Retrofit issues

[trevendous03]

Finally put the retros in yesterday, and they look superb!! Did some wire splicing and cutting and had to push the wiper fluid reservoir to the side more to fit them. It started to rain yesterday, and I was so happy to use them in the rain, and I could finally see. lol But then I got home, and I noticed three minor (but major to me) issues.

1. Cutoff is not straight with the right headlight due to poor alignment.

2. Right headlight has a little fog in the corners; left headlight has major fog. I never had issues with the TYCs fogging. Could it be that there is now a hole at the bottom of the car where the factory airbox system was? We had to finally remove the rest of that assembly to fit the headlight.

3. Color of the light is not nearly what I thought it would be. I was expecting white with a hint of blue, but they look yellow to me.

Here's my setup:

TSX projectors
Denso slim ballasts
Wiring harness with one relay going to both low beams
Philips 85122+ Bulbs

Can someone please tell me...

1. How do I align the projectors without having to take apart the assembly?

2. Can I have a shop reseal the headlights and have zero fog issues anymore?

3. Will my 4300k Philips bulbs colorshift or should I just get aftermarket 5000k? The bulbs start out white with blue when first turned on, but then they keep getting less blue and eventually look a tad yellow to me, and it doesn't match my white leds at all inside the car and over the license plate.

Please advise. Thanks!

 

[changaroo]

did you buy them off someone? or do it yourself?

im afraid theres no way to align them than to take them apart.

you might as well since they're fogging anyways.

 

[trevendous03]

did you buy them off someone? or do it yourself?

im afraid theres no way to align them than to take them apart.

you might as well since they're fogging anyways.

I bought them from Corey (accord23) on V6P back in October. They're nice looking and very sleek and simple, but there's just these slight issues I'm dealing with. I don't know anything about making them, so that's why I bought them, and I don't really wanna have to take them apart, because it took my uncle and I so long to install them, and I'm afraid I won't know how to reseal the projector itself to the headlight. Have any suggestions? I mean the aiming is not awful but I know it could be a h311 of a lot better. The left headlight is aimed perfectly. The right headlight is a little bit lower and slanted, not straight. I still very much enjoy the cutoff and the output... it's just not perfect like others I've seen. And why the heck are the Philips bulbs not blue at all?

 

[00Accord4cyl]

how did you mount the projectors? if you used jb weld or something similar to that than the only way to fix the cutoff would be to take them apart again...as for the cutoff color i wouldn't think it would be very blue unless you add some washers..I think that is the best way to have color for the TSX projectors

 

[ryan s]

1. you have to take em apart, there's no way around it unless rotation was built in (doubt it)

2. sealing may not be the issue...ventilation could be.

3. the + bulbs won't color shift to yellow (which is good), but i dont understand why you want smurf lights? the point of a retro is to get the blue/purple in the cutoff but have white light on the ground. also any higher K will give you exponentially less light.

 

[trevendous03]

how did you mount the projectors? if you used jb weld or something similar to that than the only way to fix the cutoff would be to take them apart again...as for the cutoff color i wouldn't think it would be very blue unless you add some washers..I think that is the best way to have color for the TSX projectors

I didn't make the retrofits, so everything was pre-made, so I don't know why the alignment is off when Corey ran these on his car for a couple years. Looks like some sort of yellow molding compound was used. I can take pictures later on. I owe you all some pics anyway.

Shoot, I always thought the TSX had more color than the rest. I was gonna go for E46, but ppl advised TSX. I could send these back to Rich to get some color-modding. He made them in the first place a while back. Problem with that is my car would be out of commission for a while, because going back to the TYCs would take too much effort, completely different setup.

1. you have to take em apart, there's no way around it unless rotation was built in (doubt it)

2. sealing may not be the issue...ventilation could be.

3. the + bulbs won't color shift to yellow (which is good), but i dont understand why you want smurf lights? the point of a retro is to get the blue/purple in the cutoff but have white light on the ground. also any higher K will give you exponentially less light.

Looks like there is some sort of spinning gear on the side of the headlight, but that could be for the high beam.

Ventilation? what do you mean? Can you be more specific? Would drilling a very tiny hole help?

How do I tell if they're 85122+? I was told they are, but they just read 85122 on the bulb itself. I'm not saying I want smurf bulbs, I just really want some more white-blue with no hint of yellow. 5000k would lose me how much light? B.deitemeyer advised me that the 85122+ would colorshift from 4300k to 5000k, so that's why I figured they'd be ok, but they are way more yellow than I thought. What about switching to 85122cm 5000k bulbs?

Here's the difference:
http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/8748/philips85122wx0yw.jpg
Philips 85122cm 5000k 3100 lumens (left) vs. Philips 85122+ 4300k 3400 lumens (right)

I'm definitely thinking about switching. I won't even notice the difference between the two output-wise, but the color looks significantly diff. What do you guys think? The bulbs run more expensive though.

 

[ryan s]

Shoot, I always thought the TSX had more color than the rest. I was gonna go for E46, but ppl advised TSX. I could send these back to Rich to get some color-modding. He made them in the first place a while back. Problem with that is my car would be out of commission for a while, because going back to the TYCs would take too much effort, completely different setup.



