My Spec D headlight review

[Gixxersixxerman]

So I was able to get my hands on a set today. I've been asked to give my honest review of them. Pros and Cons.

I'll start with the easiest.. Pros

They fit the car...

And...

Well they fit the car..

They are not a horrible light, but the projector is crap. They through a H1 bulb in there with spacers/adapters in a slot that fits a D2S OEM style bulb perfect. If you install a hid bulb you have to use another washer to hold it in. This is crap because you have to play with the bulb for ever to get any kind of "proper" light, and I use proper loosely..

The "DRL" strip looks good in low lighting, but put it in the sun and it's washed away. You can still see it glowing a little, there is a difference between on and off in direct sun. But it's not much and from a distance you wouldn't be able to tell..

They are heavy.. About as heavy as the OEM JDM/10 series/monogram setup, with ballast and all.

They are molded to run OEM ballast bolted to the bottom and again OEM D2S bulbs so that's a positive, but even then it's not the best cut off.. Better then the H1. Finish looks very good. Plastic lens feels very cheap. And you can easily see "leaks" of lights around the strip.. I can actually see between the light defuser and housing to the led chips. There is no "DRL" function, but that's remedy by tapping it into the high beam positive wire. A DRL mod would work for this. Same way for the winjets that @fteightysix sells. I personally liked the blinkers, though as being led the viewing angle is pretty much directly in front.

Here are some pictures

Bottom of the housing again set up to run OEM ballast should you choose


H1 stock bulb that comes installed in it


Morimoto D2S XB35 bulb is a direct fit..


Cutoff with the D2S isn't nothing to be proud of, but I think is better the OEM... Maybe


Set up with the customers HID H1 kit


And after a few minutes moving the bulb all over I finally got this


I think with a proper retrofit, running OEM parts, it would be a decent setup.. I'd like to see how the lens stands up, but otherwise it's ok.. I'd personally change out the led chips to something better also.. That may help with the light being so washed out in the sun..

Overall I'll rank the winjets far above these as far as fit and finish and quality.. Looks well I like the looks and if that's what your going for, in lower light conditions I think you'll be happy.. But that's about all this light could do for me..

[FRSHunter]

How does the OEM ballast connect though? Theres usually a hole that connects the power to the bottom of the ballast

[ecko04]

@Gixxersixxerman @fteightysix this is very sad. I have Winjets and don't want to take a step back in terms of light output. Any chance that the set you received could have "defective" parts and manufacturing?

I want to like this headlamp.

You mentioned that there was no DRL function. How would one go about having the LED strip function as a DRL?

Can you post more pics of the headlamp showing more than the cutoff? How it looks installed on the customer's car and the LED strip + HIDs?

[cdrazic93]

oh my god. I was holding these lights in such high hopes

Im no electrical engineer so pulling these apart and rewiring them to work better isnt going to be my forté. Looks like the stock BRZ lights are still the best.

[Turbo95eg6]

So… what does the front look like?

[Gixxersixxerman]

Originally Posted by FRSHunter

How does the OEM ballast connect though? Theres usually a hole that connects the power to the bottom of the ballast

That's just a rubber cap, once removed it's already got the cut out for the power wire to the bulb and all

Originally Posted by ecko04

@Gixxersixxerman @fteightysix this is very sad. I have Winjets and don't want to take a step back in terms of light output. Any chance that the set you received could have "defective" parts and manufacturing?

I want to like this headlamp.

You mentioned that there was no DRL function. How would one go about having the LED strip function as a DRL?

Can you post more pics of the headlamp showing more than the cutoff? How it looks installed on the customer's car and the LED strip + HIDs?

It may have very well be a defective model. When we called Spec D, they told us that some of our order couldn't ship because "half the lights out there have a defect" but mainly bad LEDs from my understanding.. You can easily wire it to make it function as a DRL. Just splice the wire into the positive wire of the high beam. It's live when your driving as the OEM setup that's the DRL..

Originally Posted by Turbo95eg6

So… what does the front look like?

I personally didn't take pictures of anything else, but I'll post a link.. This might be what people are looking for and I tried to come up with as many positives as I could.. With some work I'm sure these can be a great piece.. Better projector, or maybe even some work on this one, I'm unsure, and some bright led chips.. And you have some better lighting going on here.. My job is centered around lighting, and for me this wouldn't cut it, but maybe that's fine for others, most seem to think the hid in OEM projectors is just fine

Here is a link, the customer loved it.. And in the end he spent his money and liked it, so that's all that matters I guess

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=63402

[randomweather]

Is the LED strip closer to 6k or 8k? What color HID would match it?

Some pics are more purple-ish, while some are more blue-ish...

[DJEQ1988]

Hey can you show me how to install the h1 bulb kit, saw the picture you have but don't understand what's going to what wire.