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Here's my projector swap/retrofit into my 06 Suzuki Grand Vitara 3dr.
Originally I bought the car used with the stock headlights on it. Those were H4 reflectors and they were awful. I do a lot of city driving and the roads are poorly and rarely well lit. Also lots of pot holes and ninja speed bumps of all shapes and sizes.
First couple of mods were PnP LEDs. First one burnt out in 3 months. Second one had a much better beam pattern and a proper cutoff line but were still worse than 55/60 halogens. Next came the relay harness and 90/130 halogens. Much better brightness and retained the stock beam pattern, but still not satisfied.
On a friend's elantra he had 50w PnP HIDs and I could tell it was worse than mine when stopped or when we shared a road. His lost all resemblance to a cutoff and had tons of foreground, also really blue.
We both had the bright idea of looking for the oem headlights with projector low beams and fitting them with PnP HIDs. I managed to find replica ones for my car and put a chinese 50w H7 kit in it.
The only good outcome, retained the cutoff. Those bulbs were way off and I had to space them out until they matched the halogens. Still had shit distance though and the beam didn't extend much to the right past the step for some reason.
Only then did I stumble on this forum and holy shit did I know very little about lighting. I learned that PnP anything in reflectors is a bad idea. I learned that my HIDs were a gamble in those unknown projectors.
I found a local Morimoto dealer and settled for the 7.0 after some research. I give them the headlights to open and they say it needs an adapter plate and they cannot do it. I slept on it and then decided I'd buy the parts and attempt it myself.
The patient
The loot
The stock lens was 2.5" but the bowl was big enough for a 3" lens. The MH1 could fit through the gap left by the old projector.
So I penned down a schematic to use as a template as I intended to cut the adaptor plate with a cutoff wheel. For that I used the cutoff shields from both projectors.
Wasn't really satisfied with the accuracy so I decided to lift the measurements with calipers and redo the whole thing in Solidworks
Couple of days later after I got the design laser cut from 3mm galvanized steel
Time spent in precision measurements meant i didn't have to adjust roll or yaw
I know most adapter plates go to the back of the bowl but i thought this was easier and it actually meant that the lens almost exactly sat in the same place as the old so the shroud in the fascia didn't interfere
Then I went back to the shop to let them reseal the housings and later that night was time for testing
More beam shots
Originally I bought the car used with the stock headlights on it. Those were H4 reflectors and they were awful. I do a lot of city driving and the roads are poorly and rarely well lit. Also lots of pot holes and ninja speed bumps of all shapes and sizes.
First couple of mods were PnP LEDs. First one burnt out in 3 months. Second one had a much better beam pattern and a proper cutoff line but were still worse than 55/60 halogens. Next came the relay harness and 90/130 halogens. Much better brightness and retained the stock beam pattern, but still not satisfied.
On a friend's elantra he had 50w PnP HIDs and I could tell it was worse than mine when stopped or when we shared a road. His lost all resemblance to a cutoff and had tons of foreground, also really blue.
We both had the bright idea of looking for the oem headlights with projector low beams and fitting them with PnP HIDs. I managed to find replica ones for my car and put a chinese 50w H7 kit in it.
The only good outcome, retained the cutoff. Those bulbs were way off and I had to space them out until they matched the halogens. Still had shit distance though and the beam didn't extend much to the right past the step for some reason.
Only then did I stumble on this forum and holy shit did I know very little about lighting. I learned that PnP anything in reflectors is a bad idea. I learned that my HIDs were a gamble in those unknown projectors.
I found a local Morimoto dealer and settled for the 7.0 after some research. I give them the headlights to open and they say it needs an adapter plate and they cannot do it. I slept on it and then decided I'd buy the parts and attempt it myself.
The patient
The loot
The stock lens was 2.5" but the bowl was big enough for a 3" lens. The MH1 could fit through the gap left by the old projector.
So I penned down a schematic to use as a template as I intended to cut the adaptor plate with a cutoff wheel. For that I used the cutoff shields from both projectors.
Wasn't really satisfied with the accuracy so I decided to lift the measurements with calipers and redo the whole thing in Solidworks
Couple of days later after I got the design laser cut from 3mm galvanized steel
Time spent in precision measurements meant i didn't have to adjust roll or yaw
I know most adapter plates go to the back of the bowl but i thought this was easier and it actually meant that the lens almost exactly sat in the same place as the old so the shroud in the fascia didn't interfere
Then I went back to the shop to let them reseal the housings and later that night was time for testing
More beam shots
, I managed to open the offending headlight and get the projector out. Using a 12v tool battery it switched fine and I was not able to recreate the issue at home. I checked the solenoid action and it wasn't hitting anything. That only left the possibility of increased friction so I applied a few drops of clear electric shaver oil to the pin on both ends. I hoped I could elongate the return spring but the solenoid and shield didn't look disassembly friendly.
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