>


Who says Nissan parts doesn't work on Toyota's? Lol

unfortunately, they are the only smart ones that sell them, if you google oem butyl rubber, the acura guys, nissan, mazda all recommend this stuff.

OH i forgot, for the first few weeks they recommend silica gel packets for dessicant.

>

where do you put the packets at? inside?

also, has anyone take the right side apart to see what it looks like? Is it possible to get the angle on that side to shine up so you can see more of the side of the road/shoulder? (maybe swap inner housings?)

packets go inside, and i tought about opening the other side, but too much hassle.. lol..

i only use it during day, only on rare ocassions.

I have to admit that I didn't understand the point of this mod until I installed the projectors. After 3 weeks of use and numerous adjustments, I was still getting flashed daily by school buses and truckers. I live in a small town with two lane highway traffic. So today I decided to tackle this mod today. I'm glad to say that its not hard to do at all. First one took me 2.5 hours and the second one took less than an hour! I actually reversed the angle to the right instead of keeping the cut off straight. The reason is that I noticed its hard to see street signs to the right at night with the jdm cut off. So I basically reversed the cut off. I highly recommend it.

I haven't done this and I'm running 35w 4,500k DDM HID's. I've only been flashed once, and I was on top of a hill where my lights would have been pointed at them anyway. Part of me still wants to do it, then most of me is too lazy now that they're installed.

Eli, how did you reverse the cutoff? Did you completely remove the factory cutoff rather than add your own as this writeup says to do?

Hi Dan, I added the cut off the same way as this write up except instead of keeping the cut off straight across, l made an angle opposite where the JDM one was. I used a dremel and a metal filer to make the angle. My new angle is slighlty less than the JDM one. I figured the purpose of this angle is to illuminate road signs. Thus, in our case the angle need to be on the opposite side of the road for us. I bought that nissan sealant but didn't need/use it. I used the oven method to remove and replace the glass. Time will tell. Next l need to sort out a good HID kit to install.

>
I thought that would make the cutoff too high and therefore, aim the lights too low. I suppose this can be rectified by aiming the bulbs higher? I'm curious to see nighttime shots of your cutoff line. Even though we've been running ours for a while now without doing this mod, it's always in the back of my mind that we still need to do it and I might be interested in copying your idea. Might as well go the whole 9 yards by the time I take these apart.

As for HID kits, I have a 35w 4,500k DDM Tuning kit. It's bright and as usual, has a fantastic warranty. The price is right too, $35 for the bulbs, ballast, and a lifetime warranty. But they're too blue for my liking. My 4,500k bulbs are more like 5-5,500k. I've had both 9006 and H1's and both are too blue for me. I had a 4,300k kit from Griffgirl that I was much more satisfied with but you can't go wrong with DDM Tuning HID's.

This post has been edited by richee3: Nov 10, 2011 - 6:47 PM

Thread revival

So I understand the whole concept here, but I don't have the HID on my Celica, I have the JDM "el cheapo"version:




My High beams are perfect, but the low beams have somewhat dull reflectors.

Has anyone modified this type of headlight? I'm a bit afraid to take them apart, but maybe I can polish the reflectoror and maybe made the same alignment mod for the headlights?

The only way to modify JDM Halogen housings to work for the US roads is to swap out the glass lenses, as the JDM versions point to the left since they drive on the left side of the road.

If you didn't swap, some light would be refracted into oncoming traffic making it annoying and possibly hazardous.
You would really only need to swap the LOW beams since you generally don't use high beams when there is oncoming traffic.

Or do a full projector retrofit, like I've done

It's really simple, just heat the lenses either by boiling the whole headlight, using an oven, or grab heat gun and some patience.

I chose to use heat gun and it works fine. Then once the JDM glasses are off then apply heat again to the sealant and USDM glass and press firmly, letting the heat continue to make sure its fully sealed. For extra security you can use a clear silicone to further seal.

here you can see the straight cut-off

I have the money to buy the JDM projectors and I am willing to convert them to LHD. My only question that I want to make clear is: Are the modified projectors absolutely safe to use on US roads? I am sorry if this question has been answered before, but I want to make sure considering that they aren't cheap and I wouldn't want to buy them just so they can sit in my closet.

After they are modified, they are essentially exactly the same as any projectors sold here in the States. The only difference is the lack of a DOT stamp on your newly modified projectors.

>

haha legal. that word does not exist when it comes to my celica

I just wanted to chime in on something I learned while doing this mod.
There are two types of cutoffs. One is for halogen lights, and the other is for HID lights. The factory headlights are not only setup for right hard drive, but they are also setup for halogen lights, not HIDs.

