Aftermarket Lights / HID Lights / Projection Beam Lights

[ScottyC - 6]

Hello All,

 

There are a couple of posts in here that discuss owner's displeasure with the performance of their Baru's headlights. I am new to this forum and want to get some opinions on this. Sorry this is long, but I want you all to know how much effort I have put into this and how much your opinions will matter to me.

 

I currently own a 99' Subaru Legacy GT 2.5L Sedan - 30th Anniversary Limited Edition with a 5-spd manual transmission. I love it, but I have a list of modifications I would like to do to truly make it my own and love it a lot more. I live outside of Pittsburgh in the country but I work in the city, so I need good headlights to see all the Deer running out in front of my car.

 

I wanted to do something to make the headlights work better. Stock headlights: the low-beams are okay, and the high-beams are a complete joke. I honestly couldn't tell the difference between the low beams and the high beams... and neither could the other drivers on the road (which is pretty sad). So I thought maybe the lights just weren't adjusted high-enough. I have adjusted them so high that they are probably as high as they can go without making other drivers severely angry with me. Still, the high-beams were lame at best.

 

The light is a single-bulb dual-filament light. Type 9007 with a 55Watt low-beam and a 65Watt high-beam. So I looked into projection beam headlights... not because I want a focused low-beam, but because I want separate high and low beam bulbs. I went to a few places in the area that do custom modifications to cars (like Total Image) and was told that no aftermarket lights exist for Legacy's and my best option would be to buy HID lights. The guy wanted to sell me 10K bulbs and ballasts for $300.00, and another $100.00 if I wanted dual-filament bulbs. Without the dual-filament bulbs, I am pretty sure my car wouldn't pass the PA inspection.

 

He kept throwing different K numbers at me like it meant the bulbs would be brighter, but I am not an idiot and know that the different K numbers only represent the color temperature of the light and not the actual light output, which is generally rated by Lumens and Watts. I got frustrated because they were trying to rip me off, and so I left.

 

Then I decided to try something a little more bold. I added a single wire to the passenger side headlamp to ground and hooked it up so that the low-beam filament remains on when the high-beams are on. I figured that 65W X 2 + 55W X 2 (total of 240W) would have to be much better than just 65W X 2 (total of 130W) for high-beams. The light output was significantly better, but the focus of the high-beams were still horrible for the back-roads.

 

So I did some serious research and searching on the internet. I found Japanese projection beam headlights for a Subaru Legacy, but they didn't seem all that impressive. More so, I could see that they were extremely difficult to find and would be very hard to replace if something were to happen. Basically the cost didn't seem worth it. I also found articles discussing the HID bulbs, but I still wasn't buying it until I read up on them in Wikipedia where they stated that HID bulbs can range up to 3000 Lumens per bulb and are generally around 1000 Lumens brighter than their Halogen counterparts of the same wattage. The downside is the HID bulbs don't last as long.

 

I went out to an auto-parts store and spent $50.00 on a pair of 5K HID bulbs by Sylvania. When I dropped them in, I checked the difference. The change was a little brighter, but minimal at best. I actually prefer the 5K color temperature though, because colors are easier to see with them. In further research I found that spending a couple hundred dollars on HID ballasts would make the bulbs up to 30% brighter, but the cost didn't seem worth the trouble because the high-beam focus is still the biggest issue.

 

I also read a post in here that discusses swapping the 55W/65W type 9007 bulbs with a set of 80W/100W type 9007 Halogen bulbs from Hella. Though I liked the idea, I still say focus is the issue and also worried that my car wouldn't pass PA inspection if they noticed the higher-power bulbs in the car (and yes, I could swap back to 55W/65W bulbs before sending for inspection).

 

So back to the projection beam headlights. I found a pair that was built for a 95' to 01' Subaru Impreza. Here is a link to one site that sells them out of California: http://www.ilovebodykits.com/product/45087/95_01_Subaru_Impreza_Dual_Halo_Projector_Headlights_Chrome.html I also found another site that sells them out of Canada for about $30 cheaper, but I would prefer to keep business in the US to avoid any legal issues.

 

I compared these visually to the design of the Legacy lights and the biggest difference is the inside curve being opposite. The Legacy curves up around the center grill and the Impreza curves down because the grill is part of the hood. They also include the side-marker lights in the design, but I am not concerned about that.

 

I am determined to fix this. So this pretty much leaves me with 2 options (and 5 questions for you all):

 

Option 1) Buy the aftermarket Impreza lights. Remove the OEM grill, OEM headlights, and OEM side-marker lights. Insert the new lights and maybe mold a new grill from diamond-mesh metal.

 

Question 1) Will the Impreza style light fit inside the Legacy opening? (It seems to lack some of the same mounts found on the Legacy Headlights, but generally looks like it would fit)

 

Option 2) Buy the aftermarket Impreza lights. Take them apart, Dremel them, and mold them together with a secondary set of OEM Legacy headlights so that they fit inside the original opening with the grill in place and separate side-marker lights. (Yes, I already have a second set of OEM headlights because I hit a deer a year ago and it busted a plastic adjustment fitting on each light... but upon inspection, I think I could make them work without tearing apart the new replacement headlights.)

