steph

anyone put hids on their first gen? i'm looking at retrofitting a kit to work on it... i need hids for this sled for it to be cool. j/k... but seriously. hids

91 LS 230k miles.

dfkd

I'll be the one to do it this time...

Check out this link for all the information you'll need on xenon headlights for you 1st Gen.

akxx

iTrader: (1)

Informative link!!

In summary, retrofitting HID into 1LS = you will lose High beams (or have awful high beam pattern), you will have a terrible low-beam pattern, will cause massive glare to oncoming traffic. Do a search, you'll see.

pito

This forum is full of "go and search guys."


The glare can be controlled by aiming the headlights and the glare is not as bad as people would portray. Go with a 6000K setup as anything above that is more for show than function. You can get bi-xenon which would keep your highbeam function.

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

the glare on the pre 93 cars is substantial since hte 93+ are all H4 housings and can use casper shields.

pito

I agree that there will be some glare but with adjustment's made subtly here and there you can go around that. People make it sound like you are going to cause accidents. Until someone comes up with a good solution with getting projectors of fabbing up some kind of alternate headlight housing, we have to work with what we have...right?

Kansas

I bought a gen 1 LS400 new in 1990 and kept it for almost 14 years. Yes, the headlights are awful and that is the primary reason I moved on to a newer LS. I've done a number of headlight conversions on cars since the 1960's and I can attest that trying to improve the awful gen 1 LS400 headlights is a waste of time and money. The lens sucks and there is nothing you can do to improve it. The only decent solution is to obtain Euro spec H4 LS400 headlights that have a sharp beam cutoff - the cost of that solution would likely exceed the value of almost any gen 1 LS400.

Five or six years ago, I saw quite a few gen 1 LS400's with blinding HID conversions or those silly ineffective tinted blue headlight bulbs. I almost never see these anymore. The posers have either given up or have burned out their wiring harness and parked their old LS400's.

All I can say is "give it up, guys". Save the money that you would spend on one of those ridiculous HID kits and put it towards a car with real factory OEM HID's with self leveling. Heck, even entry level Mazda's can be bought with factory HIDs these days.

avalon42

iTrader: (1)

Well, I am sure they are right, but

avalon42

iTrader: (1)

Lots of glare....but I don't care.

HIDs even on OEM projectors blind me all the time. Here's a little something back.

omarg

avalon, what kind of kit did you get? I really want to do this. I can't see anything at night.

did you get the bi-xenon? (hi-lo)

I've been reading up and i think i might be able to fit some projectors into the housing. That would definatly reduce glare. Maybe i can clear out at least part of the lens by sanding.

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

putting projectors into the stock 1LS/2LS pre m/c housings is useless. the lenses diffuse light so theres no point at all.

sanding the lenses will get you no-where unless u know a place that will polish out glass for you. the SC and supra guys can get away with de-lining since their headlight lenses are plastic.

kens97sto

You know I wonder if you have some problems with your lens's.... I have a 94, and I have no trouble at all at night.. in fact my girlfriend who has a 06 Sonata with the focus beam type lens prefers to take my car... I am still running with the yellow fogs.. they help a lot. Also you might try using a bettter bulb.. in the 93/94 you can use a standard H4 bulb.. I get mine here:
http://www.rallylights.com/hella/bulbs.asp

they can be had in 55/60 55/100 80/100 90/130 Watt versions... they also make some blue tinted ones... THEY SUCK... ..and YELLOW ones... never tried these..You can get the stock 55/60 for $4. These are ACTUALL HELLA BULBS !!! Not cheapo Silverstar crap.
Ken

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

silverstars work better than the oem bulbs....

ur 94 is different from these guy's 89-92 cars, the 93+ had a redesigned housing that used H4 bulbs instead of the crappy H3(h3c ) that came on the first models.

also, only use factory wattages please ur car will last longer w/o any melted harnesses. (see lighting forum for more info on this )

avalon42

iTrader: (1)

I have a crappy Halo 6K kit that was out of my ole 87 Maxima. I had retrofitted some BMW E36 Angel Eyes projector headlights on the car, so I bought a Halo H3 kit to use with it. It was beautiful.

When my Maxima got totaled, I decided to take it upon myself to get the H3 retrofitted to fit the stock 9004, wat I ended up doing was hollowing out some stock 9004 plastic housings, shaving the H3 HID bulbs so they fit inside, and then securing them overnight in some waterproof clear glue/adhesive. And they work beautifully. These are only low beam, but make no mistake, they are HELLA bright. And yes, all the beautiful glare as far as the eye can see... BTW, I did re-aim the headlights so they are point as low as they can go, hence why most of my beam seems to be on the ground in the pictures.

I would highly recommend not sanding your glass headlights.

The improvement over the stock light output is friggin worth it, IMHO. I don't know why people keep knocking it. If it works for ya, go for it. Don't let anyone put you down or tell you to buy a new car. When I make some big $$$, surely, I'll look into a newer Lexus, but I'm very pleased with my 1LS rite now. Very.

omarg

i remember reading here or on LOC or hidplanet about how you can sand your lenses using rough grit and moving up until your using 2000+ grit to polish. The finish polishing with a rubbing compound.

Pure, are you sure about the projectors? I've seen late 90's e-class and 5series with projectors behind diffused glass. They had xenons.

I'm gonna get a spare set of headlights to try it out on. Not anytimes soon though. Gotta study first and keep those grades

Avalon, i love my car so much. I think i spend more time thinking about it than i do anything else. I'm very attached. Its got its little problems but fixing those little things just makes me love it more.

I did put record mileage on my car since Jan... 7k miles!

Ken, thanks for the link. I'm totally gonna order some new bulbs. That might help temporarily