DIY 2010-2013 Headlight Retrofit

Thought I'd share my headlight project in case others want to tackle the project on their own. I'm not sure about the newer 4Rs but the preface lift years (2010-2013) had candle lights for headlights. I wanted to find a cheaper solution than the other options on the market... here is a parts breakdown:

• Trail-style Headlights $90 (I checked the link, its a little more expensive now) https://www.ebay.com/itm/395317563491
• Projectors $23 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B21R0TA?ie=UTF8
• Butyl Sealant $13 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077QJTJ2S?ie=UTF8&th=1
• H1 LED $40 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0D5VB4VTD?ie=UTF8&th=1
• H11 Wiring Harness $6 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07Q3Z9X77?ie=UTF8&th=1
• Ceramic Coating $14 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07QG2J3VR?ie=UTF8

Process:

• Removed about a dozen screws that held on the front glass
• Baked each light at 200F for 10 minutes
• Gently pried outer glass
• Removed the small reflector that goes in front of the low beam, held on with 1 screw
• Grinded (dremel grinding stone) the reflector in 3 places, 2 of which can be seen in the picture below. The third is the opening where the projector mounts to the back of the housing (needed to be rounded out about 1mm).
• Installed the projectors using the smaller/thinner of the 2 supplied gaskets
• I used an H11 wiring harness so I didn't have to cut the stock wires to mate with the H1 bulbs. Added connectors on the ends (same as the "quick slide" connectors commonly used for speaker terminals)
• Installed the H1 bulbs and mounted both headlight assemblies to the car to test the beam pattern. I'm glad I did this before sealing the front housing back on because in the picture below you can see the passenger projector needed to be rotated a couple degrees counter clockwise. Not sure why my phone's camera shows the lights with a greenish hue, they're quite white in person (6000k).
• Removed the headlight assemblies, wiped everything down/blew out all the dust
• Ran a small stripe of the butyl sealant around each assembly
• Baked for 200F 10 mins
• Reinstalled the dozen or so screws that attach the back housing to the front "glass"
• Installed back onto the vehicle
• Used a little ceramic coating in hopes to prolong the life of headlights. A lot of reviewers complained that many/most aftermarket headlights turn yellow quite fast. In extreme cases the clear coat starts to peel.

Hope someone finds this helpful as I wasn't ready to spend 500-1200 on headlights but for 200 bucks and some elbow grease?!? Sure why not...

 

This is great, I looked around as well and just did the H9/H11 swap and walked away. Yours looks damn nice!

 

Looking good! But that is way too much work for me to undertake. I simply went with the H9 bulbs for my low beams and Fog lights. World of a difference for a 5 minute job.

 

Agreed... I put off the project for many many months due to the work involved. Wife started to question all the boxes of unfinished/unstarted projects so that was enough of a kick in the butt to do the headlights.

 

I had retro’d HIDs for my trail before smashing my headlight. I was feeling lazy and didn’t want to redo the work and replace the HID kit so I went for Alpharex Pros and swapped the bulbs for LEDs. They do not come even close to my retros as far as light quality and output.