its funny, mines are the real zkw lenses and i was wondering how i can get more blue light above the cut off line of the headlights!!

 

You have to remember JvX takes his pics with just the projectors nothing else. The plastic lens on the headlight is going to distort the crazy blue/purple color a little bit. I'm sure you have a lot of color from a long distance away, just like mine I have the real ZKWs as well.

Not the best example but this is about 75-100 feet away from the snowbank


This is what it look like at about 25-40 feet

 

Quick Question: How high should the top of the HID beam be from some distance (x) away?

So say I'm 30ft from a wall....should they be at 20ft or 15ft or what? I need to adjust mine I think b/c my HID's don't look all that bright to me. Probably b/c I'm on the stock bulbs at 108K miles lol

....looks like the Osram CBI's are in my near future

 

It says in your owners manual how to aim your HIDs

 

whoa whoa whoa! easy there. your HIDs should never be pointed 15 or 25 ft high! stock factory setting is pointed over 1 degree downwards which means it only gets lower and lower as it goes farther. The distance from the ground to the headlight is like, what, 3 feet? So that means your HID cutoff should never be above that 3 feet EVER on a flat road. You're blinding drivers more than those annoying 4x4's with flaring HIDs.

 

Your car should be 25' from the wall on a flat even surface. Measure from the ground to the center of the projector (there should be a marking on the plastic headlight lens to show you where center should be) then you'll go to the wall that your beam is projected on to and then you measure the lower step of the cut off, and the measurement should 2-2.5" lower than the height of the center of the projector.

 

just installed my zkw-r lens today. i did a little bending back and forth with the cutoff shield to get the best cutoff. i love how my lights looks now

 

ZKW lenses make a huge improvement, don't they? After years of have projectors with my current car and a retro with TL projectors in my stratus, I'm still mesmerized with watching the cut off bounce around, especially seeing that color band hit the white road signs.

 

I need to order some and get them in. Is there a definitive diy around anywhere? at least when it comes to placing in the new lens and such. I can open the lights with no problems but the lining up part so no "sagging" happens has me a bit stumped.

 

All you have to do is throw the clear lense in. There is a lip where the clear lens goes so there won't be much moving of the lens itself. Just don't bend the shield to much or else the cut off will have sloping on the sides. It's all trial and error between lens spacing and shield bending, that's the hard part. Just remember to do distance testing, having a lot of color up close isn't necessarily a good thing, the color will distort itself further down the road. When you test the projector, make sure it still has a nice crisp sharp cut off at 100' then you should be fine. After everything is tested and you've achieved your desired results then clip the lens retainer back on. It's a lot easier if you can take the projector out of the holder on the headlight.

This may help you.
http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?36049-How-to-Install-ZKW-R-Clear-Lens-on-TL-Bi-xenon-Projector&highlight=zkw-r+lens

 

Nate, did some work today on my custom TL cutoff shield! This is just using scissors so its not perfect just want to see what this design would look like. Once I do it with a razor blade it will be perfect. What do you think?

 

That's a sharp cutoff!! Nice job on it.

 

Looks awesome Roger, did you get the idea from JVX on hidplanet? That may be something I'll mess around with my spare projector. How exactly are you connection the custom shield to the solenoid? Have you messed with the prism shield at all?

 

Oh for sure I read through all the stuff on JVX first and although he hasn't done much with TL projectors it was pretty similar.

Check out what might be my final shield for one side at least, with the CBI's of course. The width seems insane I haven't compared it to stock but for some reason it seems wider then normal.

 

That looks nuts! Are you using the aluminum flashing for the final shield? Or just the prototype? Are you planing on painting the shields at all? I'd love to see the comparison to the stock projector and also the new shield ZKW along with stock shield ZKW lens

 

Those pictures above are using aluminum flashing and unless I decide to change it, that right there is good to go! I just cut the stock shield completely off above the hole where the stopper goes in. I did paint the shield and will be painting the inside of the projectors flat black so it looks darker when looking at it from outside. I will try to get some comparison pics too!

 

I just installed my 85122+ bulbs and ZKW-R lenses. Definitely have more color at the cutoff. I think sometime in the future I will do some cutoff shield bending.

 

Are these lenses just plug 'n' play? Remove the old lense and install the new one with no issues? I don't want to mess with bending or cutting the shield and etc.

 

If you're lucky. Lens spacing will most likely be required

 

my cutoff looked much better with 2 spacers on each side from TRS. Keep in mind you'll def have trouble fitting the retainer back on with the spacers.

 

They can be, if you just pop them in it'll still be better than stock but with a little tuning they can get even better. I was on a time crunch when I swapped mine as I needed the car back up ASAP so I just popped them in, definitely sharper than stock but not as much color as some of those posted. I miss the cutoff I had with the retrofit on my last vehicle, I used Lexus RX projectors with TSX-R clear lenses and I had a prism for my cutoff, every color in the rainbow and razor sharp. I wonder if having a smaller projector makes a difference as they were 2.5" instead of 3" like the TL.

 

I think a 3" projector will have a little bit more output.