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- #21
A retrofit would definitely come at some point! Where in MA are you? I am on the south shore, if you get yours done I may ask you to help me out with mine!
What is the best way to increase 100 light performance?
- Thread starter SkiME
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A retrofit would definitely come at some point! Where in MA are you? I am on the south shore, if you get yours done I may ask you to help me out with mine!
Buy a Lexus
HIRs on my LC are much better than the projectors on my LX. AFAIK, HIRs aren't available for the LX...
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So Much More Info Needed. If your reflectors in your headlight housings are dull, no bulb is going to help much. Second, it has been extensively noted on other older threads that buying a morimoto projector housing, mounting it in your LC headlamp housing, and inserting quality HID bulbs/ballasts and properly adjusting cutoff is literally the best, safest way to get ridiculously more light. Beyond that, if you expect to be driving on roads similar to what I grew up on in rural Michigan, get a light bar...but seriously, make sure you kill
It when you even think oncoming traffic might be coming. But for normal use, several on her have confirmed they no longer needed high beams when they did the HID projector retrofit.
It when you even think oncoming traffic might be coming. But for normal use, several on her have confirmed they no longer needed high beams when they did the HID projector retrofit.
I'm right in the city in the South End. I've been in touch with a guy who does retros as a hobby, Yuke's HIDs. He's a distributor for The Retrofit Source and I'm trying to get a sense of how much something like that would run. I'll let you know what kind of $$ we are talking!
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- #26
Great info guys. I definitely think a light bar will be worthwhile. I will also wait to see what spaber comes back with, and then decide between that and just upgrading bulbs. I'm really not up to tearing up my headlight housing to do a retrofit myself
Don't hold your breath for me! I'm still doing research at this point, although the guy I've talked to seem knowledgeable. I was quoted $650 to do the headlights with a Morimoto kit and no painting to keep it looking OEM. I'm going to wait at least until the snow is gone and then try to set up a time with the guy. I thought about doing this myself but
When this happens I'll definitely post pics.
When this happens I'll definitely post pics.
I went with Morimoto 35's and the +06 depo lenses (there is a thread on mud documenting the upgraded '99 LC front end with +06 grill and valance). I had tried Slee's upgrade wiring adapter first but the OEM wiring was not the problem so no difference noted; tried quality HIR's, but the lighting improvements were marginal at best; and finally, did the projector HID mod. That was the ticket to excellent lighting and I have now done the HID/projectors mod on both my 80 series and the 100 series.
Lights bars are great, but you can't run them in traffic without blinding oncoming drivers (and getting a ticket), so that was not a practical solution for me, (and unless you are fortunate enough to live somewhere with very little traffic sharing the road with you, probably not for most of us).
In summation, the ability to see further than what the OEM LC lighting allowed is important to me, and the HID/Projector mod gave me that, so it was worth the $500-$750 I spent on each land cruiser (funny- I don't think twice about spending a grand on a winch (or three), but spending $750 on headlights just seems like a harder decision). HTH
Lights bars are great, but you can't run them in traffic without blinding oncoming drivers (and getting a ticket), so that was not a practical solution for me, (and unless you are fortunate enough to live somewhere with very little traffic sharing the road with you, probably not for most of us).
In summation, the ability to see further than what the OEM LC lighting allowed is important to me, and the HID/Projector mod gave me that, so it was worth the $500-$750 I spent on each land cruiser (funny- I don't think twice about spending a grand on a winch (or three), but spending $750 on headlights just seems like a harder decision). HTH
I went with an HID retrofit with proper projectors. Had a guy local to me source the parts and put it all together for me as I'm useless with electrical stuff! It ran almost $1000 including new headlights (the old ones were really badly pitted) and as far as I'm concerned it was the best money I've spent on my 100!
Cheers!
Cheers!
I would agree that was some of the best $ I spent also. I had Nick do a proper retrofit with Hi/Low HID and it is the business. Still have a 32" lightbar on the front bumper to augment that as well on special occasions.
You do have to snip / file down the connector to get the bulbs to fit. But basically there is
http://store.candlepower.com/mohirbuba.html
http://dastern.torque.net/Mods/HIRmod.html
I did the front 07 update on my 99 and also experimented with led lightbars and various lighting upgrades. The 06-07 style lights have a better reflector design and are way better than the older generation lights IMO. Lighting much improved and updated look made this one of my favorite mods. . View attachment 104155
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Are you running special bulbs with the upgrade
@LandCruiserPhil I put SliverStar Ultra bulbs in Hi and Lo Beam when I swapped to the newer lights. They are far better than the old stock 99 lights IMO. I basically decided instead of a potentially really expensive HID retrofit on the older style lights I would rather put the money towards everything needed for the front end update. I have other exterior lighting when needed on the trails or backroads at night.