wwest Posted February 17, 2008 Posted February 17, 2008 Just installed aftermarket 4300K bi-xenons in my '95 LS400. Pretty nice even on low beam, a tremendous improvement in night vision, especially so on high beam. The LS is of canadian purchase origin so while it uses the traditional hi/lo filament halogen bulb it also has an extra high beam bulb each side that is also used as DRL at low voltage, in series, 6 volts each. I doubt if it is really needed for HB, probably only there since the canadians require DRLs. The HID bulbs/lamps use a solenoid to move the arc back and forth to/from low beam and high beam position. Bulb assemblies also came with their own metal shading for sharp upper pattern low beam cutoff. Impressive.
new2mud Posted February 22, 2008 Posted February 22, 2008 Just installed aftermarket 4300K bi-xenons in my '95 LS400.Pretty nice even on low beam, a tremendous improvement in night vision, especially so on high beam. The LS is of canadian purchase origin so while it uses the traditional hi/lo filament halogen bulb it also has an extra high beam bulb each side that is also used as DRL at low voltage, in series, 6 volts each. I doubt if it is really needed for HB, probably only there since the canadians require DRLs. The HID bulbs/lamps use a solenoid to move the arc back and forth to/from low beam and high beam position. Bulb assemblies also came with their own metal shading for sharp upper pattern low beam cutoff. Impressive. So do the high beam settings retain the same cutoff as low beam due to the fixed metal shade, or does the arc shift down, resulting in higher cutoff?
wwest Posted February 23, 2008 Author Posted February 23, 2008 Just installed aftermarket 4300K bi-xenons in my '95 LS400.Pretty nice even on low beam, a tremendous improvement in night vision, especially so on high beam. The LS is of canadian purchase origin so while it uses the traditional hi/lo filament halogen bulb it also has an extra high beam bulb each side that is also used as DRL at low voltage, in series, 6 volts each. I doubt if it is really needed for HB, probably only there since the canadians require DRLs. The HID bulbs/lamps use a solenoid to move the arc back and forth to/from low beam and high beam position. Bulb assemblies also came with their own metal shading for sharp upper pattern low beam cutoff. Impressive. So do the high beam settings retain the same cutoff as low beam due to the fixed metal shade, or does the arc shift down, resulting in higher cutoff? I don't remember which way, forward or backward, that the solenoids shift the HID's electric arc center for high beam but it appears to be completely unshaded in the HB position. There is a "window"/opening cut in the metal shade structure/assembly into which the arc shifts for HB mode.
blake918 Posted February 23, 2008 Posted February 23, 2008 Just installed aftermarket 4300K bi-xenons in my '95 LS400.Any pictures....especially of the cutoff?
wwest Posted February 23, 2008 Author Posted February 23, 2008 Just installed aftermarket 4300K bi-xenons in my '95 LS400.Any pictures....especially of the cutoff? Monday.
wwest Posted February 23, 2008 Author Posted February 23, 2008 Where did you purchase the HID kit? Ebay.com
dayfmtx Posted February 23, 2008 Posted February 23, 2008 can you tell me how to remove the low beam on my 97 LS400? I have been trying to turn it. but no success. Since I have never done it before, I don't want to break something.
new2mud Posted March 4, 2008 Posted March 4, 2008 Hi-lo HID pics. This just may be the ticket to fixing the horrible 1LS lights without blinding oncoming traffic. WWEST--could you get us a picture of the light pattern against a wall--especially the Low beam cutoff pattern?
new2mud Posted March 4, 2008 Posted March 4, 2008 Wait--WWEST if your 95 does not use separate 9003/9005 bulbs for high/low, what bulb are your running for the combo high/low?
wwest Posted March 4, 2008 Author Posted March 4, 2008 Wait--WWEST if your 95 does not use separate 9003/9005 bulbs for high/low, what bulb are your running for the combo high/low? The '95 LS uses two bulbs in the headlamp assembly, three if you include the fog light. One of the headlamps bulbs is dual filament wherein one of the filaments provides low beam coverage. The second bulb is single filament and is used along with the high beam section of the dual filament bulb for "good" high beam coverage. This second bulb is also used as the DRL light source if the vehicle is of canadian origin as mine is. The HID hi-lo coverage is so good, excellent, that I have disabled the power to the second, single filament, high beam bulb except for DRL use. The HID hi-lo is accomplished with an electric solenoid in the base of the bulb that moves the HID arc center back and forth from the low beam position to the high beam position when the high beam wire has voltage. We also have a '92 in the "family" and I plan to try another hi-lo set there soon. IMMHO it was the early LS that really had POOR headlight pattern coverage. You could adjust the beam upward and have good low beam coverage and have the high beam illuminate the night sky or...
