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Let me start this post with a disclaimer: If you came here expecting a super awesome custom headlight job, you're in the wrong place.. BUT I thank you for stopping by to see my little (very little) project!
My wife and I bought a 2013 Lexus RX450h several months ago, for those that don't know, the 2013+ model years were face-lifted to have the spindle grill and the LED running lights. This particular front end is much more appealing to us (And most people, you see these things EVERYWHERE). Unfortunately, with the face-lift, the RX lost what was so good about it - the BiXenon projectors that we all know and love!
I managed to get a hold of a busted up 2013 headlight to take apart and look to see what was inside. Lo and behold, Lexus just changed the cutoff shield to a fixed shield instead of the BiXenon shield. I knew this meant that I could easily mount up some BiXenons for some extra high beam goodness. Without further ado, here's some pictures of my project.
Here's the first couple of pictures of it, just to give you an idea of what I'm working with:
took the bumper cover off:
got this guy out and ready for dissection!
these things are so big, they barely fit in our oven..
a quick 10 minutes at 215 degrees, and viola!
After that it was just 3 screws and two connectors for the DRL strip and 4 screws for the housing shroud
Then off with the aiming screws and the pivot joint:
Here's where my favorite part came into play.. The reflector and lens are identical between the two..
So since I bought a used projector from a 2010 model car, and got another from my collision center, I was able to swap the dusty bowl from the older units and put my still-new bowls on, so I ended up with a perfect set of RX350s.
The actual modifications came into play at this point though. Here is a picture of the AFS motor mount from the RX350.
Since the 2013+ models came with ONLY auto-leveling, NOT AFS, I had to shave parts of the leveling motor mount to account for the solenoid for the BiXenon projector
This wasn't the extent of the modification, but I got caught up in the work and forgot to take pictures after the modification and mounting it all back up.
Long story short, I was able to drill a small hole in a dust cap in the back of the headlights to pass the BiXenon pigtail wires through, and used TRS' 9006 connector and high beam splitters to make it all work.
Mounted the headlights back onto the car for a quick sanding and buffing, and here's what it looks like now:
My goal was to keep it perfectly OEM, so it doesn't look any different from when I started. This is a good thing, because how many modified Lexus RXs do you see rolling around??
Thanks for viewing, hope you guys enjoy!
My wife and I bought a 2013 Lexus RX450h several months ago, for those that don't know, the 2013+ model years were face-lifted to have the spindle grill and the LED running lights. This particular front end is much more appealing to us (And most people, you see these things EVERYWHERE). Unfortunately, with the face-lift, the RX lost what was so good about it - the BiXenon projectors that we all know and love!
I managed to get a hold of a busted up 2013 headlight to take apart and look to see what was inside. Lo and behold, Lexus just changed the cutoff shield to a fixed shield instead of the BiXenon shield. I knew this meant that I could easily mount up some BiXenons for some extra high beam goodness. Without further ado, here's some pictures of my project.
Here's the first couple of pictures of it, just to give you an idea of what I'm working with:
took the bumper cover off:
got this guy out and ready for dissection!
these things are so big, they barely fit in our oven..
a quick 10 minutes at 215 degrees, and viola!
After that it was just 3 screws and two connectors for the DRL strip and 4 screws for the housing shroud
Then off with the aiming screws and the pivot joint:
Here's where my favorite part came into play.. The reflector and lens are identical between the two..
So since I bought a used projector from a 2010 model car, and got another from my collision center, I was able to swap the dusty bowl from the older units and put my still-new bowls on, so I ended up with a perfect set of RX350s.
The actual modifications came into play at this point though. Here is a picture of the AFS motor mount from the RX350.
Since the 2013+ models came with ONLY auto-leveling, NOT AFS, I had to shave parts of the leveling motor mount to account for the solenoid for the BiXenon projector
This wasn't the extent of the modification, but I got caught up in the work and forgot to take pictures after the modification and mounting it all back up.
Long story short, I was able to drill a small hole in a dust cap in the back of the headlights to pass the BiXenon pigtail wires through, and used TRS' 9006 connector and high beam splitters to make it all work.
Mounted the headlights back onto the car for a quick sanding and buffing, and here's what it looks like now:
My goal was to keep it perfectly OEM, so it doesn't look any different from when I started. This is a good thing, because how many modified Lexus RXs do you see rolling around??
Thanks for viewing, hope you guys enjoy!
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