interesting, thanks
What have you done to your 100 Series this week? (48 Viewers)
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Strongarm brand off of Amazon, $50 for the pair.
A nice bonus with this brand is that they are made in the USA. Right here in SoCal actually. I just ordered them for the hood and the hatch ($79 for all four incl tax and shipping). Hopefully they are as good as the reviews suggest.
I just installed low beam projectors along with an H1 HID P&P conversion kit (PITA). I did not do this for aesthetics, but it does look very nice. Took me more than 6 hours total. It would have been quicker, but my DS headlamp assembly was replaced by one of the PO's (2 previous). That headlamp was more difficult to get apart and the bezel inside required more trimming than the OEM unit, due to subtle differences in the height adjustment mechanism. So I initially trimmed them both the same the first night. When everything was re-installed it all worked great, except the PS was way lower than the DS even though both adjustments were set by the adjuster to the same height. Took apart the PS assembly on night two. Turns out the bezel was interfering with that adjustment due to the bezel contacting the "mini-gattling gun". Drove it around the corner a few times to the rear of the shopping center to use their dark and level space on the side entrance to level/aim the lights. Cool thing about this is I now have double high beams. When I switch on the highs, my servo's open in the projectors and my halogen highs come on. My next road trip is gonna be way less fatiguing on my eyes at night. I spent a total of $70 including connectors for this mod.
Note in this pic how much nicer the PS reflector looks. Due to the fact that it is 10 years newer. An important note, as I was reading through the many helpful threads on Mud researching this Mod. I came across quite a lot of very good info. But also a fair amount of bad info. I read a couple posts claiming that N American 100's (not LX470's) came with plastic headlamps. This is not true as mine are very heavy and high quality glass lenses.
Note in this pic how much nicer the PS reflector looks. Due to the fact that it is 10 years newer. An important note, as I was reading through the many helpful threads on Mud researching this Mod. I came across quite a lot of very good info. But also a fair amount of bad info. I read a couple posts claiming that N American 100's (not LX470's) came with plastic headlamps. This is not true as mine are very heavy and high quality glass lenses.
Looking good welded up Brian! Patiently waiting for one!
BadReligion
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Must have been a steering rack kind of weekend!
Not a fun project. @beno should include the following warning with any new steering rack he ships out; "May cause periodic profanity laced outbursts that will scare the wife, neighbors, and cat."
One of the least pleasant projects I have tackled on either the 80 or 100. Front axle rebuild on an 80 takes twice as long and is probably messier too but I would take that any day over replacing another steering rack. However, night and day difference in handling, ride, and steering feel. No more random clunks and thuds felt through the steering wheel and torque steer is gone. I can only imagine what it will feel like after putting on some new tires and getting an alignment later this week.
Old rack was leaking like a sieve and both bushings were completely shot:
Wrapping things up:
New rack is somewhere in there:
Not a fun project. @beno should include the following warning with any new steering rack he ships out; "May cause periodic profanity laced outbursts that will scare the wife, neighbors, and cat."
One of the least pleasant projects I have tackled on either the 80 or 100. Front axle rebuild on an 80 takes twice as long and is probably messier too but I would take that any day over replacing another steering rack. However, night and day difference in handling, ride, and steering feel. No more random clunks and thuds felt through the steering wheel and torque steer is gone. I can only imagine what it will feel like after putting on some new tires and getting an alignment later this week.
Old rack was leaking like a sieve and both bushings were completely shot:
Wrapping things up:
New rack is somewhere in there:
This was a few weeks ago (but I haven't been on here in a few weeks): I found my exhaust rattle that had been plaguing me for the past year.
With my DT catback set up, the rearmost hanger rod on the tailpipe was making contact intermittently with the frame, I went underneath, banged around and heard it. Adjusted the tailpipe and added a rubber isolator to the rod so it didn't make contact.
No more rattle!
With my DT catback set up, the rearmost hanger rod on the tailpipe was making contact intermittently with the frame, I went underneath, banged around and heard it. Adjusted the tailpipe and added a rubber isolator to the rod so it didn't make contact.
