Hi all,

New member here. I recently picked up a ASM 6 Speed TL and am starting to do a few subtly mods.

One mod that I'm interested in doing is clearing the side markers and painting the housing black. I've read all the threads about the procedure and believe I have it down but I do have a questions regarding the 2006 specific lights.

It's my understanding that 2006 had an improved ballast and projector (as opposed to 04/05) which carried into 2007/08.

Because I drive my car daily, I want to get a spare set of TL headlights to do the mod on. When shopping around for used headlights, is there a way to determine if the headlights are 04/05 or 06? Essentially, I want to have the projector that is in the 06+ (like I do now) but when shopping for used headlights, I cant tell if the headlight is OEM to 2006.

Can you swap out the projectors without opening the headlight capsule?

 

the ballast is separate than the headlights!
I believe you are scared that you'll be stranded by having two different wire harness or connections...

04-06, the harness connections are the same! regardless of change in ballast.

in 07-08, the type-s model received changes to wire harness.

this means, if you grab any 04-06 head lights, it will bolt up and connect to the existing wires and will be exactly the same as your 06 headlight

 

I'm actually referring to the projector, not the ballast.

The projector on the 06+ is different than the 04/05. 06+ provides a sloped cutoff whereas 04/05 provides a sharped cutoff - according to the official headlight thread. I want to keep the sloped cutoff.

I may not be articulating it well so let me know if this sounds confusing.

 

as far as I Know, my 2006 ASM TL has a very sharp cutoff!!


the projectors are the same for 04-06 and dare I even say its the same for 07-08.

I really doubt that Acura gave their headlight maker 2 different specifications for 04-06 when they are the same generation, before the MMC. or mid-cylce refresh

 

Essentially the same but not really. Like he said the cutoff is different.

 

why the heck would they do that?????

change of supplier? ran out of materials?


can one of you show me the difference between the two??

 

I don't have pics as I'm the new guy haha
But I found the information from this thread:https://acurazine.com/forums/third-g...thread-894919/

 

You know this...

~2006 models are DOT
+ 2006 models are ECE

I actually dremeled that part a bit when I had my projectors completely apart for demon eyes.

 

We are talking specs and differences here so minute they don't really matter tho. But if someone has a choice they may want one or the other.

 

wait, so my 2006 headlight is not DOT certified?

omg now im so confused. this is what I get for trying to help!

 

DOT is like ___|-----

ECE is like ___/---

 

Dot ftw

 

wow! totally did not know that!
my eyes must suck cuz I swear my cutoff is #

 

I knew this would spark some goo conversation!

So I guess what I'm now wondering is which is better for visibility?

And secondly, can you swap the projector without opening the capsule?

 

They're essentially the same from a visibility perspective. And no, you can't simply swap the projectors without opening the entire headlight assembly.

 

Some insight on your original post (if you didn't find out already):
06 ballasts are different from 04-05. Different mounting point and ballast (I believe). Many years ago, I attempted a headlight swap for some modded ones, and the guy sent me "non-2006" headlights and the ballasts did not fit. Then he told me I just need some 04-05 ballasts, so I just returned them and asked for a refund.
So BE CAREFULL when shopping for spare healights. Make sure they're specific to 06. You can also fit 07-08 headlights but need to change the turn signal harness (ebay $15 bucks), tun sig sockets (Like $10 each) and the fog lights (DRLs for 07-08) to 9005 bulbs. Some aftermarket headlights (like my typeS depos) come with sockets.

Hope this helps!

 

Why the heck would they put turn signal mirrors on the models above AND below the TL back in 2004 while the first 3000 '04 TL's produced had turn signal mirrors on the windows sticker?
.
.

 

The helps a lot! Thank you very much.

Is there a way to visually determine if they are 2006 specific? I'd be curious to see the difference between ballasts since that could be a give away - does anyone have a pic?

 

2006 ballasts are much slimmer than the 2004-2005 ones.