Am tired.... and its getting worse and worse of fiddling with the damm plastic lenses on the headlights on my 2002 2500 truck.

 

Clean them off and they look great and I can actually see at night, then another 2-3 months later and the damm plastic gets hazy again and its time to do it over again.

 

Was chatting with a guy on CL and he mentioned upgrading the truck to something like the 2005 style of headlights and be done with these older headlights. 

 

Anyone else do anything like this? 

 

Thx, 

 

FT

Are there any solid alternatives to the stock headlight option? I just checked with my local shop and they want 100 bucks a pop for a whole new housing!!

 

The reason I'm going that route is because I have condensation built up in my headlight housing currently, and I don't think sanding/clear will help in that situation.

 

 

Am tired.... and its getting worse and worse of fiddling with the damm plastic lenses on the headlights on my 2002 2500 truck.

 

Clean them off and they look great and I can actually see at night, then another 2-3 months later and the damm plastic gets hazy again and its time to do it over again.

 

Was chatting with a guy on CL and he mentioned upgrading the truck to something like the 2005 style of headlights and be done with these older headlights. 

 

Anyone else do anything like this? 

 

Thx, 

 

FT

CHECK OUT MY ARTICLE OVER IN THE TRUCK ARTICLES SECTION     "SPORT HEADLIGHT HD CONVERSION"

The title is a little mis-leading kinda.. I MEAN i installed the OEM Sport headlights AND THEY ARE Awesome   but THE HD CONVERSION HARNESS IS THE REAL  HERO.... CHANGING  AND TRYING ALL THE DIFFERENT HEADLIGHTS IN THE WORLD IS NOT GOING TO GET YOU PAST THE JOKE OF A WIRING SYSTEM THESE TRUCKS HAVE TO THE LIGHTS..

 

  The difference you would still see with even with your stock lights would be impressive to say the least if you didn't wanna buy the sports.

WIRING IS SIMPLE AND THE SAME AS MY ARTICLE, JUST LEAVE OFF THE 9007 HEADLIGHT PLUG

****and you would only need relays with 1-87 out unless you wanted to use the dual 87 out relays incase yo wanted to upgrade to Sport headlights later 

   YOU STILL HAVE TO USE SPST SINGLE THROW RELAYS.     SPDT DOUBLE THROW RELAYS WILL NOT WORK CORRECTLY WITH THIS HARNESS ASSEMBLY

Edited July 14, 20159 yr by rburks

So I can use your sport lite harness with my non-sport lites till I have the funds to change to sport head lites?

So I can use your sport lite harness with my non-sport lites till I have the funds to change to sport head lites?

Yes, just leave off the 2-9007 headlight Plugs and harness

Edited July 3, 20159 yr by rburks

 YOU STILL HAVE TO USE SPST SINGLE THROW RELAYS.    SPDT DOUBLE THROW switching RELAYS WILL NOT WORK CORRECTLY.  _87 /87a outputs

Good hids in a engineered projector will provide more output than anything else for a reasonable cost.

I don't see how even HID's can Perform at peak performance on these trucks factory wiring.. you only have 11volts max to the HL Plug``````  Maybe HID's don't have as muck Amp draw IDK.

Edited July 5, 20159 yr by rburks

HID Projectors are great on the new cars, My wife's Honda Mini van has um...but I've never seen the ebay versions installed on these trucks could

be controlled and adjusted to not blind oncoming traffic,,, 

first set of Sport headlights i bought were aftermarket Taiwan made, "Brand was "DENSO" IIRC.. they were nor bad, other than they didn't fit in the fender exactly like the OEM, leaves gaps between Light and fender especially behind park light ..

  But i drilled out and slotted some of the holes in the brackets, and used flat washers to shim out some of the other and got it pretty close and looked OK

      I Paid around 130.00ea IIRC but thats been a few yrs ago. Body shop replaced with OEM After the front end got messed up in the wreck

I don't see how even HID's can Perform at peak performance on these trucks factory wiring.. you only have 11volts max to the HL Plug`````` Maybe HID's don't have as muck Amp draw IDK.

