Got some brake work done on Thursday-my first in 51K miles! Woooo!

 

So I installed my new STI lip, this time with zip ties and screws so it doesn't fall off again. I also installed some bumper quick-releases, which actually look pretty good. Unfortunately, one of my shrouds fell off AGAIN. Anyone have any recommendations for how to properly secure it?

 

Pics of lip and which shroud?

 

They're G37R shrouds, they were actually on in the pic...

 

Ah shrouds for the retrofit. Good luck with those. I have no answer for ya lol. That much be frustrating to have to reopen a headlight to fix.

Lip looks good.

Passenger front brake started making a horrendous scratching noise while in motion. Going to take apart and inspect today along with my rotation and oil change. It'll go away under certain braking conditions but will come back after a bit. From what I can see from the pads on the outside of the caliper there should be TONs of meat left...can't see the inner pad without taking wheel off. Maybe my thought of needing new brakes is simply need a thorough cleaning. Will know after I take it apart.

 

Hi Guys,
I initially was confused too on what you mean by shrouds, but now I understand.
This is the reason why I was so hesitant to do retrofit, because if you want a big nice powerful projector (like the LS400 projector), you have to cut larger hole in the housing to fit and then glue the heavier projector (and shroud)... which I think sooner or later will fall apart/crack,
especially if the car exposed to harsher road (vibration), extreme heat and cold (expand and shrink of different material joint / glue together)
plus if you want to make it look nice with internal LED DRL,
then if that internal LED DRL have one broken LED, and you want to fix/replace it, you need to bake the housing in an oven again... just to access the LED DRL (or angel eyes)...
not to mention to take out the light housing, you might need to take off the front bumper... plus the alignment process etc etc...

I used to work in coal mine, and even a nice brand new 4WD truck will have some of it's weld in the body feel apart and need to be rewelded several years later due to the intense vibration on the bad mining road...
If a steel weld can fail... I am sure a glue on the plastic housing can fail too... in fact the failure might not be at the glue itself, but might be because the housing material (thin) were not designed to hold the weight of the larger and heavier projector compare to the lighter halogen bulb it was designed to hold... plus things got very hot in that light housing...

I know, I think and worry too much hahaha
but I already imagine it will be harder to maintain a retrofit especially with the larger LS400 projector.

so because of all the above,
and because I used to work as car salesman at Infiniti,
and I enjoy the nice white beam LED headlight from the Infiniti Q50
and because I actually like the looks of our Honda Fit OEM headlight housing without projector
and because all I want is just a nice bright light at night, and will not blind oncoming traffic
I finally find a simpler solution which fit all my requirement above,
which is just simply change the bulb to IPF LED bulb.
The added bonus with LED is also longer life, less power consumption and less heat.

Previously, I was thinking of doing retrofit and I don't dare to change just the bulb to HID of LED because all the horrible story I read about danger due to the low quality diffuse light pattern that will blind oncoming traffic.
But LED bulb light pattern technology have caught and from my understanding the LED bulb from IPF, PIAA and Phillips now have the similar pattern like stock halogen so no more blinding oncoming traffic.

and turn out this is true, My IPF LED bulb in stock housing have excellence cut off,
Since I installed it few months ago,
Never once I have someone high beam me from opposite traffic,
which mean nobody got blinded by my IPF lighting pattern on a stock OEM light housing with no modification at all.

although I am sure an LS400 projector retrofit
will still have a better cut off due to the LS400 projector design,
(well, it was part of a top of the line Lexus )

but the IPF still have similar cut off to the stock halogen bulb which is good because it won't blind incoming traffic, which is good enough because I don't need a ultra clearly define cut off of an LS 400 projector,
all I need is the cut off that will be enough so not to blind oncoming traffic.

Now the light output of my IPF LED bulb on the other hand...
I am sure it will be equal to the LS400 projector.

When I first install the IPF, I was so surprise on how bright it is shining on the road ahead, but after a while my eyes got used to it... and I thought... hmm this is not that bright...
so one day I decide to test it by turning off my headlight (just for few seconds) while driving at night on a freeway and that is when it realize, what a NIGHT and DAY (literally) difference it make...
There are cars behind (and beside) me (it's 2 lane freeway) which still have their halogen light turn on...
but just by turning off my light, suddenly the road become much darker,... so the halogen light output from those other car behind and beside me don't do much

So for some people who just want a better more powerful light and simple solution that is reliable and safe for oncoming traffic,
please consider either the IPF or PIAA or Phillips LED, before you do a a more complicated retrofit...
PIAA, IPF and Phillips are large multinational companies which should have decent reliable and safe LED bulb, not to mention the projector retrofit this day are still using HID light (which on some projector mean you lose high beam function). LED is superior technology, even the newer higher end car are now using LED light inside their projector, no longer HID.


