than many kits out there to order from DDM, but the lifetime warranty on all the parts spoke to me.

 

[bentos1]

I think my kit takes h1 bulbs, I decided to order extras to keep in the truck in case something happens while Im away from home. I did purchase some d2s connectors and have d2s bulbs but I never tried putting them in. Im just leaving what works for now.

I did route the halos through the firewall and have them on a switch beside or under the clutch start cancel switch. I used the cheesy toggle switch that came with the trailer wiring kit. Last week I pit in the ninja lights switch (illuminates blue) 1x on Off Ninja Driving Lights 2 Push Switch Panel for Toyota Red LED New | eBay

I will add some pics of my swap later today or tomorrow for a reference.

Let me know if you have any questions along the way, happy to help

edit: I dont know to properly resize the photos within imgur right now. I will look at fixing this soon)



[url=http://imgur.com/2S6K6FE][/URL][url=http://imgur.com/TuYm46A][/URL
[url=http://imgur.com/ha7HNQF][/URL]

 

[octanejunkie]

Parts arrived and here we go!

Inspected parts, called DDM with dumb questions and tested solenoids with 12v off battery a bunch of times.

Watched video on 4runner headlamp dissy and install https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YrzD6-jHQU

Removed headlights from car, no brainer. Broke 50% of grille clips. Sourced replacements https://amzn.com/B016FEWDKE

Removal Tools
Headlight removal takes a phillips screwdriver and a 10mm wrench and nut driver, or better yet, a deep-well 10mm socket on a 6" extension and cordless drill or driver (always use a torque setting set as light as possible to get the job done)

Disassembly
While disassembling the headlights I managed to either brake a retaining ring off one of the adjusters or it was old and cracked. So there's that too.

I took measurement of the adjusters based on the amount of thread sticking out the back of each adjuster and wrote it on the housings with a silver paint marker. This adjustment will likely need to change, but it's a good starting point from how the lenses were adjusted before disassembly.

TIP: most all of the plastic on factory headlamps (and the entire vehicle) is going to be brittle, be very careful and make a list of what replace as you break it.

I saved all parts removed from each headlamp in a plastic baggie labeled either L or R, and stripped the head lamps for baking and glass removal.

I baked them glass down in a 250° F oven for 8 minutes, one at a time, glass side down on the oven rack. I then wore my MECHANICS GLOVES to handle the hot assembly and removed the clips with a small screwdriver.

Using a flat blade screwdriver, the glass easily pulled out of the housings because there was ONLY A SINGLE LINE OF GLUE ALONG THE TOP. Not sure if this was factory, or the PO had some headlamp work done wrong. ISO headlamp glue at this point, but decided to move forward regardless.

Disassembly Tools
Headlight disassembly takes a phillips screwdriver, a straight blade screwdriver, mechanix gloves or similar, needle nose pliers, oven timer, oven and a 10mm wrench and nut driver, or again a deep-well 10mm socket on a 6" extension and cordless drill or driver (always use a torque setting set as light as possible to get the job done)

 

[octanejunkie]

Mock up and prepping for paint

Similar to how I prepped my marker housings for paint, I did basically the same with the head lamps. Taped off the reflectors and scuffed the shiny parts for primer and paint. Tape first to protect the glue that remains behind from snagging dirt and dust. I used 000 steel wool to get in all the little nooks and crannies.

I then test fitted the projectors and realized that the solenoid connector was pretty big, so I found a good "compartment" on the back pf the housing ring I could hog out with a Dremel that would be large enough for the connector to pass.

I then dusted out the bowls really well, and wiped down with a old t-shirt, clean but liberally soaked in rubbing alcohol to remove any remaining dust and debris. Once that dried (a few mins) I wiped the bowls down with a microfiber cloth and took to the paint lab.

 

[octanejunkie]

Paint, fitting housings and reassembly - 2 days later

So I placed the housings on a board on my patio and primered the bowls with plastic primer in several light coats, making even passes, and letting dry for 3 mins on a timer in between coats.

Following the directions on the top coat paint can, a brief wait and right into shooting black, also applied in many light coats between timed waits.

TIP: make sure the primer and paint you choose will tolerate the heat of both baking the glass back on as well as the heat from the projector inside the housing BEFORE you begin or you will be re-doing this project

Fitting
Mocking up the projector in the housing wasn't tough, but it showed me that the shrouds I ordered would not fit without scraping the bottom of the housing, tilting the projector up. So that had to be addressed.

I happend to have a standing belt sander with wheel attachment so grinding the shrouds was easy, but the heat from abrasion melts the plastic as much as it grinds it.

