2005 Tundra DC HID Retrofit Progress

[dibble9012]

Well, after looking at Kaleo's retrofit here, I've been inspired and decided to do the same to my truck.

More to come shortly.

[dibble9012]

Ok, today I received the ballasts, bulbs, and potting compound.

Ballasts: ebay, Nissan OEM - $135 for a pair
Bulbs: ebay, 4300k D2S - $50 for a pair
Potting Compound: mouser.com, Part Number 590-832-TC-450ML - $32.95
Temp OEM Toyota headlights: ebay, $85 (This price includes both the passenger and drivers side)


The ballasts I bought are from a Nissan Altima (or pretty much any other Nissan with HID's). When installed in the original vehicle they are sealed inside the headlight housing and are not subject to the engine bay at all. In my situation they will be mounted on the left and right inner fenders (next to battery, and next to airbox). I regularly wash out my engine bay with a pressure washer so I wanted to make sure they would not be ruined, or have the potential to shock or cause a fire. This is where potting comes in. Potting fills the entire ballast enclosure with a thermal conducting / electrical insulating epoxy. Fill the enclosure with epoxy so it won't fill up with water

Here is one ballast as it comes from the factory. Power connection on the side, bulb igniter connection on the flat face.




Notice how there is an open gap along the plug, and the plug itself is not weather resistant.

First things first, open up the enclosure. Only three screws around the perimeter of the case, and then I had to pull the two pieces apart. It took a lot of force, Nissan had applied some really strong sealant to weather proof these. I found out these ballasts are already potted from the factory, but notice that not all the electrical components are covered. Also notice that this ballast had already leaked, so even what Nissan did to prevent water intrusion did not work.


In order to get the best possible seal I needed to drill a few holes in the bottom side of the enclosure. This way the epoxy will fill all the crevices inside.


I screwed it all back together


Then I mix up the epoxy and pour it in the enclosure. I do not have any pictures of this process because I did not want the camera to get dirty. The epoxy is a mess to deal with. To speed up drying time I stuck them in the oven at 180 degrees for an hour.

I also sealed the ignitors (the silver connector in the pictures) using the same process.

Here is what it looks like all finished. And yes, after being in the oven, both ballasts still work fine. The directions on the bottle of epoxy say to wait 30 minutes before pouring to get rid of air bubbles, they mean it If you look at my pictures below, you can see the surface bubbles. Not the cleanest look, but they will be facing the fender so I really don't care.









Just for reference, this is what a D2S HID bulb looks like.

[dibble9012]

Right now my truck is in the body shop getting fixed from an accident, some idiot ran into me in a parking lot.

Anyways, all I really have left to do is get the projectors installed into the headlights. I had already installed upgraded wiring harnesses for both headlights back when the Hella driving lights were installed. So all I have to do to hook the HID's up is wire up a male H4 connector to both ballasts, and install a diode to prevent the low beams from shutting off when the high beams are turned on. I will go into more detail when I am at the point of installing the HID's into the truck.

[kaleo]

The setup so far looks Sweeeeeeeeeet dibble,

As far as the wiring harness is concerned, have you decided on making your own or going with the RS harness? I went with the RS route because I'm not familiar with electronics so I figure buy the harness already made and just have my stereo guy install it.

When it comes time to put everything all together, let me know if you need any help with tips or suggestions to help finish up the project.

Sounds like your gonna have a kick @$$ headlight when your all done

[dibble9012]

I already have the wiring harness installed at the same time I installed the Hella driving lights. I made it myself

[Eddie]

Will you be using the same projectors Kaleo has in his retro?

I potted a pair of Denso "thin" ballasts with that same MG epoxy,was worried that curing them in my oven would render it unsafe for baking purposes afterwards,so I let them cure on my dining table for 48 hours . I kept an eye on them for the first hour or so to pop any air bubbles that surfaced.

I'll be potting a set of modified Bosch ballasts soon,not sure if I want to keep them hard-wired at 70 watts to power the DL50s in my offroad lights or make them switchable from 50 to 70 for my headlights (also DL50).

Dibble does your truck have DRLs or not? The non-DRL headlight systems do not require a diode,lowbeam and highbeam have a common 12v positive. Ground the ballast relay(s) at chassis,not the lowbeam ground (which loses continuity when highs are on).

EDIT:found a pic of one of my potted Densos http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/j...t/DSC00023.jpg

[dibble9012]

Originally Posted by Eddie

Will you be using the same projectors Kaleo has in his retro?