Yes, the only downside of changing the bulb to LED vs. Projector retrofit is...
nobody really knew you had an upgraded LED light just by looking at it from few feet away until you turn it on,
while the retrofit projector will change the looks of the car more pronounced even in daylight.
so if you just want the look/style of a projector inside your headlight housing, then it's a different story.

Other than that, changing the bulb to LED (from good manufacturer like IPF, PIAA or Phillips of course) is faster to do (less than 30 minutes you are ready), more easy to maintain, simple, less worry about something broken and you have to bake it to access it, more energy efficient, perform well and... cheaper (if you compare it to the cost of the highest quality LS 400 projector) or if you consider the labor cost if you want someone to do it for you.

I have a feeling that the Retrofit business is going way down now because:
a. More and more new car will have LED bulb/projector standard from the factory in the near future (especially when LED bulb pricing goes lower due to economy of scale)
b. more and more people with older car will skip doing more complicated retrofit and simply just replace their halogen bulb with high quality LED bulb drop in replacement.

 

Bang for buck just swapping in a better bulb replacement will probably be better than a projector. But remember its about more than just the cut off and brightness. A good projector will spread the light much further and wider, which is something you just cant do with a stock reflector and new bulb. Its not about brightness at night, its about being able to see more. With my projectors, i can see way further ahead and way more to the sides. this is less of a concern if you mostly drive in the city, but extremely important to consider if you are frequently driving through areas with no light.

About the jbweld, i dont want to jinx myself, but mine have held up over 100k km through dxtreme heat and cold, and lots of potholes. Neither the glueitself nor the reflector have snapped. Its actually quite strong. And my halos have not failed at all either (thankfully)

 

Hi connor55,

actually with my experience,
the IPF LED Bulb actually able to spread the light much much further than the halogen light and also much wider than the stock halogen bulb with just our stock light housing.

Although I don't have picture of my own headlight at night showing how much further and wider the beam is,
but I will use the picture from IPF website to show the result,
because this picture from IPF website do not exaggerate the performance of their LED bulb but really represent my light beam pattern too.





Halogen:




IPF LED Bulb:



take note on the orange cone and you notice how much further you can see with IPD LED Bulb,
and take notice on how the side area is brighter now
(check the guy riding the bicycle with a black coat at night on the right side) due to the wider pattern available.
Again the pictures above is the exact same performance I get after installing mine.

The only way to prove that a new generation of LED bulb like this IPF (or PIAA or Phillips) really can perform like this is to try it on your own car,
I did and it is really comparable in performance to the LED headlight of Infiniti Q50 (which I knew very well since I drive that car countless of time, sadly as a car salesman hahaha)... also note that the Q50 use a Projector, so I am really amaze on how a good design like IPF can utilize stock OEM housing and perform as well as the Q50 headlight with projector...

Yes, cut off, the projector that custom design for that HID bulb will always have better more define laser line cut off, but this LED bulb do have good enough cut off.


This is my stock halogen cut off:



and this is my IPF LED bulb cut off, actually I just realized from this picture comparison that the cut off below from the IPF is even better than the stock halogen cut off above... :




Perhaps the real key here is the design of the IPF LED bulb is to be as close as the halogen bulb in term of dispersing the light beam so it work well with stock non projector housing, this picture explain it:

 

Its quite an impressive led, and perhaps it is wider and firther than stock. But it cannot compete with a good projector from lexus because you simply dont have the optics in place to project the light as well. A clean cut off isnt even that important, its about how light is distributed on the ground


It would be interesting to see direct comparisons of this vs the various projectors on the market.

 

Hi Connor55,

I don't claim the IPF/PIAA/Phillips LED bulb upgrade will ever be able to beat or match the ultimate performance of your LS400 projector upgrade from Lexus, but most people who upgrade their projector do not use the LS400 projector.
(which if I am not mistaken your's is also the better LS400 model with low and high beam dual projector right?)

Again, the only way for someone to believe this IPF/PIAA/Phillips LED light bulb is good enough (not the ultimate best but good enough) is to have someone here willing to be the second person to buy this IPF LED bulb and confirm my finding here on how good this LED bulb project the light to the ground... preferably if that person also have a retrofit in the past...

