Final result

Well it has been a while since my last post. I have been busy and have not had the time to update. I found that the aftermarket lights that i purchased did not centre the H4 holder for the projectors and hence it caused a slight rotation on each light. It took a while before I fixed it (as much as I could be bothered). This involved trimming down each side of the holder on the back of the headlight.

I don't have output shots yet so I will post one last time with the output shots and also a post install review which will summarise all the "do not do's".

Here is the final picture of what the car looks like. I quite like it and I have driven 5 hrs continuously with them on (to the snowfields) in the dark and they perform well. The output of the Mini D2S are not as good as other cars with HID lights but it is an improvement over halogens. When I put the highbeams on, the combinations of the halogen highs and the Bi-X makes it look like daytime!

Bracket Removal

Okay while I'm at it, I may as well post how to remove the brackets for the lights.

There are 4 screws on one side. The middle two are pretty easy but the ones on the end require you to use a thinner screwdriver for one and to remove the level adjuster for the other.

Here is the adjuster removed. It is pretty easy to remove the adjuster with a pair of pliers. Same goes for the other adjuster on the other side.

Removed and ready for the oven!

 

Hehe, sneak peak! Here I was testing the lights for the rotation. All looks well as the H4 holder was used to align the projector.

Room, what room?

Last night I went and placed the ballasts inside the car and setup the wiring harness. There is no room anywhere in my engine bay!!!

On the drivers side I hid the ballast behind the windshield washer. There was a spare hole that I used to secure the ballast to the side of the car. The other side of the bolt is accessible by taking off the blinker.

The passenger side ballast is hidden underneath the battery. I found a spare hold after taking the battery out. This hole was already threaded so I just screwed into it, very convenient!

Now the wiring harness was very difficult indeed. I searched for about 30 minutes just to find a nice spot for it to sit, couldn't find one. As the wiring harness has a connection to the battery, it could only be located on the passenger side. I figured I could glue it to the relay box or drill into the relay box, but I prefer to use an existing hole. I found a nice snug place next to the battery and ran the cords beside the battery. From the above picture, you can see that I snaked the positive connection around the top of the battery.

The wiring was run between the bumper and the radiator. I used the provided 3 cable ties to hook it to the other side.

Update!

Well too much has happened since receiving shipment so I will have to write up the how to about removing the brackets later.

The above picture is of the components purchased. Top to bottom, left to right: Orbit shrouds, mini d2s projectors, some advertisement, Philip 85122+ d2s bulbs, cable ties, extra adaptor cable, morimoto 3five ballasts and lastly the wiring harness.

More pictures up close of the components. The funny plunger thing within the projectors is the spring and shaft of the solenoid for the high beams.

Fitted projector within my light housing that I took the lens off of a while back. Fits fairly snugly with no rotational movement so I hope they are aimed correctly. I will check this before placing the lens back on.

Up close shots of the projector. Everything was a lot larger than I expected but it fits into the housing well. If I were to purchase a larger projector (FX-R http://www.theretrofitsource.com/product_info.php?products_id=101) it would have been very snug!

As you can see, the Orbit shroud does not fit at all. Time to purchase a rotary tool! I started this project with the thought of cutting as little as possible but it seems that I will have to for the shroud.

Picture of the Morimoto 3five ballast. Very solid build quality housing and the wires and plugs aren't too bad either.

Orbit shroud up close before the rotary tool tore into it!

Orbit shroud after the rotary tool tore into it! It took about 1 1/2 hrs to get to this point as it was my first attempt at using a rotary tool. I ended up using a saw and a off cut of wood to level out my cut. The cut was at right angles to the opening. After the initial cut, I had a reference to cut with and I followed it with a cutting disk and then buffed it with the sander attachment.

Projector and shroud within the light housing! Obviously no lens on but I have checked that the lens fits. For those reading out there, a word of advice, DO NOT push the lens and housing together cold. The glue likes to stick to each other and it is a pain to separate.

The last shot. You can see it is a tad rough but not too bad hehe..

That's all for now. I have 1 more side to do and I will take my time doing it as well. The step after will be to install the wiring.

Thanks for following

Shipment received...

I received my package from theretrofitsource! Oh how I have been waiting!

Unfortunately for me there are a few imperfection on the bowl. As these are the only PNP projectors, I guess if you go down this path, it's the only way you can go unless you want to hack up your headlight housing (which is what I would do next time I do a retro and would use OEM parts as they will have no imperfections) haha..

No pics yet but the shrouds are massive IRL. They are quite a lot bigger than I imagined, but the shroud centric rings that are provided fit perfectly.

Hopefully the projectors are fine even with the imperfections, all that really matters is the output!

Keep posted!

Baked... headlight?!?

Well I got bored and ended up baking my new headlights in the oven! This is the way to soften the rubber glue and pry open the lens from the holder.

