Projector Retrofit: the beginning

On my previous car (1998 Eclipse GST Spyder), I've had three different HID Retrofit installations: absolutely fell in love with HIDs.


Acura TSX Projectors, 85122+ D2S burners @ 4300k, Matsushita ballasts from an Infinity G35, custom made wiring harness by yours truly.


As a matter of fact, one of the many reasons for my package #5 Prius was the factory HID lamps.

I'd like to attempt to retrofit a set of projectors in the Prius housing.

My past experiences have told me that a lot of research needs to go into such a project beforehand. I've thumbed through the pages here regarding retrofitting, and I've also gone through various pages on HIDplanet's forum.

Here's the information I need; I'm hoping for your generous contribution in my acquiring the necessary information. <:0)


1. Prius headlight dimensions: especially the headlight portion of the housing. Length, width, and depth would be awesome. The headlight area of the housing is quite big. I'm used to working with a very small space of my DSM, so I project that space will not be much of an issue on the Prius.

2. Prius headlight exploded diagram. My biggest concern is knowing how exactly the bi-xenon reflectors work and the wiring diagram that control the moving reflector (or is it the bulb that moves? As you can see, I haven't been able to find precise information). I need details on which parts are on the housing, where they are located, how they function, and what their functions are. The diagram, I'm sure, will explain this (if there is one out there for the public to see).

3. The mounting of the ballasts. I know I can take out my headlights to see this, but if there is a diagram out there, that would be more convenient for me. Heh. <:0)

4. More explicitly, the operations of the bi-xenon reflector HID system. Is it the bulb that moves or is it the shield that moves when the high beams are turned on? Exactly how do they function? I'd imagine a small motor / actuator would move them upon receiving a signal from the high beam stalk (indirectly, of course).


Sorry for rambling. I think this will be an interesting / exciting project for me. Given the conditions are right, and the information is there, I'm going to dive in. Assuming everything goes the way I want it to, project completion should be before the end of August.

Thanks, everyone!

 

Found this:



If the parts could be identified, that'd great, along with their functions.


Also, this looks like the 04-05 headlight diagram. Is there one for the 06-08 headlight assembly?

 

I'm sure baking the headlights will also work for this one.

I'm working on procuring a set of headlights to try on. So are we sure that it is the SHIELD that moves?


There are two circuits that are working with the bi-xenon system here (and yes, it is a bi-xenon system: one bulb is used as low and high-beam).

One electrical circuit receives the signal from the ECU and powers the D2R burner inside the headlight.
The other electrical circuit receives the signal from the ECU and shifts the shield (and not the bulb) to create a different reflection (high beam).

That means that there is a small motor or an actuator besides the auto-level motor that controls the shifting movements of the shield. What I need to figure out is which is the motor and where the wires are.



The bi-xenon projectors work in the same exact way (except for the E46 Bi-xenons). Acura TL projectors (which I plan to use) have two wires coming from them. Those two wires are the 12v and the GRND that control the motor to lower the cut-off plate.



Thankfully, my Prius is a package 5; it's already got HID. The only thing I'll need to do to the lighting system is to switch out the bulbs to D2S burners (reflectors use D2R).

Really, the only wiring that is required is cutting the wires that control the shield (and let's hope that it's a simple 12v and GRND system) and connecting those wires to the cutoff plate operation wires of the projectors.


I think the TLs would be perfect. I've had them in my hands before and they look like they will be a great fit into the Prius headlight housing. I think my biggest problem will be creating a shroud for it so it doesn't look half-assed. <:0)


But I need those technical information. The measurements are not mandatory, as I can find out while cutting into it. What I really DO need is the location of where everything is. Ballasts, wires, WHICH wires are what, etc etc etc.

I'm going out to my car to poke around a bit more.

 

No worries... it wasn't an effort to correct you, gray_prius. :0)

I do have more questions... I know that the halogen headlights and the HID headlights are the same in dimension (duh), but are they configured differently? The HID headlights have a mounting area for the ballast at the bottom of the assembly. If the halogen assembly has the same configuration, then I can save a little $ on buying the second unit.

HID conversion pros (who's retrofitted OEM HID) would know this. Time for more reading!

 

thanks for that post. Yes, I am aware that some systems work like that. In the Prius, the non-hid headlights use the H4 bulb, which actually has two filaments inside the capsule. Because the reflector design calls for the low beam filament to cause additional light to be thrown over the cutoff line, some system turns off the lowbeam filament. However, in the case of the hid-equipped Prius, the D4R burner cannot have two "filaments" so it creates its highbeam by moving the burner slightly, creating a different focal point in the reflector, causing a different light output pattern (ta-da: high beam).

 

A thought, as I was staring at the headlight:

could it be possible that it is the CAP reflector that moves?

Look at this:


You can see the high beam solenoid in the picture. Notice that the reflector cap over the bulb is attached to a tab, which leads down to the solenoid.

And that tab isn't connected to the reflector itself. It is connected to the linear actuator.

Hmm... just need that second person to test this out with... I wish my iPhone had video recording feature. <:0)