electric130

iTrader: (44)

those look sweet! i might buy my old civic back from my boss. he's going back to New Zealand in January and he wants $2k less than what i sold it to him for. of course, i parted out my retro, so i'll have to do another then. was thinking some brand new TYC's with Morimoto Mini D2S to make life easy. my matsushita ballasts still haven't sold, so all i'd need are projectors, bulbs and housings.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

sweet that would be cool. and the minis should be a perfect fit. if youre going with d2s, then you can get the CMs for em.

im working on my cool white plate lights right now. 3x nichia superflux (20 lumen each) per side running at 50mA each (0.5w per side total). i just need to get them sealed and installed prolly by tonight. very nice and bright altho a bit on the purple side but not too bad. its a good match with the 5400k hids.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

guess i shouldve updated this again. plate lights are all done, 6500k nichia is a bit whiter than the hids but still nice. very tiny hint of purple but otherwise cool white like a fluorescent. they are bright but not crazy due to the lens housing blocking alot of output and the leds being wide angle.

electric130

iTrader: (44)

^love it! need to do this on my bimmer!

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

couple new ones

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

hmm you guys think i should get these dot approved led modules and retro them in the hi beam spot upsidedown? lol its 90mm so a tad bit smaller than the hi beam reflector. only uses around 5w of power each. it prolly needs some kind of trim around it to fill in the hole. only problem is they cost $500 each.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

some pics to remember how suck the tyc halogen projectors were:

and these were with the brightest halogen bulb you can get, H1 +50 philips at 1800 lumens! omg no width and terrible hotspots

DarkSouljur

Would u say they were worse than stock?

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

yeah much worse. the hotspots and poor coverage, plus they did not have a consistent pattern. it was just blobs of light everywhere lol. i would say the middle streak was brighter than stock, but what good does that do. and aiming them was a real problem (lights had to come off the car and required special tools). this isnt good if you ever carry anything in your car or the stance changes. there is no easy adjustment, and the tyc adjusters are prone to becoming loose and causing shakes. with my retrofit, i can simply turn the wingnut i installed on top and adjust the aim in a few seconds with no tools and no taking the lights off. just pop the hood and turn.

electric130

iTrader: (44)

ahhhhhh!!!!! the "W"!!!!! fvck no! so those LED's would be $1000 for the pair? don't think i'd do it.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

yeah its way too much for something that may barely be as good as halogens. the 90mm is a bit small for the tyc hole anyway so it might not look good unless i can find a trim ring or something. if anything, i would get the 90mm hella white led drls but then i wouldnt have a hi beam.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

couple new ones

electric130

iTrader: (44)

sweet! when did you build a 3 car garage?

MindBomber

I'm so tempted to pick up the TYCs and S2k projectors that are up for grabs right now!

DarkSouljur

Everytime i see pics of a retrofit, it just makes me more excited for spring so so i can retrofit some morimoto minis looks good (as usual) gearbox.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

finally had time to take the retro off and fix it up a bit. not everything, but they are much better. i swapped on brand new shrouds and lens covers, went back to filament bulbs for park and turn instead of leds to make it more pnp, and spent most of the day redoing my entire wire harness. what a pita but its way better than the old one and completely hidden away. ballasts are mounted nicely next to the headlamp as well. will prolly be going back to 4300k bulbs to match the stockish look of the car, and replacing tezza grill with oem coupe grill. the hard part is aiming the lights again like they were before which always takes forever. later i may try to put led elef amber turn signal since it fits perfectly in the hole. pics later...

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

got everything wired back up today for the park and turn filaments. im using raybrig hyper clear w5w for park and cycolite 3457 NA amber bulb in signal. the raybrig is really bright lol. so are the signals. im still gonna try and fit the elef led amber signal bulb if it works out, otherwise just stay with filament bulbs. its nice to have wide hids again

electric130

iTrader: (44)

pics or it didn't happen!

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

lol ive been meaning to take some. its been a very long process. but im going for more of an oem look this time. the tyc turn signal reflector is a ton brighter than the oem headlights. one thing i did not do is adjust the projectors which i prolly shouldve done. they point inwards and meet at a distance, but im starting to like this as it gives a brighter light in front of the car. hi beam is decent with a stock halogen, enough to see the trees with

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

pic of the lights after getting new lenses and shrouds. all sealed and ready for install. here is the current bulb setup im using:

park light - raybrig hyper clear w5w
turn signal - cycolite 3457 NA amber (modded to delete park light function)
lo beam - osram 4300k d2s (for now)
hi beam - H1 55w halogen

electric130

iTrader: (44)

nice. the chrome TYC's look awesome!

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

yeah its as close to oem as you can get. and have some cool hids in em. the turn signal is way brighter than stock too. the fitment of the shroud isnt great and the park light and projector and hi beam dont line up exactly where they should, but overall for aftermarket its pretty decent.

and installed...oooh ahhh



toshiba wy5w NA bulb for sidemarker (VW dealer)

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

put back stock 4300k xenarc bulbs for brighter output and OH MY new turn signal bulbs?? lol these are the discontinued sylvania silverstar (osram diadem) 3457AK bulbs. the K means they have krypton gas for double the lifespan. still, i will prolly get another pair as a backup since they dont make them anymore. these are the blue tinted looking bulbs when off, but they flash dark amber when on just like a regular bulb. its about as bright and slightly darker orange compared to stock amber bulb. looks bluish/amber during the day when off. very cool slightly ricey look but nice.

Aetoc

iTrader: (1)

Hey guys,

I bought a set of used ebay projector headlights for my 04 coupe, and slapped a set of ddm 8000k bulbs in there, and what do you know, it looks great from outside the car, but good luck seeing where you're going...so, needless to say, I've decided to replace the projectors with morimoto minis and morimoto d2s ballasts (basically the whole kit). I've never done a retro before, and I was wondering if anyone has done this with these headlamps? If you're not sure which type I mean, just check my build thread. Is the procedure basically the same as with the TYC retros everyone loves? I also wondering if maybe I shoud do the retro on my OEM headlights instead? Feedback is appreciated!

PS, sorry to bump an older thread, just figured it made more sense than making a new thread!

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

i did tyc because i wanted a separate halogen hi beam and brighter turn signal housing. you can do either projector or oem lights, altho with the projector housing it will be a bit tougher to mount the minis (get h1 not d2s version). with oem housing, the projector just screws into the bulb hole with minimal work. the minis are bixenon (lo and hi beam from the same unit) so you are good either way.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

this retro is still working great. about a month ago i upgraded to osram silverstar 4200k d2s bulbs. next week i should have the osram LEDriving 4000k 1w led bulbs for license plate to match.

lollygagger

Steve, I got two quick questions. For my EP, if I wanted a retrofit, should I choose the complete kit, or just the projectors and get the bulbs/ballasts somewhere else? Also what Morimoto Mini should I choose, the H1 or D2S? The low beam is 9005 for info, and they don't list a relay harness for this. Sorry to threadjack!

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

for retrofit, go with mini h1 over d2s. and prolly build your own harness. but to answer your question, 9005 is a hi beam size. you want harness for the lo beam which im not sure on size. if it were me i would get some euro oem hid housings....first gen has d2r reflector, second gen has tsx projectors. make sure they are from europe not japan, otherwise cutoff will be wrong.

lollygagger

Thanks for the info! Again, sorry to threadjack, bt I couldn't find your AMA thread!

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

been using the silverstar bulbs for about 30 hrs or so, and they have already turned much whiter. really impressed with how the retro is holding up and the amount of light output.