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2005 - 2007 LED Headlight Conversion http://www.lostjeeps.com/forum/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=92820 |
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Author: | casm [ Sat Dec 02, 2023 6:54 pm ] |
Post subject: | 2005 - 2007 LED Headlight Conversion |
(Note: this writeup describes how to perform this conversion on 2005, 2006, and 2007 KJs. Not owning a pre-2005 model, it's not possible for me to say whether or not this particular upgrade will work on earlier years. By all means give it a shot if you have an early model, but someone who is familiar with those vehicles will need to assist with the conversion if it isn't possible to perform it as described here.) For the last two-and-a-half years or so, I've had an on-again, off-again project taking place to convert the KJ's headlights to 7" sealed-beam-compatible LEDs. This turned out to be the week where it was finally (mostly) finished, and, having done this in a different way to how I've seen these conversions carried out elsewhere, figured it would be worth documenting it for anyone else who may be thinking along similar lines. Note that this is pretty much a rough cut of the desired end result, but is close enough to complete to be able to show how it all goes together. There was a lot of figuring things out as I went, so if you see fasteners of odd lengths, redundant holes, or other signs of trial and error, they can be disregarded. Also, this is less of a how-to and more of a what-I-did writeup. There are a number of ways to accomplish this conversion, and even using the same method on different vehicles will likely require some degree of adaptation per vehicle. Because of this, exact measurements won't be given in most cases. Having said that, it should be pretty easy to figure out what needs to happen to suit your particular case. And If you just want to know why I went this route rather than using a different method, scroll past the installation instructions and you'll find that information there. With that said, the main goals for the installation were:
Parts used for the conversion:
Please read though the entire process before starting the conversion. While switching back to the stock headlamps at any time during the process is possible (meaning that this can be done over multiple days if necessary), better to have a familiarity with the process before diving right in.
With all of that out of the way, it probably wouldn't hurt to detail why this method was chosen over the others. Note that I am by no means knocking anyone else's work with any of what may be said - the amount of time, effort, and money that goes into doing a project like this is something I very much understand and have respect for, regardless of the approach taken. This conversion method essentially came about by accident. One night, Amazon's algorithm decided to add the JL Wrangler adapter rings into the 'you might also be interested in...' section of the page I happened to be viewing. This intrigued me, because I had been looking into various methods of having rings cut that would use the stock headlamp mount points, and every quote that came back was utterly ridiculous even in quantity. Somewhere in the region of $24 later, these ones were on their way. By this time, quite a bit of experimentation with other methods had already been done - headlamp disassembly and reusing the bucket, cutting strips of aluminium to provide a backing frame for standard 7" sealed-beam headlight mounts, the aforementioned cutting of plug & play rings, and a few others that very quickly turned out to be very obviously less-than-optimal. And while just installing LED bulbs into the stock headlight housings worked, it didn't work nearly as well as would be preferred. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the end result. There's still some minor tidying to do, mostly around getting the mounting depth of the two lights equal, which will require some minor re-bending one of the mounting tabs. It's close enough, however, that if it has to wait until the weather is more cooperative in the Spring, it's not a big deal. One of the items left to address is that no cover or backing material with which to create a fill-in for the open space between the bottom of the grille and the LED headlamps has been worked out yet. Current thoughts are that a hacked-up rubber floormat could work nicely, but it also couldn't really be done until everything else was in its final place. That may also be something that happens in the Springtime. Regarding the nylon spacers: they were used rather than ones in steel or aluminium to allow for cutting them down to an appropriate length where needed. They will be replaced with spacers made of a more durable material at some point, but given that this was very much a case of figuring things out as I went, being able to easily adjust and/or mix and match their lengths easily was very helpful. Anyway, best of luck to anyone attempting this upgrade. Having put around 500 miles on it so far (with about 350 of those being night miles), my biased opinion is that it's certainly worth the effort. |
