LED & Other Headlight Upgrades Besides HID Retrofit?

[l008com]

Any suggestions on where to find these countless styles of connector available? Sadly radio shack is no more, I can't think of any other local store that would have connectors like this.

Regarding the high beam shield, something like an audio headphone jack would be perfect for fishing through a small hole and connecting two conductors! with a minimal amount of drilling.

 

[Blckshdw]

I used to buy from Mouser and Digikey, but you had to buy in bulk, and that whole pesky shipping charge thing. These days, Amazon/Ebay are your best bet. You're right, once Radio Shack went away, there was no place to get these things locally.

 

[l008com]

Do anyone have the pinout of the main headlight connector on the back of the lens? That will be helpful for testing if I get things connected today.

 

[l008com]

The slow crawl of progress continues. I soldered up the connectors so i can plug in and unplug the H1 bulbs. I physically installed the projectors, which wasn't easy because the threaded shaft of the projectors really isn't long enough but i jammed it all in there.

After some testing, I'll be ready to close up the lenses and install the lights. Which means me to two questions:

First, is there a simpler way to seal the lenses? Like some kind of foam strips I can use instead of the horrible sticky rubber? That would make things a lot easier, especially if I have to ever open them up and adjust the projectors in the future!

And second.... what's the best way to align a projector headlight? The aim I mean.

 

[Blckshdw]

First, is there a simpler way to seal the lenses? Like some kind of foam strips I can use instead of the horrible sticky rubber? That would make things a lot easier, especially if I have to ever open them up and adjust the projectors in the future!

As far as best, and easiest to deal with for re-work, Butyl rubber is the way to go. Doesn't get much easier than tossing the assemblies in the oven for a few minutes, and then pulling them apart. It's all reusable so you don't need to reapply. Plus, you've got the LT headlights, less work than the LS/SS models.

Next up would be RTV silicone, that's what I used on my first retrofit, when I had to cut the headlights open. Rework wasn't too difficult, just needed a razor blade to cut the RTV, and then reapply a little bit to reseal it later.

I don't think foam strips would work very well, for very long. Think of it this way, on the doors, lift gate, and sunroofs, you see rubber seals, not foam ones, to keep them water tight. With all the hard work and time you're putting into this mod, I think the last thing you want is a bunch of water in there.

And second.... what's the best way to align a projector headlight? The aim I mean.

The answer to this question is subjective. For me, it was easiest to remove the headlights from the truck, secure them in a work area facing a wall. Power up the halogens and mark where the hot spots were on the opposite wall with tape. After retrofitting the projectors, and before sealing up the lenses, put the headlights back in the test positions, fire up the HIDs to see where the hot spots and cutoffs are. Make rotational, horizontal and vertical adjustments as necessary so they line up with what you had before. Seal them up, reinstall on the vehicle and enjoy.

I know what some people do, if they have the room, and a 2nd vehicle, is leave the lights on the vehicle, park it in front of a wall, and repeat the above process. That wall should be 25' away.

Now if you never made any reference marks to compare to, you're not SOL, but will just require some work. Here's a video from TRS on how to fix your alignment if that's your scenario.

 

[l008com]

The drama continues. I did my test fit install today and no light. So with some short wires I fished them into the plugs and come to find out both lights have the polarity reversed. I connected all the reds to reds and black to blacks. So I guess either GM or the company that makes this LED bulb, is using a red wire for the negative and a black wire for the positive. Also of course I blew both fuses while testing this way, not that unexpected.

So I replaced the fuses and I brought the lights back in and chopped the wires and flipped them.

So now I just need to seal them and I'll be able to install and align. Of course sealing is it's own adventure. No car parts stores around me sell the butyl rubber. Home Depot of all places sell it, and sell it cheap, for use with metal roofing but it appears to be the exact same stuff. And the websites says they have 27 in stock. But alas, they had zero in stock. And no other HD's around have any in stock. So I guess I'm stuck ordering some online and waiting.

Not surprisingly considering how the whole rest of this project has gone and how many years it's been going for. I can tell you this, I am 100% ready to get rid of this TB and pick up my 2022 GMC Jimmy 2.7T. Just as soon as it starts existing.

I'm close to having good lighting. I did get light out of both projectors at one point today. Soooooon.

 

[Blckshdw]

So now I just need to seal them and I'll be able to install and align.

Do your alignment BEFORE you seal them up.

 

[l008com]

Do your alignment BEFORE you seal them up.

Why? Isn't the alignment just using the external adjuster?

 

[Blckshdw]

The only adjuster our headlights have, is vertical. If for some reason one of your projectors was slightly to one side or the other, and not straight, there would be no way for you to change that if you already sealed them up.

Same goes for rotation. Say the headlights were sitting flat on whatever surface you used when you first powered them on, but being put on the truck, the bottom of the headlights are not perfectly level by design because they're hung off the header panel. You can't reach in and twist the projector to adjust the cutoff to be level if the lenses are sealed on already. And I know how much you enjoyed getting them open in the first place...

 

[l008com]

Guess who finally had time (and good weather) to poke around this project again!

My plan was to put the lights in with the projectors but no lens covers. Check the rotation, then align the height. Then switch back to my old lights while I go home and bake them close.

But things didn't work out that way. When I had the lights in, boy did they look good! But they did not WORK very good. The beam was extremely narrow. Particularly on the right side. And lots of weird patterns in the light, not a consistent light at all.

I have pics and in the pics, they don't look that bad. But cameras auto balance lighting and make them look brighter than they actually were.

So the cutoff was nice and sharp and the light looked pretty good on the garage door. This is the door from ~25' away after aligning them:

Heres a pic of the whole beam pattern from the driver's seat. Strange unlit circoles in front of each light. Then the right side is cropped in a lot. The left doesn't look it but the camera makes it look better than it is, even the left side is kinda dim towards the edges.