Remove all plastic and metal from your headlight. For the Camry I had to remove 4 clips (2 top and 2 bottom), 3 screws and a plastic holder from behind the highbeam, a plastic stopper, the rubber foot and the clip that holds the H4 halogen bulb. Also to remove the holders (2 of them) I will show you this later :D

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius and prepare your headlight on the tray. Turn the oven off and place the headlight in the oven for 10-15 minutes.

After you take your headlight out, pry a corner open with a flat head screwdriver. Remember to hold the headlight with something heatproof as it will be HOT.

Pictures above are of the lens and the housing separated. Now to wait for my delivery to arrive from America!

I guess a disclaimer is in order. Do not do this if you don't have the confidence or done more research than read my blog. I take no responsibility to anything you damage (either your possessions or yourself) while trying this or anything else posted.

Pictures

Finally got the pictures of the headlights and an output of my original halogen lights.

 

New clear headlight

 

Back of new headlight

 

Old headlight as installed on car

 

Notice the extra nut that needs to be undone before the headlight can be removed. This is why the side turn signal has been removed.

 

New and old Headlight side by side. No real apparent differences.

 New headlight installed. Notice the gap down the bottom close to the bumper. not too noticeable.

 

 There is a bit of a gap difference from top to bottom of the light next to the turn signal.

Output of old headlights. This will serve as a comparison for when the retrofit is done.

So this week the order is going through for the HID kit. Pretty much decided to go for 35W ballasts as 55W is pretty much overkill. I would like it but it serves no real purpose. I will be purchasing the Philips 85122+ as they are the standard globes used or OEM (original equipment manufacturer).

Well that's it for today. I won't be posting until the order goes through as I will just be boring you with more ranting on HID's!

Projectors

No real update today; just put back the original headlight into the car. So today this post will be about projector choice. From what I've researched, the Ebay ones are not worth it even though they are like $50 as they don't really enhance the light output or have a clear cut off. The only real place to get them is from America (www.theretrofitsource.com)

They sell quite a few projectors but to not over complicate things I will be going for the 'easier' option of the Morimoto Mini D2S projector kit.

Now there are two kits to chose from which do not require cutting of the back of the headlight. The difference in the kits are the globes used and the size of the projector. The Morimoto Mini H1 (MH1) kit is the smaller of the two and uses H1 HID globes. These are non standard and would probably be hard to source more globes (unless you want to ship them from the US for $50). This is the main reason I have chosen to go with the Morimoto Mini D2S kit. The D2S globe is the standard globe used in HID's in cars like the Honda Accord and BMW's (if anyone knows if this is not the case, please comment and let me know, thanks). These globes would readily be available in Australia.

The HID globes last way longer than Halogen globes and do not burn out. They dull in output over time and some colour shift which is why you probably see some Accords with way bluer lights than others. I can ramble on about this stuff but that can be for a later post :P

New clear headlights

Went to get the Gen4.5 clear headlights from the ebay store today. Ended up checking out the differences between the Gen4 and Gen4.5. Initially I could not see any difference, so I ended up purchasing the Gen4.5 headlights only and hoping like crazy they fit without modification. Fortunately they do. I will post pictures when I get a chance but they sit flush using the old headlamps mounting frames. I only changed the left hand side light so that I can compare the two lights.

So next was to adjust the beam so that the new pattern matched the old. I oddly found that I couldn't match the beam so I left it as it was getting dark. When I reversed the car and saw the beam :O the new headlight's beams were for LHD vehicles!!! No wonder why it was cheap huh? Anyway, this will not adversely affect the final result as the projectors will be for RHD.

Tomorrows job will be to put the old headlight back in and store away the new one until my projectors arrive.

First Post

This blog will follow my progress as I retrofit my headlights with proper HID projectors. The first step is to get clear headlight lens'.

My Camry is a Gen4 (1997-2000 model) which has fluted headlights. This means that the headlight uses the lens itself to disperse the light in the correct pattern. In Australia the light pattern has to be like below:

 

This is because oncoming traffic on the right will not get blinded by the flare of the lights going into their vision. 

With clear headlights (like in newer cars), the beam pattern is formed by using the reflector 'bucket' or by using projectors (which are like clear massive marbles).

Unfortunately for me, the Gen4.5 (2000-2002 model) Camry has clear headlights and the do not fit directly onto a Gen4 because the mounting brackets being different. From initial research, the Australian Gen4 and Gen4.5 Camry headlight lens have the exact same shape and are interchangeable. If this is the case, the retrofit should be easy! Otherwise, getting rid of the flutes will be a very painful process included sandpaper, glass and a lot of time.

My first step is to find a set of Gen4 and Gen4.5 headlights. At local auto shops, the prices are ranging from $99 - $160 each! I have managed to track down a pair for ~$99 on ebay which are TYC or Depo branded which are aftermarket OEM copies which should suffice. I will need to goto the sellers warehouse (local seller) and have a look at each of them side by side.

The long weekend is coming up so hopefully I will get sometime. I will update as I progress.