Depo retrofit with Morimoto M-Led 2.0’s and Profile Hi-Lens led high beams. (1 Viewer)

[ERG80]

This was my first attempt at a headlight retrofit. I read several other write-ups on ih8mud as a guide/ confidence booster. The other threads are very informative but didn’t cover the extra work of fitting Morimoto mleds. The mleds have a heat sink/fan making them a longer/chunkier projector so they don’t fit without quite a bit of trimming and jb weld. I’m happy with the results:

*Morimoto mini D2s are as close to plug and play as possible and would be a much easier projector to retrofit than MLED 2.0s.

Thank you to @White Sheep and @2000UZJ for your time and answering retrofit newb questions.

Guides I used:

D2S / 2Stroke LED DEPO Retrofit

I know the D2S Depo retrofit is buried in another thread which I'll link and I recently completed a quad setup for my 80 and this retrofit was just completed for a member running the same setup in their LX470. Clearance for the D2S is the issue so removing the pivot point and replacing it with a...

forum.ih8mud.com

HID retrofit how to - Depos and morimoto mini d2s projectors

I ordered a set of mini h1 projectors for my LX470 from @Luke111 and saw his amazing hid retrofit pics for the 80 series. Well I figured I already have a ton of lights on the 80 so why not make the ones that get the most use better. I talked with nick @2000UZJ to get some help with building a...

forum.ih8mud.com

Inspiration for the retrofit combination:

Builds - Call me Deacon Blues

I'm not going to do a part time kit after chatting with a few others. Spent a few hours last night stretching this leather steering wheel cover on. Man, that looks great! Talk about the decision not to do part time 4wd now?

forum.ih8mud.com

Videos:

 

[ERG80]

You’ll need the depos:

Headlight DEPO 212-1173PXLD-E. Buy online at Cars245

Buy Headlight by DEPO. Best price on car parts 🚙 and worldwide delivery ❗️ DEPO 212-1173PXLD-E

cars245.com

Keep an eye out for discount codes here;

Auto Parts Discounts and Coupon Codes – Good Deals at Cars245 Automotive parts

✔ Learn about actual Discounts and Coupons. Get auto parts with fast world wide shipping. Wide range of European and Japan car parts in stock from leading manufacturers.

cars245.com

I got my retrofit supplies at TRS. They have sales often so wait for one:
Morimoto M-Led 2.0

Shopping

www.theretrofitsource.com

profile hi-lens high beams. I opted to not get color changing.

Shopping

www.theretrofitsource.com

***These did not work for me. They trigger the high beams in the mled when the headlights are on whether the high beam switch was activated or not.
High beam splitter to activate the high beams in the mled and profile hi-lens:
9005m>9005f/9006f

High Beam Splitters Custom Wiring Parts | TRS H390

Forget about crimp-on wiretaps,

www.theretrofitsource.com

Additional breathers so the led fans can breathe. I added 4 in each depo.
https://www.theretrofitsource.com/bolt-on-breather-vent-Breather-B?quantity=1

Shrouds for the mled and hi-lens

https://www.theretrofitsource.com/e46-r-S-E46R?quantity=1

Butyl to reseal

Morimoto RetroRubber Butyl Glue Pro Headlight Sealant | TRS SWGPCK1

Seal your headlights up like we do here at the shop with Morimoto RetroRubber Butyl Glue. Pro tools and Pro results. The Retrofit Source

www.theretrofitsource.com

Get dietetic grease too.

The depos are a little over $200 and the retrofit goodys are a little over $500. (As of December 2023)

 

[ERG80]

Before baking you have to disassemble the depo. Remove the screws and pull the chrome trim. Then remove the clips holding the glass to the housing. Then remove the rubber breathers and dust shields. Under the dust shields remove the screw holding the wire clip and the screw holding the reflector shield.

 

[ERG80]

More Disassembly.

 

[ERG80]

I don’t have any photos of baking or prying the depos apart. This video and the other threads linked above do a good job explaining the process. I baked at 270 for 7 minutes but couldn’t pry it apart without worrying about damage so I kept putting it in the oven for 2 additional minutes until the butyl softened up. I probably baked it a total of 15 minutes to get it apart.

 

[ERG80]

Once apart use an 8mm socket on the adjusters to adjust the bowls out of the housing. The Phillips head strips easily so a socket worked better for me.
You’ll also have to pinch the tabs in on this little plastic piece to free the bowls. There’s one of those plastic pieces on both bowls and sometimes the tabs are hard to reach.

 

[ERG80]

High beams. Profile Hi-lens

Below is a picture of the high beam bowl still in the housing before sanding or opening up the hole.

Once the high beam bowl was pulled I used a belt sander to get the back of it almost completely flat. After that I used a file and slowly filed a hole the profile hi-lens mounting shaft would fit into.

