CLOSED - The Retrofit Source GB

That is weird, so it goes back low when you turn everything off?

The good thing is that it's probably not your solenoid, but probably something to do with the control relay harness.

 

I also got mine installed and finished tonight. Took a lot more time than I thought. I think my grounds may be slightly suspect. As the passenger side did not turn on the first time, but has since then. I plan to take pics of all the locations of everything I installed, that way it might help others. Everything reached, barely. Would have liked to see at least an extra 6" on every connection.

My alignment was off both vertically and rotation wise, and drastically different between driver and passenger side, but I'm going to blame that on the new housings (probably assembled by different people). I have set the vertical so that its at least useable, but will do a laser alignment at some point. I will need to also rotate the projectors slightly, but need pliers to do so, as they are pretty hot after turning them on.

Overall, very happy so far. Light output is amazing over stock, and cutoff looks really nice. Not quite as sharp as my wife's TSX, but close. I'm eventually going to yank out the grounds and sand them with a Dremel to get them better, but I tried to pick existing grounds that were being used for other things, so I wouldn't run into issues, but apparently the tops of those connections are dirty enough to cause a higher resistance.

 

That's not bad. It's going to be hard to get that any better. Mine are both off slightly, but in the same direction so it's not apparent. I'm a little high on the right/low on the left, which doesn't bother me because it covers the side of the road just fine and is more respectful to oncoming traffic.

When I installed mine into the housings, I looked into the lens and rotated the projectors until the edge of the fence lined up with the horizontal lines in the reflector bowl.

You do look a little close horizontally. The two steps should be the same distance apart as the centerline of the headlights. Yours are spaced about 2 panels on the garage door... I would think they should be closer to 3.
There are aiming instructions on HIDPlanet that wrongly recommend to set the steps to converge at 20ft. The problem with that is at 40ft, the high side of the passenger side light is starting to hit oncoming traffic.

 

Thanks, Rich. I haven't measured the distance between steps yet. I thought the correct way to set those up is to have the distance between steps to be the same as the distance between the projector center lines, this way they never converge, ideally… is that not true?

There is a little play rotationally, so I was going to try and fix the passenger side projector. But my driveway is a bit angled, so I'd rather find a better location to do aiming.

Went to take the trash out, and snapped these real quick. The only part not in the pics is that the power wire was run under the fuse box, and back up on the other side, to route to the main lug on the battery post connection. Think she looks pretty good, just needs a car wash now! Also plasti-dipped the badges, cool stuff.







…to be continued…

 

Sorry for the dirty engine bay…need to clean that out, it's kind of embarrassing…

 

Ya, that is the proper way to align the steps.
I was just ballparking from the garage door width, but if the steps are the same distance apart as the projectors then you're in good shape.

That installation looks clean. Keep an eye on the 3M tape... when I was under the hood yesterday, I noticed my relay box was "missing" and found it laying on the shelf next to the battery. I zip-tied it to the hood release cable, but I really should run a sheet metal screw into the fender to secure it properly.

Great idea on the mounting for the ballasts. Like I said, only other thing I'd do is bring both of the grounds back to the battery-body connection.

Interesting... your power steering fluid reservoir is where my smog pump is mounted!
Your passenger ground should be good there... that is a factory ground point and can be assumed to be good.

 

Thanks. I think those panels are maybe a couple feet, so the steps are probably pretty close to projector width apart, but I'm going to double check.

I was going to secure the relay box with a screw, but couldn't find one. I was surprised how strong the dual lock seems, I'm going to watch it, like you said, and see if I need to screw it down. Thankfully, it's in a fairly protected spot, so it wouldn't really fall into anything.

If I continue to have issues with grounding after sanding the surfaces, then I'm going to do like you said, and run grounds all the way back to the battery body mount ground. That shouldn't be too hard to do, just get some 14 or 12 AWG wire, cut the rings off, solder the extensions on, and crimp new rings on, and should be good to go.

Thanks for all the advice and assistance in this thread. Overall, this was a really good deal. About a weekends worth of work, and under $400 in parts (not just the kit). I was quoted almost $800, just to do the retrofit into my housings by a retrofitter!

 

I also cleaned the metal where the tape went with alcohol, so hopefully the adhesive wont fail.

I think both locations are factory grounds. I'm not sure what that little metal box with connector is on the driver's side, but it had the same type of screw and black alignment clip as the other one. I think I just need to roughen up the top of those clips to get a better ground connection.

 

I cleaned with alcohol as well, and it held for quite a while. I did my install last October and I just noticed the box fell off this last oil change.
Overall you did a great job.



Hmm... maybe next time I shouldn't use Scotch?

 

Lol, nice!

Hmm, maybe the heat just got to it. I guess if it fails, I'll just go to the hardware store and pick up some sheet metal screws.

 

No it doesn't go back low when I turn them off. The only way to get it to go back down to low beams is to tap the lens/housing which rattles it enough to bring it back down. I've since unplugged the harness so it won't try to get stuck anymore until I get it fixed.

 

That sucks. Maybe they will get you sorted out today

 

Currently at 8

 

Hello all. ready to order (putting us @9 I believe ) but needed some guidance as my retro knowledge is limited. am looking to purchase the absolute best components available thru this group-buy (just received my bonus, lol) realizing that personal choice plays some role in choosing. intending on the FX-R stage IV kit, 3" lenses, orbit shrouds, no halos, and the H4/9003 harness. was considering a 55-watt harness but the TRS link does not list one. need input on best bulbs, including upgrades, and anything else I may need. if Andrew or anyone else could provide guidance, it would be much appreciated. incidentally, I drive often @ night encountering many deer, and plan to have these professionally retro'd. thanks in advance .

 

Hey fellas any advice or tips on aiming?
Don't have the actual truck to work with
Just a set of headlights, I bought them used so I'm unsure if the alignment has been messed with?

 

Just make sure they're level horizontally within the housings every thing else you can adjust on the truck

 

55W isn't necessarily the best just FYI

 

ok. how about the choices listed for the 35-watt harness; denso slim or matsushita gen V. any differences or recommendations?

 

I'm not sure on the technical differences in the two prolly could get those answers over on hidplanet.com

 

Hey afroman

But my projectors is the FX R?
Does that still apply?