Nice job on the retrofit and glad to see those brackets work.

I used the Morimoto XB 70mm LED fog lights in mine. Much better for approach light usage IMO. It's almost a direct fit into the stock brackets, just minor metal bending needed.

The original ones came with D1S HID projectors. After they stopped making the originals and sold the molds, the projectors were changed to cheap halogen ones.

The cost of doing the retrofit is around $600, less if you can get deals. I'm unable to find the cheap $100-150 ACA knockoffs on Ebay, only the $300+ Taiwan ones. Brackets are about $55 on sale (Lightwerkz run 15-25% discounts every so often), Morimoto Mini H1 7.0 full kit is around $230 on sale, Acme H1 is in the $100-130 range.

 

Thanks for all the info. I’ll have to do some thinking now.

 

I got my ACA's middle of last year when a vendor on here finally got them back in stock. At the time all the ebay ones were stupid expensive. It seems I paid under $250 since I didn't get the HID kit with them.

That's about my luck, could have saved a few bucks on the brackets! I've retrofitted 7.0s, Acme and generic H1's. Had I not had Acme on hand, I'd used the generic's without thinking twice. I'd used generics over 7.0's too, while they are a little better than the 3, they're just not worth the $90 difference to me.

Awesome about the 70mm XB's, the one's I used on the WS6 were basically JW knock-offs I believe. Maybe I'll get lucky and find some knockoff 70mm!

 

After driving the car on the way to work at night for 5 days this week, I'm pissed I didn't do this sooner. It's literally a night/day difference. The width, cutoff, distance is unreal compared to the original ACA projectors. The high beams (projector and regular halogen high beam bulb) is unreal, it's like daylight. I checked how well they're sealed after driving in the rain a couple of days and all is good.

I do have a set of high beam (9005) LED bulbs on the way from good ole China to hopefully make them a little better. I wish there was more room behind the high beam side to get one with a heat sink and fan, but I don't think it's possible due to limited space and the arms for the headlight motor is there as well.

I may have located some waterproof projectors for the fog lights, but need to take some measurements. They're also bi-xenon which will be a nice addition.

I did have a chance to inspect some Morimoto 7.0's. I do believe they would make for a little easier install. Due to their design, they should fit properly in the brackets so no spacers would be needed. You would to silicone between the bracket and projector to seal the gap, but that's all you'd need to do. If I had to do it all again, I'd still go the same route I took to save the cash. Just figured I'd share the info in case anyone didn't want to use the spacers.

 

Had an idea to take a few shots with my Inspire.

 

Maybe I missed it...how to you wire in the deflector/shade/shield that is down when just low beams then raise for high beams? Seriously considering attempting this even though I have the lousy grey plastic housings. Also, did you use any sort of shims to correct the slight offset in the High and Low beams? It seems like my high beams are aimed higher than the lows so I never can get both sets properly aimed.

 

Wow, neat thread. Those pics really have me thinking about doing this to my ACA's. Always wanted more from my setup and my uneven light is obvious.
Do the stock ACA's use H1 bulbs? I cant remember which kit I used. $100 to do this upgrade looks like a great project for me. Looks too easy to say no

 

The general method is by splicing it into the high beams. What I do is run a 9005 splitter harness and plug the shield solenoid into that. The splitter is only a couple dollars and doesn't harm the stock wiring.

The original ACAs are D1S HID projectors. The current ones are H9 bulbs. Cost is a bit more than $100, brackets are about $55 when on sale and an Acme projector kit is around $100.

 

Any pics of how you did it? I think it makes sense but visual aids help.
I think I might grab a set of the amazon projectors that InfinateReality posted as well as the adapter plates and give it a try.

 

The area under my headlights are a bit of a mess due to all the custom modifications I have done. This is the splitter I'm talking about:

 

Great, thank you sir. That's what I thought you were talking about but wasn't 100%.

 

No problem and good luck.

 

I'd honestly recommend the Amazon projectors to save a few bucks. There's no difference in them versus acme, other than the box. I was able to compare the Acme ones to some generic H1s I use to test fit and we're identical in every aspect.

I may test is how much better it'd be if I just replaced the lense on the stock projectors. Maybe itd clean up the cutoff some, just kind of curious.

 

For the $30ish bucks shipped I think that they are worth a try. I can get a set of bulbs off eBay and use them with the plug and play ballasts I have already. Just need to pull one of the housings and be sure that I can get the projector out like you did. I thought I had read previously that they were actually "glued" with the cover plate. I'll have a better idea when I get the time to pull it and try...

 

I've seen their outputs and are legit. I'd buy them without thinking twice. For what it's worth I got my ACA last June from a vendor. They do look like they're glued but it's actually sealant to it's own housing/flange

 

Do you guys have a solution or recommendation for the wonderfully annoying bulb jiggle while driving? That jiggle flicker can be annoying at times. I want to say that it is an inherit issue with the pop up mechanism.

 

I can't say I've noticed any bulb jiggling. I have noticed driving with good projectors in a sports car, that due to the stiffer suspension you can see the cutoff line move up and down over bumps since it's so defined. Due to the sloppy ACA projector cutoff this wasn't noticable but now having good ones it is. I also noticed this as well in the quad bi-xenon setup in the WS6 (Koni/BMR suspension)

 

Yeah, I notice it all the time with stock ACA projectors on my commute. I have a 93 mile one way commute so see it plenty at night on street sights and what not. Kinda annoying but at the same time it's a low priority on the issues scale. More concerned about getting better quality light output and focus than I am getting now. Doing a quad projector set up would be the most visually appealing to me but that would require some pretty custom work to get the projectors in the reflector housing on the ACAs.

 

Great job! Thanks for sharing.

How thick are those Lightwerkz brackets?
Are you using 35Watts or 55 Watts ballasts?

 

I agree with the quad bi-xenon setup would rock. I've had it before on the WS6 and was unreal. I want it again and think it's possible, but would need a spare set of ACA lights to cut out (permasealed). Maybe one day!

I meant to measure them, but never did. They looked 1/8" though. I'm running 55w ballasts.