Topic: 05 HID Retrofit

[oVerRateD]

HID projectors have wide sharp cut-off for the lights. The left side of the beam is lower, which allows you to aim your headlights higher while at the same time, not blinding on coming traffic. Depending on the angles you are looking at the light and your height from the ground, you will get a nice color flicker going from Blue, Purple, and sometimes red/orange/green. (see video below).

I have my lights aimed almost straight out. The legal way is to have your headlights being aimed 0-2 inches down after 25ft. I have mines at about 1/2 inch atm. I dont blind any oncoming traffic, and if someone is in the lane to my right, or in front of me by about 1-2 car lengths, the upper/right cut-off of my headlights will bounce in their mirrors (Example of the cutt-off and color band in image on right). I've done 2 road trips between San Jose and Las Vegas, and was only flashed 3 Times. Twice was when I had the halogen fog lights on (for some reason they are aimed higher then my low beams), and the 3rd time was when I had the fog lights off and was going through one of the hills in Tehachapi and was driving over the top of a hill and they faced the full brightness of the projectors. Due the projectors having a sharp cut-off, the fog lights helped to illuminate the road when ever i was going down hill or around those banking turns in mountain passes.

Here is the info on the retrofit:

Projectors: Rx330 AFS
Lenses: TSX-R clear lens
Ballasts: Matsushita Gen IV
Bulbs: Phillips 85112+
Mounting Method: JnC's Rotational Adjustment

I got lucky, and found the ballasts+bulbs for only $100 on ebay, from a seller only an hour away :p The projectors were also on ebay for $80

Anyways...It was a pain to do a retrofit on the 2005, because there is very limited space behind the headlights, which seems to be also a common problem on 03-06 trucks/suvs. I didnt have to cut too much out of the light brackets (you will see the pics below)

Another problem I had is that my shrouds (E46-R extended) was hitting the headlight lens when I tried to place the headlight lens back on. I had to cut the the opening of the shroud (on the inside of it) bigger so I could slide the shroud further down on the projector. I couldn't slide the projector further back because of the limited space behind the headlight..

So, here are the pics:

Lens swap, OEM lens vs TSX-R lens


Video of above color flicker:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3tFQdHSAwY" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3tFQdHSAwY</a>

These pics show the problem with the shroud, notice how when i put the lens on, it moved the shroud off center. In the finished retro, the problem is fixed. I got lazy after finishing the retro, and havent taken pics of everything :(


Left headlight bracket was a bad cutting mistake, wasnt thinking and cut that entire chunk out, so i made that little brace for it. The ignitor for the bulbs is a lot bigger for Matsushita Ballasts. When I did a mock fitting with my DDM ballasts and their D2S adapter, it fit fine but then i could't aim the lights up because the projector would hit something...I purchased a replacement bracket that i will replace eventually...


And the finished retro:





Also, here is a pic of how I waterproofed the ballasts. I purchased OEM rubber caps for the ballasts and cut a hole in them for the igniter cable to fit through and stuck some Ultra Black RTV Gasket Sealer (high temp silicon)


And a pic of the back of the light. I used aluminum foil tap to tape off that open area around the boot, and its been holding tight through all the rain over the winter...

[bluedevil]

Very cool 

[oVerRateD]

If anyone is curious, Here are pics of a 2011 AV retrofit , using the same shrouds as what I have in my retrofit above:
(post quoted from another site)

edit: damn, these things cost $900+, ouch   

You're in the right place for true HID projector headlights. To answer some of your questions, buying "projector" headlights and plugging in an HID "kit" is usually not the way to go. It still produces a bunch of glare, hot spots and reliability can be an issue.

The 6000k bulbs is the highest kelvin color recommended. They are a slightly tinted blue application. Pure white is 5000k.

The headlights appear to be the same as a few previous years, so you'll most likely want to go with a Mini Morimoto MH1 setup. These allow for great light output as well as minimal depth issues, as there is a black-support bar on those trucks that causes fitment issues with other than stock bulb-depth setups.

Here are a few pictures featuring E-46R shrouds...

 

[oHIobellboy]

$900 

[MyBigToy]

For $900 I'll keep my stock headlights and the other motorists will just have to put up with the glare. I've not been flashed yet so mine must not be too bad.

[oHIobellboy]

For $900 I'll keep my stock headlights and the other motorists will just have to put up with the glare. I've not been flashed yet so mine must not be too bad.

Amen, I thought for sure I'd be getting people flashing lights at me with the lift kit now but that hasn't happened yet. I think it might be the covers that's on my lights helping cut down on the glare. You can see them in this pix.

[maverick1974]

The strange thing is this.  I took my HIDs out, and put the stocks in, now I am getting flashed more then with the HIDs    BTW my housings are still aimed low.

[oVerRateD]

The strange thing is this.  I took my HIDs out, and put the stocks in, now I am getting flashed more then with the HIDs    BTW my housings are still aimed low.

do you drive with your fog lights on? I noticed in my 05 AV, that my fog lights are aimed higher then my projectors. On one of my road trips from california to las vegas, I was getting flashed by semi trucks on those long single lane desert highways when I had my fog lights on. I turned them off and the flashing went away, turned them back on and the flashing occurred again. I noticed when driving around in a city, that my fog lights were about 4-5 ft higher then my my low beams around roughly 120-130 yards (for you golfers, around your PW distance)

[chevyfan]

I believe their is an adjustment on the fogs also. Fowlhunter had an extra pair he was going to replace on his AV and it looked to have an adjustment screw on it.

[maverick1974]

do you drive with your fog lights on? I noticed in my 05 AV, that my fog lights are aimed higher then my projectors. On one of my road trips from california to las vegas, I was getting flashed by semi trucks on those long single lane desert highways when I had my fog lights on. I turned them off and the flashing went away, turned them back on and the flashing occurred again. I noticed when driving around in a city, that my fog lights were about 4-5 ft higher then my my low beams around roughly 120-130 yards (for you golfers, around your PW distance)

Nope, And mine is cladded so the fogs are wayyyy down there.  Drove up my driveway with just the fogs on and there was no light projection above the top of the bumper.