| JARMDX |
For those of you with '04s that have replaced your H11 halogen bulbs with rebased HID lamps, there is an easy modification you can make to your projectors via the socket where the HID bulb mounts.
Many of you may have noticed an extra rectangular shaped box of light on top of the cut-off line (see picture in attachment).
The cause of this rectangle is actually by design, however is exagerated by the brighter HID bulb. I have discovered this by taking apart the headlamp assemblies to modify the projector to accept a standard D2S HID lamp and to clear the corners (see links below):
http://hidforum.com/forum/showthrea...=&threadid=5264
http://www.acuramdx.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17456
The stock projector has a "cut-off" shield with a rectangle cut below (inverted due to convex lens) the cutoff line. This rectangular window has a deflector plate which blocks direct light from the lamp, but allows light reflected off the bottom of the projector reflector bowl to shine out through the rectangle (see photo of stock projector shield attached to post below.)
To reduce (or eliminate) this light, the angled subshield that covers this rectangle needs to be bent forward/down to close the amount of light escaping through the rectangle opening. This can be accomplished by GENTLY bending in and down (towards the front of the vehicle) on this small subshield with a pencil eraser through the lamp socket.
BE CAREFUL NOT TO OVERBEND OR BREAK THIS SMALL SHIELD. I suggest bending this subshield in a slight amount each time and checking the progress after each bend.
If you do break this small shield, you may end up having to take the entire headlamp apart to epoxy this plate over the rectangular opening (unless you are good at "building ships in bottles"). If you do have to take the headlamp apart, all is not lost as you then have an excuse to clear the corners!
Cheers,
JARMDX |
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| JARMDX |
Picture of '04 MDX projector shown in inverted position.
Note rectangular opening and small subshield / deflector... |
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| jswift2000 |
Jar,
You have hit the nail on the head. Toyota does the same thing on their halogen projectors to help illuminate road signs above the road. Nice post and very informative. I check out the thread on HID Forum - what projectors are you going to use - stock, valeo, e39, e55, audi, etc.
Once again, thanks for the post.
Jeff |
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| JARMDX |
quote:
Originally posted by jswift2000
Jar,
You have hit the nail on the head. Toyota does the same thing on their halogen projectors to help illuminate road signs above the road. Nice post and very informative. I check out the thread on HID Forum - what projectors are you going to use - stock, valeo, e39, e55, audi, etc.
Once again, thanks for the post.
Jeff
Jeff,
I end up using a modified MDX projector. Modified the shield as discussed above as well as bending cut-off slightly inward to improve blueness at cut-off point.
Although not totally necessary, I swapped in Audi A6 (Hella) HID projector lenses as they had less sever grooves cut in lense.
The Hella HID projector bowls were too big to fit in place of the stock H11 projector bowls and would required significant modificiation. After removing the tangs that hold the H11 bulb, the D2S bulb dropped right in with correct focal length. The only thing I needed to do was epoxy (JB Weld) threaded spacer to allow hold-down screws for the D2S HID lamps.
Regards,
JARMDX |
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| phins2rt |
jar,
Do you have any pics of the cutoff after you modified the shield? I am anxious to see that cutoff. Thanks.
So does this mean you are staying with the original projectors and not doing a retro? |
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| JARMDX |
quote:
Originally posted by phins2rt
jar,
Do you have any pics of the cutoff after you modified the shield? I am anxious to see that cutoff. Thanks.
So does this mean you are staying with the original projectors and not doing a retro?
phins2rt,
I ended up modifying and using the stock projector. I had planned on trying to adapt Hella HID projectors but they were considerably bigger and required significant modification to the MDX head light assembly.
I made new (thicker, and difficult to bend) cut-off shields, but their performance was not much better than the stock shield, therefore I ended up bending the stock shield inward towards the lamp by ~2mm and bent the subshield covering the rectangular opening down by ~20 degrees(as described in this post).
The picture in this post has the stock shield where I bent it in ~2mm, but before I bent the subshield down ~20 degrees.
Regards,
JARMDX |
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| phins2rt |
quote:
Originally posted by JARMDX
phins2rt,
I ended up modifying and using the stock projector. I had planned on trying to adapt Hella HID projectors but they were considerably bigger and required significant modification to the MDX head light assembly.
I made new (thicker, and difficult to bend) cut-off shields, but their performance was not much better than the stock shield, therefore I ended up bending the stock shield inward towards the lamp by ~2mm and bent the subshield covering the rectangular opening down by ~20 degrees(as described in this post).
The picture in this post has the stock shield where I bent it in ~2mm, but before I bent the subshield down ~20 degrees.
Regards,
JARMDX
So not a ton more color? Of course you are pretty close to the garage door in that pic. Does the color get better when you are further away? Have the little UFOs above the cutoff disappeared? |
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| harn20 |
| phins2rt : isn't that my MDX pic from my other post ?:D |
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| JARMDX |
quote:
Originally posted by harn20
phins2rt : isn't that my MDX pic from my other post ?:D
Yes it is! I never inserted D2S HID bulbs into unmodified projectors, therefore I did not have pictures...
I do have a picture after the modification shown below. It seems to be more colorful in person than shown in the picture below... |
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| phins2rt |
quote:
Originally posted by JARMDX
Yes it is! I never inserted D2S HID bulbs into unmodified projectors, therefore I did not have pictures...
I do have a picture after the modification shown below. It seems to be more colorful in person than shown in the picture below...
Looks real good, jar!!:29: |
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