HID bulb with stock housing and projector? (1 Viewer)

[TAckhouse1]

Hey all -

Like many I've been underwhelmed with the stock headlights on the LX 470. I know the full headlight HID retrofit exists, and you can purchase the "turn key" package for ~$1800, but that's a lot of coin on a nearly 20 year old SUV.

I recently saw that many in the Porsche 911 993 community are swearing by Bergvill for their HID conversion kit. The 993 like the LX uses a H1 bulb and has projectors from the factory. The price of $130 obviously has me intrigued.

I realize this will not produce as good of results as a retrofit with Morimoto hardware, but would this produce more light with an even beam pattern as compared to the stock halogen bulbs?

T-LIGHT v3 Porsche 993 Low Beam HID kit 4300K - BERGVILL F/X

High Intensity Discharge (xenon) low beam light kit, specially designed for the Porsche 993 with easy installation inside the headlight enclosure. Installation time is 15-20 minutes without the need o

www.bergvillfx.com

 

[MongooseGA]

I had a drop-in set up in my old SC400. They will put out more light than a factory halogen bulb, for sure. It'll be noticeable less clear and targeted, IMO, than the beam out of a dedicated HID projector. Not to mention the ballasts and wiring harnesses that go in to a proper retrofit.

 

[LandyOverLand]

They work out pretty well. It's not on par with a retro, obviously, but it's a good improvement over halogen and it's cost effective. No extraneous glare as in most projectors.

I had to file down the bulb slot slightly to fit in my Morimoto H1s, the return wire was a little too thick to fit in.

 

[TAckhouse1]

Thanks for the feedback, this sounds like a "good enough" improvement for me.

 

[Luke111]

Another option add 2 wide beam HXB 4 Banger PODs for $500,00 and have this output. I mounted the wide beam and spot beam in my bumper and this output is just the wide beam, My headlights are off. It’s hard to describe how incredible the output is. They have a less expensive NCS Pod but there’s no comparison to the HXB. First shot is with all lights off…second is just the HXB wide beam

https://www.theretrofitsource.com/TRS-Morimoto-4Banger-LED-Pods-HXB-Wide-Beam

 

[wbwufpack]

This is the direction I am leaning. Just leave the stock headlights alone and had some good aftermarket projectors to the steel bumper and call it a day.
I actually have a pair of Baja Designs fog lights mounted in the ARB bumper right now but find that I really don't use them that much out of fear of blinding on coming traffic. I have been considering replacing them with some driving lights that have a sharper cut off for use on the road.

 

[TAckhouse1]

They work out pretty well. It's not on par with a retro, obviously, but it's a good improvement over halogen and it's cost effective. No extraneous glare as in most projectors.

I had to file down the bulb slot slightly to fit in my Morimoto H1s, the return wire was a little too thick to fit in.

Do you have any pictures of your install? Also wondering where I should mount the ballast?

 

[Rebus Knebus]

Do you have any pictures of your install? Also wondering where I should mount the ballast?

I mounted my ballasts under the headlights. Got the idea from this thread: LX470 HID Retrofit Project - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/lx470-hid-retrofit-project.1124081/page-3#post-12652075

I already had some rivnuts, so I just JB welded them in as inserts. My plates are an odd shape because that’s what I had in my scrap pile. I did my fogs also, so there are two ballasts stacked under each headlight.