Author: | casm [ Sun Dec 03, 2023 3:30 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: 2005 - 2007 LED Headlight Conversion |
WWDiesel wrote: Your conversion looks great and I commend you for figuring all those modifications out; not an easy task indeed. Thanks! FWIW, this was worked on over the course of a few days due to work & weather constraints, but most of that time was spent figuring out mounting details. For someone doing this on their own time, both sides could probably be done in about an afternoon. Quote: I choose a slightly less evasive path... I installed two 6000k LED bulbs in both the headlamps and LED's in the fog lamps and not being satisfied with the high beam light output, I installed a 24 inch dual spot/flood LED light bar and then in conjunction with two Hella 7" LED Spot Lights. The Hella's and light bar can only come on when the OEM high beams are in the on position. Nicely done! Something pretty similar was considered at one point and I even bought a lightbar (later returned) to install, but ultimately decided to be stubborn about it and see what could be done with the stock setup. Do like the look of your setup, though. |
Author: | WWDiesel [ Sun Dec 03, 2023 10:04 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: 2005 - 2007 LED Headlight Conversion |
Looks is fine by me, I worry more about functionality, and they produce some wonderful light for night driving on country roads. I like it so much, I have two trucks with the same setup, Hella 7" & dual spot/flood light bar. |
Author: | casm [ Thu Dec 07, 2023 2:56 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: 2005 - 2007 LED Headlight Conversion |
WWDiesel wrote: Looks is fine by me, I worry more about functionality Same here Quote: and they produce some wonderful light for night driving on country roads. Funnily enough, I just got back from working out-of-town for three days in a rural area. During that time, somewhere in the region of around 300 backroad miles were put on the lights with them in use. These headlights work great: visibility on both low and high beam is awesome. Spotted two deer at the side of the road on separate occasions that the stock lights wouldn't've picked out. Overall, for the lights' first real-world test, I'm very[ pleased. Quote: I like it so much, I have two trucks with the same setup, Hella 7" & dual spot/flood light bar. Yep, I had a pair of those Hellas mounted on the rollbar of one of my Subaru Brats. They were excellent lights. Interesting you should mention fog lights: those arrived yesterday. Found out today that they're an almost 100% plug-and-play item for the stock in-grille foglights on the 2005-2007 models. Still have one last thing to work out, but it's small. Let's just say that they're mounted and working at the moment, but one function is missing that needs to be addressed before I can write it up. |
Author: | seafish [ Sun Feb 18, 2024 1:26 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: 2005 - 2007 LED Headlight Conversion |
The goals you formulated to guide this headlight upgrade project are simple and admirable. Furthermore, NICE work actually proving that a well done, non blinding KJ headlight upgrade can be done relatively easily and inexpensively by using the JK adapter rings to mount one of the various available 7" round headlights into a KJ ... thank you for that!!! Personally, I have been torn between retrofitting xenon projectors from a Lexus LS430 into the backs of the oem KJ headlights OR doing something like this instead. In fact, I already have the LS430 projectors, which give some the widest low beams known to man, but also still utilize a sharp and non blinding cutoff when installed properly. And of course they also remain FULLY adjustable since they are installed in the factory buckets. There are also now available different bi-xenon projectors that with accurate can be retrofitted into the oem KJ buckets...most of the better ones are made by Morimoto and include proper HID or LED ballasts, resistors and wiring harnesses, but they are still much harder to do then what you have nicely done here. That said, with your showing the way, the ready availability of the JK adapter rings, as well as the existence of several high quality 7" projector headlights, like the Morimoto Super 7, the Holley 7" Retrobright, or maybe even the OEM 2018 Jeep Renegade projectors ( though these are far too expensive NIB), you have made this project look even more accessible rather then going through the trouble of cutting into the KJ buckets to carefully install projectors and then wire in the ballasts. I do realize that are MANY less expensive 7" LED projectors available the the ones I listed above that would make this project MUCH less expensive the ones I listed above, but in my opinion, those are the cream of the crop in terms of beam pattern, light output and build quality, which to me I am always willing to pay for. Here is a well implemented headlight shootout type video that actually shows the comparative beam patterns and also measured light output from MANY different 7" aftermarket projectors and it helped me choose the ones listed above. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peFLmu2MfTg |
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