All:

Looking to upgrade my lights to these and update the fogs at the same time. Any experience with these kits?

 

I had nothing but positive experience with JWM and my ACA upgrade a few years ago.

He basically outfitted my entire exterior HID/LED upgrade. Below is a link to my original install thread.

The key IMO is not just the ACA housings, but the bulbs, harness, ballasts and other electronics that JWM provides. Since my install in 2010, I have not had any issues with any of my lights. I did however, have to reattach the passenger wiring clip to the fuse box after my stereo installer accidentally disconnected it. No biggie as it was a simple diagnosis.

I do recommend that you install one bulb at a time and then test just in case you need to reverse engineer anything or trouble-shoot. It's harder if you find a problem after you have installed everything.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-g...sion-pics.html

I love the results!

 

No issues with the high beams aim?

 

I bought my HIDs from JWM. Absolutely no problems. I also got the wiring kit that lets the low beam HID lights stay on when the high beams are on. I got the 55 Watt, 5000 K lights and they put out an incredible amount of white light.

 

Wow, those look great. I was going to go this route soon as well. Very nice.

 

These light are a great upgrade. The light out put is help a lot when driving at night. I have the 55w low and high beams. The 4hi harness is a must so your not left waiting for the high beams to warm up when switched on. It leaves the low beams on all the time. As for the overall aim of the lights I notice I seems to aim a little high with the high beams but I don't bother me. I can still see the everything in front of me like it was daylight.

 

None outside of the general aiming issue inherant with the ASA housing design.

Between my 4300 temp HID lows and 4300 temp HID fogs, I pretty much have as much light as I need when driving around town. My highs can be turned on with my lows for any extended remote driving, however I pretty much use them only when I need to flash-to-pass. I kept the highs halogen and installed some Silverstars mostly for that purpose.

One thing for sure is that you will need to re-aim both your HID lows and HID fogs. It's amazing how off mine were after I installed the HIDs. The OEM fogs basically had the output of weak flashlights and they had to be aimed as well. I suggest that you keep the black bezel trim off until after you aim the lights. Make sure you properly lube up the golden rod adjustment arm in the light housings. If you snap it, you can't buy a new replacement from GM as they only sell the light housing kit as a package.

 

We've been selling them for almost 5 years now. The repro version has been out for about 1.5. No other vendor here has more experience with the kit than we do.

Thanks to our customers for chiming in. If you have questions, feel free to contact me direct.

 

I, too, have had nothing but good experiences with JWM's ACA-based headlights (and driving lights) and equally high marks for Jhonathan's customer service.

My personal experience is that the ACA-based HID low beams project a very focused light pattern much further than safety requires, even at 90+ mph. In my view, the ACA's HID low-beams are so good that stock high beam light bulbs add very little, if anything, to the car's lighting (in fact, in my setup the high beams throw a wider, shorter, and MUCH much dimmer, light pattern than do my ACA HID low-beams). Further, the ACA housings do NOT allow separate adjustment for the low and high beams - you aim the entire ACA housing rather than the individual lights within that housing.

Now if you truly NEED HID high-beams (and after driving with my ACAs, I have concluded I don't need them at all), you should consider a bi-xenon HID kit. Bi-xenon kits, which are likely more expensive than JWM's ACA package, operate via a mechanical shutter that blocks, at low beam, the top part of the HID high beam's light path - imagine shutting, half-way, your eyelids. (See Toque's website for a comprehensive discussion of this solution.) I, for one, am skeptical whether that mechanical solution is reliable over time (although I don't know either way). You should also see Radioflyer's website - he offers about the best bespoke lighting solutions for our C5s, including bi-xenon.

Finally, simply adding HID high beams to the ACA housings (without employing the bi-xenon solution discussed above) isn't a good answer since the HID bulbs require one or two seconds' time before they fully light up - not a particularly viable solution if you require quick and/or frequent switching between low and high beams. Now if you need HID high beams solely to drive across lengthy expansions of deserted highway - i.e. the desert southwest - where you can tell that there aren't any oncoming cars/trucks for miles and miles, then that's a different story. But even then, unless driving at triple-digit speeds, the ACA-based HID solution throws out a very bright and focused lighting pattern that safely exceeds my needs.

Just my $0.02 worth.

The Lizzard

 

Some of these ACA kits require grinding down the ribs on the bottom of the headlight brackets prior to fitting the new units. Would I have to do this with the JWM kit on my '04? I think the Radioflyer bi-xenon kit does not require this step.

 

I didn't have to grind down the ribs on mine. But a few others did. It all depends on whether your low beams are correctly aimed (i.e. not too high) after you install the (JWM-sourced) ACA housing. With a bit of luck you won't have to do that, unless you just want to have more vertical adjustability.

The Lizzard

 

I guess you guys helped me make up my mind! Thanks! Order stuff in March to be installed at the end of March beginning of April.