1BadElky

Gather 'round gearheads! You all know how miserable the stock '98-'02 headlights are, so after almost a year of daily driving my Trans Am and washing roadkill off the bottom, I decided it was time to do something about it. If you're new to headlight upgrades, or want to know if HIDs are still viable in 2019 as LEDs are gaining momentum, this thread is for you! I will try to dispel some misconceptions about headlights along the way. Let's get to it.

Obviously, our cars have quad beam headlights with low beams that stay on even when the high beams are lit. This means we don't have to shell out for a bi-xenon setup like our 93-97 friends, but we do have 2 extra lights to contend with. If you want bi-xenon + LEDs, check out VIP1's recent thread: https://ls1tech.com/forums/appearanc...rojectors.html

First, some background and rationale:

Low beams

These lights face oncoming traffic, as well as the rear view mirror of the car in front of you, so don't be a chucklehead and put bright lights (HIDs, LEDs, HIRs) in a reflector housing for the low beams. They are 2-3x brighter than stock, and will either blind other drivers, or will have to be aimed so low that you endanger your own safety.

Actual picture of what your car looks like with HIDs in reflectors

There is also no shortage of vendors selling 3x5 lights that look like this:

The general consensus on sites like HIDPlanet and the "Headlight Junkies" Facebook group is that the beam pattern is not appropriate for road use (even in high beams) . Also, if one LED burns out, the whole thing has to be replaced ($$$).

So a favorite option among this community is a projector housing like this: HLA998570001 with HB3/9005 HID kit (yes, traditionally, HB4/9006 bulbs are used in low beams and HB3/9005 bulbs are for high beams, but because this is a projector housing, they utilize the high beam bulb. Make sure you don't accidentally order the low beam bulb like I did). The Hella 60mm projectors are tried and true on our cars, are fully sealed, have no moving parts or complexities like bi-xenon projectors, and we know they fit well with minimal cutting/modification. They are also basically the same price as the LMC Truck housings after shipping, so there is no cost advantage to putting HIDs in the LMC low beam reflector housings. Just say "no" to reflectors.

Now, regarding LEDs vs HIDs in the Hella projectors: I did not have enough clearance to fit my LEDs into the projector once mounted on the car, but when I tested it on my workbench, there was an uneven light pattern with a dark spot in the middle. I didn't get a picture, but I wasn't a fan of how these projectors handle LEDs. Maybe give LEDs a couple more years or try another brand (I used TechMax).

I opted for the DDM tuning 55W 4500K HID kit on (free shipping vs extra charge if you order from the DDM site). Note that DDM uses 35W bulbs for all their kits, so a 4500k 35W bulb powered by a 55W ballast shift closer to 4300K (OEM color temperature). Also, don't be a chucklehead and run 8000K bulbs. That oh-so-sexy bluish tint you're used to seeing comes from the prism effect at the projector's cutoff line, not a blue bulb!


Many people use adapter brackets available on Ebay from Tram and others for about $60. If you use these adapter plates, you have to use four acorn nuts as the new fulcrum about which the headlight pivots when aiming, rather than the three points in the factory setup. I opted to modify my stock buckets to accept the projector, as this allows me to use the factory adjustment geometry. Details below, just read on.

these brackets delete the factory bucket

You can modify the factory bucket and keep the factory adjustment geometry

High beams

Alright kiddos, HIDs take about 7-10 seconds to warm up, draw high current while doing so, and will have a significantly shortened lifespan if you are constantly cycling them on and off. Therefore, HIDs are not a viable option for the inboard high beams on our cars. So that leaves three options for your high beams:

1. Cheap and easy, but who wants a dim, yellow light next to your bright, white low beams? Ew.

1. Costs $42 each, free shipping when you buy a pair
2. LEDs may produce a dark spot in the middle of the pattern, based on my experience with the low beam projectors
3. Beam pattern looks like a spotlight, not the nice horizontal spread you want with high beams
4. Similar to low beam projector, will require a bracket or modifying the headlight bucket

Hella projector low and high beams in the Blackbird kit. Note high beam hot spot.

1. Part number 36-0303 costs 34.95 each + shipping
2. Glass and aluminum construction, not cheap plastic
3. DOT and SAE approved with factory-style beam pattern.
4. Works perfectly with
   TechMax LEDs
   TechMax LEDs

LMC low and high beam pattern

Fog Lights

The easiest upgrade would just be to put an 880 LED bulb in the stock housing and call it a day, but I opted to go with the popular intended for motorcycles simply because they look better on my black car.


Wiring

The factory fog light circuit already has a relay, and will support LEDs just fine without a special harness.

