Morimoto Headlights

[Irace86.2.0]

Originally Posted by YamahaR86

Headlight adjustment is the #1 factor on why people complain about bright, blinding lights these days.

Retrofitting LEDs into projectors designed for halogens or HIDs is probably the biggest problem. A decade ago the problem was people retrofitting HIDs into reflector housings, which was horrendous. Now that more cars come with projectors, retrofitting HIDs into lights designed for halogens isn’t as bad, but it is still problematic. Using HIDs is less common than people retrofitting LEDs into projectors and reflector housings. LEDs are not as blinding as HIDs, and sometimes the LEDs are even less effective than halogens when used in a halogen reflector, but the light dispersal can still be problematic. The fact that more people are using LED fog lights as DRLs or secondary lights on public roads is also problematic; it is one thing for backroads, but another for 24/7 driving.

The second biggest problem is the fact that OEM lights are better on average than a decade ago. There are more cars with LED and HID headlights from the factory. These lights are often dialed in perfect from the factory, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t situations that cause them to be blinding. If a driver has accidentally left on their brights then HIDs are much worse. If a truck has a lift and pulls behind a sports car that is lowered then the truck will blind the driver of the sports car. Most new cars don’t have auto-leveling headlights like the ones in my wife’s Audi Q5; they always point at an angle down where mine often point up as I drive over the top of a hill or over humps and bumps in the road.

I agree that many people need to adjust their lights too like you suggest, but even that isn’t simple. Should the truck point their lights down at a greater angle than a lower car? Our cars are so low when lowered or slammed that our headlights will barely shine on anything when adjusted for a proper drop; pedestrians’ shins or cars’ rear bumpers will barely be illuminated. Should we stick to the rules or adjust them to a level that is effective to see traffic and pedestrians? I don’t know.

[Butterballz]

I just installed these and my driver side light cutoff seems to angle down slightly to the right. The passenger side is perfectly straight. Not a big deal but it doesn't seem like there is much adjustment when installing the headlights so too lazy to take off the bumper to adjust. Anyone else has this issue?

Other than that, it's still daylight so I haven't check out the brightness of the light. Previously had led bulbs in the OEM halogen headlights but they don't seem much brighter.

[Irace86.2.0]

Originally Posted by Butterballz

I just installed these and my driver side light cutoff seems to angle down slightly to the right. The passenger side is perfectly straight. Not a big deal but it doesn't seem like there is much adjustment when installing the headlights so too lazy to take off the bumper to adjust. Anyone else has this issue?

Other than that, it's still daylight so I haven't check out the brightness of the light. Previously had led bulbs in the OEM halogen headlights but they don't seem much brighter.

You shouldn’t have to take off the bumper to adjust headlights. There should be a plastic screw on the back or back/top of the headlights to level the lights. Then they should be able to be leveled to the horizon in the car or automatically, depending on your model year.

[Vracer111]

I put in the DiodeDynamic LS1 LED bulbs in my FR-S ... much better lighting than stock with clean cutoff and WAY better than the Diode Dynamics HID reflector housing kit currently in my Nissan Frontier. Currently in the process of prepping for a Morimoto M LED 2.0 (5500K) retrofit for the Nissan Frontier...just got in passenger light housing assembly, waiting on driver side to come in before starting. The MLED2 out performs the D2S HID projectors and lot less components to worry about, though it is an all in one internal unit... so if it fails you have to take apart the whole headlight assembly. Risk I'm willing to take for the performance and simplicity over HID projector.

[Irace86.2.0]

I still think a HID will outperform a LED. I think there is a reason luxury and other cars have multiple LED projectors, and that is because it takes multiple projectors to match the intensity, distance and light dispersion pattern as a HID.

[Grisha]

Installed mine today! Happy with the quality, look and light output at night.

[Vracer111]

Originally Posted by Irace86.2.0

I still think a HID will outperform a LED. I think there is a reason luxury and other cars have multiple LED projectors, and that is because it takes multiple projectors to match the intensity, distance and light dispersion pattern as a HID.

That's the original Morimoto M LED... the M LED 2.0 is on a different level, equal to or surpassing HID projection. LED technology has advanced quickly in the past few years.

[Irace86.2.0]

Originally Posted by Vracer111

That's the original Morimoto M LED... the M LED 2.0 is on a different level, equal to or surpassing HID projection. LED technology has advanced quickly in the past few years.