I potted a pair of Denso "thin" ballasts with that same MG epoxy,was worried that curing them in my oven would render it unsafe for baking purposes afterwards,so I let them cure on my dining table for 48 hours . I kept an eye on them for the first hour or so to pop any air bubbles that surfaced.

I'll be potting a set of modified Bosch ballasts soon,not sure if I want to keep them hard-wired at 70 watts to power the DL50s in my offroad lights or make them switchable from 50 to 70 for my headlights (also DL50).

Dibble does your truck have DRLs or not? The non-DRL headlight systems do not require a diode,lowbeam and highbeam have a common 12v positive. Ground the ballast relay(s) at chassis,not the lowbeam ground (which loses continuity when highs are on).

EDIT:found a pic of one of my potted Densos http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/j...t/DSC00023.jpg

The epoxy has hardly any smell at all and did not leave any residue on the oven that I could tell.

My truck does not have DRL's on the headlights. I'll have to take a look at the harness again. It's been a while since I installed that so I don't remember off the top of my head how it was wired. Thanks for the tip! I think if I were to do what you are suggesting, the high beam indicator may not light up on the dash. I'll check and see when I get to that point.

Yes I plan on using the same FX projectors with clear lens that Kaleo used along with the gatling gun shrouds. I will leave my headlights chrome instead of painting them black just to keep it a bit more stock looking (see if I can pass state inspection with them), and I'm going to try and reuse the stock bulb seals. If I had unlimited cash I'd probably go for the LS430 projector but thats a lot more $$$.

[Eddie]

Originally Posted by dibble9012

The epoxy has hardly any smell at all and did not leave any residue on the oven that I could tell.

My truck does not have DRL's on the headlights. I'll have to take a look at the harness again. It's been a while since I installed that so I don't remember off the top of my head how it was wired. Thanks for the tip! I think if I were to do what you are suggesting, the high beam indicator may not light up on the dash. I'll check and see when I get to that point.

I think the indicator will light up if the solenoids are wired in the OEM highbeam wiring...I have a solenoid lying around,I'll test it some time. The solenoids don't draw much current so it's safe to wire them directly,that I know since I tried it,just can't remember the highbeam indicator

[kaleo]

Dibble, you mentioned that your truck doesn't have DRL's? Or do you mean that you don't have them connected? According to your profile, you also got a '05 DC and my '05 has DRL's, but when I got my first pnp kit I just disconnected them.

Just curious to see if I had overlooked something that was probably posted

-Kaleo

[dibble9012]

Originally Posted by kaleo

Dibble, you mentioned that your truck doesn't have DRL's? Or do you mean that you don't have them connected? According to your profile, you also got a '05 DC and my '05 has DRL's, but when I got my first pnp kit I just disconnected them.

Just curious to see if I had overlooked something that was probably posted

-Kaleo

My truck does not and never has had headlight DRL's.

[kaleo]

wow, interesting...oh well, can't wait to see how your retro comes out! keep us posted

[dibble9012]

Yup I'll keep you guys updated! My truck is still in the shop so I can't get the headlights My retro will look exactly like yours except I will leave my headlights the stock chrome instead of painting them black. Mainly this is because of safety inspections here in VA. If I had it my way, all my lights would be blacked out, on the front at least.

Moving on, I just bought my drivers side headlight for 35 bucks on ebay, OEM Toyota part. This way I can drive my truck while the headlights are being retrofitted!

[kaleo]

Hey Dibble,

just a suggestion for you...one of the reasons that I blacked out my housing besides me wanting too was that; when Rich installed the projector into the housing, on the bottom of the gatlin shroud the chrome reflection showed what was behind the shroud. This was on the bottom of the projector and you could see a little bit behind. It wasn't really noticeable until you put your head up against the front of the headlamp and looked at the bottom part specifically.

Rich took some pics for me and sent them to me, but as I'm writing from my new computer, all of my pictures are still on my old laptop which unfortunately is riddled with a stupid virus from a corrupted song I DL'd. But as luck would have it, I managed to save one pic to my photobucket.


This was taken from Rich before he painted it. If you look at 6 o'clock position, you can see what I think is the washer or something that holds the projector to the shroud. I'll try and see if I can yank the rest of my pics from my old computer. Just though i'd try and let you know before you go ahead with your project. Let me know if you need anything else!

-Kaleo

[dibble9012]

Thanks. I don't think it will bother me too much though.

[Eddie]

You can get a larger shroud to cover that screw.

I upgraded my retro a little last night,DL50 bulbs and 50w ballasts...although my own testing pegs these ballasts at around 55w than 50