[ R E C H E L O N | AESTHETICS ] 2 0 0 5 - 2 0 1 5 OEM TACOMA RETROFIT HEADLIGHT SERVICES

Morimoto Mini D2S on the left and Muranos on the right. Notice the step difference?

 

Yeah and the cutoff is sharper on the Murano's. Would you say the Murano's are the best or is there something else better?
How do the Acura ones compare?

 

On the 1st page, if you scroll down a bit you can see all the beam patterns for reference.

 

Yeah but in all honesty in pictures to me the mini h1 seem brightest but in person I bet it looks way different

 

Now I'm just waiting for the TRS to release their LED fogs for 05-11 Taco's to drop

 

And you can't really see how well it lights the sides up

 

I was saying the same thing too to myself when I was looking at pictures, came from FXR setup. Once behind the wheel, happy and loving the new setup.

 

I feel like I still can bring the beam a bit higher with the murano's then my FXR, the FXR I can tell they were annoying the car in front of me to cover what the murano's are already doing now if that makes sense or maybe it's just me haha

 

Ok I need some advice from those more knowledgeable with this stuff than I am. I'm getting ready to pull the trigger on a set of these lights from Rechelon, and I'm on the fence about 3" FX-R vs. Murano. I've been bothering them with emails (thanks for your patience Rad) trying to get all of my questions answered, and I've pretty much narrowed it down to this last option that I need to decide on.

My question is this: I know the Muranos are superior to the FX-R, but for someone who's been using the crappy OEM Tacoma halogen headlights for 8+ years, and isn't a HID / retrofit junkie, will I notice enough difference between them to warrant an extra $300? I think that either one is going to be a huge improvement over stock, and I'm not sure if I'll have the eye to appreciate the difference between 100% improvement and 101% improvement.

I found a thread on HIDPlanet from TRS (https://www.hidplanet.com/forums/fo...rn-pictures/58567-mega-projector-post-via-trs) that shows pictures taken of a bunch of different projectors/lenses, and all of them are taken using the same camera/lens with identical camera settings in a controlled environment. Seeing these pictures, it almost looks like the FX-Rs perform better than the Muranos. The output of the FX-R seems to be brighter, just as wide if not wider, and the cutoff line seems to be about as sharp. That's making the extra $300 even tougher to justify. I'm sure the difference would be much more noticeable if I could see both of them in person, but unfortunately I don't have that option. These links were taken from the thread I linked above.
Morimoto FX-R 3.0 3": https://www.flickr.com/photos/126173708@N06/14665720967/
FXR3-M by Andrew Powers, on Flickr

Nissan Murano w/ STI-R Lens:
Murano-M-M by Andrew Powers, on Flickr

Rad told me that they tune the Muranos even further than what's shown in that picture so the output is even better, but I still go back to the same question. I realize it's better 'on paper', but will the average person notice $300 worth of difference in every day real-world driving scenarios?

 

Dude I'm in the same damn boat.

 

FWIW I had same dilemma too. Cuz you are thinking "we'll, if I am dropping $1000+ one time for a long term investment, do I just go 'all out'?"

In end I went FXR. Haven't installed them yet, but I know they will be amazing. I personally started to think how long they've used them and how many people have had them and been nothing but thrilled.

Helped me keep project around $1300 which was closer to $1000 than $2000 in my mind and for some reason was better. If I didn't have 2 kids and a wife who is none too thrilled when spending money to "replace perfect lights" then I woulda hollar'd at Muranos.

 

Exactly, I'm definitely a 'buy once cry once' kind of person, and I don't mind spending more $ for quality (I actually prefer it), but it's def a tough pill to swallow at a ~30% cost increase. And same boat here - wife and 2 kids, so gotta keep things somewhat reasonable. If I was single / no kids, yea I'd just go all out.

