Did this swap for a AZ member GLowrdr , cleared and swapped the Fresnel OEM TL lenses for the clear ZKW lenses.

This write-up is more of a pictorial rather than being a DIY since I didn’t go into much detail.

This is how the headlights arrived, everything still on them i.e. ballasts, bulbs etc.

Kind of dirty for my liking, cleaned it up real good before opening anything since I would have been handling it so didn’t want to get all the dirt that’s outside inside the headlights.



My tools



The projectors



Mmmmm clear ZKW clear lens



By the way since I had to take the ballasts off I would replace the factory foam washer with a set of custom made ones to insure a thorough seal.

Comparison



In the words of Peter Griffin “ Wimpy wimpy wimpy”



“hefty hefty hefty”



Nuts taken off from the ballast and the back headlight cover, keep them in a safe place, you’ll need them later



This is how the new washer would go around the ballast



The ballast is held onto the headlight with the aid of three screws and a aluminum plate, screws taken off in this picture



Back cover, bulb and ignitor taken off



Ignitor out of the headlight



Headlight opened up



Here is the ZKW lens taken off of the ZKW projector. For optimal output a spacer is needed to be placed between the TL projector and the ZKW lens, the one shown in the picture is from a Porsche Bi-xenon projector out of a Porsche Cayenne



Lens replaced. There are two ways to replace the lens, one is to take the whole projector/fog light assembly off of the headlight in which case you’d have to un screw them from the back and pry them out and unscrew the projector out of the whole hardware and so on. In the second method you just meticulously take the front lens holder off from the front using two tiny flat head screw drivers, don’t try it if you don’t want to risk the lens holder, I have broken a couple of those lens holders in the past.





On to the second part of the mod, taking the amber bit off



You’d have to break those tiny plastic bits off with a flat head screw driver just enough that they let the amber defuser off but still are there to hold the chrome bit in the front adhered to the plastic bezel of the headlight.



Two washers would be needed of the following type to hold the bezel in place. Since the amber defuser is not there any more you’d have to put these with the screws.





After this the headlights were sealed, I use a mix of OEM + after market silicone to bond the front lens back together to insure that they don’t leak/fog up

While having this done I recommended to the owner that the OEM Osram D2S bulbs should also be changed with these Phillips 85122+ bulbs. HID bulbs loose their output over the life of the bulb. A new Osram bulb produces 3200 lumens, a color shifted (with about 100+ hours of usage) Osram produces 2800 lumens, the Phillips 85122+ bulbs produce 3400 Lumens are known to not loose output levels over their life.





Here is a picture showing the washer mentioned above, notice the seal




The whole thing took me roughly 4 hours with plenty of breaks and here is the final result

 

nice pics...these might be my headlights soon

 

Dibs


Looks pretty sweet J - can't wait until I get 'em in my car. I'm going through withdrawels driving my blazer.

 

JnC, do you know if the ZKW lenses will fit on Acura MDX 2007+ projectors? Also do the ZKW lenses add light output and make the cut-off better?

The headlights look really nice, but what did you make the spacer out of? Also is it necessary to do?

 

wooo go brian, cant wait to see these babies installed

 

No they wont, not only cause these are 3" in diameter and the MDX is 2.5" but also the focal point would be totally off. The spacer is to get optimum, focused output and the spacer is out of a porsche projector as mention, as far as what is it made off? No idea, probably some sort of heat resistant material.

 

GLowrdr, here is the picture. The output is from a set of S2000 projectors but you should get the idea as to how much you should raise or lower each headlight to get the beam pattern.

___________/'''''''''''''''''''________/''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

 

good shyt man... looks hot

 

is that process as easy for an 06?

 

I wish I could see the pics....

 

2 year old thread is a 2 year old thread....
maybe JNC still has the pics somewhere and can be kind enough to re-upload them

 

Woah, blast from the past

I dont think I have those pictures any more

May be I should write a DIY

 

Now that those pics have xpired and there are more buyers in teh market .. that would be a brilliant idea.

Thanks JnC

 

Nothing like bringing back the past.

In for pics lol

 

I want to have mine cleared. I know a member here who DIY, but he said it was a pain in the ass. Maybe a write up would help. Or I might have to just order from you

 

I am also in for the pictures.

 

I am also interested in knowing why the ZKW lens is so good. besides being a sharper cutoff, does it have extended horizontal spread? Is it worth the money? Maybe a Stock 04 headlight vs ZKW 04 pic?