wanting to clarify on some things before HID install.

Hello, and thankyou for not just putting in a PnP (Plug-n-Play) Kit.

1) HID lights in halogen projectors vs. HID projectors are different. But when talking about cutoff and hotspots, it is more of a projector design issue than an illumination source issue. By that I mean you can buy HID projector's with horrible cutoffs and blotchy output and you can buy halogen projectors with relatively even output and a relatively sharp cutoff. If you put HID lights in a halogen projector, you simply amplify the beam pattern that is already there. So if there is already a slightly noticable blotchy pattern now, when you put HIDs in, it will be terrible. If you can't tell any hotspots, it might look OK with HIDs installed in it.

2) Yes and yes. I would not call it "stray" though. All headlamps in North America are made so that a small percentage of the luminous output is thrown up into the sky. There are many reasons for this, but the biggest are road signs. In European or Japanese spec (even countries like Thailand refer to it as Japanese spec, because they adopt it and so on) all of the road signs have illumination already. The road signs have little lights under/above them that shine on the sign. In North America, we have signs with a highly reflective coating meant to take a little bit of light from an external source, and make the whole thing glow. But to work, it needs a little bit of light. So it is provided by little purpose cut holes in the projector shield. This hole is sized based on the total lumens output of your source (halogen or HID) and the number of lumens you want up in the air which is always about the same. So this makes the hole size different. Now if you have (these are inaccurate numbers for the sake of demonstration) 1000 light units from your halogen bulb, and you want 100 units in the air you are throwing 10% of your light up. Stick in a HID bulb that makes 5000 light units, you still have a hole to throw up 10% but now it is 500 units of light, not 100. So you get 5 times the glare on purpose! This is why it is bad...

3) Best and easiest do not go hand in hand. I would recommend reading up on TRS (The Retrofit Source). They have a store and a forum and the forum members are very knowledgeable. I was over there for a while but the bickering got out of control. My personal favourite combination for cost, installation ease, size, and output beams are what I use in my Prius. Lexus (Denso) RX330, RX350, RX400h, or RX450h AFS (Adaptive headlight control, they swivel) projectors with Acura TSX lenses (TSX-R for retrofit or purpose built to be extra lenses work well too) and a 1mm to 1.5mm lens offset (2-3 cereal box rings are perfect). Add in some 4300K D2S bulbs and the output is superb for a few hundred dollars. LS projectors are great for big cars which you don't have. S2000 AP1 projectors are awesome but can go for $400 a projector and are quite fragile so not to use on your first retrofit. For ballasts I like the Denso ballasts. The old school big analogue box are great, but the new slim digital ones are great too. If you can find and have room for the big old ones, use them. Otherwise the slims are perfectly capable, they just have a lot of high frequency whine on startup.

All in all, it is not an easy process. Your first time I would expect many iterations. You might get it on try 1, but you will probably not. Even being really careful, It took me 3 tries to get it perfect on my first retrofit, a 2dr 2001 Civic EX, and 2 tries on my Prius most recently.

 

For the reasons mentioned above, I personally like that combo the best. If you have money to burn, they are not THE best, but they are top 99% best. That last 1% will cost you many hundreds of dollars extra. If you want a more European cutoff, the Z lenses can be swapped instead.

$350 is on the high end of the range, but yes. For nice cars the first part of my retrofit includes the hunt. I setup an eBay and Craigslist search monitor for the make/model I need. I look for parting outs or just deals on the lamp. For instance here is one (with a broken tab) on eBay for $100: 2012 Toyota Prius C Left Driver Halogen Headlight 12 13 | eBay

It might take a couple months to find OK deals, but you should eventually be able to find them for $50 to $100 a piece for used headlamps with no issues. I always buy another set of headlamps. Why? Because it is going to take time. It might take 8hours minimum for the JB Weld to get tough enough. If you are working 9-5 Monday through Friday, you will need to be up constantly the entire weekend with an undrivable vehicle (headlights removed or in the process of aiming). If you have no other form of transport, this will not work. Even if everything goes together by Sunday night, if there is a problem, you have to wait another week. I have done it like that before on my last redo of my first project. For every other project, I keep the halogens in the garage and almost all the bumper clips off. I can literally pull out and swap the housings completely in 10 minutes total. Now I am not worrying I won't finish it in time. You can set them up inside and level them there and wait sufficiently long for the glue and screws to dry. I have melted 1 headlamp before in my time.

I use my kitchen oven at 350F with some wooden blocks on the rack. One time I left it too long and the clear lense had yellowed and bubbled. The whole front was ruined. I swapped the clear plastic from another headlamp, but that was another $100. Stuff happens if you do it enough...

Yes stronger but more glare. Your squirrel finders are pretty wide, expect to anger people if you use those housings. A quick fix is to put some tape over the squirrel finder in the projector, and poke a small hole in it. Effectively you make the hole smaller, less light goes up, problem solved. You will still have a really crappy beam pattern though. Personally looking at those halogen shots, I would be embarrassed to drive with that cutoff and laugh if I saw it. However me and people like me are probably 1000 in the country, or 0.0003%. I do what is best all the time, not just when people are looking and judging. But cutting corners is a perfectly acceptable part of modern life.

