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Justin, great job (from a fellow Edmontonian)! I was eye-balling those at work as well as the Joe $peaker LEDs, but instead built a relay harness & install some crystals. They work well enough that I am about to drive without fog lights.
The LED seems to be the best upgrade for these cars (and easiest) but I too am concerned with snow build up. Will you drive in the winter at all?
I've been kicking around the same idea.(see pick below. Thanks to Broadfoot Racing. I took the original image off their website and modified it greatly to try out different ideas for placement. I'm trying to decide if the light openings should be round, square, or rectangular and where exactly they should be placed. I want the opening to be as small as possible and blend in as much as possible and look "factory" as much as possible. Everyone feel free to give me suggestions or even photoshopped renderings(I hope Albert will forgive me for unauthorized use of his picture)) The burgandy 944 is the look I am thinking of. Solid header panel with just small cut outs which are filled with a plexiglass cover.
This is one issue I am trying to figure out a solution to.
I'm considering just doing a complete nose job of everything forward of the hood panel, to make it more like Carerra GTor Boxster, with fixed & covered headlights set into the forward sections of the fenders. To keep it DOT legal, headlights need to be something like 24" above the road, and small HID lights would do the trick.
On the burgundy 944 in post #53 above, exactly which headlight is used, and how big is it?
Justin, great job (from a fellow Edmontonian)! I was eye-balling those at work as well as the Joe $peaker LEDs, but instead built a relay harness & install some crystals. They work well enough that I am about to drive without fog lights.
The LED seems to be the best upgrade for these cars (and easiest) but I too am concerned with snow build up. Will you drive in the winter at all?
The 951 is a summer only car now. I've sold all the winter tires and gear that it needed to go out in the winter. I don't imagine that the snow build up will be too much different than the regular bulbs, but it might not melt as quickly. You may need to make sure to wipe them before you close the headlights.
What was the solution exactly? I did notice in some of the original pics the new bulbs jut out more in some pics than in others. Interested to know how you solved this issue.
I just installed the Truck-Lites on my car, and initially there was interference between one of the glass "nubs" on the front face of the bulb and the inside sheet metal directly underneath the headlight bucket. So I temporarily screwed in the two headlight aiming screws (up/down and left/right) about 10 turns each on both driver/passenger sides, and that gave me just enough clearance (see pic).
Of course, doing that throws off the aim (assuming my lights were adjusted correctly before), so I've been playing with the coarse up/down adjustment of the headlight mechanism to get the aim right. I may need to add a shim to the mechanism to bring one light up more. I wonder if a small section of the inside sheet metal could be cut out as a last resort?
But even with the headlights not aimed quite right, there is a tremendous improvement in the light output over my old Hella Halogen 55/66W bulbs and there's no problem driving this way. Nobody has flashed me yet, even with the hi beams on. I'd recommend these lights to anyone.
The KC Hilites that I installed appear to be deeper than the similar trucklites, so in addition to moving the adjusters back as above, I had to clearance the sheet metal below the headlight bucket via some massaging with a ball-peen hammer. Not the most elegant solution but with a little paint, it really is not visible unless you are looking for it.
I second the brightness of these LED lights - the way they light-up reflective surfaces (signs, road markings, etc) is quite amazing.
To people with the Truck-lites... how are they holding up? My lighting-upgrade-nerd friend is making noise about how polycarbonate lenses don't hold up as well as ordinary glass in the long run. Just want to see if that's valid for these.
To people with the Truck-lites... how are they holding up? My lighting-upgrade-nerd friend is making noise about how polycarbonate lenses don't hold up as well as ordinary glass in the long run. Just want to see if that's valid for these.
Well, if my experience with headlights on newer German cars (BMW e39, Golf mk4, friend's Passat B5.5) is representative, then they definitely don't hold up anywhere near as well. But in those cases, the headlights are out in the open all the time. Unless you do all your driving at night (i.e. with the headlights open), I'd imagine even a softer lens ought to do just fine since it's not being constantly sandblasted and baked in the sun.
Has anyone tried the LED replacement bulbs as a less-expensive drop-in upgrade? Something like this: H4 headlight bulbs conversion kit? I know it's not going to be as nice as a newer reflector/projector style with the hard cutoff, but it's certainly cheaper.
dmjames, I've been curious about the same thing. I sort of assumed the heat sinks wouldn't work nicely with the pop-up headlamps, but would like to know if anyone has made this work.
dmjames, I've been curious about the same thing. I sort of assumed the heat sinks wouldn't work nicely with the pop-up headlamps, but would like to know if anyone has made this work.
Yeah, that and the fact that the light output of an LED doesn't seem like it'd necessarily match up with what would come out of a traditional halogen bulb. I'm thinking I'll probably go with the full-on replacement assembly when there's call for it, but the price is enough to think twice about. That said, my philosophy of 'if you're going to do it, do it right the first time' on this car has paid off thus far.
The Plug-and-Play H4 drop in LED bulbs are total ****...
they make 2 little dots of light rather than a nice beam with Halogen.
Barely light up the ground in front of you.
The Plug-and-Play H4 drop in LED bulbs are total ****...
they make 2 little dots of light rather than a nice beam with Halogen.
Barely light up the ground in front of you.
Thanks for the input. I agree with you.
These were the ones that I was talking about evaluating:
Though, I will say, my GF's 2008 Camry has lights that were insufficient, and the poly lens covers were getting diffuse. Her car has non-HID projector housings. So, I popped in one of those cheap $35 fleabay HID kits, run through the projector lens. Have to say, it's not blinding, and has worked better than stock for two years, in a wide range of temperature conditions (-20F to +110F). Surpassed my expectations.
09-21-2014, 12:44 PM
