Aftermarket headlights, fix or dump?

[Willy Smith]

I'd love to keep 'em, but they hardly function. Almost no light output; not even safe to drive at night. Junyan, HU593.

They were badly installed, (twist and tape wiring connections? Really??) and there seem to be a pieces missing. The LED elements flop around; seems there should be a ring behind the spring clips to hold them. And the headlight harnesses are gone.

Either way I want to replace the headlight wiring. Aftermarket? Junkyard? OEM? It was a dual beam system, but I see they sell plug and play connectors to make it work w/ a single hi/lo element.

Anyone have a picture of what original headlight wiring looks like on a 2013 FR-S? I don't know what it's supposed to look like, (even with the wiring diagram I got from this site).

All opinions welcome.
Many thanks;
Alan

[soundman98]

what does the writing say underneath the turn signal? that will tell you the bulb type you're supposed to be using.

for starters, i try changing the bulbs.

[Tcoat]

There seems to be so many issues I personally would cut my losses and start all over with new ones. There are so many options that messing around with those things just would not be worth your time.

[ROFL it's Waffle]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

There seems to be so many issues I personally would cut my losses and start all over with new ones. There are so many options that messing around with those things just would not be worth your time.

If you do decide to go this route, consider donating your hardware to a smash room like this one https://www.smashbrothersny.com/.

[YamahaR86]

I've had these for about 4 years now. Spec-D headlights.


Let me provide the info I have.


The clearcoat sucks on these, most aftermarket ones do. It'll start to peel and flake off. I use a headlight restoring kit once a year.


The stock bulbs that come with the light are H4 or something with a spacer washer. It's stupid. A D2S size bulb will fit in there perfectly and using the retaining spring clip.


I installed HID's in mine and dealt with that for a few years. Output was still garbage as the projectors are made for halogens. I recently retrofit in some TRS morimoto projectors and output is way better (I have experience with retrofitting projectors in my other projects).


The "boomerangs" are purplish. I replaced that with a white flexible LED line.

[Willy Smith]

All replies appreciated.
Glad to know these are sold under Spec-D; at least I recognize that name.
The D2S bulbs I see are HID; would I have to rewire for those?

I'd love to just put new bulbs in, but I fear the wiring is jacked up / wrong. Most of the hi/lo combo bulbs I see have three wires going to them; I only have two. And, the wire which goes to the parking lights in the front is tapped in to one of these. (twist and tape).

What should the voltage output be for the two wires (per light) I have, if they are correct? The lights so dim, I'll be happily surprised if the voltage is even close. There is almost no difference between low and high beams, and very little output in general.

If only two wires is OK, and if the voltage is close, I'll make some bulbs work.

Very much appreciated.
Alan

[YamahaR86]

Originally Posted by Willy Smith

All replies appreciated.
Glad to know these are sold under Spec-D; at least I recognize that name.
The D2S bulbs I see are HID; would I have to rewire for those?

I'd love to just put new bulbs in, but I fear the wiring is jacked up / wrong. Most of the hi/lo combo bulbs I see have three wires going to them; I only have two. And, the wire which goes to the parking lights in the front is tapped in to one of these. (twist and tape).

What should the voltage output be for the two wires (per light) I have, if they are correct? The lights so dim, I'll be happily surprised if the voltage is even close. There is almost no difference between low and high beams, and very little output in general.

If only two wires is OK, and if the voltage is close, I'll make some bulbs work.

Very much appreciated.
Alan

You would have to rewire for HID's. I've never used LED bulbs before, only stock/halogen which are plug and play or HID's.


If you want to just plug and play, you'd have to go back to the "stock" bulb that came with the headlights which Spec-D lists as H1. But like you mentioned, the wiring might have been jacked up so it might not be that simple.


For HID wiring, it goes Bulb -> connect to Ballast -> Ballast connect back into headlight/car wiring.



The high beam is: headlight wiring -> car wiring for high beam. (this is because the projector flips a tab up to expose all of the light output).


You'd have to take them off to look to see how the wiring is done. But if it's too much for you I'd purchase a set of stock and sell these since they still have value.