They have their own relay that draws power directly from the battery.

I don't see how even HID's can Perform at peak performance on these trucks factory wiring.. you only have 11volts max to the HL Plug``````  Maybe HID's don't have as muck Amp draw IDK.

Sounds like a problem with your rig... before I put relays for sport headlights in my truck I had 14.2 at idle at the battery and 13.3 at the pass. side headlight plug. After the relays, I've got 14.2.

Sounds like a problem with your rig... before I put relays for sport headlights in my truck I had 14.2 at idle at the battery and 13.3 at the pass. side headlight plug. After the relays, I've got 14.2.

No,, was a problem with my rig, fixed now...  your truck is one of a slim few if that correct 13.3 volts at factory HL plug,   cause 11.9 is the most I've seen on these trucks 01-02 2nd GENS....At the time i done my harness I installed 2-new RED top optima batteries...

         Man you should have had great Headlights, I'm curious, why did you fool with the sport HL conversion & Harness

I upgraded because my original lights were so oxidized you couldn't see more than about 50 feet in front of you, even with the fog lights on. Plus, as a rule, I hate dual-filament lights (9004/9007) and wanted dual bulbs.

With the projectors in there I've simplified the wiring a bit, but while I had it all apart I added relays for my quad-note Cadillac horns and fog lights... Still have to get around to the fog light install.

I upgraded because my original lights were so oxidized you couldn't see more than about 50 feet in front of you, even with the fog lights on. Plus, as a rule, I hate dual-filament lights (9004/9007) and wanted dual bulbs.

With the projectors in there I've simplified the wiring a bit, but while I had it all apart I added relays for my quad-note Cadillac horns and fog lights... Still have to get around to the fog light install.

 

Ahh sport headlights are dual bulbs 1-9004-1-9007,  i think most of the projector headlights sys. I've seen are single, i thought i read a thread on here where you put projectors in the OEM style light.but i can't seam to find it.. could you post a picture of your lights with the projectors 

Edited July 14, 20159 yr by rburks

Ahh sport headlights are dual bulbs 1-9004-1-9007,  i think most of the projector headlights sys. I've seen are single, i thought i read a thread on here where you put projectors in the OEM style light.but i can't seam to find it.. could you post a picture of your lights with the projectors  

THATS OK, I FOUND IT ON PREVIOUS PAGE, DONT KNOW HOW I OVERLOOKED IT

Ahh sport headlights are dual bulbs 1-9004-1-9007,  i think most of the projector headlights sys. I've seen are single, i thought i read a thread on here where you put projectors in the OEM style light.but i can't seam to find it.. could you post a picture of your lights with the projectors 

I had sport housings, but they fogged and leaked really badly, so they didn't stick around very long.

I had sport housings, but they fogged and leaked really badly, so they didn't stick around very long.

where they aftermarket, ?? i first had aftermarket Sports cause i bought New and cheep,  didn't make it around 1-yr give or take...fogged up on inside terrible from l moisture getting in, took them out and checked but could never find the leak, never did see like actual water inside just condensation 

Good hids in a engineered projector will provide more output than anything else for a reasonable cost.

Where can i get thEsE "HID ENGINEERED PROJECTOR HEADLIGHT ASSEMBLY'S" ???

told you above.  morimoto mini h1's are pretty dang good, considering the low price and the GREAT output. if you want really good retrofit some FX-R's

 

 

Here you can see a bunch of different projectors, some of which are OEM  so yes they are engineered, but you can see the morimoto offerings and see how good they do compared to the OEM's 

http://www.jvxdriver.com/bixenon_comparison.htm

 

Here is some more compares on oem vs aftermarket.

http://www.jvxdriver.com/single_comparison.htm

 

here is the main site, which has a ton of good info on lighting

http://www.jvxdriver.com/Various%20Beam%20Comparison%20-%20FX,RX,SC,S2K.htm

 

As you can see the cut off on the good aftermarket projectors is fine.  The output from a setup like this will smoke any none hid/projector setup.  

