BMcEL

I ran (4) 130w KC Daylighters and a 1000w class D amp pushing two 12" Diamond D6 subs for a few years...never had a problem with the stock alternator. Just don't bump at idle with all your lights on lol. But if you have the money to upgrade it, it's money well spent.

As far as upgrading your stock headlights goes, you could open them up, try to sand/polish the inside of the housings flat for your HIDs, and install a legit projector retrofit...or accept the fact that they were designed for halogens and install a relay harness and performance halogens.

The PnP HIDs look cool and will be better than cheap halogen bulbs, but you gotta think about the people with less than perfect night vision. Not everyone can see the road clearly at night, especially in wet conditions, and reflected HIDs are going to glare like crazy.

I admit my opinion is biased as I used to have bad night vision pre-lasik (PRK), but I also know how bad it effing blows to come around the corner at night on a snowy mountain pass with improperly setup HIDs in your face.

Just sayin.

exist

You actually do have a few options with your composite lights.. You can sand the fluting down or, you can still run projectors in fluted lights - they wont be as good as clear lenses - but they wont be near as bad as reflector hids..

Or..

You can make a lexan copy of your lens, or a vacuum formed lexan cover so you have extra room inside the housing so you don't have to mount your projector as far back in the housing...

Just an idea.. As I find the info I dug up that a friend with a 93 T4R asked me to do a retro on his rig, I'll post in this thread for you (and anyone else) who wants to do things the right way. Hids in halogen housings just throw light everywhere except where it's the most important ..

yotasavg

It makes me so upset that my headlights have that fluting in them!

xxxtreme22r

You know what the fluting is for right?

exist

The fluting on most lenses just diffuses the cut off, making it less sharp - in the cases I've seen it doesn't cause enough glare to be incredibly distracting (like hids in reflectors with heavily fluted lenses like 4R's..

http://volvospeed.com/vs_forum/topic...-glass-lenses/

however.

camo31_10.50

i heard the fluting is there to spread the light?



so you're saying i can sand the fluting down, and the lenses will be perfectly clear? i'll need to see someone else do that before i jump into that.



wtf would be the point in doing a proper retrofit behind the fluted lenses....that's gonna defeat the purpose and still not be as good as just plain ole hid's in the housings.







to be honest i NEVER thought about getting a piece of Lexan and making my own lenses.....that's actually a pretty dang good idea...until the Lexan started to scratch(which it would)
This new thought is very interesting though, very interesting indeed. if i end up keeping the 4runner for an extended period of time then i believe i will attempt this. PROPERLY. with a set of FXR projectors.

Doesn't seem too hard, bake the housing to get the stock fluted lens off.

copy the shape of the lens to a piece of Lexan, test fit it in the housing and trim to a good snug and proper fit.

put the projectors in the housings (however you'd do that...adhesive has been used in some retrofits) slap the piece of Lexan onto the housing with a good nice bead of adhesive and voila, bingo bango, a decent retrofit.





Atleast that's how it goes in my head? lol

xxxtreme22r

The fluting is there to spread the light not create a cutoff, but it's mainly to direct the light to light up road signs. This is why when HIDs go into reflector housings it tends to blind oncoming drivers.

exist

With resealing you use window sealant - octibutyl bull˟˟˟˟.. Napa sells it as well as everyone else. Comes apart with heat (gets stretchy etc.)

With fluting and a projector you'll have a little glare above the cut off and the cutoff itself wont be as sharp. That being said, to assume that a projector + hid + fluted lens wont be as good as a hid in a reflector headlight is totally absurd. When you look at fluted lights AND reflected hids you get a wall of light when you look at them, every flute lights up BECAUSE the reflector spreads the light out .. When you use a projector the flutes /above/ the projectors cutoff wont be lit up, and wont glare.. I have flutes in my headlights and only the middle flute has any light - and even then it doesn't light up like the reflector bulbs made it light up..

