How To: HID+Projector Retrofit on a 100 Series. (1 Viewer)

[jasoncjung]

I'd really like to do this upgrade, but I'm inexperienced. I've read through the thread and one thing I noticed is that the original instructions don't include any guidance on the wiring that needs to happen upstream of the lights themselves, so am I understanding correctly that this isn't a plug and play? What needs to happen in order to be wired up correctly for this conversion?

Also, any reputable vendors providing this conversion as a service (local to Denver metro a plus)?

I just had BlackFlameCustoms.com do mine. He is in Fort Collins. Tell him Adam with the Black Cruiser sent you.

The wiring is very straight forward - the projectors have picture instructions included. All of the harnesses plug directly into the OEM connectors. You do have to screw/bolt/connect a red/black to your car battery to power the ballasts, but that's a small wrench on the battery connectors. The only "wiring" assembly is for the high beam, which is literally 2 pins you push through the reflector housing - the front side has a connector already assembled that you insert into the projector - the rear is 2 pins which you push/pull the small rubber "boot" over (1 or 2 seconds), and then insert the pins in the right orientation (1 of 2 ways) into the connector provided. If you got it wrong, a toothpick and 1 or 2 more seconds can pull them out and reverse them.

I will say I had much hesitation b/c I was pulling apart the lights, grinding/sanding down the rear of the reflector, assembling stuff, wiring it up, aiming the lights, cutting the bezel (if necessary), re-adjusting the aim etc - but once you get in there and see - if you are a logical person and think about how the angle of the projector works etc, it'll make sense of where and how much to sand. I definitely did assemble it a few times before I got to the sanding.

Another point - the plastic on the reflector housing is very thick/tough, so I used up a few of the very coarse sanding pads (which is fine) - in the beginning I was very delicate with my drill/sanding pads, then later realized I could just go to town and it would still hardly make a dent.

 

[AlpineAccess]

I just had BlackFlameCustoms.com do mine. He is in Fort Collins. Tell him Adam with the Black Cruiser sent you.

His website says New York State sales tax is applicable to all retrofits?

The wiring is essentially plug and play if you order the right setup from TRS or another vendor. This thread did a nice job showing the general steps needed to do this conversion. I would watch a few videos on retrofitting lights in addition to this thread, and plan on giving yourself a full day to work on it.

 

[MongooseGA]

I just had BlackFlameCustoms.com do mine. He is in Fort Collins. Tell him Adam with the Black Cruiser sent you.

LIFESAVER!

Would you mind continuing the conversation over PM? I'd love more info on your experience.

There's also Lou, a contributing vendor to this forum and general-good-guy. He sells all of the parts you'd need and builds complete light kits. @Luke111

I don't know anything about Black Flame but I do like to support small businesses who support our hobby, and Lou does just that.

 

[collk22]

@jon9151 there's info here about the latter lc and lx drl wiring. frogers Build - 2006 LX470

and here, LX470 HID RETROFIT PROJECTOR BRACKET

different set up but same issue, trying to make the high beam two wire 9005 plugs work with a so called BI LED in the high beam slot. like this

View attachment 1881547

So how did you end up making the bi-LED 9005 work? What did you tap into to get the DRL / Demon Eye to work? I assume that by virtue of plugging into 9005 the main light triggers when the highbeams are activated.

 

[jerryb]

honestly I don't remember.
I had an add a fuse on the panel 7.5amp
I think I used that to power the daytime running side of those two pod looking LEDs, routing it through the stock resistor or I sent him (jason) a new resistor to swap out with the stock one. That gives you power when you turn the headlight stalk one position. I used those for a short time and then sold them to Jason with a harness.

High beam part of it is wired normally to a 9005 splitter. The single ground wire on the those pod things is a hassle.
Jason, @WickedPickle probably can give better info. I just don't remember what I made for that.

 

[WickedPickle]

honestly I don't remember.
I had an add a fuse on the panel 7.5amp
I think I used that to power the daytime running side of those two pod looking LEDs, routing it through the stock resistor or I sent him (jason) a new resistor to swap out with the stock one. That gives you power when you turn the headlight stalk one position. I used those for a short time and then sold them to Jason with a harness.

High beam part of it is wired normally to a 9005 splitter. The single ground wire on the those pod things is a hassle.
Jason, @WickedPickle probably can give better info. I just don't remember what I made for that.