You will absolutely want to run a relay harness on the headlights for 2 reasons:

1. HID ballasts, while rated at 55W (or 35W if you choose) can pull up to twice that at startup. So 55W x 2 ballasts = 110W/ 12.6V = 8.73 amps while running, and potentially over 17 amps at startup. This will smoke your stock wiring. The DDM Tuning ballasts are capped at 6A each on startup, but I can't speak for every setup, so plan accordingly.
2. Have you ever looked at the headlight schematic for these cars? There is no headlight relay. There are dozens of splices and switches between the battery and each of your headlights. As a matter of fact, my AD244 alternator puts out 13.94V when running, while the reading at the headlight (turned on) is about 11.7V. The voltage drop alone is reason enough to run a relay harness even on stock lights, and is why I ran one for the LEDs as well, even though they pull only 5 amps total.

There are plenty of relay harnesses on the market for 7-30 dollars, but I decided to build my own, since I could customize the length of the wires and place the relays in the most reasonable location, by the underhood fuse-relay centers (FRCs) on the driver's side.

• I used a 10ga wire from the positive stud on the FRC to feed both relays
• The relays are triggered by the driver's side headlight pigtail
• I removed the old pigtail from the passenger side harness to clean up the area (removed the pins from the connector)
• I used an old 18ga trailer wiring harness I had handy to run from the relays to each of the 4 lights (LEDs only draw 2.5A each and my HIDs draw up to 6A each at startup, then drop to ~4.5A).

1BadElky

My Process

Laid out all my parts

left to right: DDM 9005 HID kit, box of 5 relays, Hella 60mm low beam projectors, Techmax 9005 LED kit, LMC high beam housings, Sunpie fog lights

Started disassembly




prepping to cut

Low beams require a fair amount of cutting and patience:


I used a hose clamp to tighten down to almost the diameter of the rear of the projector, leaving a little wiggle room, and then pushed the clamp against the back side of the bucket to score my cut line


used a Dremel to cut open the back and also to cut slits where the mounting bosses will contact


bent down the newly cut tabs with various pliers to make a nice mating surface

For the high beam buckets, I only needed to trim off he lower tab on the back side to make room for the wire to the LED. no pictures, but it was a simple trim. may not even be necessary on all LED brands.

While everything is open, now is the time to wire.


Driver's side headlight pigtail will be used to trigger the relays



No need for the passenger side pigtail, so I just removed the headlight wires/pins from the connector and left the motor connection



Relays looking right at home. 7.5A fuse for the high beams, 20A fuse for the low beams

I used zip ties to secure the ballasts for now. Maybe forever?

Passenger side ballast


Driver's side ballast

With the wiring taken care of, it's time to put it all together!


High beams are the easiest, so in they go! halogen vs LED


LED vs Halogen


test fitting the Hella projectors. leveled the beams and then used the retaining ring to clamp them in place.


with the projector still clamped in alignment, I used a drill press to make the mounting holes


starting to look like something


M5x0.8x20mm bolts to hold them in


nylon locking nuts on the reverse


I didn't have white lithium grease, but I had this on hand. Should be a decent substitute and handle any heat the HIDs can throw at it.

Working with veryl tight clearances, so wire routing is tricky. BLUE = high, YELLOW = low, GREEN = ground:

Driver

Passenger

Useful links

Great video on LEDs and optics: HID vs LED: Comparison of top LEDs on Amazon:

1BadElky

Output Shots:

Stock


Low


High


Off


Low + Fog


High


Low


High


Low


High


Lights were not aimed in these pics, but I will post better shots once the fogs are installed

VIP1

Nice Work.
I like the idea of modifying the stock buckets.
I'm adding this to the Lighting FAQ.
https://ls1tech.com/forums/appearanc...hting-faq.html

1BadElky

Awesome! Going to be about a month before I get to finish the fog lights. Thinking about doing the DRLs while I'm down there. Even now the difference is night and day with just the low beams. The high beams are like turning on the sun. I only need them on back roads.

VIP1

I just finished the wiring for the bi-xenon to work with the high beams. I made adapter cables instead of splicing. I'm going to try taking pics tonight and post in my thread. As it is, the LMC Truck High Beam modules with the Auxito LED I have in them are bright with a decent high beam pattern.

CoreyD

iTrader: (9)

Nice work! Clean install

sjsingle1

iTrader: (1)

so you like the Auxito led over the techmax ones used in this thread ?

InfiniteReality

iTrader: (6)

I'm with VIP1, I really dig the idea of using the OEM buckets instead of the adapter plates. I wish I had thought of trying that, bet it's much easier to adjust!

One option you didn't mention was bi-xenon sealed projectors similar to what I used a few years ago. They also didn't have the weird step the Hella projectors have. To this day, I miss have bi-xenon quad beam headlights... The light output far exceeds anything I've ever owned.

https://ls1tech.com/forums/appearanc...-high-low.html

VIP1

I don't have any experience with the Techmax LED. They make various versions and some look alright.

