Wanna trade retrofits lol I have some m45s

 

good job ,, how long did it take ya?

 

great job! now how much to make me one

 

They should but I have not tested, autolevel is retained with the use of the LM bracket. With that being said, the cut behind the turn signal should be enough space for the up and down movement of the Q45 projector.

No thanks!

It took me a couple of weeks because I was juggling a bunch of projects. In reality this retro can be done in a couple of hours. What takes the longest is making the cut behind the turn signal. But now that I've done it once I have a better idea of how far to cut.

pm'd you

 

sorry to bring back an old thread, but i cant seem to find an answer to my question.

does anyone know if you can use the OE lexus HID or do i need to get the q45 one?

 

You can used the oe hid ballast and d2r bulbs. But you will need to notch the d2r bulb to fit into the q45 housing coz the q45 uses d2s bulbs. Or you can just buy d2s or d2c bulbs.

 

That's what I did, notched the d2r bulb to fit the q45.

Hey Gill I like what you did with covering the back end of the housing. When I did mine I bought the corex external coupling from Home Depot but couldn't install it. Now looking at this again seems like you screwed it to a bracket inside the housing ??

 

sweet retro man! the q45s are so awesome on our cars, i would have gone that route if it wasnt for the average output.

 

yeah I made a little bracket to catch on the inside of the housing and screws on to the cylinder.

Cutting the covers behind the each gatling projectors might increase the light output. I was already done with the retrofit when I thought about that, so I never got to do it

 

glad i founds. great tutorial. im ordering q45 projectors and those luxurymod brackets.

but heres my question. has anyone seen the light output with a 80w hid set up in there? i believe the big projector would handle the heat fine. i could be wrong.

i know the output is "meh" with this set up. but i want the looks along with some added performance.
i got 55w 3000k's in the fogs and they do awesome.

 

First, when you mention an "80W" setup are you talking about a paired 80W bulb/ballast, or simply pairing a normally 35W bulb with an 80W ballast? Either way, I think an 80W HID setup is overkill. Also, it's not the projectors I would be worried about considering they're made up of glass and metal, it would be the actual headlight housings themselves.

Additionally, seeing as how the vast majority of bulbs (QUALITY bulbs) aren't made for that type of wattage, pushing them with that much power would drastically reduce their lifespan; and if you're paying $160+ for a set of Philips/Osrams.... you get where I'm going? Not only that, but the newer Philips/Osram bulbs perform so much better than our stock bulbs that going above 35W isn't really necessary. For example: I currently live in the countryside of Germany where mountain/backroad driving is regular and street lights aren't. However, with an LS460 projector paired with an Osram Nightbreaker Unlimited D2S bulb, I don't even need to use my high beams 90% of the time if I'm the only car on the road.

It's not that the setup is "meh", as you put it. It's just that the Q45's don't have the output/performance of other available projectors, most of which cost less. They're still leaps and bounds better than the stock 2GS HID setup, but the cool looks of the multiple "gatling" lense setup doesn't match the performance of most popular single-lense setups.

 

Gotta agree with Northstyle, I'm running philips ultinon 6000k with stock HID ballast and Q45 and the output is great. It's better than stock HIDs but of course it doesn't compare to LS430/460

 

Like other have said.. I have Morimoto 35 6K's and the output and cutoff is way better then the stock reflectors.
Not as good as the LS retro but I will take the trade off of better output for the awesome look of the gatlin's! ~

 

thanks for pointing out the comparison of projectors. i looked and read for a bit. it seems projectors are a lot better now a days.

doesnt the big bowl help with dissipating the heat? cause i was looking at the comparison between the projectors and the q45s are huge! so with that in mind i figured that going for a 100w set up would be easily accomplished without problems. i have zero experience with 100w hids

i am running a 55w in my fogs and there havent been any problems there either. thats why i figured that the headlight plus the big projector and 100w would be fine

ive done a retro (on another car) back in 02 with some tsx projectors, phillips 4300s, denso slims. its a 35w so no problems anywhere.

 

the main reason you get the Q45 is looks......now I just got the ls430 retro and I am running a ddm 35w hid kit with Philips d2s bulbs in 4300 color. I also have "blazer" projector retro fit fog lights in 6k. I don't like the color difference (my old halogen with hid kit was 6k) so I never turn on my fogs, but honestly I don't even need them. when I get back from vaca I am going to change everything to 5k to match my drl's. that I can use with my high beams and have basically 6 lights all in 5k on at once!!!