No more rattle!
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You spent just $70 on a full headlight projector retrofit??
A few years had glass lens headlights, 1998-2000, I know. Maybe 2001, but I'm not sure. I've got a extra set I plan to convert when I find some time.
They changed from glass to plastic on both the LC and LX around 2003 IIRC. My 00LC had glass. My 04LX has plastic. Great mod. I loved the double high beams.
Yes! I spent many hours researching this on Mud and other sources. I had previously done an LED conversion on my 2007 Jeep Commander, I also converted my 2005 GSX-R 1000 to HID HI/LO. So I knew alot about conversions already. I really like LED lighting, but I still like the output of the HID headlights better. In my experience with those previous conversions I learned that price and quality are not linear as you pay more. Some of the cheaper options are just as good as the pricier options. In this case my projectors were only like $30 incl shipping from Amazon. And my plug and play HID conversion was only $30 as well. Just had to add a few connectors, some electrical tape, a few loud curse words and some nice connectors.
Edit: One thing I will have to add is a seal for the H1 bulb. The conversion kit came with a rubber boot/gasket that is pretty much useless because it does not match up with the OEM 9006 rubber gasket seal. I am looking into a solution for this. Should not be too difficult to find something.
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The output of the $30 ebay/amazon/ddm kits are not on par with the higher end morimoto stuff. Many of us went that route and the output and lumens are not nearly the same. At the very least, I would strongly suggest a proper relay harness if you are plugging the factory light plugs into the ballasts. The HIDplanet forum is a great resource.
I appreciate the info, however until someone has tried every single kit and combination of kits with every single projector option, nobody can say that "The output of the $30 ebay/amazon/ddm kits are not on par with the higher end morimoto stuff". Having said that, I would not be surprised to learn that my set up is not the epitome of HID technology. I do however have a good comparison planned for my new set up tonight. I have a 2008 BMW 335i with excellent (the best I have personally experienced from behind the wheel) OEM HID lights. I will take both vehicles behind the shopping center and compare brightness and light distribution. If it seems that my new set up is even close to my 335i, that will be good for now. My main concern however with any of these kits (price independent) is the reliability, if any kit proves to be un-reliable, I will not hesitate to try another brand. If there was a cost effective way to do an OEM HID swap, I would love that, just for the perceived (and actual) reliability of the OEM integration.
There are output comparisons using lumen meters and output photos on the forum i linked below. No $30 kit is going to better than another $30 kit considering they are made in the same plants for the most part, but they are good starts and you can upgrade the components down the road if you want. There is also the headlight junkies page on facebook that has 10% discount codes. I honestly would go straight to the Mini D2S projector and use OEM bulbs with denso ballasts, or the moriomoto brand stuff is on a budget. I would purchase a 9006 relay harness though to protect to stock wiring. Good luck!
Informative Articles - HiDplanet : The Official Automotive Lighting Forum
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I definitely agree with this. I'm retrofitting some Depo headlights right now and I can say that I'm blown away by the Morimoto brand goodies compared to others I've had. First of all, the v7 projectors I'm using, are sooooo much nicer than previous versions. That alone is worth the TRS price, but it won't do much benefit without good bulbs and a ballast.
To anyone else considering a lighting upgrade: The Depo housings (the ones @ranma21 sells) are SUPER easy to retrofit. The ONLY modification I've made is enlarging the hole where the bulb used to go. The reason it's so easy is because the Mini H1 projector comes with the perfect pieces to easily line it up in a (previously) H7 application. As close to plug and play as you can get, and the updated look doesn't hurt. Pics will be up as soon as I'm done.
I've tried a few low end ebay projector kits and Morimoto stuff. IMO there is no comparison between the two regarding light output, throw, and cutoff sharpness. Morimoto wins hands down and is closer to OEM projectors in those categories than any ebay kit I've tried. I still think any projector kit is better than halogen though. Since you are in LA, maybe we can meet some time and do a side by side. No lumen meters or whatever, just a real world eyeball test. I'm running Morimoto Mini 7.0 H1's.
