Headlight projector retrofit - HIDs to the max!

usbseawolf.....projector retrofit looks sooooo sick! like they were meant to be there!

What do you want moneywise to do a set for me?

 

I will PM you. A second set should be quick since it is still fresh in my head.

 

I await you.....I'm local too

 

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When are these inspections done? I do not know if we have any in California except for smog checks.

 

In NY we need to have annual safety/emissions inspection. I beleive there are stricter standards for those of us in NYC but I'm not sure.

 

It all varies now. New cars you can get registered for 5 years, and for so many years after that you can mail in renewal for up to 2 more years. Used cars, 2 years max.

I'd have to go digging for the guidelines, but at somepoint they decided that vehicles made after a certain year didn't need to go through inspection. It's gotten pretty confusing to me, and I basically have to rely no the DE DMV to alert me of what I need done.

Here's a link to the FAQ from the state website: State of Delaware Division of Motor Vehicles - Vehicle Inspection FAQs

That's one reason I tend to only buy new, now. The prius isn't required to go in for any inspection at the end of the initial 5 years, but I can only renew for 2 years at that point. Registration is $40/yr for passenger vehicles.

 

Shouldn't the LED's only be on for DRL? I guess that may require a switch and wire individually. A lot of extra work for daylight only. LED lights last forever, so I would not worry about one light burning out? Hal

 

Yea, I am not going to worry about turning the LED off when the projector turns on.

 

In theory LEDs won't burn out since they have no filaments or failure-prone high voltage drivers to make them work. But in practice, they're still solid-state semiconductors, so they are subject to heat-related premature failure.

That's not an issue for halogen or other incandescent bulbs where the heat is what causes them to produce light in the first place, and it's not an issue for HID lights where the light is produced by running high voltage through a gas to pump it up to the plasma state. But where halogen or HID bulbs can get up to several hundred degrees Fahrenheit, an LED has to be kept very cool-- preferably below 140 degrees F. Failing to design a properly heatsinked mounting for an LED light is certain to lead to premature failure.

One thing that makes this especially difficult with an LED is that it produces its heat on the front of the diode where the light is produced, not on the back where it's easier to sink the heat away since it wouldn't block the light output.

I've already seen some vehicles equipped with OEM LED headlight accents with burned out LEDs. Anecdotally, as a percentage of the whole, it seems to me that the failures are disproportionately on the few American models with LEDs vs. the German models, although I've seen more German models with them burned out purely because I see far, far more German models with LED lights. I don't think I've seen any failures on Asian models, but I don't know off-hand if any Asian vehicles actually come with LED DRL or other accent lights from the factory yet. All of the makes and models seem to have gotten the LED tail/brake lights and turn signals worked out just fine, but heat just isn't as much of an issue on the back of a car as it is up front with the engine etc.

The other thing to consider is how they're wired, whether in series or parallel. Just like the old Christmas lights, depending on how they're wired up, one LED failure can either be just one LED burned out (Audi seems to do it this way), or result in the entire strip "failing" (I think this is what I've seen on the American models). Either way, I suspect that in nearly all cases, any failure would require replacing the entire strip to fix.

The new Prius with full LED headlights may be an exception to the above, because those would present a safety issue rather than a cosmetic one, and the high output LEDs are likely mounted separately for reasons of heat dissipation.

 

Nice read F8L. So true, factory fogs are useless. A bit confused though, if factory fogs are useless, then what's a person supposed to do? I wish he'd go into more detail about HID fogs. I'm assuming he stops short because he deems it unsafe or illegal. But if they can produce the light he goes on to describe I think it's a worthwhile discussion.

 

The next time I tackle a major mod project I've thought about swapping out my fogs for the projector style and replacing OEM bulbs with some good after markets. Good thing wife doesn't read PC

 

Don't hold your breath, it doesn't take much to find someone online or create an account. But if I ever come across a post that says, "RYAN YOU'RE IN BIG TROUBLE!" I'll let you know...

 

I'm going to take on this project but can't decide on which Projector I'm going with.

FXR has excellent review but needs some fabrication
Mini seems like a plug and play but I'm worrying about the output.

HiDplanet : The Official Automotive Lighting Forum - Bi-Xenon Output Comparison: TL, E55, Murano, FX, IS, e46,LR3

But after seeing this comparison looks like mini D2S is a winner!
what do u guys think?