Not everyone who is thinking of doing retrofit, want the ultimate LS400 projector performance maybe because of cost, complication and maintenance (if needed) etc....
so for those folks, I want to present them alternative very simple solution.

At this moment, as far as I know, at Fitfreak,
I am the only person willing to buy and try the IPF and at around $200 per pair current price, it is not cheap too,
but compare it to the effort that you need to do for a proper retrofit,
or compare to the cost of the ultimate LS400 retrofit, this is much easier,
and
suddenly an IPF/PIAA/Phillips LED bulb upgrade start to make more sense...

Imagine another scenario, somehow you crack your light housing or have small accident that destroy one side of your headlight...
now instead of just replacing the headlight, you also will need to at least move the projector to the new housing (do another retrofit) or even have to buy the whole projector if it got damage during the accident... that is another cost and effort...

For me,
it is not about the cost,
and I had done more complicated modification "with my own hand" than a retrofit,
but I just don't like the looks of a Projector inside my stock OEM Honda housing,
for me (personally) a projector inside the housing just don't look like what a factory Honda would do for this particular Honda Fit GE model.
and I really understand that for some other member, they actually want
to do a retrofit simply because they prefer the projector look inside the stock housing.
It is just a personal styling preferences..., no right or wrong, no better or worse here.

So...
would someone be interested enough to try the IPF/PIAA/Phillips LED bulb upgrade? I am kind of lonely here hahaha

yes Connor,
it would be interesting to compare your ultimate Lexus LS400 projector light performance with my very simple IPF LED bulb upgrade in stock housing... most likely I will lost in pure performance
and
because of that,
I really don't want to drive to Canada to meet you just so I can see that my light upgrade still can not match the ultimate LS400 projector upgrade, hahaha
so I will be waiting for you to visit us after you have your JDM front end retrofit and then lets compare,
at least when your LS400 beat my little IPF bulb, I am not far away from home
"Let there be light"

 

So Today was an oil change (mobil 1 0W20 full synthetic). Removed wheels in prep for rotation as well as a well needed cleaning to remove all that brake dust etc caused by the rain we've been getting lately. No point washing the whole car with more rain on the way tomorrow.

Checked the brakes due to the scraping sound on the passenger side. Heres pics of my brakes. Look at all that meat on the outside pad...why scraping sound??? Oh...look at the inner brake pad...its non-existent. Why would they wear so unevenly?

Guess I'm gonna order some EBC greenpaads and blank rotors this week. Maybe next time I'll upgrade to the wilwoods. Seems to be plenty of space with the gram lights for the larger caliper. Printing the 3d template to check clearances of both stock diameter rotor and the larger rotor later this week.









I may have to look into those LEDs Alpina...retrofit is nice visually, but I dont really want to take headlights apart. Thats just me though...plug and play with correct cut off is ideal.

 

Hi Shinjari,
Thanks for the warning about the rain.
I just wash my car myself so hopefully I don't have to visit customer tomorrow and just stay at home so car won't get dirty by rain tomorrow

my experience with both stock and EBC pads are exactly the same with you, the outside pads still have plenty of life but the inner part is gone,
I think that is because the design of the sliding piston of oem caliper...

if you want to buy IPF, buy from Amazon.com (seller in Japan), link to Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01465ZOUK...1&keywords=IPF

or buy from Rakuten Japan using Buyee (will be slightly cheaper than Amazon.com but with Amazon, I can take advantage of the amazon card 6 months free interest financing
link to rakuten:
??????IPF 341HLB???

for PIAA
the Amazon price is much more expensive than buying from Rakuten Japan, link to Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/PIAA-17204-Wh.../dp/B015FL6JYY

link to Rakuten for PIAA;
??????PIAA LED H4???

but the part number for PIAA H4 bulb for US Market and Japan are different (they look similar), but I worry the Japan Market PIAA is for RHD car... so still safer to just buy at Amazon for PIAA

one thing to note, the IPF is Made in China while the PIAA is still made in Japan,
but the IPF have higher Kelvin and brighter Lumen than the PIAA, I also like the way IPF design the location of their LED to mimic Halogen bulb double filament position better than PIAA design,
plus IPF have more compact heatsink/cooling fan design and PIAA was launch before IPF, and IPF don't use separate module like PIAA, that is why I choose the IPF...