wwest Posted March 4, 2008 Author Posted March 4, 2008 Such as... http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAP...em=320223720575
VMF Posted March 4, 2008 Posted March 4, 2008 Wait--WWEST if your 95 does not use separate 9003/9005 bulbs for high/low, what bulb are your running for the combo high/low? The '95 LS uses two bulbs in the headlamp assembly, three if you include the fog light. One of the headlamps bulbs is dual filament wherein one of the filaments provides low beam coverage. The second bulb is single filament and is used along with the high beam section of the dual filament bulb for "good" high beam coverage. This second bulb is also used as the DRL light source if the vehicle is of canadian origin as mine is. The HID hi-lo coverage is so good, excellent, that I have disabled the power to the second, single filament, high beam bulb except for DRL use. The HID hi-lo is accomplished with an electric solenoid in the base of the bulb that moves the HID arc center back and forth from the low beam position to the high beam position when the high beam wire has voltage. We also have a '92 in the "family" and I plan to try another hi-lo set there soon. IMMHO it was the early LS that really had POOR headlight pattern coverage. You could adjust the beam upward and have good low beam coverage and have the high beam illuminate the night sky or... weird, when i converted mine, the high beam is so bad that i dont even use it and i didnt disable the high beam bulb. what kit did you use to upgrade?
wwest Posted March 4, 2008 Author Posted March 4, 2008 Wait--WWEST if your 95 does not use separate 9003/9005 bulbs for high/low, what bulb are your running for the combo high/low? The '95 LS uses two bulbs in the headlamp assembly, three if you include the fog light. One of the headlamps bulbs is dual filament wherein one of the filaments provides low beam coverage. The second bulb is single filament and is used along with the high beam section of the dual filament bulb for "good" high beam coverage. This second bulb is also used as the DRL light source if the vehicle is of canadian origin as mine is. The HID hi-lo coverage is so good, excellent, that I have disabled the power to the second, single filament, high beam bulb except for DRL use. The HID hi-lo is accomplished with an electric solenoid in the base of the bulb that moves the HID arc center back and forth from the low beam position to the high beam position when the high beam wire has voltage. We also have a '92 in the "family" and I plan to try another hi-lo set there soon. IMMHO it was the early LS that really had POOR headlight pattern coverage. You could adjust the beam upward and have good low beam coverage and have the high beam illuminate the night sky or... weird, when i converted mine, the high beam is so bad that i dont even use it and i didnt disable the high beam bulb. what kit did you use to upgrade? From the Ebay vendor linked above, previous post. And don't let anyone sell you anything other than 4300K for "color".
VMF Posted March 5, 2008 Posted March 5, 2008 wow thats a pretty cheap price i have 6k kalvins in my 96 LS. and i think the bulb type there is H3 if i remember correctly. kit works just fine, except there is no high beam. from what i know 96 LS and 2001 civic use same bulb type so the kit you listed should fit in mah civic:) starting bid 5$. the guy is very confident that his product would sell for a decent price, i sure hope its not going to:) cant afford with all the expenses on the LS430. now that car has some awesome lighting! i love the way projectors move, i wish i can install it on all my cars. i paid $250 for the conversion kit for the LS, how much did you pay for yours?
wwest Posted March 5, 2008 Author Posted March 5, 2008 wow thats a pretty cheap pricei have 6k kalvins in my 96 LS. and i think the bulb type there is H3 if i remember correctly. kit works just fine, except there is no high beam. from what i know 96 LS and 2001 civic use same bulb type so the kit you listed should fit in mah civic:) starting bid 5$. the guy is very confident that his product would sell for a decent price, i sure hope its not going to:) cant afford with all the expenses on the LS430. now that car has some awesome lighting! i love the way projectors move, i wish i can install it on all my cars. i paid $250 for the conversion kit for the LS, how much did you pay for yours? $131.49 including shipping.
new2mud Posted March 5, 2008 Posted March 5, 2008 We also have a '92 in the "family" and I plan to try another hi-lo set there soon. IMMHO it was the early LS that really had POOR headlight pattern coverage. You could adjust the beam upward and have good low beam coverage and have the high beam illuminate the night sky or... Yup--the 1LS has a dreadful headlight pattern, which I believe was significantly improved with the 95. Keep us posted on how the HID conversion on your 92 turns out!
VMF Posted March 17, 2008 Posted March 17, 2008 bought the kit from this seller that you lprovided the link, turned out its out of stock only after 3 days of waiting, he kept promising me that he is going to send it to me "tomorrow" for a week, asked for a refund today and he claimed that is is already shipped, asked for tracking number and of course didnt get one:) what a liar:) finally, after me asking him to solve the problem without involving ebay procedures, he agreed to withdraw the transaction and issue a refund. sneaky seller. i do not recommend.
