HID install - additional adjustments? (1 Viewer)

[RiverRatMatt]

Okay, I've been going through a bit of a saga trying to upgrade my low beams without doing a projector refit. Tonight I was thinking about it and even with the stock projectors, I should be getting a good focal point and decent light, just less than if I had retrofit the lenses.

For those that missed my other thread, the Morimoto Elite H1 kit I installed looks more like bright fog lights than low beams. In the comparison pics below you can see that the HID does not have the same focal point and throw as the H1 bulb does:

In this thread, PADDO said "Had to tweak the headlight assy bulb seats with a jewelers file to correctly seat the new xenon bulbs," does anyone have specifics on this? I plugged the HID back in and with the light on, unclipped the bulb and played around with it a bit, it seemed like if I tilted the bulb downward (pulled up on the back) it came closer to the proper focal point. Further, the full retrofits are just changing the lenses, not the actual assembly or H1 bracket.

So are there additional adjustments I need to do to make these work? Any pictures or anything ?

 

[Luke111]

Since you're this far into trying to improve your lighting ... pick up one of my brackets and you'll have the lighting you desire. You have the harness, bulbs and ballast so all you need is the Mini H1, Moto Holders a few hours to install or I'll build you a set of lights and you have this.
You'll get a modest improvement trying to shim the bulb in the stock projectors

 

[bamabrock]

LX Headlight Upgrade Database


I would jump straight to replacing the projector using Luke's kit since you already have the best HID kit and just need to focus the output but this is the thread for lx headlight upgrades.

 

[PADDO]

Okay, I've been going through a bit of a saga trying to upgrade my low beams without doing a projector refit. Tonight I was thinking about it and even with the stock projectors, I should be getting a good focal point and decent light, just less than if I had retrofit the lenses.

For those that missed my other thread, the Morimoto Elite H1 kit I installed looks more like bright fog lights than low beams. In the comparison pics below you can see that the HID does not have the same focal point and throw as the H1 bulb does:

In this thread, PADDO said "Had to tweak the headlight assy bulb seats with a jewelers file to correctly seat the new xenon bulbs," does anyone have specifics on this? I plugged the HID back in and with the light on, unclipped the bulb and played around with it a bit, it seemed like if I tilted the bulb downward (pulled up on the back) it came closer to the proper focal point. Further, the full retrofits are just changing the lenses, not the actual assembly or H1 bracket.

So are there additional adjustments I need to do to make these work? Any pictures or anything ?

I was referring to slightly enlarging the aperture in the OE headlight base holder to accept the marginally bigger HID bulb tube. Back then, 2012, the xenon Depot HIDs in OE projectors seemed an improvement to me over short lived high output halogens - I did have a better focus and more defined cutoff than your pics suggest though. Since then I’ve gone to the mini H1 with @Luke111 brackets which is a terrific setup. There’s so many reasons why fiddling with HIDs in OE halogen projectors isn’t worth the effort - the focal lengths and undefined cutoffs, close in light saturation and poor distance projection, different emission profiles of the HID arc compared to halogen filaments, squirrel finders etc.

 

[RiverRatMatt]

Since you're this far into trying to improve your lighting ... pick up one of my brackets and you'll have the lighting you desire. You have the harness, bulbs and ballast so all you need is the Mini H1, Moto Holders a few hours to install or I'll build you a set of lights and you have this.
You'll get a modest improvement trying to shim the bulb in the stock projectors

Yeah, this really is my best option. So you sell fully retrofit lights? I wouldn't mind getting a new set anyway as my passenger side high beam has a big chunk chipped through. How much $?

 

[MN CZ]

I second the opinion of others. Tried the same route as you, HID kit only. Not satisfied at all, and removed last week. Honestly, as some have commented, the stock H1 halogen setup is decent. Not great, decent. Coming from an LS430, I was spoiled.

That said, I think it should be pounded into everyone's head that the only way to upgrade is fully upgrade. Daniel Stern has good advice about this, and I also found a Q/A with a state trooper that confirms.

 

[bamabrock]

I second the opinion of others. Tried the same route as you, HID kit only. Not satisfied at all, and removed last week. Honestly, as some have commented, the stock H1 halogen setup is decent. Not great, decent. Coming from an LS430, I was spoiled.

That said, I think it should be pounded into everyone's head that the only way to upgrade is fully upgrade. Daniel Stern has good advice about this, and I also found a Q/A with a state trooper that confirms.

Just buy the MH1 projectors and luke's brackets and you will have output that rivals the LS.

 

[Luke111]

Yeah, this really is my best option. So you sell fully retrofit lights? I wouldn't mind getting a new set anyway as my passenger side high beam has a big chunk chipped through. How much $?

$1450.00 plus shipping for the Mini H1 or $1750.00 for the D2S .. add $40.00 for glass lenses