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So, as most people have experienced, the driver's headlight in my 03 TL-S went out a few months back. The headlight got pretty yellow and ugly from all the water build up. The passenger side headlight was still fine but the assembly showed that it was starting to yellow too as that top. Some pictures of the way it was:
Driver's left is so yellow, but you can also see some yellowing on passenger's side top.
Like a rainstorm inside...
Thanks to the folks on this forum, I mustered up the courage to try to tackle this myself (and also after getting a quote for $300+ to fix just the one). This thread and video was super helpful: https://acurazine.com/forums/second-...type-s-941509/
I decided to splurge for nicer aftermarket housing / assemblies just because I was tired of looking at the originals and didn't really like the amber side marker. For the electronics, I know folks have suggested getting aftermarket (ex: HIDExtra), but I decided, rightly or wrongly, to go with OEM. I didn't really want to deal trying to find a place to stick the aftermarket ballast and then cover up the bottom hole.
Anyways, in doing all of this, I discovered a few things:
- The front bumper has mostly push type snap connectors and just 4 screws: 2 on the bottom and 2 by the wheel wells. The ones by the wheel well are held by some plastic / nylon grommets... I had trouble with one of these (luckily just one) as the grommet would turn as I was unscrewing, so I could never get the screw out. So, I got around this by just swinging the bumper off to the side while working it. I think the other option is to open up the wheel well panel and try to vise grip the grommet. Anyways, poor choice of the engineers to use that grommet thingie IMO.
- Swapping the electrical components from the working side to the non-working side seemed like a good idea to confirm what really needs to be replaced. When I did this, I realized I needed a new ballast. But then weeks later, I realized the igniter was bad--60% of the time, it worked every time. Luckily, a local Ziner had leftover parts from his aftermarket swap.
- Even after swapping to blackout housing and clear side marker, I was still left with amber color from the turn marker. I guess there are some chrome options to consider, but most of the ones I could find had poor reviews.
- I ended buying new bulbs from Retrofit Source and got the Morimoto in 6500k. Unfortunately, I made this purchase before taking everything part and testing the parts. It turns out I didn't need them and the original bulbs still worked. Oh well...
Anyways, that's a lot of words, here are some pictures of the completed look. What do you guys think?
Couldn't get that one screw off so just swung bumper around.
Gorgeous, man...
do your homework on LED options, although you may develop hyper blink
I'd just go simple and search "chrome dipped" 7443 or whatever it is.
Quite a transformation though, looks gorgeous.
Looks like a totally different (and improved) car!
I also saw the poor reviews on the chrome bulbs, which made me hesitate on purchasing them... A lot of the reviews criticized that they were really dim...
Again, congrats...always great to have a successful end for your project.
Looks like a totally different (and improved) car!
I also saw the poor reviews on the chrome bulbs, which made me hesitate on purchasing them... A lot of the reviews criticized that they were really dim...
Again, congrats...always great to have a successful end for your project.
I went through the gamut with bulbs on my old truck when I installed cleared tails. Started with cheap-o eBay LED bulbs (this was back when there were no good LED options; they all sucked) that were just horrible. I then went back to incandescent bulbs but installed clear instead of amber which was fine in the state I was living in as the turn signals could be either amber or white light.
Moved states and got popped for having white lights since it was amber or red (in the rear) only. So I got some amber incandescent bulbs and tried to DIY chrome them. Supposedly you can get high temp, like BBQ grill high temp, spray paint and do a few really light coats on the bulb. It'll take on a chrome look but still let the light through.
Well, I couldn't find high temp so I used regular chrome paint and it worked fine. Until the bulbs warmed up and then the paint turned melty and it looked like shit.
So finally, I sucked it up and bought some real chrome bulbs that light up amber. They worked. They were bright enough; but way dim in comparison to today's LEDs.
And thus I complete my Cool Story, Bro.
TL;DR, the chrome coated bulbs work fine and do a good job of clearing out the housing.
Those headlights look great! Good job! I have been looking for a set of completely clear headlights for a while and never came across these. Thanks for posting the link. MikeekiM and boorah623, you guys both have these installed, how are the optics on them...are there any dark spots in the road with these? Ready to buy a pair depending on what you guys say. I have replaced 3 sets of headlight assemblies before (different kinds of cars) and they all have had dark spots. Just seems to be a fact of life with aftermarket headlight assemblies, or just real bad luck.
So how's the lighting now? I assume a lot better? Do our cars have a very good cutoff, if at all? I just bought mine and haven't had a chance to clean it up.
Those headlights look great! Good job! I have been looking for a set of completely clear headlights for a while and never came across these. Thanks for posting the link. MikeekiM and boorah623, you guys both have these installed, how are the optics on them...are there any dark spots in the road with these? Ready to buy a pair depending on what you guys say. I have replaced 3 sets of headlight assemblies before (different kinds of cars) and they all have had dark spots. Just seems to be a fact of life with aftermarket headlight assemblies, or just real bad luck.
Hey dude, thanks! I find the optics to be really good! But then again, my comparison is the "pre" modification, where one side was pretty much not throwing out any light at all. So, for me it really is night and day.
I have not noticed any dark spots, but I'm also not super sure what "dark spots" would look like. To me, they look very even. The quality of these headlights are pretty comparable to the originals.
I'll try to take a few pictures at night and post them.
So how's the lighting now? I assume a lot better? Do our cars have a very good cutoff, if at all? I just bought mine and haven't had a chance to clean it up.
Yup, totally better. I can actually see in front of me now.
As for the cutoff... well, these are still HID reflectors and not projectors, so the cutoff isn't going to be that distinct. The effect is much more diffuse, but you can't really avoid that I think--it's just the design.
As I said in the post above, I'll try to take a few pictures of them at night.
Boorah623, thanks for the info! I'm going to order a set! What I meant by dark spots was the light on the road in front of you, on other cars with aftermarket headlights, the light that hits the road in front of you, isn't even. Some spots are brighter than others and in a few spots, there isn't any light at all. It sounds to me like answered my question by saying that it looks even. Thanks again, going to order a set now!
10-09-2016, 05:02 PM