UncleOOPS Posted May 14, 2008 Posted May 14, 2008 I installed an after market bi-beam HID upgrade on my 94 LS400 and am loving the improved visibility at night. Had some issues with ballast placement (which I still need to work out), but I was able to come up with a temporary installation. So far the low and high beams seems to be providing plenty of coverage and I haven't had any issues with passing motorist flashing me (if my lows are too bright). My only issue with the setup is I've loss the use of my high beam indicator light and my fog lights. If I switch the fog lights on, the HIDs switch to the high beam mode instead. I've been studying the wiring diagrams out of the maintenance manual and think it it may be due to the way the HID controller box senses Off, Low, High from the pre-existing left headlight bulb connector. The fog lights and high beam indicator light look like they rely on the full current of the old OEM bulbs to be flowing through the various headlight circuits. However, the HID controller box is essential a fancy relay, so I'm not sure how much current or voltage, if any (because it's solid state), is getting through the system. I'll dig out my volt meter tomorrow to see. I'll save the rest of the details for later as its late right now, but I will try and snap some pictures of the lights in action and the spread both on the street and on the garage door. As a side note, recently (the past couple of weeks) I have been starting to have some problems with the left headlight. Sometimes it won't turn on the first try, requiring me to turn the lights off, wait a few seconds, and then turn them back on, which resets the HID controller. The other is that of the light randomly flashes while I'm driving. I haven't had time to dive into troubleshooting (something that is also going to happen tomorrow), but I'm hoping it is simply a loose wire or grounding issue. I'm a little worried that it may be the bulb or ballast since the left light seems to be putting off a slightly different color than the right, though I'm crossing my fingers that I'm just being crazy! :P I'll pull both bulbs and run them on the bench with the ballasts and see what turns up. UPDATE: Turns out I have a loose wire some where which is causing the intermittent left light. Few!
L_Sport Posted May 31, 2008 Posted May 31, 2008 Wait--WWEST if your 95 does not use separate 9003/9005 bulbs for high/low, what bulb are your running for the combo high/low? The '95 LS uses two bulbs in the headlamp assembly, three if you include the fog light. One of the headlamps bulbs is dual filament wherein one of the filaments provides low beam coverage. The second bulb is single filament and is used along with the high beam section of the dual filament bulb for "good" high beam coverage. This second bulb is also used as the DRL light source if the vehicle is of canadian origin as mine is. The HID hi-lo coverage is so good, excellent, that I have disabled the power to the second, single filament, high beam bulb except for DRL use. The HID hi-lo is accomplished with an electric solenoid in the base of the bulb that moves the HID arc center back and forth from the low beam position to the high beam position when the high beam wire has voltage. We also have a '92 in the "family" and I plan to try another hi-lo set there soon. IMMHO it was the early LS that really had POOR headlight pattern coverage. You could adjust the beam upward and have good low beam coverage and have the high beam illuminate the night sky or... weird, when i converted mine, the high beam is so bad that i dont even use it and i didnt disable the high beam bulb. what kit did you use to upgrade? From the Ebay vendor linked above, previous post. And don't let anyone sell you anything other than 4300K for "color". WWEST, that ebay link looks prety good! I am thinking of upgrading to that in my 1990 LS, was the installation a bear? and why 4300K?
wwest Posted May 31, 2008 Author Posted May 31, 2008 Wait--WWEST if your 95 does not use separate 9003/9005 bulbs for high/low, what bulb are your running for the combo high/low? The '95 LS uses two bulbs in the headlamp assembly, three if you include the fog light. One of the headlamps bulbs is dual filament wherein one of the filaments provides low beam coverage. The second bulb is single filament and is used along with the high beam section of the dual filament bulb for "good" high beam coverage. This second bulb is also used as the DRL light source if the vehicle is of canadian origin as mine is. The HID hi-lo coverage is so good, excellent, that I have disabled the power to the second, single filament, high beam bulb except for DRL use. The HID hi-lo is accomplished with an electric solenoid in the base of the bulb that moves the HID arc center back and forth from the low beam position to the high beam position when the high beam wire has voltage. We also have a '92 in the "family" and I plan to try another hi-lo set there soon. IMMHO it was the early LS that really had POOR headlight pattern coverage. You could adjust the beam upward and have good low beam coverage and have the high beam illuminate the night sky or... weird, when i converted mine, the high beam is so bad that i dont even use it and i didnt disable the high beam bulb. what kit did you use to upgrade? From the Ebay vendor linked above, previous post. And don't let anyone sell you anything other than 4300K for "color". WWEST, that ebay link looks prety good! I am thinking of upgrading to that in my 1990 LS, was the installation a bear? and why 4300K? Installation wasn't simple but also wasn't a "bear". 4300K is closest to what our human eyes have adapted to over eons.
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