Lightforce HID conversion (w/ Pics)

[slosurfer]

I too have read the mixed reviews and hopefully my install will go smoothly. If I was going to do the conversion on my headlights, I would not go with an ebay deal, but would go with a reputable company. I am not sure if I would trust these to be reliable enough to be my everyday lights, it would suck to be stranded with no headlights and then on top of that, not having good customer service to get them fixed.

I am going to start retrofitting tomorrow and hopefully have it done by Sunday evening. We'll see if that is possible with these kids.

[slosurfer]

Well I am part way through retrofitting one of the housings and I have had to take a break to watch the kids. It is definately not for the faint of heart to be tearing into such expensive lights. I am trying to take lots of pics and lots of notes so that there can be some kind of write-up. This first one is going really slow, but I am sure that the second one will go much faster.

[slosurfer]

I am pretty much finished with retrofitting my lights over to the H3 HID bulb. The only thing left to do as far as my housings are concerned, is to figure out a way to seal the rear hole. I need to take a trip to the depot to see what kind of grommets I can come up with as the ones that came with my kit are way too big. So right now there is just a open hole with the wires passing through. As I imagined, I was able to retrofit the second one in about 30 mins. Here's a teaser shot of the HID bulb installed, I'll have plenty of pics and step by step instructions once I get these sealed up.



Also, it started raining, so I didn't get around to actually installing the ballasts and all that on the 4runner. I'll save that for after I get the lights actually sealed up. I'm getting really anxious now.

[calrockx]

this is prety cool, i'm watching this.
i've got some 240s that i wouldn't mind converting to HID.

[slosurfer]

This rain is killing me! We have got 4.5" in the past couple of days. Anyways, I wanted to test the lights before I sealed up the housings, just in case something didn't work and I needed to send something back. Because of the rain, I had to wait till we got a break in the rain. It was almost dark by that time, so I just hooked everything up but I did not mount the ballasts or any of that.

They work! I don't know how well yet as I was pulled up to the front of the garage and I just ran them for the suggested burn in time of 10 mins. I pulled everything off and sealed up the housings. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have time to mount the ballasts and get some good comparison pics.

Here's a teaser pic (the lights aren't mounted so they are aimed really funny)

[slosurfer]

I everything mounted last night, finally (I will need to redo where my ballasts are located once we get good weather). They are bright, it is really hard to tell how much brighter. I tried to get pics last night but they weren't turning out good because of the rain and my camera battery died.

One reason that I am having a hard time comparing them to the original lights is, I took pics with the originals with them all the way at the tightest spotlight I could get them. With these all the way tight, the spot isn't as tight which makes it hard to get good comparison pics. I have some ideas to fine tune them to see about getting a nice tight spotlight. I'll get the whole writeup with step by step pics done, once I see if I can fine tune this light.

That being said, I can definately tell that they throw out more light. I threw on my clear combo lenses for a little bit last night and WOW it turns everything in front and to the sides into daylight. Makes me want to see what some 240 HID's would look like.

Other observations:
1. My headlights look terrible now, so dim and YELLOW! I'm definately due for new ones, my low beams are retardly dim.

2. At times, I get a little to a lot of feedback through the radio when they are on.

3. I can tell a difference (sounds different) in how much the alternator is working at idle when these are on compared to having the two 100 watt bulbs.

Edit: Here are the pics of the conversion so far without a writeup Photo Album

Edit: Writeup is now also on page 2.

[Erich_870]

VERY cool Chris!

So you say you can hear a difference in your alternator, huh? It's not working as hard, or harder?

Erich

[slosurfer]

VERY cool Chris!

So you say you can hear a difference in your alternator, huh? It's not working as hard, or harder?

Erich

It's not working as hard. It is just something I noticed when I have it idleing and the lights are and I'm standing outside adjusting the lights. Basically if it was idleing and I switched the original lights on, I could hear a difference, now when I switch the lights on, everything sounds the same. Hopefully that makes sense.

[Erich_870]

It's not working as hard. It is just something I noticed when I have it idleing and the lights are and I'm standing outside adjusting the lights. Basically if it was idleing and I switched the original lights on, I could hear a difference, now when I switch the lights on, everything sounds the same. Hopefully that makes sense.

That's what I figured. Gotta love HID's... More light, less power

Erich

[slosurfer]

A couple daylight comparison shots:

Left- Original 100watt halogen at full spot Right- 35watt HID at full spot


Notice that the spot on the HID doesn't get as tight, that is something I may be able to fine tune.

Here you can see the difference in color (note: the camera is held up more in the halogen beam)


Hopefully tonight it isn't pouring rain too bad and I can get some better shots.