Then it’s just a matter of threading the wires in the hole, inserting the shaft, and screwing on a washer and lock nut.

@Hurleyburly

 

[ERG80]

here it is sitting back in the housing waiting to be aimed and blobbed with jb weld so it never moves in the bowl again.
Below that is the installation instructions from Morimoto.

 

[ERG80]

Low beams. Morimoto M-Led 2.0

Pull the bowls like above. Then sand down the back of the bowls like above. If you were installing the d2s hid you could clean things up and install them then wire them up and be done.
But I like the stress. So I cut a huge hole in the reflector bowl.

With such a big hole I couldn’t figure out how i could get the projector to sit in the bowls, in the proper orientation, without moving for the aiming process. I decided to make a mounting bracket, that’s parallel to the back of the housing, I could bolt the projector onto for adjusting before the final jb weld. The bracket consisted of a 1/2” spacer out of scrap aluminum and a mounting bracket out of 1/8” aluminum coupons I had sitting around. Jb weld the bracket to the housing, then jb the trimmed up coupon onto that bracket after measuring and drilling mounting holes and a hole for the wiring.

 

[ERG80]

More pics of the bracket spacer and Mled mounted in place. The hollow bracket gives me access to apply jb weld in more places.

 

[ERG80]

More pics of the bracket and Morimoto’s installation instructions.

 

[ERG80]

Pics

 

[ERG80]

I am able to add three bolts to stabilize the mled.

I would also added at least 2 -4 long bolts to really secure the projector in the reflector once you adjust the cutoff. JB Weld is great but the weight of the projector along with vibration from driving the JB Weld may not hold up.

Teaser of the high beam in the mist.

 

[ERG80]

I purchased a set of 75mm and 100mm dome shaped dust caps from TRS to try. P/n a310 and a280. They seem to be good quality and thick rubber. The 75mm are super tight and the 100mm are loose to the point I would add rtv. Both are useable but not perfect so I ordered 80mm and 95mm from Amazon to try. Quality of the Amazon caps seemed much worse. They’re very thin and didn’t seem to fit any better.

I am going to reuse the depo dust caps.

For the high beams pull out the plastic insert and push the center of the dust cap inside out. For the insert, push out the metal connectors and and drill a small hole in the middle for the three wires. I’ll rtv around them the seal the hole and wires with some sort of goop when I’m all done.

For the low beam push the center of the dust cap inside out. Take the plastic insert and drill a hole it it just big enough to push the wires through. Then just feed the wire it in. The rubber grommet on the wiring will fit tightly in the insert and will seal nicely.

Factory caps and inserts installed.

 

[ERG80]

Here are some very unscientific before shots of the high and low beam. Stock headlight housings upgraded with the below Phillips bulbs in the high and low position.
Link to bulbs: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000C8XRHS?tag=ihco-20
The pictures look like a big white blob on the garage door but in real life I can see all the rectangles and panels on the door much better.

And the MLed 2.0 low beams only.

 

[ERG80]

I added 4 additional breather vents per housing.
I was able to use a shroud on all 4 projectors.
Dust seals are finished.
I reused the chrome trim from the old lights.

I have not connected the high input on the mleds yet because the hi beam function stays activated. I think I will be even more impressed with light output if I get that figured out.

I’m extremely happy with the light output. Huge improvement over the stock lights in both high and low.

 

[shellb]

Place holder so that I can thank you

 

[ERG80]

Place holder so that I can thank you

Haha. Better wait for that until it’s done. My work usually looks worse than preschool craft day.

 

[lumbee1]

Very interested in this. The MLEDs are significantly brighter than the miniD2S but as you said, the miniD2S is plug and play and the MLED requires cutting of the reflector along with JBweld to hold them in place. I was really close to purchasing the D2S but I'll wait for your thorough and comprehensive step by step DIY howto first

 

[Luke111]

This should be a great retrofit if you can get it to fit without hacking up the back of the housing. Getting the D2S to fit without hitting the glass required a few small internal changes and the MLED is longer and has the fan hanging off the bottom. Can you really geat this to fit and seal the back? If you can, make sure to add a couple of breather vents in the back of the housing for additional cooling. I etrofitted the MLED 2.0 into a LX housing and it required a bit of cutting for clearance and was a PITA to seal up. In the end I was disappointed... I was expecting a huge difference in output over the D2S and that was not the case, yes the MLED has a brighter hot spot when measured with a LUX METER but the D2S is pretty impressive and produces a wider beam pattern. There are a lot of thing to like about the MLED but the work required to get it to fit is not paid off in output.

https://www.theretrofitsource.com/bolt-on-breather-vent-Breather-B?quantity=1