how to fix aftermarket touring/limited/base projector

[Unibomber]

mine are from xenondepot (thanks Steve!)


picture of the filing i did to get the bulb to sit correctly


a lot of people tend to put the bulb with the return wire in the left there

when looking from the back of the projector the return wire (thats at the top of the bulb) should be facing down...just file either a groove at the bottom or make the top part of the opening bigger. I also sanded off the nubs to make it flush



Before fixing and filing



After fixing and filing





not all need to have this done but this is how i got rid of the dead spots

[ks503]

How is the light output compared to stock? Hid's on the stock light is really bright. I know it can blind people but i got mine tilted down so i never get flashed. I think they would look sweet color matched. I might do later down the road. You just need new bulbs right?

Nice write up!

[Unibomber]

i have 6500k in there but the light in the projectors are a bit dim...im thinking either 5000k or 4300k

and these projectors are H1 bulbs

[XenonDepot]

Nice!!!

Glad to hear you got the problem resolved!

Steve

[DC_Civic08]

Hi Unibomber,

Steve sent me a link to this site in reference to your solution.

After filing so that the bulb could fit, I did get an improvement on the projection. However, it still looks like your "before" pic. It was like that before, only at the center of the two half-circles there was a dark spot. Now that spot is bright (on both half-circles), but it is still not projecting one solid strip of white light. In other words, my "before" looks like the right projection on your before pic, and my "after" looks like the left projection on your before pic.

Is the bulb just still not sitting in as far as it could? Or is there more I can do? These are the Xetronic Digitals at 4.3K.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Tony

[Unibomber]

are they h1 bulbs?

[Unibomber]

how i got it to the best its gonna be for these projectors, was i filed it so where i could move the bulb around until the circles mostly went away

im pretty certain with most of these aftermarket projectors have poor projector bowls and poor lens's

to totally get rid of the half circle look and get 1 solid line of light you will have to retrofit new projectors like acura TSX, TL, honda s2000 or maybe some bmw projectors.

as for the "step" cuttoff line , that is normal so you dont blind the oncoming traffic

[DC_Civic08]

yeah they're H1's.

I agree; aftermarket headlights aren't gonna be as good as the real deal. But I'd be happy just to have it as good as your "after" pic.

It sounds like you had the lights on when you were adjusting the positioning of the bulbs(?). That sounds like a good idea. Did you completely cut/file off the nubs on the base of the bulb? (the little rounded stubs that are supposed to keep it from rotating)

thanks for your help!

[Unibomber]

i had the lights on while i was fine tuning it

yeah i dremmeled em off because the way i have them sitting in there now is not the way they are supposed to sit in there.

see the white return wire there?


that is facing straight down so i filed a channel for it to go in

edit...nail file will work also if you dont have a dremmel for the nubs

[DC_Civic08]

My return wire is facing down as well. I tried it both up (12o'clock) and down (6o'clock). Both produce the same crappy results, except for that facing up you can see the shadow it produces on the wall (which should come to no surprise).

I think mine just aren't in far enough. I thought they were and I'm pretty sure I got one of the nubs in the cavity that it is supposed to go into (I cut the other one off.) They are projecting high right now so tomorrow I will realign them and check out the seating again.

I am confused about one thing you said, though: your return wire is facing down (6), yet it looks like you filed a groove at the top of the housing to allow the return wire to be on top (12). ??