Morimoto HIDs Headlights in a 2nd Generation Dodge

[dripley]

56 minutes ago, Me78569 said:

Still not my recommended method, but it doesn't look too bad.  

 

I still recommend spending the extra $100 and retrofitting projectors.

I dont completely disagree with you by any means. Just not sure I want to tackle building them myself so I thought I would give this a try in the interim . For now these do not seem to reach out much further, 50 feet or so, but they do light the area up much better that the stock housings with Halogens, even the higher wattage Hella's.

 

For now the biggest draw back to me is the brightness of the lights. I know if I crest a hill with someone coming they are going to be blinded momentarily due to the brightness. Something I struggle with with on coming traffic in similar situations. Might even try a warmer bulb to combat that. I dont seem to have that issue with the more yellow light coming at me. I see more and more of the brighter white lights every month it seems. And the scatter on half of them is out of control. A lot of those are in fluted lenses too on older vehicles.

 

I would not mind having projectors one day but now is not that time for me.

 

19 minutes ago, Evan said:

Is the under 45 crowd making a new wagon?

 

I'm impressed by both set ups. Led and hid.

 

Will hid get warm enough to melt snow. That would be my only draw back from going led

I think all of us here try to build a better wagon and I aint seen 45 in a long time. Thats where a lot of the mods we do came from.

 

I was pleasantly surprised as to how focused the beam was with the new housings. I gambled on these with the reflector only in curved part. Saw several with the same shape but the reflector was also continued onto the flat part in front on below the bulb. That to me would have reflected alot of light up in my little brain. I think @LorenS's HID's might work better in the same style. They do appear to have some scatter that mine did not. Loren you ought to get a couple pictures looking at the headlights and see how they look and then try driving at your truck in smaller vehicle to see what others see. Going to give that a try tonight.

 

As far as melting snow and ice, I dont know. Fortunately I do not have to deal with that on any regular basis. It is an issue for a lot you though. 

Edited December 27, 2019 by dripley

[Mopar1973Man]

22 hours ago, Evan said:

Will hid get warm enough to melt snow. That would be my only draw back from going led

 

LED for sure is NO. It will not melt any snow or ice.

 

HID is maybe depends on how fast the snow is falling and how cold. Up here with -20*F and heavy snow will bury the lens over. Typically no issues. I've only had my HID cover over twice now that's it. The LED's for sure are covered every single trip. In bad storm I'll stop from time to time to just clear the LED's but the HID typically will barely burn a hole through on warmer days (20 to 32*F).

[LorenS]

On 12/27/2019 at 10:12 AM, dripley said:

I think @LorenS's HID's might work better in the same style.

I have a set that showed up Christmas Eve, I just need to install them.  ANZO 111067  https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0038AXQJ6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

If they work out well with the Morimoto Elite 9007/9004 setup, I'll have HIDs for $302.03, and if they don't work well then I'll reinstall the old housings while I try my hand at installing projectors.  I hope if I go that route that the electrical components are all compatible! Ignitors, ballasts, etc.

[dripley]

35 minutes ago, LorenS said:

I have a set that showed up Christmas Eve, I just need to install them.  ANZO 111067  https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0038AXQJ6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

If they work out well with the Morimoto Elite 9007/9004 setup, I'll have HIDs for $302.03, and if they don't work well then I'll reinstall the old housings while I try my hand at installing projectors.  I hope if I go that route that the electrical components are all compatible! Ignitors, ballasts, etc.

My housings ard very similar except for turn signals, no reflector in them, missed that  when I bought them. Plus they only cost $65, led headlights $35, turn signal bulbs $15. I went cheap because I was not sure they were going to work out. They seem good for now but the real test will be on the road oncoming traffic. If I am blinding people they will come out.

[Mopar1973Man]

I've been researching the LED angle too for my 1996 Dodge. Trying to find a good quality LED bulb that holds a good pattern.

[dripley]

I guess I looked at differently in my little brain. I looked toward reflectors that appeared they would direct the light forward. I did not spend much on the bulbs since I was experimenting. I did read some info on the placement of the chips making a difference but that was after I had bought the ones I have. So far so good.

The turn signal are another matter. The one I got have no reflector in them. I wish they did.

[LorenS]

Some more pics. Today I installed the driver's side HID light in a clear housing. Much less light scattering, still not perfect. As we all know, the halogens scattered some light, too, it was just ward to see because they were about 1 literal candlepower compared to the new setup. True projectors may soon be on order.

 

Still need to aim the lights.

[dripley]

When you get them aimed snap a pic from in front looking at them. They do look promising in the clear lenses. Yours have what appears to be the same style reflector as the ones I have though mine were cheaper and most likely less quality. But I really struggled getting mine aimed. I had to point them way to the left to get the light pointed down the driving lane.

I stopped at the store last night on the way home and parked right up against the building and this is what I saw at about 1.5' from the brick.

Way more light going up than I liked.

 

But I turned the headlights off, parking lights still on.

 

Not sure what do with them. They have no reflectors in them but the bulbs do have a projector in the front of them. Might try to find some without the projector. 

@LorenS how do your parking lights look since yours have reflectors?