I'll snag a fluted lens and place it over my headlights in the next bit and post pics so you can get a vague idea of what it'll be like with projectors and flutes..

Dead serious, though ... reflector + flutes + hids is a terrible mix, my friend has the same setup and his lights are ˟˟˟˟ing brutal..

I wonder if there are e-code lenses for 4runners like there are for 7x6 housings ... Another friend has e-codes with 6000k hids and they don't have the width or intensity of mine, but they don't glare like crazy compared to DOT lenses.

Something else to think about..

camo31_10.50

mine are not bad AT ALL.....i dont have any pics yet, but i havent been flashed by anyone, and i probably passed a couple thousand cars since yesterday.


i only have one pic as i have yet to find a building or something to show the pattern.

it's during the day around noon, so it doesnt do any justice. just shows how much brighter it is.



the pattern is EXACTLY the same as it was with my halogens, just a hell of a lot brighter. i can see about 3x's better with these HID's.


i remember looking at Mak's first couple of pics and his were very very bad with the glare, but i promise. mine aren't bad at all!



although mine are adjusted down farther than his. lol


more pics to come!

exist

lol it's the afternoon and that glare is terrible.. and my laptop is at like half brightness..

Notice the glare from your lights and how high you are above them ? You'll look like this to drivers..

Compared to being literally 6 inches from my light, aimed right at it - but an inch or so above my cutoff..


Just because people aren't flashing you, doesn't mean you aren't blinding them. I had my highbeams on by accident and nobody flashed me - and that's a hell of a lot of light in someones face..

camo31_10.50

i've even followed behind cops, i'm friends with one cop and i even asked him "are my lights too bright for ya?" and he said they're pretty bright, but not bright enough to hurt anything.


my passenger side light is aimed a little bit to the right, and my driverside light is aimed to the right and down a little, if people start flashing me then i'll do something about it. but so far i got nothing. except for some dang good lights!

BMcEL

We need some night shots so we can judge the glare!

camo31_10.50

i won't lie the glare is there, but it's not bad enough for other drivers apparently....

i'll post some though, cuz i know alot of people will give me hell over it

oh and btw it was raining when i took the pics so they're worse than they look

camo31_10.50

that's about 10yds to that apartment building (no one was home at the time lol) and my truck is on a bit of an incline so the headlights point up....


that concrete wall is about 25-30yds away flat ground


that WET, METAL building is about 15-20 yds away.



i like how it's got a cutoff goin on....lol



that house is about 85-90 yds away (yes they were home...poor people) and the ditch was about 35-40





wow, these looked ALOT better on my phone than they do on here.....take with my Iphone 4

BMcEL

They're always worse than they look...

I know for a fact the glare is there without even seeing them...they're HIDs in fluted reflector housings! If a cop said they're ok, you're probably not gonna get hassled by the police, but, that doesn't mean you're not gonna annoy people who are sensitive to glare.

There was a point in time where I didn't give a crap, or know any better, (hence my old fake projector housings and PnP HIDs), but eventually (hopefully) you'll 'see the light' and do a proper projector retrofit or install some good halogens on a relay harness.

For now I can't blame ya for wanting the extra light, even if it is at the expense of other drivers. Looking forward to the pics.

BMcEL

Ya beat me...

You'd probably benefit from moving your passenger light to the right a little. Now we just need some glare shots.

camo31_10.50

my passenger light is moved to the right a little LOL..

both lights aim like this //.....just not as bad...more like /| lol

i had my hallogens aimed like || that...but they still sucked peter...and paul.



i'm afraid to post the shots of me standing in front of my truck from about 100yds away taking pics.....it might get ugly in here lol

the iphone doesnt do well with bright light....its just a big white blur...even my halogens were the same way...i took pics of my reverse lights and it even those at 55w were too bright for it

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

i already see the glare shot

BMcEL

Haha I know, right.

Either way, we need some pics from the business end...and no blaming it on the camera.

b0n3mast3r

here are mine