 

I like morimoto because they make a good product and have good support

 

http://www.theretrofitsource.com/complete-retrofit-kits/universal-kits.html

IDK,  Still.., you have to hack open a set of light housings,,and for most of us thats when we've through in the towel to finally do something about the piss poor lights is when the housings are yellowed and glazed over. So you would have to buy a set of housings and then heat / Melt / Cut or what ever you have to do to get them apart.

..No Doubt the Light output is phonemail and really makes your truck look more modern,,but i don't see me cutting into a set of 400.00 light housings anytime soon..IMHO

 

  how do you know what projectors to get?????t,,,are they all HID.?????.  What about BULBS??????

 

    This is a whole new world of headlight upgrades Nick,,,, this is very intimidating for Most of us even someone like me who is pretty decent at wiring and D/C electrical overall..

 

 

     You should do a article on this explaining this;;;; like  the projectors and sizes need per housing size, various bulb outputs and contrast's to lumens vs Color, ....ballast , etc... 

 

oh yeah//i almost forget the most important thing,,HOW TO OPEN UP THE OEM HOUSING WITHOUT DESTROYING IT

Edited July 15, 20159 yr by rburks

haha 

 

if someone wants to donate a few hundred to my " write up and good headlight article for crummy 2nd gen trucks"  fund I will do one heck of a writeup for you guys, but since the truck isn't DD my car got the headlights first.   If you want to look over the writeup I did for my BMW 89 750il you can find that here.  It was more complex to do because the bmw has oem projectors with a bosch specific housing.

http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?2141684-DIY-E32-Miromoto-Mini-H1-Bixenon-install-Squared-Motorwerks-adapter&highlight=morimoto

 

Keep in mind that when you see the before and after of the light output that the before lights were 4x better than the dodges.

 

I will answer a couple questions in regards to above though.

 

If you live in an area where offroad lights won't work IE: the city, then you will get to the point of thinking the retrofit isn't that much work, or that paying $500 for a set of premade housing with projectors are worth it.  

 

 

Now what bulb, projector, color, etc etc is up to you fully.   they have to match each other though, that is why I suggest Retrofit Source as they sell everything together.  I would suggest that you stay with 35W bulbs as the 55w put out a good bit of heat and they might melt the oem lens.

 

Projector I personally would go with the mini h1's as they are the cheapest, but yet provide great output.  The draw back is they have a "small" lens ,2.5", and reflector so your output isn't as good all around as say a larger 3" or 3.5" lens.  HOWEVER the output from the mini h1 will still be FAR beyond the oem.

 

Color I always suggest 4300k, because it is a whitest light IE: most output in terms of light.

 

Lumens IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND: lumens don't differ much between the bulbs ( within the same watt rating),  all mainstream HID bulbs have the same gas inside of  them (xenon) regardless of h1 vs ds2 etc etc.  The type of bulb is simply what they fit into.  

 

Now for taking about the housing.  This shouldn't be any anyone is afraid of.  it is VERY easy.  You can use a couple of methods,

 

1. (preferred) use a heatgun to warm up the outside lip of the lens causing the glue to soften and let go.  Gently use a flathead to slowly pry the lens away.  Don't use very much force, once the glue is to the right temp the lens should pull away pretty easy.  

 

2. turn your oven to warm or lowest setting and put your housing in there for 20 minutes checking to ensure it isn't too hot and melting the housing regularly.  Your oven shouldn't get hot enough on the lowest setting to do damage, but sometimes the thermometer in your oven is way off.  Once the housings are warm use a flat head to pry the lens off in the same manner.  be slow and gentle, it should come off easy.

 

Now for installing the projector into the housing once the lens is off.  This again is VERY easy, the morimoto projectors are made to fit inside the hole in the housing that holds the bulbs, once you use a dremel or similar to cut the bulb alignment tabs out of the housing.

 

in the end if you are handy with a wrench and know how to connect + to + and ground to ground you can install morimoto projectors into your truck. 

 

I know Mike has said that he doesn't like the morimoto setup because it requires a specific bulb etc, but I simiply have a spare set of bulbs on my shelf ($40) for the day when they burn out ( rated at 2000 hours)