Lets brainstorm lighting ideas

Will the Toyman style low beams fit in the factory driving lamp holes down low?

OHSCrifle said:

Will the Toyman style low beams fit in the factory driving lamp holes down low?

I was going to go in this direction too.  Projector beam driving lights in the fog light location.  If aimed properly, they'll be fine on flat roads.  Might blind oncoming traffic on up-and-down roads, but so do OEM low beam LED's. 

Long shot: Was this body style offered in LHD euro countries?  I bet those lights are better. 

The fog lights being retrofitted are not something i had considered! I should have though.  There were waterproof bixenon projectors on Ebay a while back that i had loked at for my brothers motorcycle. Wonder.....

I could even tap them into the factory headlights so we could get low and high beams! Time to see if they still exist....

Retrofitting the fogs might help, but the gains won't be huge because they are so close to the road. Having a bit of angle of incidence on the surface you are lighting up helps, especially for the distance part that you're trying to fix.

The 'hard way' of retrofitting a better projector is definitely the way to go in my experience, if it is low beam light output you are looking for. GMT400s have pretty terrible headlights for the most part, so I'm going through the same thing now with a set of FX-R projectors. It's a fiddly process and all of the bits add up to be more expensive than some people on the internet would have you believe, but it is worth it.

BTW I have done a retrofit with H1 minis before and it's a fine projector design. I didn't have any problems with it.

Uncle David (Forum Supporter) said:

Long shot: Was this body style offered in LHD euro countries?  I bet those lights are better. 

Good idea! My highlander lights suck too. Time to walk my googleador retriever..

Have you been to the eye doctor lately?

With the hazed lenses, it might make sense to pick up a set of cheap aftermarket lights, rip them apart for a retrofit / mods as time permits, then install when finished. 

Take the Mazda badge out of the grill and put an additional round lowbeam headlight there. 

In reply to rslifkin :

Problem is that there are NO cheap aftermarket lights. These aren't very hazy, and are as good as they will get.

Angry: yes actually. My night vision blows,  but this is the only car i have trouble with to this extent. 

Gearhead: i wish i could justify the 400 for non repaired housings, then the 200 for mirimoto h1s. But not for this car. Its got another two years of life, if im honest. Maybe three if they keep me off tbe road. But 600+ just ain't going to happen, and the cheap h1 setups i dont think would get me much if they even fit. However,  incidence angle is a good point ghat i hadn't thought about. 

What about a quality low beam projector from another car retrofitted into your housings? I'm thinking head to the local U-pull yard and grab a pair of headlights from something else (it won't matter what the condition of the lenses are as long the guts are good) and go from there. Our yards up here price headlights without bulbs for $35 CAD so should be even less down there. If you were to go this way you might want to start another thread to find out what cars you should be looking at for a good pattern and light output.

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) :

I just took a quick look on Rockauto.  They're showing just under $120 each for new lights.  But more interestingly, they list replacement factory HID lights on closeout for about $220 for the pair.  If those have half decent projectors in them, they'd probably be a significant upgrade. 

I never thought to look at rockauto. Just Ebay and Amazon. Thanks!

Holy berkeleynuggets!

Wife just told me to spend the money on the xenon stuff.

Ordered. Hopefully they have bulbs and ballast with them. 

Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) said:

I never thought to look at rockauto. Just Ebay and Amazon. Thanks!

Holy berkeleynuggets!

Wife just told me to spend the money on the xenon stuff.

 

Ordered. Hopefully they have bulbs and ballast with them. 

Even if they don't, ebay should be full of used and working Hella Gen 3 ballasts out of BMWs and such, so the only significant need would be bulbs. 

In reply to rslifkin :

Are ballasts all the same? I see it calls for d2s. This is my first foray into factory xenon stuff. 

Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to rslifkin :

Are ballasts all the same? I see it calls for d2s. This is my first foray into factory xenon stuff. 

Most older factory stuff would use D2S bulbs and 35 watt ballasts regardless of brand.  The Hella Gen 3s are for D2S bulbs, as are some Denso and other ballasts.  But the Hellas are very common and they're known to be good ballasts. 

In reply to rslifkin :

So, dumb question that i could probably Google:

Any way to ise tbe essentially new 55 watt hid ballasts i already have? I know the h7 hid bulbs are scrap,  ans they were garbage to begin with. These were a retrofit kit from Amazon....

You could use them.  But the higher wattage ballasts will shorten bulb life and may burn the reflector bowls in the projectors, causing them to lose brightness over time.  

The aftermarket ballasts also likely have amp connectors instead of D2S, so you might need an adapter to connect them to the bulb.  

So. Went nuclear. 

Ordered factory hid housings and d2s bulbs. 

Used d2s bulb to amp adapters so i could re-use the pile of 55 watt ballasts i have here, or the few 35s. 

Install today. Built another relay harness, cleaned grounds, everything I could think of. Installed the new housings. Had a bulb defective out of the box missing a pin, which nuked the adapter and socket due to arcing and meltage. 

Installed the 5 inch hella (knockoff, it turns out. No hella stamping i can find) on the air dam, relayed off the factory fog lights.

Time to wait for brown santa to bring replacement parts so i can adjust everything after pulling the bumper AGAIN. 

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) :

How is your night vision?  Some people just have terrible night vision.  I'm the opposite, better than 99% when Tested by the NAVY for flight training. 
I can't remember if it's rods or cones in your eyeball but one of them really makes a difference. 
     But miss aimed beams really hurt my night vision. 
So please don't Re-aim your headlights to the high beam position. It may be better for you but blind the other lane which is not good for you. 

In reply to frenchyd :

My night vision is terrible. Always has been. And when I rename a set of headlight I try to go for the Department of Transportation standards how they're supposed to be eight. I hate the guys that blind you because for me it's that much more difficult due to them. My daddy always said you're either part of the problem or part of the solution and today I choose to be part of the solution.

That actually looks quite good. And you have space for 4 more if thats not enough lol!

That does look pretty good.  I would think about some kind of grills for the 5 inchers just thinking about them being so low and forward.  Also thinking about the foglights on my car and how they're both cracked and it's something I should do if/when I buy replacements.

Curious how your improvements stack up.

How did you attach the new 5 inch lights to the bumper? Is it just to the plastic or brackets or?

In reply to CarKid1989 :

Just some aluminum angle that picks up the factory screws for the undertray. Its pretty hack, but ill build something better if they stay.