Edited January 1, 2020 by dripley

[LorenS]

Rather useless I suppose since it's in the he sun, by here's a pic of the front. I have amber bulbs and there is the amber reflector. Will try to get better photos tonight.

 

Added photos, will try to get some tomorrow at a tall wall to make sure I don't blind folks driving up there.

Edited January 2, 2020 by LorenS
Added photos.

[dripley]

They do look better in the than I was thinking when boght mine. That and not knowing how the light was going is why I bought cheap ones to experiment with. I did look at same ones you bought.

 

And the light output from the view of oncoming traffic is what I want see since you used HID vs the LED that I used.

[LorenS]

"from the view of oncoming traffic is what I want see since you used HID vs the LED that I used."

 

I'll try to get that tomorrow evening as I leave work. I added some photos to the post above.

 

[dripley]

12 minutes ago, LorenS said:

"from the view of oncoming traffic is what I want see since you used HID vs the LED that I used."

 

I'll try to get that tomorrow evening as I leave work. I added some photos to the post above.

 

Are headlights on in those pictures? They dont look like it.

[LorenS]

No headlights on in pictures where I am facing the truck. I thought you also wanted photos of the parking lamps so I took those. "Oncoming traffic" headlight photos I plan to get January 2nd, tomorrow.

[LorenS]

Per usual, @Me78569 is correct.  The lights shoot light way up high out to the side.  I plan to buy some D2S 5.0 projectors very soon.  Will likely put the halogens back in today.

If I could do it all over again, I would TRY this setup for a 99-02 non-sport (94-98 Sport setups seem to be compatible, too):
1.  ANZO 111196 housings.  These come with H7 halogen bulbs for the low beams and 9005 for the high beams - the ANZO website says it comes with a wiring harness adapter to connect to our 9004 input.  $216 at RockAuto, plus shipping.

2.  The Morimoto H7 HID conversion kit for $150:  https://www.theretrofitsource.com/hid-systems/h7-morimoto-elite.html

 

It may still turn out like trash, but it's what I would try if I still had stock-type headlights and wanted an upgrade.  Personally I would not hack into my wiring for the Halos and LED "look at me" lights.  Why that is not incorporated into the harness adapter they supposedly provide, I have no idea.

 

[Mopar1973Man]

Like myself I've got a set of stand single bulb lights in my 1996 Dodge and the last trip home sucked. Very narrow band of light vertically maybe 5 to 6 feet. Only covering just the highway on hi beam. Lo beam is worse. I need to find a quality LED for that truck being its not going to be kept as a primary vehicle. Not worth it for HID's.

[Me78569]

6 minutes ago, LorenS said:

Per usual, @Me78569 is correct.  The lights shoot light way up high out to the side.  I plan to buy some D2S 5.0 projectors very soon.  Will likely put the halogens back in today.

If I could do it all over again, I would TRY this setup for a 99-02 non-sport (94-98 Sport setups seem to be compatible, too):
1.  ANZO 111196 housings.  These come with H7 halogen bulbs for the low beams and 9005 for the high beams - the ANZO website says it comes with a wiring harness adapter to connect to our 9004 input.  $216 at RockAuto, plus shipping.

2.  The Morimoto H7 HID conversion kit for $150:  https://www.theretrofitsource.com/hid-systems/h7-morimoto-elite.html

 

It may still turn out like trash, but it's what I would try if I still had stock-type headlights and wanted an upgrade.  Personally I would not hack into my wiring for the Halos and LED "look at me" lights.  Why that is not incorporated into the harness adapter they supposedly provide, I have no idea.

 

I am guessing your setup is not using the D2S bulb base so you will have to get new bulbs as well to fit into the projectors.  

[LorenS]

1 hour ago, Me78569 said:

you will have to get new bulbs as well to fit into the projectors

Yes, I forgot to mention that.  And I plan to get something warmer than 5k Kelvin!  Not much, but some.  I like yellower(?) light.  Maybe my eyes are different than everybody else's.

 

The kit I bought has HID bulbs that fit in 9007 sockets, which may be why they don't project the light worth a darn in 9004 sockets (they are different, right?).  Since the bulb is separate from the adapter, I rotated the bulb in the adapter to make it work in a 9004 socket.

Edited January 6, 2020 by LorenS
further explanation

[dripley]

My LEDs are in the non sport housings. 1 9004 style bulb. So far so good. They do shine light out to the side of the truck but so do the halogens. The most glare I have now is from white/amber turn signals. The projector on the front of the bulb seems to be the culprit. I need to replace those.

[Me78569]

1 hour ago, LorenS said:

Yes, I forgot to mention that.  And I plan to get something warmer than 5k Kelvin!  Not much, but some.  I like yellower(?) light.  Maybe my eyes are different than everybody else's.

 

The kit I bought has HID bulbs that fit in 9007 sockets, which may be why they don't project the light worth a darn in 9004 sockets (they are different, right?).  Since the bulb is separate from the adapter, I rotated the bulb in the adapter to make it work in a 9004 socket.

The light source location of the bulb in a HID is the same regardless of the rotation.  note the location of the xenon gas

 

[LorenS]

That's why I thought, but I would've swore I read at a vendor's site that it did matter. Going senile at 40...