Projector Retrofit

Some of you may remember the post by Jason from Luminous Solutions about a projector retrofit project. He also offered a group buy at the beginning of the year. I have been wanting to convert my truck lights to HIDs for a while, but wanted to use projectors instead of the stock housing. That way I could prevent excess glare and blinding other drivers. I was not impressed by some of the projector headlights that can be found on ebay and such because I don't really like the way they look and I was not sure if HIDs would work very well in them due to the mixed reviews I have heard and read.

I began to look into projector retrofit kits and found this post http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/luminous-solutions/20620-projector-group-buy-x-mas-sale.html. After some more research and a few emails I decided to give it a shot. I must give credit to Jason and the crew of Luminous Solutions as they were very helpful and knowledgeable. I asked Luminous to track down a set of OEM headlights and install the projector retrofit kit for me that they offer. I was not sure exactly how to do it so it was worth the extra time and money to me for them to do the install. I had them do the BHLM as well while the lights were disassembled for the projector install. All I had to do when I received the shipment of my lights was take the headlights off my truck and install the new ones, then wire the plug-n'-play HID kit. I am using 6000K bulbs which has a little hint of blue, but is mostly white. The install was straight forward and the directions clear. I did make one connection incorrectly which caused one side high beam not to work, but that was sorted out through some trouble shooting with Luminous and it turned out to be my own stupidity because I didn't double check my work. Oops! Lesson learned....Now everything is working great!

Well, I completed the install yesterday and have a few pictures to show. The pictures don't really do this project justice, but at least you can get an idea of what the improvements are.

Low Beam (driver view)



High Beam Pattern



What the projector looks like on the truck


Low beam pattern


High beam (driver view) - pic does not really show the difference between the low and high beam driver view. There is, my camera isn't really fancy so I can't capture the true difference.


Before mounting the lights


Driver side Ballast


Driver side Relay


Passenger side Ballast


Passenger side Relay


Close up at night


Head on view at night

 

how lond did they take and how much was it. could they do that on my already projector lights? i like that cutoff way better than mine, and i also have the 6k hid on them on low beams only though. thanks.

 

Looks good! That great service they gave you. Any pricing details?

 

I am still in college and could not install the lights until this week, my spring break. I started emailing Jason at Luminous Solutions in the beginning of January. He received the product at the end of January and then I had him track down a crisp set of OEM headlights and had him install the projectors for me. That took some time, but I was not in a hurry.

As far as the install for me, it took about two or three hours to get my existing headlights removed, run the new plug-n-play wiring, and then install the new headlights. I tried to do a really clean wiring job so that took most of my time.

I don't know if you could do this to your existing projectors because of the way the new projectors would mount. Also, this kit uses DS-2 bulbs so you might have to get a new kit if you have different bulbs.

Cost were $355 for the projector kit which includes the projectors, bulbs, ballast, relays, and other wiring. The install fee for them to to the projectors for me was an additional $75 + the cost of another set of OEM headlights, well worth it IMO because I would have had to do this in about 3 feet of snow in the parking lot of my apartment at school. This way I have an extra set of headlights for the future if something goes wrong or the cops hassle me.

 

The customer service was great! I received emails updating me whenever they received parts and when Jason was tracking down OEM headlights for example. The updates were great for me.

The price was considerable more than a regular HID conversion, but keep in mind this is a projector retrofit. It is a fine balance between the HID conversion in the stock housings and what you would get when buying a high end luxury vehicle with HID projectors.

Kit was $355 plus a $75 install fee and the cost of another set of OEM headlights, which Jason got me a really good deal.

 

Here is a daytime picture of the retrofit. Unless you know what you are looking for it would be tough to recognize the change to the headlights. I like the stealth of it.