It’s the add a fuse that powers them as jerry mentioned. If you try and run them as DRL through the tech stream only one turns on and it’s really bright. So whenever my lights are on the pods are on b/c the panel has power. Brights work normally.
jerry did all the wiring so I don’t know too much more than that.

 

[mcc]

I recently finished an HID retrofit on my 2001 LC using the retrofit source's Morimoto Mini H1 Stage III kit. I'm very happy with the results. The wiring harness was plug and play. I had to order a 9005/6 splitter to get power to the halogen high beam and the shutter solenoid.

I had to use much higher heat to get the lens separated from the housing. About 270 F (in my oven, ymmv) did the trick. On the first headlight, I had a hard time on low heat. Once I cranked the heat up, the lens came off very easily. Here's a good video on separating the lens:

All in, the first headlight probably took 5 hours. The second was done in about an hour. I did all the grinding with a harbor freight dremel, which worked well for $20.

I routed the solenoid wiring through the holes left by the glare guard that has to be removed:

Here's a picture of the light output. It still needs a little adjustment.

 

[OEMGUY0720]

that cutoff is awesome. Looks like the passenger side projector needs a little bit of a rotation and you’re all set. @mcc what’s your hid system setup?

 

[mcc]

@OEMGUY0720
Projector: Bi-Xenon: Morimoto Mini H1 8.0
Shroud: Mini Gatling
Bulbs: H1: XB 3800K HID (I wanted the warmer, closer to factory look. I'm happy with it so far)
Ballasts: 35w / AMP: Morimoto XB
Wiring harness: HD Relay: 9005/9006/9012/H10 (My wiring was completely stock before this, and this was plug and play. Very convenient)

 

[knewstance]

I recently finished an HID retrofit on my 2001 LC using the retrofit source's Morimoto Mini H1 Stage III kit. I'm very happy with the results. The wiring harness was plug and play. I had to order a 9005/6 splitter to get power to the halogen high beam and the shutter solenoid.

I had to use much higher heat to get the lens separated from the housing. About 270 F (in my oven, ymmv) did the trick. On the first headlight, I had a hard time on low heat. Once I cranked the heat up, the lens came off very easily. Here's a good video on separating the lens:

All in, the first headlight probably took 5 hours. The second was done in about an hour. I did all the grinding with a harbor freight dremel, which worked well for $20.

I routed the solenoid wiring through the holes left by the glare guard that has to be removed:
View attachment 2744896

Here's a picture of the light output. It still needs a little adjustment.
View attachment 2744897

Looks great!

 

[lesgarten]

@OEMGUY0720
Projector: Bi-Xenon: Morimoto Mini H1 8.0
Shroud: Mini Gatling
Bulbs: H1: XB 3800K HID (I wanted the warmer, closer to factory look. I'm happy with it so far)
Ballasts: 35w / AMP: Morimoto XB
Wiring harness: HD Relay: 9005/9006/9012/H10 (My wiring was completely stock before this, and this was plug and play. Very convenient)

I don't know much about these and thought they were pasé after LEDs were out and about. But it seems aftermarket LEDs are not factory LEDs.

Now that you've done this, I'd like to ask a few questions.

What made you do this instead of LEDs?

Are those aftermarket housings?

How much would the bulbs cost if they burnt out?

Are these easily aimed?

What do you have for Daylight Running lights?

What year is your LC?

 

[mcc]

I don't know much about these and thought they were pasé after LEDs were out and about. But it seems aftermarket LEDs are not factory LEDs.

Now that you've done this, I'd like to ask a few questions.

What made you do this instead of LEDs?

Are those aftermarket housings?

How much would the bulbs cost if they burnt out?

Are these easily aimed?

What do you have for Daylight Running lights?

What year is your LC?

Since the reflectors are designed for a halogen bulb, an LED bulb will scatter light all over the place and blind other drivers. You've probably seen and been blinded by people who put bright, high color temperature LED bulbs in halogen housings. From what I understand, halogen bulbs act pretty close to a point light source, whereas LED chips are distributed on the bulb in more discrete positions. The varying positions of the LED chips leads to the non-factory light pattern. The projector lens you see stuffed into the housing spreads the light from the HID bulb evenly, and there is a shutter to create the sharp cutoff you see in the pictures in this thread. That way you get good light output without blinding other drivers. The shutter can also flip out of the way when you want high beams.

These are the original headlight housings. Some people did this to aftermarket depo housings, you can go back in this thread to find them.

The bulbs for this setup cost anywhere from $22 - $50 - $120 per pair, so not too bad. But, there are other consumables in the system like ballasts and igniters.

The projectors are aimed up and down with the normal adjustment screw on the headlight. The back of the projector sticks into the hole the 9006 bulb went into, so the projector points in the same direction as the original halogen bulb (if that makes sense). Rotation (because it's a sharp line cutoff) is adjusted by rotating the projector in the housing.

My DRLs are still connected. I'll probably disable them, because the DRLs use the high beam bulbs, and the high beams are wired in parallel to the solenoid that flips the shutter (which creates the sharp cutoff) out of the way for high beams. The DRL circuit runs a constant current through the high beam, which is probably bad for the longevity of the solenoid in the projector.

I have a 2001 LC, so these are the glass headlights with separate corner lamps.

 

[robgv]

@mcc I have a couple questions for you:

Did you have to trim the upper part of your reflector housing to clear the gatling shroud?
Did you need to JB weld the projector after installing/aiming it?
What made you choose the mini H1 versus the D2S 5.0 kit?
Do you think there is sufficient space to fit the D2S 5.0 projectors in this glass headlight?

Thanks in advance, I have some glass headlights that I'm waiting to perform this retrofit on (waiting for BF sales)

 

[mcc]

@mcc I have a couple questions for you:

Did you have to trim the upper part of your reflector housing to clear the gatling shroud?
Did you need to JB weld the projector after installing/aiming it?
What made you choose the mini H1 versus the D2S 5.0 kit?
Do you think there is sufficient space to fit the D2S 5.0 projectors in this glass headlight?

Thanks in advance, I have some glass headlights that I'm waiting to perform this retrofit on (waiting for BF sales)

Yep, I trimmed the upper part of the bezel that clips on/off the reflector. You can sort of see the half moon shape in the photo I posted. I was pretty aggressive cutting it, and you can still barely tell because it faces down.

I didn't JB weld the projector. I still might. I would make sure you get the projectors on the car and adjusted well (at night!) before any JB weld.

I chose the H1 mini mostly because that's what 2000UZJ did, and it worked for him. Space is pretty tight. The projector lens is within millimeters of the glass, both in front and towards the top. In the photo, you can see it's pretty tight because of how close the projector sits to the top of the housing. If you look earlier in this thread, I'm pretty sure people fit the D2S projectors in the one piece depo housings.

I think you'd be pretty happy with the light output either way.

 

[FullyLitLED]

Two different setups I did for two customers this week. All parts in stock ready to be retrofitted just about two weeks wait time due to demand

So for 80/100 series I got parts ready to go…but also stepping into the 200 series LX/LC models that need an additional projector in the oem hi beam location

 

[lesgarten]

Two different setups I did for two customers this week. All parts in stock ready to be retrofitted just about two weeks wait time due to demand

So for 80/100 series but stepping into the 200 series LX/LC models that need an additional projector in the oem hi beam location

Can you explain what this sentence means?

So for 80/100 series but stepping into the 200 series LX/LC models that need an additional projector in the oem hi beam location

 

[Eighteen11R]

Can you explain what this sentence means?

I believe he covers this in the following thread mate: Bixenon Retrofits and other FullyLitLED products - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/bixenon-retrofits-and-other-fullylitled-products.1254790/

 

[FullyLitLED]

Can you explain what this sentence means?

Sorry, it should have read:

“Two different setups I did for two customers this week. All parts in stock ready to be retrofitted just about two weeks wait time due to demand

So for 80/100 series I got parts and housings in stock… but also stepping into the 200 series LX/LC models that need an additional projector in the oem hi beam location ”

Sorry about that! And also thank you @Eighteen11R

 

[lesgarten]

Thanks guys

 

[GVegasG]

I am looking doing the retrofit for my 99 LC. I basically need to purchase the following kit and follow the process in this thread. Any other tip or tricks or coupons?

BI-XENON: MORIMOTO MINI H1 STAGE III​

B-RFK-MH1-TRS