New member/owner with a headlight question

[Da Hapa]

Hi guys/gals -

First of all, great forum. I've been reading through old threads and doing searches over the last couple of days and I've learned an awful lot. So kudos to you all and the board.

Last weekend we put a deposit down on a 2006 LX470. Essentially loaded but w/o the RSES or the night vision. It's a bit of a dream car for me as I've always loved Land Crusiers and for a non-hard core offroader the LX is kind of the pinnacle.

We don't plan to use the rig for anything more hard core than the occassional snowboard or camping trip but it will likely be out daily commuter.

We're supplementing a 2000 RX 300 AWD (w/ LSD) that has served us very well for 84K+ trouble free miles. We're keeping the old RX as our ball game/airport/family in town loaner car. I have a 1998 Acura NSX-T that we use as our date/weekend car.

So why the LX? We don't have kids yet but we have a dog and plan on (God willing) a family soon. We wanted something ultra reliable, comfortable, safe and stylish that our family could grow with. My wife loves all the ultra luxury plushness and the high seating position. I love the safety of a large vehicle with airbags galore and excellent sight lines.

Funny enough, we were originally intending on buying a Lexus 400H hybrid (remember our RX has been superb for us for 6 years now and we thought why fix what aint broke) but on a whim, we drove a 2005 LX. My wife fell in love. And when I learned of the bhp bump in the 2006, our search began.

So our silver on gray LX is set to reach the port of Long Beach, CA on or about 2/14 and we'll take deilivery thereafter. We're lucky enough to carpool to work most days so this will be a welcome refuge from the horrors of traffic and a decompression chamber after work for both of us.

That's my short background. Now here's my question.

There are only two things that I am a little bummed about with the LX.

1) While the Mark Levinson stereo is awesome, it does not have a direct Ipod interface. There seem to be a multitude of ways around this but I'd appreciate any of your direct experience.
2) While the projector headlamps on the LX aren't bad... they aren't HID headlamps. I "upgraded" my NSX with HID's and intend to do the same with the LX (XenonDepot has what appears to be a very good plug and play kit at a reasonble price). But... I haven't been able to confirm or deny if I will have to disable the daytime running lights on the LX if I add the HID's. Can anyone help?

Thanks in advance everyone. I hope that I don't pester you with too many stupid newbie questions but I thank you again for such a great forum to learn in and I hope that I can contribute despite my rather pedestrian goals with our LX.

Christian

 

[SWUtah]

Congrat's on the new ride and welcome. I don't know the answer to your question but I bet the dealer can answer these questions on a new vehicle. Good luck. You might also try this thread on the Lexus owner site http://www.clublexus.com/forums/showthread.php?t=189876 .

 

[SINCITY100]

Welcome aboard !!

I dont know about the Lexus stereos either ( in fact, I forgot my 100 even had a radio in it) but SWUtah is right, the dealer or their "star " salesman shoud know more about that.

As far as the HID conversion goes, my buddy installed a plug and play kit in a customers vehicle with DLR, and the instructions specified you must have non-functional DLR for "proper" operation ...( Dont ask me why )

This may be unique to the particular brand or system set-up he was installing however, so Ya` better ask or call the support # (hopefully) provided with your instructions

Enjoy your LX !!

 

[subspd]

Welcome to the board! Sounds like a nice truck... XenonDepot.com should be able to answer the daytime light questions. I would assume (and maybe wrong) that the conversion would include what you need to get ride of the DRLs.

 

[firetruck41]

DRL's are the regular lights running at lower power, the HID ballasts probably don't have that ability, or the HIDs themselves won't work with lower power (volts I assume?), hence the loss of DRLs.

 

[Cruiseronland]

I installed the HID conversion kit on my Cruiser & RX-8. I don't need to disable or deactivate my DRL. Land Cruiser and LX 470 DRL is using bulb of high beam. Me and my friend who has LX 470 installed 6500K on mine and he installed 8000K HID bulbs on his with DRL activated. Hope those can help you out!

 

[hoser]

Da Hapa, stay tuned because I will be doing a HID retrofit soon. I'll be sure and post a write-up.

About the HID's... the DRL's will be unaffected since the DRL's on the LX are actually the high beam lamps ran at a reduced output. I don't recommend HID high beams because HID's take a short while to "heat up." When you need them for "flashing," they won't work too well.

People have used HID's with the standard Halogen projector and it does arguably work for some cars. But I am going to retrofit the lights where I dismantle the lenses and install a true projector designed for HID's. The standard halogen projector has a much different beam pattern than the HID projectors. The HID projectors have a very sharp cutoff and also direct light to the sides. Being that my LX is almost 5" higher than a stock LX, I would hate to "beam" other drivers. It annoys me, that's for sure.

