Lightwerkz HID Retrofit
Moderator: volvite
Lightwerkz HID Retrofit
So, after a couple big storms up here in northern Vermont, I have gone beyond disliking my headlight quality (2008 Pathy) and borderline refusing to drive at night or in storms. I may have bad bulbs in already poorly designed headlights, but I need a change. I'm a little bit uncomfortable with doing my own retrofit, although it looks easy, I feel like it could come out functionally fine, but want a good, clean, professional look. I think I'm going to buy a pair of replacement lights and send them to Lightwerkz to be professionally retrofit. The labor would be $755. Buying new factory lights to send would be around $300, and the Parts would probably be around $315. When I look at it like a tire purchase, it seems worthwhile. What do you guys think? Also, what is your opinion on angel eyes?
I'm sure you've seen my post where I added the hella aux lights. I've also switched bulbs to Sylvania XtraVision and this combination is quite good. Could easily go with an even brighter set of aux lights but I started with relatively cheap ($150) Black Magics. For the money and performance I don't think I would do anything different at this point. This combo puts my Pathfinder on-par with my wife's Sienna which has factory HID. The only thing I plan to do is switch out my fogs with an HID kid with about a 5k temp as that color seems to really make the road markings much more visable in rain/snow.
Re: Lightwerkz HID Retrofit
I already bought headlights and they are awaiting the retrofit. Let me know the final details on labor and parts... I am very tempted to do this as well. Who knows if we get enough people we may be able to wrangle a discount...Theeflash wrote:So, after a couple big storms up here in northern Vermont, I have gone beyond disliking my headlight quality (2008 Pathy) and borderline refusing to drive at night or in storms. I may have bad bulbs in already poorly designed headlights, but I need a change. I'm a little bit uncomfortable with doing my own retrofit, although it looks easy, I feel like it could come out functionally fine, but want a good, clean, professional look. I think I'm going to buy a pair of replacement lights and send them to Lightwerkz to be professionally retrofit. The labor would be $755. Buying new factory lights to send would be around $300, and the Parts would probably be around $315. When I look at it like a tire purchase, it seems worthwhile. What do you guys think? Also, what is your opinion on angel eyes?
I have contacted Lightwerkz, and labor is definitely $755, which is billed at $90/hr. Seems like a lot, but its actually reasonable considering the amount of time the process takes. Their parts are all from retrofitsource and cost the same amount whether you buy your own and they do the fit, or if you buy the parts from them as part of the process. I just found that autoanything has a bull bar sale, so I'll be picking one of those up in stainless for just $235 first, but over the next few months I'll be pushing myself into acceptance of $1500 for lights while I do some real budget trimming to save money for it.
If you're going to buy the bull bar, you might as well put the aux lights on there first and see how they work for you. My problem with just running the Sylvania XtraVision was that the high beam sucked. Low beam was a decent improvement. So with the aux lights wired in with high beams it works out pretty good. I personally don't think you'll get any better performance with the retrofit and you're talking about months just to save the coin to do it anyway. Might as well get something now and see what you think. Even if the retrofit were slightly better performers...I'd never spend that kind of coin.
Oh and I've found folks hogging the passing lane tend to move pretty quick if you light them up with my setup. I usually just give them a real small taste and they move right over.
Oh and I've found folks hogging the passing lane tend to move pretty quick if you light them up with my setup. I usually just give them a real small taste and they move right over.
Thats a pretty good point. I think for now I'm going to get a set of Philips xtreme power bulbs, apparently the brightest DOT approved you can get. If I'm satisfied I'll do what you suggested and go with some aux lights after I get my bull bar. The real problem I have is driving in areas where I can't use high beams. It seems like I'm just driving with my lights off, using the ambient light whenever I'm doing city driving, or there is constant oncoming traffic. Thats why I really wanted to just go for the HIDs.
The initial post regarding this begs the question, "Are there brighter bulbs that are not DOT approved?" 0-25% improvement makes it hard to overlook the "0"!Theeflash wrote:Philips claims 80% brighter, reviews say 0-25% brighter. A 2 pack is $30 though, seems worth it for even a hair improvement until I can get something better set up
yeah, the 0% is hard to overlook, but for $15 per bulb, I would take the chance on it. Those are the reviews on the poor end. They averaged 4.5/5 stars on amazon, and in my experience, when overall good products have a few incredibly poor reviews, it tends to be user error, and not a problem with the product.aadadams wrote:The initial post regarding this begs the question, "Are there brighter bulbs that are not DOT approved?" 0-25% improvement makes it hard to overlook the "0"!Theeflash wrote:Philips claims 80% brighter, reviews say 0-25% brighter. A 2 pack is $30 though, seems worth it for even a hair improvement until I can get something better set up
I tried a couple different bulbs in addition to the HID's and the problem isn't so much the amount of light...it's where it's going. I don't recall which bulbs I tried but someone else here mentioned having really good luck with the Sylvania XtraVision and that's what I found to give the best pattern on low-beam. High beam goes to crap which is where the aux lights really kick in. Aiming is also a key factor...you pretty much have to be right on the cusp of blinding people. I've got mine in a sweet spot that low beam is not as great as a really good OEM HID setup...but it's not anywhere near as horrible as stock. I've also not been given any brights or fingers since making final adjustments.
The HID's had a lot of light but again with the horrible optics of the OEM....the light was all over the place and blinding everyone. It also still had a nasty cut-off on low-beam at any adjustment that didn't blind everyone.
The HID's had a lot of light but again with the horrible optics of the OEM....the light was all over the place and blinding everyone. It also still had a nasty cut-off on low-beam at any adjustment that didn't blind everyone.
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