TIP: If grinding or derailing this plastic, go slow, wear goggles and be careful

I "faced" the bottoms of the shrouds on the grinder an equal amount, as best as I could and then used a Dremel and a file to make 90° edges. I didn't want to leave thinner bits of plastic to melt or deform.

After cutting down the shrouds, they fit inside the housing leaving an 1/8" between the floor of the housing, so no contact. I was satisfied.

Reassembly
So moving forward, I knew I'd need to reopen my headlights to re-bake them once I got new glue, but I need headlamps to drive and my 4runner is my daily driver, so I put it all together.

Routed the halo wiring through the hole I cut in the reflector bowl with the solenoid wiring and assembled for baking. Using a 250° F pre-heated oven, I baked the housings glass side down, for 8 minutes each and made sure the wiring was not leaning against any metal (studs) so as not to melt from contact.

TIP: before assembling the lens back onto the housing is a great time to clean and dust both pieces thoroughly. I used compressed air, a brush and a tack cloth to clean out both pieces. I even used alcohol inside the lens glass to get it as clean as possible. When reassembled and running, dust on the lens will show up.

Wearing Mechanix gloves, the housings easily pressed together by hand and the clips clipped right back on. I waited form them to cool off and when cool to the touch, reattached the rubber vent hoses and any plastics removed from the lens hosting. Then I reassembled the lens housing back onto the frame brackets taking special care not to cross thread the adjusters on the screw studs.

TIP: When starting the plastic adjusters onto the metal studs, line both sides up and turn your 10mm backwards (counterclockwise like you're loosening the bolts) until you feel the "click" of the threads jumping, then slowly turn clockwise to engage the threads tighten. No cross threading this way, or at least less chance.

Screw the adjusters ALL THE WAY DOWN so you can easily engage the pin stud in the top outside corner, and then the spring on the lower inboard side, then back the adjusters back out and set an approximate adjustment.

Since I tool measurements of the thread "showing" out the back of the adjusters, I set my adjustments to that, and then down to the car to install the headlights back on.

 

[octanejunkie]

Wiring, aiming and the zen of 4runner mechanics

I have to say the design of the front sheetmetal and grille/lights is near genius on the 3rd Gen 4runner, two tools and 10 minutes of you know what you're doing. It goes back faster than it comes apart. That said, the location of the lower adjuster bolt is not super easy to get to, but it's not impossible.

Installing the wiring harness was easy, but time consuming. You want to mock this up and measure everything before committing to a routing or locations. I removed the batter and airbag for easier access and maneuverability while installing the wiring. You definitely want to be careful when working around your battery to not cause a short and damage components or injure yourself.

TIP: everyone always says not to put a battery directly on the ground or it will self-discharge, even though it's in a non-conductive plastic housing. I put mine in the cargo area while working up front to be safe.

I chose to mount the DDM relay and ballasts up high in the engine bay, no brackets were supplied so direct they went. The wire was routed and secured to the existing wiring harness as much as possible, and wiring for the passenger side was routed along the underside of the radiator bracket and secured with zip ties through the existing holes. All zip ties start out loose you can fine-tune locations of things.

I used existing bolt locations for the grounds, and routed the used power wired from the HID harness into the positive connector itself from the rear for ease and comfort. I installed the bulbs and D2 connectors and then started securing the wiring harness with the zip ties making sure there was enough slack to disconnect and reconnect everything that needs servicing.

I routed the solenoid and halo cabling in a 1/4" split loom that tucked into the hole I cut into the reflector bowl and routed them upwards. These are the only two wires that do not have weathertight connections, but they need to be separated in the future if you remove the headlights from the vehicle - like I will when I reseal the lenses.

Passenger side wiring

Driver's side wiring

Powering the relay
The black cable running off the stud to the rear is the fused relay power cable

The inline fuse holder can be seen tucked agains the fuse box and the frame

The exterior

 

[octanejunkie]

Check your aim, son

Since it wasn't dark yet, I had dinner and did some other not-truck stuff, but then took my first measurement.

I followed the directions in THIS ARTICLE and measured to the center of the headlamp/projector lens (this was 36") while the vehicle was on level ground

Parking 20' from a wall, I measure the height of the cut off - it was exactly 36" - which means I need to adjust downwards about 2" to get the cut off to 34"

Here is a first shot of the cutoff inside my garage

I will complete aiming the lamps as soon as time allows, for now lowering them a touch.

Not a bad setup for 2 day's work and about $225 in materials. Much of the time in this project had to do more with paint than anything else. If you choose NOT to paint your reflectors, and there is really no reason to do so, you can knock this project out in less than a day, or in under a 12 pack. But no test driving if you're timing with beers. hwell:

Next up will be wiring in the Halos as DRLs. Stay tuned :biggrin1: