michalik_piotr

Ok, this will not be so much of a step by step write up as I don't have the patience for that but more of a review and my experience with the instal, etc. with lots of pictures to hopefully help you decide on this mod and answer any questions.

First off, one of my OEM headlights got a rock hole in it and took on water so I replaced them with a cheap pair off Ebay. Do NOT buy these, they are horrible. Adjusters strip fast and the light pattern is real bad...hot spots and "fingers" on the road, no good way to aim them.

Then I make matters worse and get a 50 watt HID kit off Ebay for $80. Not sure if it really was 50 watts b/c it did not seem brighter then 35 watt HID's I've had on other cars. It did have the shields on the H4 bulbs so glare was minimal and I never got flashed. It was low's only. Still crappy pattern which bugged me so on to this...

I decided to try out the Ebay "len" projector kit. I was originally going to just buy the reflectors for $80 since I already had bulbs/ballasts but spent the extra $40 and got the whole kit (figured it be good to have spares). Glad I did as the base of the bulbs that came with the kit is D2S not H4. Note, they have an extra cut out in them to clear the CFL angel eye wires so you would have to mod regular D2S bulbs. I got the kit from a China seller oh_my_car_so_cool or some crap like that. Said 4 days for delivery but took two weeks.

Here is the package:




Here is everything inside it:



As you can see on the box it mentions something about 7 colors for the angel eyes.... well, that was not the option at time of ordering and I requested the 5k bulbs with white angel eyes and H4 fitment for the projectors. I dont' care about angel eyes or especially color changing ones.
Kit was pretty complete as you can see. Not bad quality for the $ too.

My dog was not impressed...



The instructions and translations were dubious and funny at best so you better have some clue as to what you're doing:







I like lots of pics so hope you don't mind...

Now on to the install and finished product:
Took me about 8hrs yeasterday! Note: do NOT take apart the complete headlight ie: the back "base" of it, just stick the whole thing in the oven. I took apart the first one and lost about 2hrs doing it and stripped the adjusters even more. Note: do NOT use the provided sealant, I did b/c I was cheap and then realized it did in fact dry gray! Bake your lights 20min not 10 to take lens off. I also bought bbq paint and sprayed the projectors and reflectors black as you can see.



Other things you might see is that I welded shut (actually my best friend did) the standard turn sig lens holes on the TJM, didn't like them and they always leaked. I also added yellow fogs and tinted all my lights w/ VHT night shades. Also I added Land Rover side markers and made them blink with the corner lights into which I added new sockets and 1004 bulbs.

Ok, close up last night after instal...some fogging in there, why? Don't know, but its gone today.



Just a pic of the rear running lights:


Front shot:


Angel eyes and Hi beams are NOT operational now b/c all i did was swap out the ballasts and hook everything up to my old wiring I had b/c a. I liked the set up, has a relay and b. did not have time and never needed high beams when running HID's anyways. Someday though I will install the controllers and hook up the high beams and angel eyes and will post pics when I do.



Getting bored yet? Output pics coming up....

Intermission hipster joke: How many hipsters does it take to screw in a light bulb? Shut up, you weren't there.

Land Rover side marker off, with original pig tail and all sealed up with new oring and gasket. Yes, my truck is dirty!



Rear with lights off. Some day I'd like to get the smoked LED tails. Pics taken in a parking garage at night.


Now, about 50ft away from a wall at night during the rain:


Cut off line on the side:




These are pics from today, same garage but day time.
Cut off head on from about 25ft away. I could aim them a few inches lower but so far have not been flashed. Side to side is good, I think.


Brake lights, not "I love my Toyota" sticker behind my dog on the rollbar.


Same pic as above but with my fogs filling in, look close and you can see:


Now head on:


With my Hella 500s on:
Not as bright obviously but good for long range and eventually I will go with an HID set up for "off road" lights too.

Same thing, head on. All sorts of rainbow there...


Head on now. Headlight lenses are NOT smoked. Maybe some Hella Black magic's would be nice....


Turn signals/corner lights and side markers in action:


Ok....done.... Conclusion? Product worth the $? Yes. Light output? Fantastic, 100% improvement with a nice clean cut off (and option for high beams and angel eyes). Effort of putting them in worth it? Debatable. Ask me in a few days... it was a huge PITA to take lights out and apart as well as painting everything (which I know I did not have to do), putting it back together, etc. And, this is minus the wiring since I already had that done.

PS, don't ask me to make a conversion for you, you could not pay me enough. Glad I don't have kids b/c the swear jar would be full!

Overall, I'd say I am so far very pleased with the looks and performance of this mod and happy with the product itself just not the labor involved.

(Just previewed my post and I have to say the color of the 5k temp is not as blue in real life. They did not have 4300 which is what I had in my "50 watt" kit and what I wanted).

xskydivingdudex

looks really good dude... Im thinking bout going with either the 6000k or 5000k bulbs but im not sure wat color i want for sure yet. So u said u used bbq paint? Im thinking bout painting my headlights black on te interior like urs but i have a silverish gold color so do u think itll look funny?

michalik_piotr

Thanks. No, I used the 35watt ballasts that came with the kit b/c I *had* to use the "d2s" based bulbs that came with the kit (mine were h4 based and had shields and I did not want to take a gamble on using my "50watt" ballasts on the off chance they really were 50watts). Black inside the headlights might look odd on a silver truck but you won't know if you like it till you try it. Yes, I did use bbq paint b/c of the 1200 degree resistance (I know, waaay more then I needed) b/c I did not want to take a risk of the paint melting when re-baking the lights to re-seal. Do research and you will see that 4300 is what most manufactureres use as OEM as it puts out the most lumens, after that it just gets dimmer and more blue/purple. I would not go over 6k. I had 8k in one of my BMW's and it was OK, but def blueish vs. white.

ps, as far as ease of install and prolly for a *5th* of the cost of piecing OEM ballsts/projectors and real Phillips bulbs, quality and results are close enough and good enough in my book. Leaves me $400 to use for something else.

xskydivingdudex

Ya i plan on getting the e46 projectors that MillerPKA has and the DDM tuning 35w HIDs but im wondering how the 5000k color looks in person. Can u see the blue tint or does it look just straight white? i want a small hint of blue but not too much like the 8k. IM still unsure if i wanna paint the housing but where can u buy bbq paint?

michalik_piotr

Yes, you can see a small hint of blue at the cut off line and also when you look at it from certain angles, so ya, it depends I guess. BBQ paint should be everywhere, from Fred Meyers to your local auto parts store (thats where I found mine, think its a Kraylon), header paint would work too but it was 2x the $ as bbq paint and flat, the bbq paint is semi gloss.

xskydivingdudex

ok thnx for all the help dude! ur 4runner looks sick and the HIDs are really nice. U should def get the halos and highs working... just to have

michalik_piotr

Ya, when the weather gets nicer....plus its one of those things that I'm glad its all working how its supposta so why mess with it and go try re-wire it all, you know.

xskydivingdudex

ya i gotcha.. does the hi beam wiring look difficult? im hoping to get mine setup in the next month or so.

michalik_piotr

No, not difficult, just different from what I got... it involves installing that whole "controller" which I assume moves the magnetic shield in the projector for the hi beam and also its where the angel eyes plug into. What I don't like about it though is that it does not have any kind of a relay in the whole harness whereas my current set up does along with one big fuse.... the good thing is that each controller has an inline fuse on the + lead. Only difficult or unclear thing to me is where (if at all) to hook up the "power of caution lights" wires but I'll figure it out. Also I wonder if I can get the angel eyes to light up on the first twist of the light switch along with just the dash lights or only when the headlights are on...if its the later then theres not a lot of sense to them b/c i'm sure they will not be visible.

SigEp4Runner

Whoa! I was expecting to see the same set up I did, but your kit is way different. So there must be other sellers making different kits now. Nice job man, they look good. I like the black look, it looks much better than it would have chrome.

xskydivingdudex

ya dude u can just hook up a relay from the parking lights (first twist) and the halos... well this is wat im gonna do bc i think splicing it inst such a good idea bc ull also be using the low current that the parking light is given. If it had more wattage output it wouldnt be a problem but relay is safer...

michalik_piotr

Sig, just read your write up... You're right, they are different! I didn't even realize it, I saw the ones you have on Ebay too. And, after reading your write up I answered my question of "how do your halos wire up". That is different from mine, I did imagine they would wire up like yours but no, they have a plug that plugs into the "controller" (which is also what I assumed moves the shield for the hi's). Did your kit come with a controller (an extra box of any kind)? or just the projectors? Wondering what/how the shields move.

Also, not sure if i'm sold on the look of the halo... I like them big like on the BMW's, and on a quad set up. Somehow it just does not look "right" but I will attempt to hook it up at some point...

