I bought my car with standard 60mm Evo-R headlights.
RX-7 FD3S Sleek Headlight Kit

These lights are incredibly dim. The low beams are poor, but usable (the same as my dodge intrepid with scratched beams). However, the high beams are pretty much worthless. I've tried aiming them differently, but nothing seems to work. Are these lights just really really dim?

If they aren't supposed to be dim, any ideas on what I can troubleshoot? I'm getting 12V to the connectors.

If they are dim normally, how can I make them brighter?

 

New lights? Get 90mm Hella lights instead

 

Hmm. I'm not sure I'm currently looking to go out and buy a new headlight setup. The 90mm kits I found online seem quite expensive. There isn't an upgrade I can do for my setup?

I've thought about having both the low and high beams come on when I use high beams. Anyone ever done a mod like this?

 

Try to source a 60mm hid upgrade from the retrofit source (google it.). What you need is proper light deflection. Maybe try TSX or S2000 projectors?

Youre not going to improve visibility without buying new lamp assemblies
What you are using now is pretty much a lightbulb

 

their lighting output sucks. I agreed with moosejaw, retrofit it with a new projector and HID kit. You'll be happy with that! However I must say their light housing is pretty neat even though it requires some body work.

-AzEKnightz

 

Low beams and high beams are the same bulb/wattage with this setup. You need to wire in a relay to make both sets come on with your high beams otherwise you're just switching from low beams to low beams.

-Geoff

 

I did the 60mm conversion with xenon and installed a relay so all 4 of them came on with Hi-beam. Still dim! The 60mm projectors just aren't any good. I bought a set of bi-xenon 90mm, 6000K, D2S bulbs/projectors for less than $100. They were difficult to mechanically fit into the EVO-R's, but they are terrific. Almost as good as my brand new Audi S4 sitting to the side. The bi-xenon D2S is just one bulb that has a mechanical "shutter" providing a cutoff for low-beams. When hi-beams are activated a solenoid removes the shutter. You still need a relay because the headlight circuit is either/or, and you want both wires to be "hot" on hi-beam.

 

What did you search for to get those bulbs and projectors? I'm not sure what I should be looking for.

Also, when you say "tough to mechanically fit", to what extent were your modifications? Fiberglassing, or just drilling a larger hole? There are two holes in my current ones, what did you do with the extra hole?

 

i told you....
Retrofit Source
I dont want to post the link bc you never know with these forums.

 

Ha, score one for not posting clearly. I was asking about the 90mm units that quarnstrom alluded to.

I will check out the ones you (moosejaw) are describing as well.

 

Just upgrading to HID will make them functional still retaining the original mounting. However I would upgrade to bi-xenon 90mm and custom fab a mounting in hindsight. As stated above it's worth the effort.

Part that I used from The Retrofit Source Inc. you need to two sets for low and high beams

Morimoto Stage II HID Kit: AMP (MotoStageIIA) = $150.00
Wire Harness Canbus: H1
Ballasts Morimoto 3Five (35w)
Bulbs H3C: Morimoto 3Five 5000K

 

If yo uare interested in 90 mm units get the hella ones like i have in my light kit.
I also have HIDs

 

Too funny, I'm actually in the process of doing the same bixenon conversion on my car. I got tired of the horrible light output of the the 60mm sleeks. They look awesome but you hardly see anything at night. So I'm doing the single projector bixenon thing as well. Using this company too...it looks like the same stuff sake uses in their flip up projector mod so I'm positive it'll turn out good and be unique.

 

do you have any pics of when you were retrofitting your headlights? i also have evo-r 60mm projector headlights that i would like to retrofit, would love to see some pics before i tear mine apart

 

The least expensive and DOT legal option is to go with the Hella 60mm halogen projector units:

Susquehanna MotorSports - Auto Performance Product

They are available in both low and high beams so you would install the low beams on the outside and the highs on the inside. They are projector units that are a world of difference from the less than acceptable EVO-R units. They've also got great cutoff and are only $50 per unit. Put these on and you will love them.