 

Question 2) Do you think it will work? I am very good at DIY projects and great at customizing, so I think i should be able to do it as long as no major problems arise.

 

Either option would still leave me with a set of original OEM replacement headlights, so there shouldn't be a problem if I need to swap them to pass a PA inspection. So my last three questions are: Has anyone done this before? Was it successful? Do you think I am insane?

 

Well, I would really appreciate any advice or thoughts about this. Sorry again for making this such a long post... Damn Noobs (refering to myself).

 

~ Scott ~

Edited October 18, 2009 by ScottyC - 6

[ScottyC - 6]

Oh, and I also have a plan in the works to customize the fog lights. I am replacing the OEM fog lights with 2 pairs of Optronics QH-7CC driving lights. They will both mount side-by-side in the fog light opening. The outside pair will be wired up to turn on with the parking lights and stay on until the high-beams are on (basically acting as fog-lights). The inside pair will be wired separately and have a kill switch like the fog lights... but they will only turn on with the high-beams and be focused higher to temporarily help solve the high-beam focusing problem. Who knows, maybe this temporary fix will make a lasting impression and remain on the car after I change the headlight situation.

 

~ Scott ~

[ScottyC - 6]

33 views and no responses? Anyone?

 

~ Scott ~

[kingbobdole]

Maybe skip the annoying color and summarize a bit more? I read the whole thing, but you seem to after a solution that hasn't been a wide problem.

 

Two things, Firstly, how fogged are your current lenses. Clear lenses make a big difference. Second, why not the JDM lights? Do things really happen that often to your headlights?

 

The other solution is my favorite you seem to be avoiding... more lights! Why not just bolt some big old hellas to your bumper? Wa-LA! Daytime!

[simple monkey]

Question 1: not sure if you mean the entire headlight or just the bulb. I have no idea about the entire thing. The legacy uses a 9004 bulb, where the older imprezas used H4's and now H1's. There are actual projector headlights for your car.

http://www.andysautosport.com/subaru/1995_1999_legacy/lights/headlights

/dimension_lab/

and these

http://www.andysautosport.com/subaru/1995_1999_legacy/lights/headlights/sherman/

Question 2: Absolutely! This sounds like a great project for the weekend. :grin:Upon looking on the web a little, I found a guy who performed this on his toyota camry using E46 BMW projectors.

http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/showthread.php?t=136335

There are other options for getting brighter headlights:

1. kingbobdole is right, fog lights are a simple way to get the light you want. I had a set of foglights on my subie which i found at a u-pull yard, bought new bulbs and wired them in. There was a substantial difference.

2. You could try one of these HID kits. higher numbers in K are blue and purple, the middle 5K-8K is pretty white, and 4K and below are yellowish.

3. You could rewire your headlights to use higher wattage bulbs. The OEM wires are too thin to move that type of current.

Hope this helps.

Victor

[ScottyC - 6]

Thanks guys. Sorry I write to much. I am working on adding more lights. I will post some pics and details when I get closer to being finished.

 

~ Scott ~

[torxxx]

Forget HID lights.. buy a set of light force 5.5 or 6 inch lights, put 100 watt halogens in it and be done with it. I've ran cars off the road with my two bumper mounted LF's.

 

The GT comes with the Subaru roof rack iirc with the lil cross bars. they are perfect height to mount the lightforces on. and the shelf on the front bumper is also a good place to mount them. You can wire them in with a relay to your highbeam switch so you have just the stock soob headlights on low beam and then when u hit the dimmer switch u get high beam soob and lightforces on at the same time. Personally I have mine on a toggle switch because theres times in the winter that I drive with my high beams in on the 4 lane highway (divided) but I dont want to kill the people on the other side of the highway lol

[1-3-2-4]

Worth the money from Japan

 

 

 

[Zefy]

JDM lights are pretty sweet however they are EXTREMELY dangerous.

 

Note the cut of the light. It is designed for driving on the other side of the road. Those lights don't cut straight across. They ark up towards the driverside which will blind oncoming traffic.

 

This is a big issue where i live because there are LOTS of JDM imports running around and all of them need different headlights.

 

if you look at a standard USDM headlight the ark goes to the passenger side. This is so the side of the road is lit up better.

 

Installing proper HID bulbs into the stock housing is also a bad idea. While it is brighter, the beam is totally wrong. A proper HID bulb is typically an inch longer than a standard halogen and light is produced at a different point in the bulb. This means that the lens and reflectors are in the wrong spot to suit this bulb. This will once again cause a hazard to you and other drivers on the road.

 

If you bought 'HID' bulbs that are just plug and play without ballasts then you don't actually have HID's. They are tinted halogens that appear brighter when they are actually worse.