PS, I will also never go back to running HID's w/o projectors (this was my first try).

michalik_piotr

Yup, I thought about ignoring the "controller" and not running the Hi's and then just splicing the wires off the projectors for the angel eyes into something (instead of pluging them into the controller) but then decided not to b/c of the fillament prolly needed a much lower then 12v current. If I'm going to try it, I think I will just stick to the original design of the whole unit.

MillerPKA

What did you pay for those? Sorry that was way too long to read at the moment so I don't know if you covered it, but 130 bucks got me a lot sicker cutoff from ebay

halos


lows


highs

michalik_piotr

Miller, always loved your truck....its what I want mine to look like someday more or less. $125....and yes, your cut off is cleaner! It looks like mine is more of the "pie" shaped ones you find on European cars (I had ganuine E code projectors on my BMW) vs. the "step" you find on Asian imports.... Eitherway, you should tell us more or post a link if you already have about your kit, I'm curious 'cuz your cut off makes me wish I got that one! Not sure theres anything I can do about my cut off (maybe its the cheap Ebay lights?).

This should be some kind of compilation thread on projector kits (not retros using OEM TL or others).

Ok, just read your build up Miller, if this is what you have (I cut and pasted it):
HID Bi-Xenon Projector Retrofit
- e46 len projectors, 6000k bulb
- white halo surround
- DDM Tuning 35w 6000k digital ballasts
Then thats a lot different then what me and Sig have. An E46 prjector would give you a nice clean cut off like that!

xskydivingdudex

this is the kit he has and i plan to buy...
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/PROJE...#ht_6032wt_902

MillerPKA

That's what I have. I admit I was skeptical at first but if I was ready to burn some money on lights so I took the plunge quick. There seems to be only one vendor of those lights that informs you that you must buy the ballast and they include them, but I ordered my ballasts from DDM tuning a few days after ordering the projectors and they happened to arrive within an hour of each other so it all worked out. I agree on the consolidated thread but I think a write up on mine would be a little redundant because a) yours is pretty good and b) the instructions are pretty easy to follow minus the sloppy translations at times. HAHAHA just up back and looked, halo or angel translates to 'power of caution' lights...I was so confused when I was looking everything over but finally when everything else was hooked up I realized what the left over wires were for haha.

One more thing Mike, you keep on blacking out your truck and that will make the faded and dirty behind the scenes pop out that much more. Check out my build thread somewhere on here or t4r and see how I blacked out the whole front end, ifs and rear end along with the frame. Compliments the exterior like no other

and Skydivingdude, don't know why but the picture that you used for your sig is SICK, don't know why but me likey. Maybe you should get this ladder off of me

michalik_piotr

Ok, I realize why I was so confused now! I went and looked at the item I bought, or so I thought and...ya, they look the same in the pic, hence my confusion: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...=STRK:MEWNX:IT But what I got is what I posted pics of! Oh well. Not suprised b/c the emails I got from them were just as confusing as the instructions and markings on the lights. My "power of caution" wire comes out of the controller box NOT the lights hence my scepticism its the halos.

I know what you mean about the dirty parts... I already sprayed my tail pipe.... meh, easy to do... I'll just keep spraying flat black on , lol.

psraff

I don't want to slam eBay too much because I still get things from them. But too many times getting "truck parts" from the stores on there I've regreted it in the long run. But with that aside, I like going out and looking at these:

http://store.theretrofitsource.com/i...6672cd4c62f6a0

Also, I haven't noticed it before or maybe it's new on their site but they have several companies who will make your lights for you (prices are a little steap at first glance, but if they know what they're doing, know what parts work the best and all you have to supply is your headlights, the price isn't THAT bad). I remember one of the first guys on here to do it spent over a grand and think of how many hours it took him to do the research and build them.

http://store.theretrofitsource.com/pages.php?pID=4

I think when I go to do this, I'll buy one of these kits and do it myself. On the other hand, if that guy on that other thread would do a write up on 4th gen lights in his 3rd gen... I love those lights!

michalik_piotr

4th gen lights in a 3rd gen? Missed that one. Not all 4th gen's had projectors OEM but theres lots of projector aftermarket lights on Ebay. Hella also makes DOT SAE projectors that are meant for retrofits in hi and low beam. They are on their site and are spendy. I think the guy on here from brazil used them to make a horizontal quad (low and hi on each side) set up on his 2nd gen but thats only b/c he had to due to inspections in his country. Looked very cool though.