And to clarify - I'm not in any way saying what Rechelon is charging for the Muranos is unreasonable or excessive. I have no doubt the increase in cost is justified due to 1) the increase in parts costs, and 2) the extra time/labor involved in tuning them. The question isn't "is the cost justifiable for them to be charging"... the question is "is the cost justifiable for me to be spending".

 

I can't speak about the Muranos but I can speak about the FX-R's.

Even if you get the FX-R's, it will be an enormous upgrade from stock. It's honestly something you'll need to see to believe. I know there is always something better than other things in life, but I couldn't imagine headlights getting any better.
When I ordered my set, my wife thought it would be a waste of money. She thought it was all about physical looks. Then the first night ride she was blown away.

Basically I don't think you can make a bad decision here.

Good luck with your choice and enjoy!

 

This is a great post. More and more I want to get mine done already. No way in hell I'm going to do it myself.

 

I fancied the idea of doing it for like 7 minutes. Then reality set in that I have nowhere near enough free time to do it properly.

Someday I would love to dabble with some personal retro projects, like maybe when our boys start driving.

Until then I let the pros handle something like this. Factor in the high praise @RAD gets and I don't see how you can go wrong.

#retrofit

 

Woo I'm back from vacation and ready to answer some questions. Give me a min while I read where I left off. Noticed the main topic is FXRs vs Muranos. There are pro and cons of each

 

There will always be something better. However there is a lot of things to consider when you want "the best". 1st would be single xenon or bi xenon. To ME, the best single xenon projector is definitely the widest and one of more expensive lexus ls430 projectors. Price tag? $450 untuned and unmolested. Throw in a clear lens, spacers, tuning labor and you're already in $500 range for just the projectors. Best bi xenon? Me to would be LS460-R. R because the original ls460 projectors are HUGE. With LS460-R, you internalize the solenoid making it smaller and easier to retrofit. Still one of the hardest to fit. Ask @RAD Price tag on those? $495 tuned from Andrew at TRS.

So "best" is pretty broad.

Acura TLs is beautiful. Different cutoff than muranos. TL also has a pretty big foreground and high beam. High beam is crazy. More foreground than muranos. Both are great projectors.

You can definitely bring muranos higher because the left side of the projectors dips down a lot more than fxrs.

You have to realize how much work goes into tuning oem projectors. Some people are better than others. Is it worth $300? Well let me break it down. Projectors only cost somewhere between $100- $150. Clear lens another $40. Spacers, $5 if you buy from TRS and labor to tune $50-100. So that's where $300 comes from. TRS actually sold out of Muranos. And there are three different versions. Rare EU version cost a lot more and J slopes version are sexy and the US version is meh lol

FXR is great out of the box. Everything in one package as far as price and performance. Huge improvement over stock.

Murano and TLs are oem and oem quality is pretty damn good. Fxr's are good quality too but it's still aftermarket. Oem require more work to perfect it. More work means more money.

If you have the extra cash, get oem. If not, FXR is great! Pair it with a good bulb and you'll be amazed.

As for output, I know @RAD and the team put a lot of time tuning projectors. Here is mine, as you can see, I made the hot spot a lot bigger than what you see in TRS page.

Top is oem and bottom is my tuning.

There's a lot of tuning involve. Some like more color, some like the sharpness, some like the bigger hotspot. There's a trade off. More color mean less sharpness. You just gotta find a balance between all of them.

And you want to see both projectors in one picture?
As you can see, murano is wider than fxr. Murano is brighter than fxr. But fxr is more streaky than murano.

I hope I answered a few questions. Its a lot of think about but as for someone looking for improvements over stock, FXR is great. Want to step into the oem world, go with murano and tl.

 

Thank you for the time to make this post. I will read this again and probably one more time before bed. Thank you again

 

Absolutely and I can still go into details if you have specific questions. Again, if you know what goes into tuning an oem projector, you'll see why it costs a lot. Im over here out shining all bmws, mercedes, and audis with my NISSAN murano projectors