The kits are xenondepot do not replace the projector. They just use an HID bulb on the existing projector.

If you want to pay somebody to mod your existing lenses for you, look into http://www.hidtech.com/





Btw, like you, I have an NSX and LX470 as well. Both great vehicles.

 

[mot]

I thought I read it somewhere while ago in a lighting forum (hidplanet?) that retrofitting HID's into halogen anything was illegal, unless you want to graft a true HID projector like Hella, Valeo, Bosch, etc...

Maybe the regulation has changed since then???

Good luck!

Mot

 

[e9999]

Welcome to the best LC board on the planet!

 

[subspd]

Da Hapa, stay tuned because I will be doing a HID retrofit soon. I'll be sure and post a write-up.

About the HID's... the DRL's will be unaffected since the DRL's on the LX are actually the high beam lamps ran at a reduced output. I don't recommend HID high beams because HID's take a short while to "heat up." When you need them for "flashing," they won't work too well.

People have used HID's with the standard Halogen projector and it does arguably work for some cars. But I am going to retrofit the lights where I dismantle the lenses and install a true projector designed for HID's. The standard halogen projector has a much different beam pattern than the HID projectors. The HID projectors have a very sharp cutoff and also direct light to the sides. Being that my LX is almost 5" higher than a stock LX, I would hate to "beam" other drivers. It annoys me, that's for sure.

The kits are xenondepot do not replace the projector. They just use an HID bulb on the existing projector.

If you want to pay somebody to mod your existing lenses for you, look into http://www.hidtech.com/





Btw, like you, I have an NSX and LX470 as well. Both great vehicles.

hoser can't wait to see that write-up. Has anyone ever grafted a projector driving light into the factory front parking dummy lights? (you know the bulb that doesn't do much next to the high/low) Would it be legal?

 

[Da Hapa]

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome.

Hoser - I look forward to your write up. Our LX is more than likely to stay at stock height but I'm curious to see how much better the light pattern is after your replace/upgrade the projector because the standard halogen projectors aren't bad at all! BTW - what year is your NSX?

Mot - technically, you are correct. Retrofitting HID headlamps in CA is illegal. However, most high end cars now come with them (shame on Lexus for not following suit as even the new RX has HID's). I don't run front plates on my cars either but to date (knock on wood) it hasn't been a problem.

Thanks again to everyone. I can't remember but I'm pretty sure that the DRL's are on the high beams for the LX so I might have no problem whatsoever. I can check that out better when I get my rig in a few weeks.

 

[cabron]

Welcome to Mud! Love to see some pics

 

[hoser]

Yes, the HID retrofits/conversions are illegal. There is so much junk out there that I can see why. However, there is a distinction between HID conversion and a true HID retrofit. Too much info to go into now though. For more info, check out:
http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/

Da Hapa, the Halogen projector is good for Halogen lights but it doesn't have the proper cut-off nor proper beam pattern for HID's. Some people who have used the OEM projector with HID bulbs say it works fine but I have not seen any in person. I say if you are going to do it, build it like Toyota would--which also means using 4000k range color temperature HID bulbs.

Subspd, I'm not sure which bulbs you are talking about. Do you mean the two lamps closest to the grill?

 

[subspd]

Subspd, I'm not sure which bulbs you are talking about. Do you mean the two lamps closest to the grill?

Sorry I didn't make myself very clear... The bulbs next to the parking/turn signals.

Its the bulb in the far left in this pic.

 

[hoser]

Got it. My fault, I was thinking LX this whole time.

 

[hoser]

1) While the Mark Levinson stereo is awesome, it does not have a direct Ipod interface. There seem to be a multitude of ways around this but I'd appreciate any of your direct experience.

Monster just dropped the price of their iCruze iPod interface. It was way overpriced before. Now it's reasonable. They show applications for the LC but not the LX.

http://store.monstercable.com/iCruze/

 

[Da Hapa]

Monster just dropped the price of their iCruze iPod interface. It was way overpriced before. Now it's reasonable. They show applications for the LC but not the LX.

http://store.monstercable.com/iCruze/

Thanks. I'm going to try and contact them because they list several Toyotas but no Lexus vehicles.

I appreciate the lead.

 

[gijoebruin]

Any updates to the HIDs? I'm planning on doing this as well!

 

[hoser]

I've been trying to search for some reasonably priced Honda S2000 projectors but have not found any yet as those projectors are highly desirable with retrofits. They have one of the best beam patterns out there. The dealer can only get them with the entire headlamp assembly which is $$$. I might try using a different projector.

Edit:
https://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=91642