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 Post subject: Bi-Xenon Retrofit into KJ
PostPosted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 2:11 pm 
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Hey,

I know this has been done, but I have a few twists that I am going to add to it.

So this has been a plan of mine since I bought my Jeep back in August. One thing I have found is that the factory single-bulb headlights leave a bit to be desired and do not light up the road well enough to make me comfortable at night. This seems particularly true on the freeway at 75mph where you really need to see far ahead of you so that you have time to avoid a disaster. I also do not like the loss of light close to the vehicle when you flip to your high beams. I am used to vehicles with separate lows and highs where the lows stay on with the highs creating a nice pattern from just in front of the car all the way down the road.

My first attempt at rectifying the situation was to perform the Foglight Mod which allows you keep the fogs on while the highs are on. I was pleasantly surprised with the results, the fog lights in this car are quite good(at least the '06) which is especially apparent when you have the high beams on/lows off and lose that short distance headlight. They make a decent low beam replacement.

While I was happy with the fog light mod results it does not effect to long range lighting. This is where the Bi-Xenons come in. For those that don't know what a Bi-Xenon is: The Bi-Xenon is to the projector lens you might find in most modern cars. Typically projectors are used as a low beams only(in conjunction with a separate halogen high beam) and have a very sharp cutoff to prevent the light from shinning up to high. This allows them the throw a very bright consistent low beam pattern without blinding oncoming drivers. Bi-Xenon's take this standard projector and add the ability to move this cutoff up out of the way when the high beams are activated. This creates and full beam pattern that functions as both high and low beams from a single light source. Most cars do not have Bi-Xenons although they are becoming more common from the factory now.

I went with this kit:
http://www.theretrofitsource.com/complete-retrofit-kits/bi-xenon-mini-stage-3-kit-d2s.html#.UxdW1PldV8E

Specifically:

Circular Lenses
55W XB35 4300K Bulbs
Mopar Specific 9007 Wiring Harness(Not listed there, you need to call and special order for our Jeeps)
Morimoto 5Five Ballasts
Bullet Shrouds- If you call you can get ones with factory defects for a $10 discount, I plan on painting mine so chipped paint or scratches are not a huge problem.

Based on what I had read around the interwebz, these projector are top notch. That combined with the 55W bulbs and ballasts should make for a phenomenal setup.

I also purchased some Ebay headlight for a grand total of $50 shipped so that I can keep my stock lights intact for inspection purposes. The ebay lights are not perfect, but since they are really only used to hold the projector in place and do not contribute to the lighting itself, they can be crappy. In my case I will be painting the reflector bowl to match the body color of my Jeep(Red). The key here is to use a matte or satin paint to prevent any light that escapes from the sides projector from reflecting out of the headlights.

I found this paint at HD and it matched my Jeeps body color surprisingly well:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Rust-Oleum-Painter-s-Touch-2X-12-oz-Satin-Colonial-Red-General-Purpose-Spray-Paint-6-Pack-249082/202058672

The only issue I for see here is that it is not high temperature paint. HID's, especially the 55Wers, will put out a good amount of heat and many people recommend using a high temperature paint(gas grille paint for example). The problem with that is that the color selection is very limited, pretty much just chrome, matte black and firetruck red.

I found out that the threaded shaft which passes through the back of the reflector owl was quite a bit to big. I ended up dropping off the bowls at the machine shop to be properly bored so that I have a nice, flat mounting surface to bolt the projector to. This way I wont have to jump through hoops to get the light aligned once back in the jeep.

Update - 7/24/14

Well I finally got around to picking up my reflector bowls from the machine shop. They hogged out the hole in the back and made clearance for the projector:

Image

Image

Image

The only issue i have is that lock nut which mounts the projector to the bowl doesn't have enough clearance to fully tighten down. 5 minutes with my dremel should fix that no problem:

Image

The only problem I could potentially have is that the projector may be sticking out a little too far from the back of the bowl which MAY cause it to hit the lens of the headlight housing. I will check when i get home tonight. It could be a problem if this turns out to be true.

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2006 CRD - GTB2056 turbo by Dieselguy86, Eco Trans Tune, Lift Pump, Week's, HDS Tstat, Racor Filter, ARP's, OME 790's+Top Plate, JBA 2.5", JBA UCA, Moab's+265/75R16, ARB Bull Bar, 4.10's, TrueTracs


Last edited by mass-hole on Fri Jul 25, 2014 12:57 pm, edited 5 times in total.

