LED Lighting Conversion

I'm just getting around to installing the HIKARI LED Headlight Bulbs Conversion Kit -H11 for my '18 high beams. When I installed the bulbs, they weren't oriented horizontally. Although one is a little more angled than the other, I would say they are at 20 - 30 degrees out of horizontal. I had remembered seeing this image on TW and thought I should index the bulbs. However it seems as though the mounting collar on my Hikari's are permanently located thus preventing indexing.

Any experience with this, suggestions, or concerns?

Thanks!

 

Back up a couple of pages in this thread...I asked the same question a few days ago.

 

Post 2396 on page 120

 

Thanks Gents!

 

No dead spot here and no indexing adjustment at all

 

Right, from the manufacturer there is no adjustment but you can modify them. The instructions are posted in this thread as @mrproduxn said "Post 2396 on page 120".

I guess I'm just not seeing the dead spots. Not sure why if everything is identical with everyone else.

 

Personally I never drove with mine before I changed/corrected the orient. I am just anal about such things being a machinist for most of my life. I get freaked when one headrest is lower than the other. I spend double the standard time edging my yard so the edges are a consistent 0.875 " +/- 0.005". There probably was no effect or dead spots as originally oriented but I will never know. Based on other comments there most likely is no difference in the high beam.

 

Yeah well, like you, the OCD in me has me convinced that even though they're fine I "almost" need to pay you to do mine. LOL because as I've said I don't have the skills or courage. The only thing stopping me is common sense. LOL

 

Hole size is 2 mm. If you don't have a metric bit you can use a 1/16" (1.6 mm) bit and then, either move the spinning bit to open the hole, or push a nail or something through it. It is very soft material. Honestly I just used a spring loaded center punch to get through it. If you have a small center drill that would work and would chamfer the hole for the countersunk screw head.

 

I'm sure the seal is unaffected. All your doing is removing the collar that has the orientation tabs and drilling new holes in it so that the bulb end of the assembly is rotated at a different degree. The rubber seal is independent and spins freely.

 

I used a pin drill. You can pick up a set on Amazon for a few bucks. Really not difficult at all.

 

If you are worried about messing something up then take out one screw and practice drilling on a plastic water bottle cap until you get the right size hole. It is the same material. Remove the orange seal on the collar before you drill it. Then install the seal when done drilling. If it was worth the shipping cost I would do them for you. It really isn't worth spending any money. If you don't have the tools just get a friend with tools to do it for you. A 5 minute job.

 

I want to point out how soft the material of the collar is. The first set of bulbs I received were either damaged during shipping or was a result of me not installing them properly. Either way one of the smaller tabs broke off and part of the collar broke off as well.

Here are some pics showing the fixed bu me bulb, before I had it replaced under warranty.





So unless you're 100% confident you can pull this mod off I say let it pass. I got lucky with my return and I was super grateful for their understanding. I think however, breaking the collar trying to modify it might have a different outcome.

Here's a question, and this may have been discussed by @mrproduxn early on, but, what is the rotation difference if you just remove the screws and spin the collar then reinsert the screws without drilling new holes? Is it 180 degrees? Which would not do anything. Or would it exasperate the issue even more by rotating the collar to a worse angle?

 

The light housing has 2 threaded holes 180 degrees apart. You can only install the screws into one or both of those threads thus the only option is drilling the collar. And to clarify the actual 2 mm hole is the same size as a 5/64" drill bit.

 

Calculated the 35 degrees on the radius of the collar. Basic trigonometry.

 

Not that intense. Just calculate a couple of triangles. Need to know diameter of collar (17 mm) and the angle (35°). The rest is easy as π (see what I did there-thats the pi symbol for you non-nerds). Simple tangent, sine and cosine stuff. Childs play really.

 

As everyone knows if you have tried to replace the dome light with a 31mm......it's a little long(31mm). I found a couple of 30mm..... one is a Audak and the other is made by Phillips. Found them on Ebay. I'm going to try the Phillips.

 

What I thought I remembered reading.

 

Ok, wanna know what's inside a LED headlight bulb?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CX_uFs5vKc0&feature=youtu.be

 

Thanks for all the great suggestion. I bought some Hikari Philips led bulbs and they're awesome .