I hate to admit it... I spent 700 on a set of Morimoto D2S HIDs. All I can say is these are top notch headlights compared to the sport headlights I just replaced. Now I didnt have to do all the heating and removal of the lens. I found a site called http://shop.retroshop.us that sells complete HID solutions fully assembled. All you got to is install and wire it up. They are even aimed and pretested before shipping.

I had a set of those and they sucked. 

Just this morning... Snowing... You can clearly see my light have good cut off. Don't blind on coming but lights up a wide path...

 

I love my d2s conversion. Just wondering on bulb life and do they sell replacement anywhere or do I need to order spear and keep with me. @Me78569 @Mopar1973Man

I'd order a spare set just to have them because a d2s bulb at autozone is ~$100, where as you can get a morimoto bulb from TRS for $45

12 hours ago, Mopar1973Man said:

Just this morning... Snowing... You can clearly see my light have good cut off. Don't blind on coming but lights up a wide path...

 

 

How do those look from a 100' out looking back at the truck? I know picture are a bit deceiving but those look extremely bright.

Camera isnt focusing on the headlights and is over exposing the lghts.

 

Camera will adjust shutter for best exposure for the overall all photo wich is on average a dark shot wich mens anger exposure brighter photo over exposed 

I want a better time where I can adjust the shutter speed but yes that was full auto. As for looking toward the truck its not bad at all. As long as your head is above the cut off of the beam it easy to look at. 

 

What is sad on the 1996 with Silverstar Halogens and my Switchback LED marker lights... The LED marker lights are brighter than the head lights.  

Takes work that good shots of light as the eye sees it and not the camera.

 

My silver stars always look prett good in photos but brighter than actual. 

 

This ball of flame coming at me didnt look near this bright. This could possibly be close to how my silver stars actually look

I can hearby declare that trying to separate ANZO housings using the oven at 170 degrees is a fool's errand. The glue doesn't want to soften much, and it's recessed just enough to make it nearly impossible to separate with a putty knife.

 

They're again in the oven reheating and if this go-round fails my next option is the Dremel...

Edit: I cranked up the oven to 175 as measured by my trustworthy digital thermometer and let them go about thirty more minutes. It was still a bit of a fight. My oven is a convection unit.

 

I found it worked easiest to start on the short side that would be towards the outside of the truck, then once I got some separation I put a shim in there to put tension on the glue and then put it back in the oven while I did the same to the other light. From there it wasn't too bad.

Edited February 9, 20205 yr by LorenS

Why I bought already assembled. Because now you have to align everything and test before putting the lens back on.

On 2/9/2020 at 4:28 PM, Mopar1973Man said:

Why I bought already assembled.

If I had to do it all over again from scratch, that's likely what I'd do!  However, let's say an errant rock blasts my housing sometime in the near future, I'm sure not going to buy all new HID hardware.  After reading the directions on the fancy box of Morimoto butyl rubber cement, I learned that they recommend preheating the oven to 265 degrees and baking the housings for 7 minutes to soften their glue, then remove from the oven (with gloves!) and gently squeeze and either weigh it down or clamp in some fashion while it cools/hardens.  If I ever buy another set of housings, I'll try that "hot and fast" method to separate the lenses.  I absolutely butchered the ones I did today trying to fight still-fairly-stiff cement.  Once heated as directed, the new cement squeezed out of the housings like cold latex caulk!  Some of it was like chewing gum on July asphalt, whoops.

 

BTW, that fancy box says it's enough to do two headlight housings.  I can't imagine what size of lights they mean; for a cruise ship?  Battleship?  Light house?!  It's enough to do at least 6 housings, and wouldn't be surprise if it's 10.

 

Side note, the D2S base wouldn't fit through the stock light bulb hole, so I used the Dremel with a fairly coarse drum sander "bit" and wallered it out some.  Also, I basically had to completely remove all of the light-bulb socket, down to the housing, so that the threads protruded far enough.

 

I also bought "IRIS" shrouds as they were $7.50 (factory seconds, or returns) and smooth - I was looking for something that belongs on a preacher's Volvo, and had considered scuffing them and spraying with some high temp flat/satin black.  However, these shrouds don't really shroud much on our trucks, other than from the front.  Looking in from the side you can see a lot of the projector hardware back there.

On 2/9/2020 at 4:28 PM, Mopar1973Man said:

now you have to align everything and test before putting the lens back on

Maybe it's the way the D2S version 5.0 is built compared to version 4, but I don't see it being a big deal to adjust after install.  I will have to remove the bulb and likely even the housing from the truck, but there's a tabbed washer under the blue aluminum retaining nut (see photo in above post), and it's easy to hold that tab in position while putting final torque on the retaining nut.  The huge silicone "grommet" that goes between the projector and the housing (inside the housing) does a pretty good job of keeping things from moving unless you want them to, and serves as a bit of a lock washer.  I don't believe a lot of torque on the retaining nut will be needed to keep the projector from vibrating out of position.

 

Hopefully I can get these bad boys on the truck tomorrow at lunch or after work.

EDIT: I added two photos showing the passenger side D2S which needs to be rotated some, and the stock headlight. The photo makes the stocker seam respectable - it is not.

Edited February 11, 20205 yr by LorenS
Added photos.

Was looking for a spear set of bulbs for d2s in 4500k from retrofit and it seems they only list 4 and 5 k now, when I got my kit it came with 4500k, anyone know what the deal is 

Also looked at some Phillips on amazon and seems that there are some fakes are out there, think I'd rather go with retrofit morimoto as I had no problems with them so far. Just want a spear set.

Probably just going to go with some 5000k as 4000 seem on yellow side. 

On second thought I'm in love with my current 4500k

1 hour ago, Dieselfuture said:

Probably just going to go with some 5000k

Same here...

2 hours ago, Mopar1973Man said:

Same here...

Just got off the phone with retrofit, they don't offer 4500 any longer, going with 5000k.

Was going to try a different brand that's more expensive but decided to just stick with morimoto, as they work just fine and still in good shape, just wanted to have a spare set is all.

Never bothered with a spare set of lights. Already like 2 or 3 years old of every other day of driving to Ontario, OR. I typically ran my headlight there and back ever day. There is a lot of running hours on my headlights. If one blows I would most likely replace both bulbs at the same time with 5k when the time comes. 

The only reason I want to have a spare set on hand, one is so they match like you said both 5k, to I don't want to be a paying $100 a bulb at parts store, got both for $62 with shipping. 

As long as your using the 35w ballast for the bulbs they should last a very long time. The 50w ballast would be brighter but shortens the bulb life considerably. I opted for only the 35w blubs and ballast.

yep the extra wattage reduces life span, for me I can deal with less light for longer life.

Same here 35w, plenty of light too, not sure how I went that long without this conversation, thanks @Me78569 for bringing this to our attention.