I don't know if it is technology or configuration. Maybe that is the same thing. Manufactures were adding more LEDs, and the lumens were greater than HIDs, but without a proper projector, the light scatter was like when people were installing HID bulbs into reflector housings, and they were blinding everyone. Moreover, the scatter and poor focus made for poor performance, even if the bulbs were rated with high lumens. Even with new technology, if someone puts a LED bulb into a HID projector, it doesn't seem to work.

As you have demonstrated, a good LED bulb that is matched to a LED projector will perform well. I wonder how efficient the bulbs are; ie, what is the lumens of the naked bulb compared to a naked HID bulb and then how do they compare in a projector. I'm also curious how they look at 60ft, 80ft, 100ft, 150ft, 200ft, etc because there still seems to be a lot of dispersion. This seems functional to flood the area close up until you are shining into everyone's house windows and potentially oncoming traffic. This is where HID seems to have better focus, and I would like to compare these with some 4300k OSRAM or Phillips HID bulbs; see if a LED bulb would compete. It would be interesting to see.

As far as these headlights go, TRS has said that HIDs will outperform them. That doesn't mean they don't perform well though. They seem very solid.

[Butterballz]

Originally Posted by Butterballz

I just installed these and my driver side light cutoff seems to angle down slightly to the right. The passenger side is perfectly straight. Not a big deal but it doesn't seem like there is much adjustment when installing the headlights so too lazy to take off the bumper to adjust. Anyone else has this issue?

Other than that, it's still daylight so I haven't check out the brightness of the light. Previously had led bulbs in the OEM halogen headlights but they don't seem much brighter.

Got a chance to drive at night with these and I can't say I'm 100% satisfied with the light output. Can't say it's better than using LED bulbs in the stock halogens. There seem to be some hot spots and sharp beamlines on the road in front of my car instead of a somewhat diffused pattern. Maybe I need to raise them up a little bit but I can see the top of the beam on the bumper of the car in front of me when I'm 25 feet behind them so I don't think they are too low. Other than that, they look cool and I mostly got them to have the turn signals integrated so I can delete the OEM ones.

[pope]

I just installed a set of these on the ‘14 BRZ I’m rebuilding and I am experiencing a weird side-effect if I plug in the DRL harness: the taillights turn on, the clock and dash lights turn off, and the ratio dims.

Is this a BRZ issue because of the oem headlight boomerangs or did a previous owner screw with the headlight wiring?

[jeffs42885]

My 2015 FRS RS 1.0 is in the bodyshop getting wrapped up, I'm having these installed instead of the factory HID projectors. Will post pics in a few day.s

[pope]

Originally Posted by shadow_772

I'll have to sort out an issue. I wired in an aux fuse box at the same time I did headlights. Everything works well with the exception of the dimming feature on the clock and radio. I'm either full bright or nothing on the clock and dim on the radio, then when headlights are on I'm in max dim on clock and radio... hmm

Originally Posted by pope

I just installed a set of these on the ‘14 BRZ I’m rebuilding and I am experiencing a weird side-effect if I plug in the DRL harness: the taillights turn on, the clock and dash lights turn off, and the ratio dims.

Is this a BRZ issue because of the oem headlight boomerangs or did a previous owner screw with the headlight wiring?

It doesn’t look like shadow_772 ever received an answer or posted one either, but I suspect we had the same issue.

BRZ owners that install Morimotos have three choices for the LED strip:

1. connect the headlight plug and leave the add-on plug disconnected. LED strip will be powered by the oem boomerang pin and be on as the parking light. Turn on with column switch.

2. de-pin the oem boomerang/parker pin and connect the add-on plug to the fuse box. Use an engine on fuse location to automagically power the LED strip whenever the engine is running.

3. plug-in both the add-on plug and headlight plug without de-pinning. engine on power will back feed from the add-on plug into the headlight harness through the boomerang pin. This causes weirdness and the possibility of long term negative side effects. Probably not recommended.

[camelflage]

Originally Posted by Grisha

Installed mine today! Happy with the quality, look and light output at night.

question: where did you end up putting the add-a-fuse?

[pope]

Originally Posted by camelflage

question: where did you end up putting the add-a-fuse?

@camelflage I don't know which of the twins you have, but I have a BRZ and this is where I plugged in the add-a-fuse. This was an empty slot on my car. Bottom of picture is front of car.

To run the wire, I removed the side panel. Two catches at the top hold it in place, use a small screwdriver or pick to release them, then the panel slides up. The inner side of the panel has some ridges to grip the wire bundle. I used a razor knife to shave them down to make space for the add-a-fuse wire (would not fit otherwise). Routing the wire this way avoided notching the lid or box.