 

next thing to consider. higher wattage bulbs. This is a good way to improve lighting on a budget. Be careful though! Putting something like an 80/100W hella bulb in the stock socket will melt wiring. You need to rewire the system with thicker gauge so it can handle the extra load. This is time consuming work as the relays, fuse holder, etc are all insufficient for this type of operation.

 

I have gone this route and the easiest way to do it is to make a seperate headlight harness that has it's own fuses, relays, and plugs and uses the OEM headlight plug as the signal for the relays. This is the best solution in my mind as you can remove the entire system in about 10 minutes for a VI and you don't need to damage the factory stuff.

 

The other problem with going this route is the bulb itself produces more heat so it can have a tendency to melt housings and plastic lenses. You need to keep an eye on this if you go this route.

 

You also meantioned that you wired it so that the low and high beam filaments are on at the same time. this causes premature burnouts with the bulbs as you are producing gobs more heat. I run mine like this sometimes and it cuts the lift of the bulb in half if you do it on a regular basis. The 80/100W hella bulbs lasted me about 6 months when properly used while having both filaments on lasts about 3 months. I have used hella and osram for about 3 years and the osram tend to last longer. However at only 8 bucks a pop for the hellas vs. 15 for the osram it is cheaper to just replace them more often.

 

What i would recommend to you:

 

best: Find yourself a set of JDM headlights with projects and retrofit audi, bmw, acura, merc, etc projects in. If you want to you can even find a set of bi-xenon projectors for highbeams. Using USDM HID parts will ensure that you are not blinding oncoming traffic and they will be brighter than the standard JDM headlights. You cannot retrofit projectors into your factory headlights. The lens on your headlights is not clear (i think...?) so the beam will change after it leaves the headlight. You need clear housings like the JDM ones with the projector behind it.

 

pretty damn good: find a set of EDM (europian demestic market) headlights. They boast the same JDM goodness that 1-3-2-4 has AND they ark to the correct side making you and other drivers happy. These are HARD to find though.

 

good: Make youself an upgraded harness and install some better bulbs. Nobody will notice if you have the adjusted correctly. I have had this for 3 years and i've never had any problems. VI's are SUPER common and the cops are anal about this sort of stuff. Also, your headlights are plastic correct? Clean and polish them. If they are yellowing then make them crystal clear. Wetsanding may be needed. Most of the time a bit of toothpaste will clean them up nicely. it is stagering how much of a difference it can make. Check your grounds and clean all connects. Having a bad ground can really change how the lights perform.

 

You can also add some extra lights like torxxx was saying. I would opt for them to be on the bumper vs. the roof. For off-roading the roof is nice because it lights up the surrounding area. This is not what you want for spotting dear. Putting them on the bumper will minimize glare off the hood so you can see better. Also the law here states that the lights have to be below the headlights. Not sure what it is in PA. hella 500 driving lights are a good start. Just stay away from the walmart 'baja' specials and crap like that.

 

hopefully i've given you some good ideas that you can work with. look around here: http://www.danielsternlighting.com/

 

TONS of usefull stuff.

Edited November 5, 2009 by Zefy

[1-3-2-4]

my JDM lights don't project a JDM light pattern I made a new cut-off shield for it.

 

long story short it's just one solid piece of metal so I had to be creative.

 

And the only thing that would hold it in place with the high heat of the bulb was JB Wield.

 

I'm also using a relay.. stock wires are too thin to run

[Zefy]

my JDM lights don't project a JDM light pattern I made a new cut-off shield for it.

 

long story short it's just one solid piece of metal so I had to be creative.

 

And the only thing that would hold it in place with the high heat of the bulb was JB Wield.

 

so you did that after those pictures were taken? It really looks like the pattern is going the wrong way. This would be a great option to. Do you have pics of the process?

[1-3-2-4]

so you did that after those pictures were taken? It really looks like the pattern is going the wrong way. This would be a great option to. Do you have pics of the process?

 

pattern is not going the wrong way and I should have pictures of it.. I have to find them.

 

Well I can't find all my pictures but I took one of the projectors apart and what I highlighted in green I had to file down the cutoff as seen here.

 

 

then from using alum flashing I made a new cutoff

 

 

took about 5 times for me to cut a decent piece.

 

the light is thrown to the right on the road and I've never been flashed

 

I wish I could remember when I put the rest of the pictures at.

 

found some more..

 

Fresh out of the box...

 

 

 

 

I'm pretty sure this is after I put in a test shield..

 

Edited November 5, 2009 by 1-3-2-4

[thatswhatshesaid]

The re-wiring and installing new bulbs option seems like a good one. It's inexpensive, too.

 

I've been perusing the web for European projectors for quite a while now. They are super hard to find, and quite expensive when they do surface.

[nipper]

I just used silverstar ultras and (well thanks to a deer one new headlight) and it made a huge differnce. I am going to get (one of these days) a new lense for the other side and i will be happy.

 

 

nipper