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Guys, I did a cheap projector retrofit in my 09 base as the headlights were not as bright as I wanted and I have always thought about doing one on my other vehicle. Since this is my mileage car/secondary car, I felt that I could take my time and get this done over a long weekend (4th of July). Ended up not being that difficult at all. Here is everything that I bought:
Total for these parts was a little over $45, plus I did a headlight restoration kit which was another $15 from Menard's. Also got some cheap black paint and painted the headlight reflector black as well as the trim on the headlights to match. Wish I would have taken more pictures throughout the process, but this is all I have for right now. These projectors are meant for HIDs (which I may still do in the future) so the LED bulb was a tight fit. I needed to Dremel some of the housing in order to get the bulb to insert in the projector. Light quality seems decent so far, but I have not driven at night yet. If I find the quality of light to be insufficient for my needs, I will go full HID with these projectors. One thing I liked about LED is that the DLR works with these and I know it will not with the HIDs. Sorry that I do not have more pictures at the moment, but I will update further on when I get more pictures and night output.
good job! more pics! and let us know how bulbs your using work out. would be nice if the Leds work as to keep the temps in the headlight housing down a bit since thats a contributing factor to the lenses hazing.
Sorry to keep everyone waiting, but it has been a busy week at work and with the kid. Here are some closer shots, but I need to do more when I get better lighting in the evening and of course night output shots(I don't even know what that looks like yet). Sorry for the glare on these (probably can see my truck better than the actual headlight). Also, looks like I need to run the polishing pad some more on these lenses.
Looking forward to more pictures and output as well. I put in some new Sylvania xtreme bulbs in my stock housing and seems to be only a marginal difference, so would like to see what a reasonably priced retrofit looks like. Thanks!
Guys, a quick update on these LEDs for the projectors. The light that these produce is not good with the LED bulbs. Also, one of the LED chips already burned out, so I would not recommend the LEDs that I purchased. I have a HID kit on the way and will update with night output when I get these installed.
Got the HID kit in and made time for the install last night. Here are a few output shots comparing the HID to the LED. Just a standard 35W HID kit and it seems to perform pretty well. I parked the car about 25 feet back from the garage, so this isn't the greatest night shot, but it is better than nothing. You can see how much more intense the HID (picture 1) is than the LED (picture 3). The second picture is the projector without the cutoff shield for the "Brights" mode. Excited to get these on the highway and see how well they perform on an open road. I will try to get a better distance shot here this week.
Here are the HIDS Brights with the new HIDs Here is what the LEDs looked like. Decent brightness, but not a good hot spot and throw pattern. These did not light up well past 35 feet or so.