Looks like there is some sort of spinning gear on the side of the headlight, but that could be for the high beam.

Ventilation? what do you mean? Can you be more specific?

How do I tell if they're 85122+? I was told they are, but they just read 85122 on the bulb itself. I'm not saying I want smurf bulbs, I just really want some more white-blue with no hint of yellow. 5000k would lose me how much light? B.deitemeyer advised me that the 85122+ would colorshift from 4300k to 5000k, so that's why I figured they'd be ok, but they are way more yellow than I thought.

the color mod for tsx projectors is putting 2 washers on each "nipple" on the bottom of the "halves" of the projector...so 4 washers per projector. real simple...

ive never seen tyc's up close...but yeah it probably is for the high beam.

once again, ive never messed with tyc's. if you have a stock headlight around, look at the lower corners and you'll see some little "boxes" on the outside...those are the vent holes. people always say they need to seal the crap out of the headlights. my stockers dont leak (as in: when its raining) but they fog up when the temp goes from like 40 degrees to 70 and humid, and especially vise versa.

ive drilled holes in the bottom of headlights due to fogging and even standing water. if there's water inside, they're leaking. if there's fog, they're condensating due to the moisture not being able to escape.

our headlights aren't water/air tight regardless of how much sealant is on them...i wish people would stop propagating this myth the only totally sealed headlights ive dealt with were plymouth acclaim/dodge spirit 9004 headlights.

if you take off the ignitor (wire that attaches to the bulb) and look at the bulb, it'll have a + next to 85122. if not, its a regular 85122.

you want to see yellow...i have a heavily used 85122 non-plus bulb for testing...that thing is bad.

check out this thread if youre a hidplanet member. otherwise, here's an excerpt:

85122 - Philips standard bulb. It starts at 4300K but after around 100hrs or so it color shifts (turns bluer) to around 5000K.

85122+ - Starts at 4300K just like the 85122, but STAYS at 4300K and does not color shift. This bulb remains yellower than a color shifted bulb. Note: some ebay sellers mention Limited Edition bulbs or that 85122+ are 5000K. BOTH of these statements are lies. First, there is NO LE bulb. Second, as I mentioned these bulbs start at 4300K and stay there.

Both the 85122+ and 85122 are similar in brightness. There is a difference of around 200lumens max between the two, which is not a noticeable difference. So the choice of bulb should be based more on which color you prefer. Older adults tend to prefer yellower colors, while younger adults tend to prefer bluer colors.


Why are OEM bulbs better than kit bulbs?
There are multiple reasons that OEM bulbs are better than kit bulbs. The first is that OEM bulbs run cooler than kit bulbs (read above for the test that showed it).

This is due to the amount and mix of salts. HID bulbs use expensive transition metal iodide salts. The OEM manufacturers have spent countless dollars developing precise salt mixtures that run the coolest and produce the most light. These mixture formulas are closely a closely guarded trade secret. Along with this, these salts can be VERY VERY expensive in high purities. So kit makers tend to scrimp on the amount of salts making the bulb run even hotter. This evident by the fact of when you look in the arc chamber in kit bulbs it looks virtually clear while in OEM bulbs there is a noticable yellow (or in the case of Ultinons and bright reddish brown) salt deposit.

The second is quality control. The OEM manufacturers test each bulb before it leaves the factory. The bulbs are tested for arc chamber shape, arc chamber position, light color, light intensity, etc. Kit bulbs often are not tested at all. It is not uncommon to have arc chambers that are not in the tightly specified location or are not the proper shape. This results in weird looking cut-offs, decreased intensity etc. Also, it is not uncommon to get a pair of 6000K kit bulbs that are either more blue (closer to 8000K or 1000K) or more yellow than 6000K. Sometimes, with horrible QC a pair of supposedly matched bulbs, in fact are not, with one bulb being more yellow or blue than the other.

 

[bdeitemeyer]

You're confusing what I told you Trevor. 85122+ bulbs don't colorshift, 85122s do colorshift as they age. You have brand new 85122s.

 

[swollen_cu]

i also have the phillips 85122+ bulbs through tsx clear lens, and they seem a bit yellow to me too.(Switching from 6k through reflectors) But maybe it's because of my 2 year old non digital ballasts.. haha I'll be swithcing to a DDm 55w 6k kit as soon as these cheap china ballasts crap out on me.

Here's a picture through my camera phone of my light output, it looks blue in pictures, but yellowish white in person.

 

[trevendous03]

You're confusing what I told you Trevor. 85122+ bulbs don't colorshift, 85122s do colorshift as they age. You have brand new 85122s.

Oh sorry Brad, I misunderstood. No wonder my lights seem yellow. I'm thinking I won't have the patience to wait for the colorshift, so I'm going to purchase some 85123 or 85122cm bulbs or maybe Crystal Vision whichever is cheapest, so I can only lose 9% of light output but significantly change the color to be pure white with no yellow.