I also done research a bit research on Phillips but I still prefer IPF first and second PIAA... just because brand preferences...

note: I also buy matching IPF FogLight Bulb (at Amazon, but seller in Japan) so my fog light had the same Kelvin color as the headlight
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Most people use morimoto projectors, which are becoming quite good especially in the most recent generations. They are starting to rival the likes of oem projectors and are far easier to install, all you do is thread them into the bulb hole.

Doing leds is cheaper overall than a retrofit, but i do not think the output can compete even with morimoto projectors(which are much cheaper and easier to install than my ls460)

I dont really think about all that, i just want the best output. The ls460 is probably one of the best headlight upgrade options on the market, followed by quality aftermarket projectors such as morimoto, followed by anything plug and play. Plug and play will generally rank last because of the limitations in the optics. For the price and labour, its a really good option, but for another 100 dollars or so and a bit more work, you can get morimoto d2s mini 4.0 projectors with better output. Plus i like how customizable they are, with all the various shrouds and drl halo/demon eye options. If youre simply going for an oem+ look, then by all means stick to a quality plug and play bulb, as long as they are properly designed for the housing they are being used in.

 

Did a little bit of dress up to the engine bay.

-washed engine bay
-installed Password JDM battery tie down
-installed Mugen Hexagon oil cap
-"Installed" Spoon Sports reservoir covers

-Painted Honda Vtec logo in intake chamber.


It fits relatively well, I was inspired by seeing a CRZ with one. It's a little off-kilter but its rock solid.


Used silver metallic sharpie to brush on top of the letters. It has a nice matte metallic look.



Mugen Oil Cap. Self explanatory.

 

Very nice touch on the i-Vtec logo on the intake chamber, make the car engine bay looks much more exclusive

The Mugen Oil Cap with red color also look very nice...
I always love that kind of CNC machine industrial looks !

Great Job Mr. Hollow...

 

Ridiculously clean engine bay!

Regarding EBC green pads...do they come with the shims etc? Or do I reuse the ones from the existing pads I'm replacing?

Also debating whether to replace rotors or not...at 70k miles and uncertain if the previous owner replaced rotors at all. Figure may as well as turning is about $20/ea and new blanks are about $30/ea for some centrics/reybestos.

 

EBC green pads came with shims and even a small pack of grease.
so no need to buy anything else except the rotors if you need to replace it.
and at $30 each, I would buy a new rotor just to be safe and not have to open the caliper again later to change rotor.
Just remember you would need impact screwdriver to take out that rotor holding screw and apply some Pb blaster or WD40 to that screw before you try to open it.
and buying some new screw would be good if you decide to reuse that screw again but some don't even use screw again and no problem

 

Perfect!

I am all too familiar with the dreaded rotor screw (this is my 4th honda lol).

Only concern about EBC is increased brake dust vs Hawks. Basically semi-metallic (greater bite) vs ceramic (less dust/bite). Think I'll survive with the EBC's and save up for wilwoods for next time.

Also...debating on if EBC slotted rotors are worth it if they are only less than $30 more for both?

 

Thanks! Evasive Motorsports has the cheapest price online.

Rotors are a consumable item, its better to just to get new ones they aren't that expensive and its peace of mind. Also what Alpina said about the shims. I think you will like the green stuff pads. Also look into changing your break fluid, that will make a difference too.

 

I just return from midnight driving to mail some urgent documents to post office few minutes ago and when I am about to park my car back into my garage, I suddenly remember I haven't put picture of my IPF LED Headlight turn on outside my garage so here it is

Notice, this is on the street right in front of my town home garage,
Picture below is with all the light from my car OFF(including the DRL (V3 Triton also OFF),
but of course it is still quite bright outside my home due to all the lighting in my town home complex:






now I am turning on my headlight with IPF LED bulb (low beam mode):
notice how bright it is, just compare it to the light on the parking space on the right, the light on the parking space suddenly looks dim...
go scroll back up to first picture above, and you see that those parking space light is no slouch

and please kindly pay attention on how far the light shine,
then please kindly pay attention on how wide is the beam pattern,
now please kindly pay attention to the row of building on the left side and see how far the left side LIT UP
while at the same time the beam that shine on the left row of the building do NOT aim high
which mean it have excellent cut off and would not blind oncoming traffic
and last please kindly don't forget to pay attention to the right side too, see how far it shine the right side row of the building.

