davenlei

Have many people on this forum had their TL headlights stolen?
I have not had this happen but I visit several other forums including one involving HID retrofitting into non HID cars and it seems as if TL, TSX and S2000 HID projectors are always being mentioned/used when they do their modifications. I just wonder where they are getting their units from. I know some must come from wrecked cars but some posts on that site have made it seem as if the midnight auto salvage business may be used a lot.
Is there any 'cheap' way to thwart the theft of the lights? Maybe security torx screws in place of the regular screws holding in the lights? It would just piss me off to go to my car one day and notice it's 'eyes' are gone.

Also, has anyone done the 'color mod' to their HID lights here? Is it hard to do?

drdamian

wow, stolen lights.. i have never taken my headlights out but it seems that you need to remove the bumper to do that.. i have never looked myself but i wonder how easy it would be to get the light out as fast as possible and not ruin the headlights in the process. i am going to start looking in the junkyards myself and see if i can locate a set of headlights so i can start to clear them out. its not hard at all from what i hear. there are a lot of posts on this forum of people that have done it and offer step by step instructions. i just cant bring myself to do it to my own lights since this car is my daily driver and if something goes wrong then i am screwed.

davenlei

It looks as if a lot of body damage would have to occur. I read a post on the other forum (an HID forum), of a person who had their lights stolen in a parking lot. They said it looks af if they used a crow bar to pry the hood open and damaged the hood, bumper, fenders, etc. just to get the lights out.
From what I see when they do the retrofit, they only want the innards of the light (lens, ballast, igniter, bulb). They do not care about the actual light housing. I was just wondering how rampant (if at all) theft of the TL lights are. I wan't to put in theft countermeasures if it happens a lot.

jayare627

My friend got hers stolen up in Boston at night. Came out of the resteraunt and they were gone. They tooke the entire headlight casing and everything. Had to have the car towed back and $1600 was the repair bill.

AcuraVic

Was the car an 03+ TL ?

chill_dog

That's what I was thinking...2nd gen. Ours are a pain to remove...not something they could do quickly and easily.


And of course ours are always being used...they look the best!

PoochaKannInc

I saw a TL with its headlights stolen. They messed up the hood, the front fenders and bumper trying to pull it out. It was painful to look at it.

mark 3M bra man

They would have to take the bumper off or just hook it up to another car and rip it out.

Most people (including myself) just modify my own headlights that came with the car, why would I want to pay for another set if I already have one???

ttliang

that's 2nd gen TL right? 3rd gen's hard. why mess with 3rd gen TL when they can do 100 RX330 in the same time?

HiTEC

Coming from the Audi world, headlight theft was becoming a problem in certain areas. People would come out to their car to find their hood and qtr panels pried back with a crowbar and their headlights missings.

I did some searches and I found sites where people were showing how to adapter A4 & A6 headlights to their Honda rice mobile.

Very sad!

davenlei

I was referring to 3rd gen TL's since it seems as if the popular mod is to put HID projectors in the reflector housings for a better beam and cut off.

I guess it looks like any car with projectors are at risk and the thieves are willing to do a large amount of damage to get to your lights. That really sucks!

avs007

Is that how people are getting hold of TL projectors? I thought they just bought them legit, considering HIDplanet or whatever has Bosch projectors for only $99 for a pair.

neuronbob

OK, definitive answer from someone who's owned both 2G and 3G TLs and been around here a long time:

Headlight theft was and is a HUGE problem with the 2G TL. The East Coast, and particuarly, the NY/NJ metro, was a center for this activity. This is because it is so easy to remove the headlights and ballast from the 2G TL. The 3G TL's headlights were therefore totally redesigned to make them much more difficult to remove. I'm sure it's not impossible, but it is much more difficult than in the 2G TL.

There are lots of threads in the 2G forum about this issue, if you care to look. I remember 2-3 years ago, when this activity seemed to peak, and even in Cleveland this 2G owner walked away from his car in trepidation every time he parked in a public place.

ndx2

We just gotta keep an eye out for those damn G35 drivers

https://acurazine.com/forums/car-parts-sale-361/might-selling-rims-130679/

F23A4

....wonder if I should retrofit 3G TL projector HIDs to my 02 Maxima. Those look HOT on the G35.