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 Post subject: Re: Bi-Xenon Retrofit into KJ
PostPosted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 2:24 pm 
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Well, I FINALLY got this finished up. I cheated a little though. I had a shop do the final install as I am contending with getting married, selling my house, and moving from MA to Utah and changing career paths all at the same time so I couldnt really finish it up myself. I basically had the system ready to install, bowls painted and machined to fit the projectors and assembled. It was just a matter of resealing, leveling, and installing the wiring.

Here are some pics of the finished lights in the jeep. I just picked it up this morning so i havent gotten a chance to see them at night, but they should be spectacular with the 50W HID's.

Image

Image

Image

A couple of points:

1. The darn people at The Retrofit source told me I absolutely needed Mopar Can-Bus Bi-Xenon harness. NO YOU DONT! It's not cheap either so that was a waste of money($35 for the regular, $75 for the super duper mopar one). The installers didnt put in the resistors or anythinn because it wasnt required so I have a pile of extra stuff sitting in a box now as well as some unused connectors in the car.

2. The Ebay headlights I got worked, but the lenses are very prone to scratching. I swear through this whole process I never set it on a table or anything without a towel or cloth down but somehow they look like crap.

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2006 CRD - GTB2056 turbo by Dieselguy86, Eco Trans Tune, Lift Pump, Week's, HDS Tstat, Racor Filter, ARP's, OME 790's+Top Plate, JBA 2.5", JBA UCA, Moab's+265/75R16, ARB Bull Bar, 4.10's, TrueTracs


Last edited by mass-hole on Wed Mar 18, 2015 1:37 pm, edited 4 times in total.

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 Post subject: Re: Bi-Xenon Retrofit into KJ
PostPosted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 2:24 pm 
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Reserved

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 Post subject: Re: Bi-Xenon Retrofit into KJ
PostPosted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 2:25 pm 
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 Post subject: Re: Bi-Xenon Retrofit into KJ
PostPosted: Thu Mar 06, 2014 12:36 am 
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Can't wait to see what you end up with.
I'm not sure if you've seen my retrofit ( viewtopic.php?f=6&t=73420 ) or not, anyway, good luck!

8)

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SOLD2007 6 Speed - Projector Retrofit -Custom LED Tail Lights - Lights on Cowl & 130w 8" ProComps - Full Skids-RockLizard Super Skink Sliders-Front Hitch
Frankenlifted-Al's A-Arms-Goodyear Duractracs 31x10.5R15x7 Cragar D Window 4"bs-Cobra 75WXST - 4' Firestick
4.10s sitting in a box - 3

Sold-1988 Suzuki Samurai
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 Post subject: Re: Bi-Xenon Retrofit into KJ
PostPosted: Thu Mar 06, 2014 1:33 pm 
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infernicus wrote:
Can't wait to see what you end up with.
I'm not sure if you've seen my retrofit ( viewtopic.php?f=6&t=73420 ) or not, anyway, good luck!

8)


What the hell!!!??? :shock:

It´s always exciting for me to see, what you guys in US build... :wink:
But i´m sure in Austria it´s not allowed... :x

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 Post subject: Re: Bi-Xenon Retrofit into KJ
PostPosted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 6:29 pm 
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samse2101 wrote:
infernicus wrote:
Can't wait to see what you end up with.
I'm not sure if you've seen my retrofit ( viewtopic.php?f=6&t=73420 ) or not, anyway, good luck!

8)


What the hell!!!??? :shock:

It´s always exciting for me to see, what you guys in US build... :wink:
But i´m sure in Austria it´s not allowed... :x


Technically it is not allowed here either, that is why I kept the stock headlight and bought new ones for the retrofit. That way if I have trouble with my yearly inspection i can just swap them in and out.