At this point I'm not sure what to do. This project has been a time and money hole for years. I wish I hadn't already modified the lenses, making them 'projector only' but I have.

Other problems that are coming up. I've taken the grill off way too many times, I'm loosing more and more connectors off that. That's not good. Also the wires to the high side amber blinker lights are very very thin and at this point, I feel like they could break at any moment. Also those pain in the ass latches that hole these lights in place are driving me NUTS.

Also of note: If I had done this with HID, I would have been in real trouble because once you mod the harness, there's no way to put the old lights back in. So I would have been walking home from my uncles house and picking up my truck the next day.

I'm not sure I have a specific question at this point. Just a general request for input if you have any. I really don't want to trash these lenses and go buy another set of very expensive LT lenses. My original lenses are in really bad shape though. Super foggy, its very hard to see where I'm going at night. I use my highs constantly when there aren't cars ahead of me.

Back when I had my first (and second) camaro, this mod was easy. I bought lights from a guy on the camaro forum whose car came with HIDs, but that pulled them out to upgrade to something else. I popped them in to my car and they worked great in two different cars for years.

 

[Chickenhawk]

Ouch. With that sharp cutoff pattern, I am hoping there are not a lot of hills where you live. I tried bulbs with a sharp cutoff - European style - and every time I approached a hill, the road ahead faded into total blackness. They lasted one night before I chucked them. Too many deer in our area to deal with sharp cutoffs or LED lights that promise "whiter" and "brighter" light but fail to deliver on spotting hazards any farther away than good-performing halogens.

 

[Blckshdw]

Just a general request for input if you have any.

I forget what the H1 bulb holders look like, but with your truck facing towards the street from your driveway, disconnect whatever the locking mechanism is on the back of the projector so the bulb is loose. Turn on your headlights, reach behind the projector and slightly tilt the bulb in different directions. Think old Atari joystick, and watch the light output on the street for any changes/improvement.

This was a trick I picked up on HIDPlanet, sometimes bulbs can be a little bit off from the manufacturing process and not have their hotspots in the optimal positions, causing weird light output. I had to do this with my Morimoto bulbs when I put them into the Lexus LS350 projectors.

If you're able to improve the output this way, you'll need to shim the base of the bulb so it sits as close to that position as possible when you lock the bulb into place. In my case, I took some scrap aluminum, cut tiny slivers roughly in the shape of the lip that the bulb seat, and used some aluminum tape to hold the shims in place.

It's also possible that the bulb needs to be pulled back some, so you'd need to shim on equal amounts all the way around.

Also of note: If I had done this with HID, I would have been in real trouble because once you mod the harness, there's no way to put the old lights back in.

For this very reason, you should try to mod the mod to fit the OEM connections, instead of the other way around. The connectors/terminals and pigtails used on our vehicles are pretty easy to find online.

 

[l008com]

Blckshdw: do you have any links to the connector pigtails? I tried looking for them when I first tried the HID retrofit but came up empty. Finding some mail and female connectors for the headlights would mean I could build my own harnesses and greatly simplify this install.

Also, a question everyone is going to hate, me included. And it's not one anyone can really answer, but here goes:
Is it possible/likely that my problem is just the LED bulbs and not the amazon projectors themselves? If I get some xenon HID H1 bulbs and shove them in there, with the same setup of projector low beams, 'normal' high beams, might that give me acceptable results?

Yeah I know acceptable is different for everyone and every crappy set of projectors is different and theres no way to know. But my gut, which is always wrong about headlights, tells me some cheap 4300k xenon bulbs would work well in these projectors and be easy-ish to install if I can get some connectors. $35 for that solution (using rando amazon xenon bulbs) vs $200+ for getting another retrofitsource kit, even the cheap kit. $300+ for the nice kit. I just want to be able to see when I drive down the road.

 

[Blckshdw]

Blckshdw: do you have any links to the connector pigtails? I tried looking for them when I first tried the HID retrofit but came up empty. Finding some mail and female connectors for the headlights would mean I could build my own harnesses and greatly simplify this install.

9006 connector search

High Beam splitter search

Is it possible/likely that my problem is just the LED bulbs and not the amazon projectors themselves?

Did you try what I suggested in the previous post? Doing that will give you a much better idea of what you're dealing with.

 

[l008com]

Did you try what I suggested in the previous post? Doing that will give you a much better idea of what you're dealing with.

I didn't because the problem wasn't just an issue on one side. The camera adjusts lighting but it was clear that even with bulb position, there was just nowhere near enough light on the sides or really even straight ahead. And also I haven't had time to work on the headlights again since then.

 

[l008com]

I have not had any time to poke around with my lights all summer but I just logged in to ebay and this came up:

Mini LED Headlight 2.5'' Bi LED Projector Lens 70W Hi/Lo Beam Retrofit Universal | eBay

Provide both high beam and low beam function. Beam Pattern: Hi-Lo Beam. Lens Materials: UV-proof Glass. Simple structure, easy to install, suitable for installation in 99% of the market, using car-level LED.

www.ebay.com

Those are very interesting. High wattage LED so they should put out tons of light, and it looks like they do in the video. And apparently no external power supplies at all so it should be super easy to hard way them into my new lenses, then I can easily swap the new lenses in and if theres a problem, just put the old lenses back in and I can still drive to work the next day.

I already have LED bulbs in my high bays, I'd probably leave them in if I used these projects so I'd basically have double LED high beams. I think my original idea was to get some low power LEDs for the high beam bay and wire them up to always be on, to use them as DRL's. I dunno, but my current lights are so bad that its getting hard to drive at night.