Calling All Retrofit Experts: Headlight Won't Adjust

[Face_Plant]

I retrofitted my stock headlights with the Morimoto kit from The Retrofit Source about 2 months ago. Tonight I decided to raise the height a little, but no matter how much or which way I turn the adjuster on the passenger side headlight it won't move. It's like like adjuster doesn't do anything at all. It used to work just fine.

Has anyone experienced this or have any suggestions? Do the adjusters break if you play with them too much? I really hope I don't have to open up the headlight again...

Pic of the angle it's stuck at:

[soundman98]

i would first take the housing off the car, open the bulb accesses, and see if anything can be done through the access holes to correct it before heating and opening it.

[Face_Plant]

Originally Posted by soundman98

i would first take the housing off the car, open the bulb accesses, and see if anything can be done through the access holes to correct it before heating and opening it.

I gave this a shot, but unfortunately there wasn't much I could do. I could see the adjuster and nothing looked out of the ordinary. It's in the oven now

Edit- Well it's as I feared: the white plastic nut insert thingy is stripped. I found a nut that had the same thread as the adjustment screw and jammed that into the black thingy. Once the JB Weld is set I'll try it out. What a shitty design. Even the headlight adjusters on my VW's weren't this crappy...

[B-R-Z]

Originally Posted by Face_Plant

I gave this a shot, but unfortunately there wasn't much I could do. I could see the adjuster and nothing looked out of the ordinary. It's in the oven now

Edit- Well it's as I feared: the white plastic nut insert thingy is stripped. I found a nut that had the same thread as the adjustment screw and jammed that into the black thingy. Once the JB Weld is set I'll try it out. What a shitty design. Even the headlight adjusters on my VW's weren't this crappy...

Beam pattern/cut-off looks great, how difficult was the retrofit? Which bulbs are you running, and did you maintain D4S or switch to D2S or LED? I wish subaru would have put nicer projectors in this car, something like the S2000 has, man I miss that car.

[Face_Plant]

Originally Posted by B-R-Z

Beam pattern/cut-off looks great, how difficult was the retrofit? Which bulbs are you running, and did you maintain D4S or switch to D2S or LED? I wish subaru would have put nicer projectors in this car, something like the S2000 has, man I miss that car.

The retrofit was fairly easy. The worst part was opening up the headlights. I had never baked headlights in the oven to get them apart before so I was worried about melting them, but in the end it wasn't too bad. I found it helpful to have a second person with a pair of scissors on standby to cut the sealant strings that formed while peeling the lens off of the headlight housing. Cutting them was essential because it kept them short so they wouldn't make a mess when they sprung back to the lens/housing. If I just keep peeling until they broke, the strings would be very long and might land somewhere on the lens, refector, etc and would be a bitch to clean off.

I used Morimoto H1 XB 5500K bulbs that were included in this kit. It's not cheap, but it's worth it.
https://www.theretrofitsource.com/mo...ect_restrict=1

[B-R-Z]

Originally Posted by Face_Plant

The retrofit was fairly easy. The worst part was opening up the headlights. I had never baked headlights in the oven to get them apart before so I was worried about melting them, but in the end it wasn't too bad. I found it helpful to have a second person with a pair of scissors on standby to cut the sealant strings that formed while peeling the lens off of the headlight housing. Cutting them was essential because it kept them short so they wouldn't make a mess when they sprung back to the lens/housing. If I just keep peeling until they broke, the strings would be very long and might land somewhere on the lens, refector, etc and would be a bitch to clean off.

I used Morimoto H1 XB 5500K bulbs that were included in this kit. It's not cheap, but it's worth it.
https://www.theretrofitsource.com/mo...ect_restrict=1

Awesome, nice work it looks good. I just realized you have an FR-S so you did it to get a real HID system, not a BRZ where it was a swap strictly for beam pattern.

I think it's too much work & money for only a sharper beam pattern, but if I had a stock halogen setup I would 100% do it.

[Face_Plant]

Originally Posted by B-R-Z

Awesome, nice work it looks good. I just realized you have an FR-S so you did it to get a real HID system, not a BRZ where it was a swap strictly for beam pattern.



I think it's too much work & money for only a sharper beam pattern, but if I had a stock halogen setup I would 100% do it.

All trim levels of the BRZ came stock with HIDs, correct? Do they not have the nice sharp Z shaped cutoff?

The stock FR-S headlights were pretty much useless at night, which is dangerous where I live since there are tons of deer, so quality HIDs were a must for me. Doing the retrofit only took about a day and was much cheaper than buying $800+ headlights that were already fitted with HID or LED projectors.

[B-R-Z]

Originally Posted by Face_Plant

All trim levels of the BRZ came stock with HIDs, correct? Do they not have the nice sharp Z shaped cutoff?

The stock FR-S headlights were pretty much useless at night, which is dangerous where I live since there are tons of deer, so quality HIDs were a must for me. Doing the retrofit only took about a day and was much cheaper than buying $800+ headlights that were already fitted with HID or LED projectors.

Yes, all BRZ's come stock with 4300K D4S HID. The D4S are a more eco-friendly mercury-free bulb that many manufacturers are switching to.

The cut-off exists but it's not sharp like yours or how the S2000 is/was. I've read this is by design to provide better light output while driving. If I was ever blacking out my headlights or had to take apart my headlights for any reason I'd definitely swap out my projectors while I was in there but I don't think it's worth the time/money to do it solely for a nicer cut-off.