seth21
Active Member
- Joined
- January 18, 2015
- Messages
- 54
- Reaction score
- 2
- City, State
- Georgia
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 2008
Took on the project yesterday and it went well. This is our family car and night visibility has never been great but especially during the rain.
I first bought the OPT7 LED headlights from Amazon for 100 bucks. They were OK and I knew going into it that they probably wouldn't work well in stock reflector housings. I returned them, amazon made it easy with free shipping.
A few weeks later bought the kit from TRS after deciding to go for the projectors to do it right. I actually live close to them and stopped by one day, neat place and the guy I spoke with was very helpful and took the time to educate me. I also watched several youtube videos that TRS has posted on how to do the swap.
Finished Product
To open headlight. 290 degree at 10 minutes was the secret number for me that made the headlight open up easily. I've read of a bunch of different numbers people use.
How the projector shows up, be sure to get the desiccant out as its hiding in there. Be sure to use a 9V battery to test solenoid 30-40 times as recommended by TRS.
I had already screwed on the shroud in this picture.
I did not remove the reflector bowl from the black reflector housing, removing the bowl looked like a real hassle and I thought I had enough access to get it done. I use a dremel to do the trimming for me.
Finished headlight. I'm not 100% happy with how the back is sealed. I would prefer a big boot that went over the whole HID plug but the stock one doesn't make it. It does still seal on the back of the reflector like it does from the factory so hopefully it will be fine. I will address it later if I see moisture in the headlight. 2 wires at the bottom are the hi/low solenoid, I made a small slit in the gasket and pulled the 2 wires through.
Finished headlight
Wiring harness. See below to get an idea of what the harness is like, one of the ballast isn't in the picture. It was definitely more wiring than I was expecting but it comes with a diagram that explains it. It took probably an hour - 1.5 hours to get the wiring right. I wanted to make sure it looked as stock as possible and didn't have a bunch of wires hanging around so I picked up some self taping screws and black zip ties. I honestly thought I just plugged in a ballast at the headlight but the harness showed up. Luckily it did because I read alittle bit on it and you get better performance because the light is powered right off the battery and the headlight circuit is just used to signal the relay.
Removed battery tray and made room to install the relay and drivers side ballast. Used self tapping screws to mount them.
Passenger side ballast mounted behind the air box.
Light pattern. This picture doesn't even do the lights justice, I drove them around last night and was blown away. Makes sense when you think about it, you basically have your high beam brights on all the time but are blocking the top half. On top of that, your lights are putting out more lumens as well. My passenger side light wasn't totally level in this picture but I later straightened it out.
Overall, very happy! Its hard to put a price on good night visibility. As I've read everywhere, TRS was great to deal with. If you are considering a non-projector upgrade, I say skip that other stuff and save up the $270 to do the right way. I'm also not a fan of people who put crazy bright lights into stock housings and blind everyone.
It is important to note that I am current getting headlight errors and this makes sense to me because the headlights circuits aren't really pulling any power except closing the relay so the computer thinks the light is out. I'll do some research on how to remedy it and post another topic on it.
I first bought the OPT7 LED headlights from Amazon for 100 bucks. They were OK and I knew going into it that they probably wouldn't work well in stock reflector housings. I returned them, amazon made it easy with free shipping.
A few weeks later bought the kit from TRS after deciding to go for the projectors to do it right. I actually live close to them and stopped by one day, neat place and the guy I spoke with was very helpful and took the time to educate me. I also watched several youtube videos that TRS has posted on how to do the swap.
Finished Product
To open headlight. 290 degree at 10 minutes was the secret number for me that made the headlight open up easily. I've read of a bunch of different numbers people use.
How the projector shows up, be sure to get the desiccant out as its hiding in there. Be sure to use a 9V battery to test solenoid 30-40 times as recommended by TRS.
I had already screwed on the shroud in this picture.
I did not remove the reflector bowl from the black reflector housing, removing the bowl looked like a real hassle and I thought I had enough access to get it done. I use a dremel to do the trimming for me.
Finished headlight. I'm not 100% happy with how the back is sealed. I would prefer a big boot that went over the whole HID plug but the stock one doesn't make it. It does still seal on the back of the reflector like it does from the factory so hopefully it will be fine. I will address it later if I see moisture in the headlight. 2 wires at the bottom are the hi/low solenoid, I made a small slit in the gasket and pulled the 2 wires through.
Finished headlight
Wiring harness. See below to get an idea of what the harness is like, one of the ballast isn't in the picture. It was definitely more wiring than I was expecting but it comes with a diagram that explains it. It took probably an hour - 1.5 hours to get the wiring right. I wanted to make sure it looked as stock as possible and didn't have a bunch of wires hanging around so I picked up some self taping screws and black zip ties. I honestly thought I just plugged in a ballast at the headlight but the harness showed up. Luckily it did because I read alittle bit on it and you get better performance because the light is powered right off the battery and the headlight circuit is just used to signal the relay.
Removed battery tray and made room to install the relay and drivers side ballast. Used self tapping screws to mount them.
Passenger side ballast mounted behind the air box.
Light pattern. This picture doesn't even do the lights justice, I drove them around last night and was blown away. Makes sense when you think about it, you basically have your high beam brights on all the time but are blocking the top half. On top of that, your lights are putting out more lumens as well. My passenger side light wasn't totally level in this picture but I later straightened it out.
Overall, very happy! Its hard to put a price on good night visibility. As I've read everywhere, TRS was great to deal with. If you are considering a non-projector upgrade, I say skip that other stuff and save up the $270 to do the right way. I'm also not a fan of people who put crazy bright lights into stock housings and blind everyone.
It is important to note that I am current getting headlight errors and this makes sense to me because the headlights circuits aren't really pulling any power except closing the relay so the computer thinks the light is out. I'll do some research on how to remedy it and post another topic on it.