hella Bixenon retrofit on Turkish KJ

[windman]

Dear Friends i bought aftermarket headlight over ebay. I found their polycarbonate quality quite high but unfortunatelly reflector quality was lower than euro style stock headlights. I decided to drop in bixenon optics into brandnew set.

I bought two pcs of Hella bixenon optics from an donor BMW. Also i purchased range rover shrouds. Bulbs were chinese ones but qualitywise they can match to OEM ones. They have metal base and exact color match with oem ones. I boughts them over aliexpress.

Headlights pair ~usd100
Bulbs ~usd11
Shrouds and optics ~usd70
Some epoxy putty and paint ~usd20

Result = Priceless


First of all i removed polycarbonate glass from housings by heating them with a heatgun. I rotated each headlight slowly not to overheat same place. I removed glass and never touched the reflector with bare hand. I used gloves.

I drilled halogen bulb holes with dremel and with a larger hole it allowed me to fit the back of hid reflector and glue it in its place. Before installing new reflector, i removed the reflector part of lens assembly, from the glass optics and after fitting through the new enlarged hole on halogen reflector, i fixed it by bending little tabs again on halogen reflector which are also to holding D2S type bulbs in its place. After installing this semi finished product on car, i adjusted light beam according to the halogen beam shape i previously drew on wall. I drillet two holes on each headlight at top of reflectors and fixed the bixenon optics with thin and long screws. After final checks i heated polycarbonate glass and assembly slowly, i joined them together without using any other glue than on headlight itself.

You can see the photos of processes and final product on vehicle. Light distribution is top notch an dequal to any BMW with bixenon setup has.

 

[windman]

after joining seperate parts and installing on vehicle here is the result.

please do not judge negatively because of the light color difference seen, since test was done with bulbs from another project which are used for a quite long time. right side seems having lower output and pink color. it was an old bulb.

now my bulbs are all brand new. 5000K color.

you can see the final result of project. i am supporting hi beams with two pcs of 10watt cree led equipiped long throw spot lights which i bought over aliexpress for usd40 few months ago. they are filling the gap in front when high beams are on. They are also very bright and can be seen under sun.

 

[JasonJ]

Light output seems decent.. projectors are always nice, good long reach on them down the roadway.

But, MAN do the KJ's look goofy with them in their bug-eye headlights. Not trying to be offensive, every projector retrofit I've seen ended up looking goofy on this truck.

Nice work though.

 

[windman]

no, i agree with you. the look is... weird. it is not that bug like but it is definetely chameleon like. that range rover shrouds also add this effect. but headlight diameter is huge and if you do not use shrouds escaped xenon light blinds side traffics and cause serious glare.

when you see the illumination level and quality after seeing this retrofit at night, how sleek they look would not be that important especially if one needs to drive at tight and dark roads.

i am extremely happy with result after DOT type ebay headlight. actually euro style H4 headlights were not that bad. light distribution was quite good with quality osram night braker unlimited bulbs but when they were faded away in time, this modificaion was a must for me.

i wonder why they don't manufacture LED headlights for jeep liberty/cherokee. didnt they sold these vehicles everywhere?