Hella also makes a bi-halogen 60mm unit that is awesome:

Susquehanna MotorSports - Auto Performance Product

This is both low and a high beam unit so you can use the same unit for all beams. FYI, it's illegal to run all four lights at the same time for the low beams, so only two at any one time. You can keep the lows on though when you activate the highs and that works out well. I do this for my setup. I've got the Hella 50mm HID projectors for my lows and the add in the 90mm units for the highs. The lows are so good I almost never need the highs.

 

i really want to see if i can fit the 90mm lamps into the evo-r lights, since i'm starting to like the way it fills up the housing more than the 60mm

i'm sure i'd need to fabricate some metal bracket/frame to mount these onto, and to be able to adjust them, now i'm debating between these or the "theretrofitsource" projectors with HID kit

90mm projector low beam - $64.25/each
Susquehanna MotorSports - Auto Performance Product

90mm high beam - $59.75/each
Susquehanna MotorSports - Auto Performance Product

the retrofit source - $120/pair
Bi-xenon: Morimoto Mini H1 5.0 - HID Projectors from The Retrofit Source Inc

 

I use the 90mm high beam units from Hella you've referenced. They are okay and provide decent light, much better than the EVO units. These will work much better:

Susquehanna MotorSports - Auto Performance Product

They are bi-halogen units but I think you can wire them up to only come on for high beams. You should check on that though.

They also sell brackets for mounting the lights:

Susquehanna MotorSports - Auto Performance Product

I took two of them and fabbed up a mounting solution for each side.

The retrofit source lights are good and they are HID projectors. If you get those, you also need the ballasts and that will increase the cost. I ended up using the Hellas because they are sealed units and are DOT approved. The retrofit source ones are not sealed so they could be damaged by water and they are made in China so I felt the quality would be suspect.

 

I had to cut out a lot and keep test fitting, I'm almost done and the lighting is incredible now with extremely sharp cut off and properly functioning high beams since its a bixenon projector with flappers.



comparison between the old 60mm and the bixenon projector



new look vs old look (I like the cyclops look also wound up cutting more material out after this pic)


before I refiberglassed



pretty much finished product (I'm painting the bezels black though)



testing beam pattern and aligning everything before I set everything in (lense was not on in this picture so my camera caught some light bleed out the back)

You can actually see a little of the cutoff on the back bumper of the civic.

 

I do have to warn, this mod is not for the faint of heart. I see why such small projectors were used, its the only way you can use the kit without cutting the frame. When I initially started this project and noticed this, I thought I was in over my head, but I was tired of the **** poor night time visibility so I continued. Everything works like factory now...correction, better than factory (everything powers up so quick and I can actually do the "flash to pass" with my high beams even when my low beams aren't on...absolutely AMAZING) I'll get vid when everything is dried up and painted. It also has the sharp cutoff and directional lighting (LHD/RHD) so that it doesn't blind oncoming traffic.

 

That looks really good. Quite a bit of work there but it turned out great. I agree with painting the bezels black.

 

Thanks, that means a lot, it definitely was a bigger project than I initially expected, but I'm happy with the results. I actually put the first coat of black paint on the bezels last night so no more gaudy chrome action lol.

 

That's FX-R right? Looks like a 3" lens? I think you would have had more room to work with if you go with a smaller projector like S2K.

 

Yes, the fxr 3 inch lense. I thought about other projectors, but I wanted the best bang for my buck especially since I planned to do it only once (that and I wanted to fill the housing up as much as possible). Plus I wanted the sharp cutoff with the pretty color flicker from the projector and I heard that this was the best besides the acura TL projector which is even bigger.

 

wow now that's what i'm talking about, i took apart one of my headlights last night and noticed the low beam projector was starting to rip the bracket out of the fiberglass base, so i removed everything and put it aside

my plans for my headlights
-3" bixenon inner projector for headlights
-keep the evo-r 60mm outer projector and use LED H1 bulb as the turn signal
-my front bumper signal lights would be used for brake ducts

cutting the rear headlight frame isn't a big issue for me

 

do you have any shots of how it looks behind the headlight? how did you fabricate a bracket to hold the new projector?