Here is a typical cutoff for halogen lights. including the light output:




Now here is a cutoff for an HID bulbs:




So do not attempt to replicate the same 45 degree cutoff that is in the factory projector. You'll just end up shooting your beam up into the sky and blinding people walking on the sidewalk. The cutoff should be straight like in Fastbirds first post, or a very minimal step, but nothing as drastic as what is done with the factory toyota cutoff.

And on a side note, you can use a heat gun to separate the glass housing. No need to stink up your oven or a pot of water you'll later use to cook your dinner.

This post has been edited by lagos: Mar 16, 2013 - 3:25 PM

cool you are able to park the car in the living room. brah!

>
I was thinking the same thing!

>

Not my pic, but I wouldn't mind having my car in the living room with me at all times.

Finally got around to doing this myself today. I will echo Sean's sentiment:

>
During the entire disassembly of the first light, I was stressing out. By the time I had affixed my new cutoff, I realized there was really no reason to worry. I was going to emulate the stepped USDM HID cutoff as posted above by Lagos, but decided against it and went with a straight cutoff. I picked up some of the butyl rubber from Nissan that njccmd used, that stuff was very easy to work with and didn't make a mess like black RTV would. It cost me $29, money well spent. After being so nervous about getting this job started, I will say that there's no reason not to do this, as it's a much easier mod than it sounds.

This is one of the better write-ups I have seen on a car forum, great step-by-step guide with pictures. I have a set of JDM projectors waiting to go into my 96 ST205 and was looking into doing this mod and this thread has the best information on the subject I could find.

Since it has been awhile, I wonder if anybody that has done this mod has noticed any problems with the seals (moisture inside the lenses)?

>


I did the mod about a month or two ago, and using the Nissan sealant that Richee3 and nccmjd2002 suggested, I've had no problems with moisture build-up at all - and it's rained quite a bit here in North Carolina recently.

I think you will be alright if you take your time and use the right materials.

This post has been edited by Keiri: Oct 9, 2013 - 3:09 PM

>

I have had no problems with mine. They're still on the car, still sealed, car sat outside (cry!) from Jan of 2011 through Jan of 2013 due to no garage. Get a good bead of RTV into the groove and you'll be fine.

>


Was that $30 a light?

I just did mine, first light took little longer, second one 45 mins! it is not that hard! I used oven to baked the light instead of boiling water, 225F per heat then turn oven off, set light in oven for 7mins, if not open I will try another 5 mins!

Thank you for all detail step by step!

noooooooo, everything is gone in this thread....

This post has been edited by mkernz22: Oct 6, 2017 - 6:19 PM

Give me a couple of days, I’ll try to get everything back up.

Don't do a flat cutoff :lol: You want more light to shine down the side of road you're driving on and the shoulder. Flat cut-offs are for fog lights down low so they don't glare up into oncoming traffic. Do the stepped 'HID' cutoff, but bear in mind that the headlight bowl and lens are built for a halogen light source so light distribution from a HID capsule won't be exactly the same. Some halogen units do fairly well with HID and some do not. On a whole many Toyota (Koito) halogen projectors do fairly well but tend to lack a good hot spot for far distance lighting and tend to wash out the foreground a bit more than is optimal. I haven't seen inside the JDM projector light, but there's a good chance that the projector unit can be removed and a true HID projector unit installed in the headlight and have that real HID bling! The SC430 and LS430 projectors are amazing Koito units, but expensive and harder to come by. You can swap a bi-xenon unit as well and get HID high and low beams. If there's room there's also some readily available low beam LED units from Koito with near HID performance and low/high LED units with HID like performance. There's also aftermarket LED and HID units around some of which are pretty good parts, the Chinese G5-R projector is really impressive for the price but a bit bulky.

Well, I was able to save one whole picture... Better than none, I guess. Let me dig through my own Photobucket account to see what pictures I still have.

Edit: A few pictures I was able to find still on Google. None of the following pictures are in any particular order.












Here's what I dug up out of my own Photobucket account.

funny is that 56k is going to feel it? lol, oh those times. i may have my pics somewhere available.

Yes, that headlight is a GREAT example of one that has room to fit a real HID projector into it! That is for sure a Koito halogen low beam unit, it's not far off from what's in the 7th gen Celica actually. A simple adapter plate to snap into the factory adjusters and you could bolt in whatever HID projector would fit that ample available space. I can't remember the guys name but there's a member on HIDP that makes custom steel plates just for this kind of thing and they work perfect, they let you reuse the factory adjustment. The only possible concern would be the room behind the rear of the headlamp.
https://www.hidplanet.com/forums/

Is that a 2, 2.5, or 3 inch lens on the projector? That projector body looks super familiar. It looks like it's using a H1 halogen bulb?

This post has been edited by Bitter: Oct 8, 2017 - 9:37 AM