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2006 CRD - GTB2056 turbo by Dieselguy86, Eco Trans Tune, Lift Pump, Week's, HDS Tstat, Racor Filter, ARP's, OME 790's+Top Plate, JBA 2.5", JBA UCA, Moab's+265/75R16, ARB Bull Bar, 4.10's, TrueTracs


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 Post subject: Re: Bi-Xenon Retrofit into KJ
PostPosted: Tue Mar 11, 2014 2:10 pm 
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Well I got the projectors and both had issues. One had a scratched lens and the other had what looked like drops of red paint or something on the lens that I cannot seem to remove. Thats a little upsetting that both made it through QC unnoticed

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2006 CRD - GTB2056 turbo by Dieselguy86, Eco Trans Tune, Lift Pump, Week's, HDS Tstat, Racor Filter, ARP's, OME 790's+Top Plate, JBA 2.5", JBA UCA, Moab's+265/75R16, ARB Bull Bar, 4.10's, TrueTracs


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 Post subject: Re: Bi-Xenon Retrofit into KJ
PostPosted: Tue Mar 11, 2014 11:57 pm 
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Well, that sucks.. I'm sure TRS is making it correct.
8)

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SOLD2007 6 Speed - Projector Retrofit -Custom LED Tail Lights - Lights on Cowl & 130w 8" ProComps - Full Skids-RockLizard Super Skink Sliders-Front Hitch
Frankenlifted-Al's A-Arms-Goodyear Duractracs 31x10.5R15x7 Cragar D Window 4"bs-Cobra 75WXST - 4' Firestick
4.10s sitting in a box - 3

Sold-1988 Suzuki Samurai
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 Post subject: Re: Bi-Xenon Retrofit into KJ
PostPosted: Mon Mar 17, 2014 2:52 pm 
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infernicus wrote:
Well, that sucks.. I'm sure TRS is making it correct.
8)


Just an update: It was a somewhat slow process, but TRS got me a new set of lenses for my projectors which look good. I will start working on this now.

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2006 CRD - GTB2056 turbo by Dieselguy86, Eco Trans Tune, Lift Pump, Week's, HDS Tstat, Racor Filter, ARP's, OME 790's+Top Plate, JBA 2.5", JBA UCA, Moab's+265/75R16, ARB Bull Bar, 4.10's, TrueTracs


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 Post subject: Re: Bi-Xenon Retrofit into KJ
PostPosted: Fri Jul 25, 2014 3:33 pm 
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Just updated the OP but it didnt bump the thread

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 Post subject: Re: Bi-Xenon Retrofit into KJ
PostPosted: Wed Mar 18, 2015 1:36 pm 
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bump, finally done with this

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2006 CRD - GTB2056 turbo by Dieselguy86, Eco Trans Tune, Lift Pump, Week's, HDS Tstat, Racor Filter, ARP's, OME 790's+Top Plate, JBA 2.5", JBA UCA, Moab's+265/75R16, ARB Bull Bar, 4.10's, TrueTracs


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 Post subject: Re: Bi-Xenon Retrofit into KJ
PostPosted: Thu Mar 19, 2015 10:53 am 
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pic´s are not visible anymore.... :?: :?:

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 Post subject: Re: Bi-Xenon Retrofit into KJ
PostPosted: Thu Mar 19, 2015 5:06 pm 
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I tried to use the standard harness also but its didn't work for me.
I did not need to use the resistors, but the capacitor and little computer box made it work for me.

Anyway, came out great!

8)

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-dbk
SOLD2007 6 Speed - Projector Retrofit -Custom LED Tail Lights - Lights on Cowl & 130w 8" ProComps - Full Skids-RockLizard Super Skink Sliders-Front Hitch
Frankenlifted-Al's A-Arms-Goodyear Duractracs 31x10.5R15x7 Cragar D Window 4"bs-Cobra 75WXST - 4' Firestick
4.10s sitting in a box - 3

Sold-1988 Suzuki Samurai
2002 Jeep TJ


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 Post subject: Re: Bi-Xenon Retrofit into KJ
PostPosted: Fri Apr 03, 2015 12:04 pm 
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infernicus wrote:
I tried to use the standard harness also but its didn't work for me.
I did not need to use the resistors, but the capacitor and little computer box made it work for me.

Anyway, came out great!

8)


Thanks. The light output is unreal on these. They are the Latest MiniD2S projector with the 55 Watt bulbs and ballasts. They make the factory Bi-xenon HID's in my 2014 F150 look silly.

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2006 CRD - GTB2056 turbo by Dieselguy86, Eco Trans Tune, Lift Pump, Week's, HDS Tstat, Racor Filter, ARP's, OME 790's+Top Plate, JBA 2.5", JBA UCA, Moab's+265/75R16, ARB Bull Bar, 4.10's, TrueTracs


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