note: I wired my DRL triton to dim to only 10% output if the headlight is on,
so there is no way the DRL triton help to achive this level of brightness,
this is pure performance of the IPF LED headlight bulb.
and also remember that many pictures of people showing how well their HID light function were taken on a dark street with less lighting, my pictures is taken at area where there are lots of other lighting source, if I take my picture at dark street, I am sure the
different between lights off and lights on will be even more contrasting.






and now the High Beam function of the IPF LED headlight:
(notice it shine very far away up to the end of the street on my complex,
and even at the very end of the street, it still shine very bright there).
it you scroll back up to the picture with my light turn off, you will notice near the end of the complex on the right side
there is a bright lighting there, because there is where the swimming pool is, and it have rows of high power street lighting there,
and the IPF LED headlight in high beam mode actually almost equal that powerful streetlighting and the IPF headlight shine from
very far away (like about 60 meters away, I am still more used to meters then feet )




This is why I am so happy with the performance of my IPF LED bulb inside my stock factory housing.
Light generated by LED is directional in nature so all it need to function well inside stock OEM housing is just to ENGINEERED the
beam pattern by ENGINEERING the LED module position itself.
No Projector really needed for LED to work well.
Yes most newer model car still use projector for their LED light,
but that is more too allow their designer to have more freedom in designing the whole headlight assembly,
plus some of this car have headlight that can rotate to follow the cornering, and it is easier to use projector that swivel than to swivel the entire reflector lenses (without projector).
let me give example:
take a look at this Acura LED factory headlight housing for example:



It would not be easy to design a proper reflector inside that extreme rectangular shape headlight, but it is very easy to use 5 projector instead and problem solved. car designer can have their car with almost any kind of weird shape headlight housing, all they need to use is a projector inside the housing.

now below is Porsche swiveling reflector headlight,
imagine how easy much easier to design the swiveling projector,
and how much more difficult it would be to design if they instead swivel the entire reflector inside the housing, that is why they still use projector,
and for this Porsche headlight, that projector looks damn good
now if I can retrofit this Porsche upper and lower projector into our Honda Fit GE housing, I would consider do it
(meaning I would love to do it but the money involved will be too much, I think it is better if I wait until I can afford a Porsche again ):




HID on the other hand, will not work well without projector simply
because you can't really engineer the HID unit (light source) and the only way you can control the HID light beam pattern is by using projector.
No wonder every aftermarket HID "bulb only" upgrade never really work well especially regarding cut off and beam pattern that blind oncoming traffic,
On the other hand,
IPF, PIAA and Phillips (all are large well know reputable global company) able to engineer their LED bulb to work in stock factory halogen housing.
My pictures above shows that LED bulb inside stock OEM light housing really work very well.

Last, look at how nice the color of the light produce by this IPF LED bulb,... it is really nice color that do not make your eyes tired.


Ok Connor,
I am sure you will still think that a projector retrofit performance especially the Lexus LS400 projector will still beat this,
it might but that's ok, this is more than good enough for me,

Just don't forget :
a. HID generate more heat and consume more power than LED
b. LED life is longer and most likely will be limited by the cooling fan life, but
these cooling fan is just like those computer server cooling fan and computer server cooling fan
use to operate 24 hours a day non stop for years, and it still not fail,
I mean when is the last time you experience failure in your radiator fan? and that is a big fan.
c. I think the color of light generated by LED is more pleasant to eyes.
d. no need to open / bake the casing of the headlight to install projector
e. no need to have ballast like HID
f. HID need time to warm up before they can reach their optimum performance,
g. If your HID have double function as high beam, then the more you use/flash your high beam on day time without the low beam turn on, the more shorter the life time of the bulb
h. everybody can install this LED upgrade just like installing halogen bulb (no extra wiring) and only tooks very short time.
i. if you want to sell your car, you can just took it out and replace it back with your old halogen, and
then transfer your LED bulb to your new car (if they are the same H4 model in our case), or if not, just sell the LED bulb
on the forum or eBay or craiglist.
but if you do retrofit, especially the one that need to cut the headlight reflector to fit, then you can't took it out
unless you are willing to buy a new OEM housing or unless you can sell as trade to other who have stock housing
j. and for some people under tight budget, it's still cheaper than proper HID projector retrofit.
k. and for me, the headlight looks stock until I turn it on

With that much advantage above, unless you do want to have the projector retrofit look in your headlight,
then replacing a halogen bulb with IPF or PIAA or PHILLIPS LED bulb is a very good solution with very outstanding performance.