Auxito also makes various versions and the ones in my thread appear to work alright for high beam.

Some drop-in LED have fans and some don't. The ones with fans should run cooler, but are a little larger and you can often hear the fans. Only way to know which works well is to try it out.

https://ls1tech.com/forums/appearanc...rojectors.html

I remember that thread and I put it in the Lighting FAQ a while back. The projectors I have now are a newer bi-xenon one that you can find on AliExpress, Ebay, and Amazon under different names. However, I had a problem with the solenoids sticking. They worked fine testing on the bench but stick on the car. I think I have power leaking just enough current to randomly keep one stuck (the high beam indicator on the dash is on dimly when I have fog lights on). I left the bi-xenon solenoid disconnected for now, but I need to figure out this wiring issue (maybe use an alternate dedicated ground).

InfiniteReality

iTrader: (6)

It'd suck if you ended up having to wire in a relay just because there's a little voltage leaking, fingers crossed it's a simple ground.

1BadElky

Thank you!

Thank you for that link. If one of my projectors catches a rock, I may have to try those. The Hella cutoff doesn't bother me as much as some people, but it would be nice to supplement my current high beam output.

As far as Auxito vs Techmax, I likewise can't comment on Auxito. If VIP wants, we could both disable the low beams and do a high beam pattern shot on a wall at 25'. I suspect the difference is negligible though.

1BadElky

I took some better output pictures recently. Also gave her a bath and took some front end pics.



Low beams



High beams... Still need to aim a little higher



Low beams



High Beams

Some daytime shots:








When I bought the car, the headlight doors and hood were poorly aligned, so I fixed that while I was in there. The passneger's side would hit the hood and jam when opening about 75% of the time, and the driver's side had a broken bumpstop, so the mechanism was actually passing the fully-closed position and resting in a "sleepy-eye" position when turned off:



Before

After


I still have to install the fogs and DRLs. I just received some amber/white switchbacks from SuperBrightLEDs for the DRL/parking/turn lights.

Firebirdmuscle

iTrader: (16)

Very nice job. I need to quit putting this off. I’ve been wanting to do projectors for a while now

JoshuaGrooms83

iTrader: (2)

so I've been playing around with the hella lights and while converting all my lights to LED, I decided why not my head lights. so i was gonna do hella 60mm projectors, and I learned a few things.
1. the 35w HID ballast do not aid in brightening the 9005 bulbs
2. the 55w HID ballasts dont help this problem anymore than the 35w with 9005 bukbs that come with the Hella housings
3. 9005 LED lights do not work with ballast
4. ballast begin to cook with LED installed LOL oops on my part. forgot on of my lights still had a led in it when I ws testing something out.
5. new LED 9005s can be wired directly into your stock harness and light up.

So I learned this today as I was wondering what I was doing wrong with wiring in the hella projectors, come to find out the lights provided were actually just regular halogen 9005 lights, that do not increase in brightness in a HID ballast setup, nor does an LED 9005... frustrated i jumpered the stock wiring harness to the led bulbs wire and damn it... it lite up.

so my question is, can I just install a 9005 style led bulb with hella projectors that has a 6000k light range and not use a ballast? new ones now have a forward facing light on them, not just the sides.

VIP1

I'm confused by your findings. Did you somehow connect a Halogen Bulb or Drop-In LED to a HID Ballast and not get an immediate bolt of lightning and fried parts?

Otherwise.....
35Watt HID will definitely be brighter than either a Halogen Bulb or LED bulb.

1BadElky

I'm perplexed as well. Only HID bulbs require a ballast. LEDs sometimes have an external driver, but never a ballast. Regarding your question about using a 9005 LED in the Hella 60mm projector, yes, you can, and it will fit, but the light output will probably not be as consistent as an HID. you may have dark spots in the beam pattern.

JoshuaGrooms83

iTrader: (2)

So the confusion was that i thought i needed my ballasts to run the new LED lights, as well as the Halogen... i was wrong.
ive since corrected my idoit self, and after rewiring some connectors and figuring out which balast was dead from the old sealed beam HID that was on the car, im running HID low beams and LED highbeams that light up pretty well. Waiting on some 120mm LED halo rings for the fog holes.
you are right, i thought I had wired something wrong, and was trying to figure out why my halogens were so dim... stupid me not thinking that I had not yet got my HID lights to actually go with the ballasts and stuck LED lights in there to see if that made a difference. Im pretty sure I cooked one ballast doing that. Never thought converting nearly everything to LED was going to be such a pain, but I got it all running now without the lovely burned electronic smell.