Here is what the RX + TSX combo looks like. These are not my pics, I haven't uploaded my Prius pics yet.
In the first 3 pictures, notice the clear even spread. Note the sharp and straight cutoff, with a nice thick band of high intensity blue but nice brilliant white output light. This is exactly what you want and what ricers try to emulate with the all blue lights. The output pattern is a factor of the almost perfect bowl design of the RX projector, with the sharpness of the TSX lens. By changing the spacing, you can make the band thicker or narrower, curved, straight, or even shift into the yellow tones.







Those are all 1 projector. Now I think this next image is what you want to do. 2 HID projectors with RX AFS bowls, TSX lenses with 4300K bulbs. Then fogs are 3000K HIDs. It looks beautiful, it is on a Subaru Impreza. That is a beam pattern to be envious of. Personally I think he spaced the lenses just a bit too far forwards which gives it the "bow" shape in the cutoff. I prefer a straight sharp line. However, with this when you drive you will get a little bit more forwards illumination on the side lines. So if you drive in residential or back woods type areas where you want to see the ditches or sidewalks further ahead than normal, it could be advantageous. Also notice how the light from the squirrel finders is pretty dim in comparison but about the same output as yours like I mentioned before.

 

I have a quick question about the difference between the stock projector and a retrofit projector. Is it the shape of the body or the lenses that make the difference, or a combination of both. I was wondering if it is possible to achieve similar results with different lenses and possibly a shield inside the lenses ?

 

What is "the difference"?

For output pattern hot-spots, intensities, throw, and that sort of thing it is mostly the bowl (body of projector) that makes that difference. The shape, the material and grade of chrome (or similar) metal inside the bowl to reflect the light before it is projected through the lens, and even imperfections in the chrome. Some imperfections are actually intentional. Some version of the RX bowls have ridges on the sides.

For cutoff pattern, it is mostly the linear shape and pattern of the shield as facing the lens. Modifying a halogen projector's shield is the easiest way to put a HID bulb in there that won't blind people even though it shouldn't be in there in the first place.

For cutoff colour, it is a combination of the non-linear shape and patterns of the shield as facing the lens, the lens itself (things like its focal length and so on), and the spacing between the light source and the lens.

You will never get that output with a halogen reflector bowl. The main reason is that you don't have enough light to spare in a halogen projector to throw it out to the sides making a nice wide pattern. You need it all upfront like some spotlights to see anything. So halogens are not designed, and cannot be designed (with a 55W bulb) to provide a similar output to a HID setup.

You can definitely change the cutoff and colour band in the halogen projector if you put HIDs in there and start changing the lenses and shield patterns, but it will be hard. Very hard. HID bulbs's light source is at a different point from the lense than a halogen because of the physical differences. You will have to space the bulb to get it back to close to the center reflection point of your projector (might not be "centered", a good place to start is where the low beam filament is now). If you have to move it in you will need to trim the bowl. If you need to move it out, you can buy spacers for the bulb base. Then modify the shield to have less light go up in the squirrel finders. Bending and/or flaring the edges of the shield can (when paired with a nice thick clear lens can produce a nice blue output. You can use this to your advantage if you can't center the bulb by bringing the shield closer to the bulb. Then spacing the lens further away is a possibility too. But it is a difficult game to play even if you know the physics and the rules, without knowing, it becomes trial and error.

Notice the "curved shield" in this RX projector (NOT my image). Some curvings on the RX are nice, personally I don't think they are needed when the TSX lenses are used. But stock RX lenses with a curved shield can get similar results and save you $80-$100 in extra lenses. If you look to the top of the screws holding the shield in you will see they have cut the shield towards the centre and bent it forwards towards the lens.



And here is a different one that goes even more extreme:

 

You can also sort of see the small step ___/----- in the cutoff is produced by the shield. Easier to see on pic #2.

 

Those will be some seriously pretty lights. Great colour bands, throws, very nice. Definitely post pictures. Your will put even mine to shame if done right, and I think you will claim the crown of best lights on a Prius.

 

RX350 AFS BiX projectors with TSX clear lenses, 1mm extra depth on the lens all stuffed into a eBay special halogen projector housing so it looks bone stock to the untrained eye. But it isn't.

 

Should be awesome. When I was looking at the Prius, I knew it could fit a quad setup, and I still plan on doing it some day. What sort of ballasts are you getting? The Denso analogue ballasts are great, but you might not have room for 2 of them on each side. Maybe the slims?

 

Phillips' bulbs are great. I always recommend driving with the 85122 standard bulbs for at least 120-150 hours of use before making any decisions. I think the initial output of the 85122's are too yellow. But after colour shift they are fine. If you are impatient and change them out for some higher K bulb, it will likely not be a true Phillips bulb and even if it is, after that 100 or so hours, it will shift up higher than you wanted! So for a good base, the stock bulb is a good choice.

For ballasts, I don't think Phillips makes ballasts. The "Phillips OEM HID System" on TRS uses Denso slims. Great ballasts, but I always prefer the analogue version unless in a region of extreme cold where the slower ramp times might cause an issue. Unless you live in the Northwest Territories or something, that won't be an issue.

 

can't wait to see the final product.

 

interesting. i love me some retrofitted lights!