6G Celicas Forums

here you can see the straight cut-off

I have the money to buy the JDM projectors and I am willing to convert them to LHD. My only question that I want to make clear is: Are the modified projectors absolutely safe to use on US roads? I am sorry if this question has been answered before, but I want to make sure considering that they aren't cheap and I wouldn't want to buy them just so they can sit in my closet.

After they are modified, they are essentially exactly the same as any projectors sold here in the States. The only difference is the lack of a DOT stamp on your newly modified projectors.

haha legal. that word does not exist when it comes to my celica

I just wanted to chime in on something I learned while doing this mod.
There are two types of cutoffs. One is for halogen lights, and the other is for HID lights. The factory headlights are not only setup for right hard drive, but they are also setup for halogen lights, not HIDs.

Here is a typical cutoff for halogen lights. including the light output:




Now here is a cutoff for an HID bulbs:




So do not attempt to replicate the same 45 degree cutoff that is in the factory projector. You'll just end up shooting your beam up into the sky and blinding people walking on the sidewalk. The cutoff should be straight like in Fastbirds first post, or a very minimal step, but nothing as drastic as what is done with the factory toyota cutoff.

And on a side note, you can use a heat gun to separate the glass housing. No need to stink up your oven or a pot of water you'll later use to cook your dinner.

This post has been edited by lagos: Mar 16, 2013 - 3:25 PM

cool you are able to park the car in the living room. brah!

I was thinking the same thing!

Not my pic, but I wouldn't mind having my car in the living room with me at all times.

Finally got around to doing this myself today. I will echo Sean's sentiment:


During the entire disassembly of the first light, I was stressing out. By the time I had affixed my new cutoff, I realized there was really no reason to worry. I was going to emulate the stepped USDM HID cutoff as posted above by Lagos, but decided against it and went with a straight cutoff. I picked up some of the butyl rubber from Nissan that njccmd used, that stuff was very easy to work with and didn't make a mess like black RTV would. It cost me $29, money well spent. After being so nervous about getting this job started, I will say that there's no reason not to do this, as it's a much easier mod than it sounds.

This is one of the better write-ups I have seen on a car forum, great step-by-step guide with pictures. I have a set of JDM projectors waiting to go into my 96 ST205 and was looking into doing this mod and this thread has the best information on the subject I could find.

Since it has been awhile, I wonder if anybody that has done this mod has noticed any problems with the seals (moisture inside the lenses)?

I did the mod about a month or two ago, and using the Nissan sealant that Richee3 and nccmjd2002 suggested, I've had no problems with moisture build-up at all - and it's rained quite a bit here in North Carolina recently.

I think you will be alright if you take your time and use the right materials.

This post has been edited by Keiri: Oct 9, 2013 - 3:09 PM

I have had no problems with mine. They're still on the car, still sealed, car sat outside (cry!) from Jan of 2011 through Jan of 2013 due to no garage. Get a good bead of RTV into the groove and you'll be fine.

Was that $30 a light?

I just did mine, first light took little longer, second one 45 mins! it is not that hard! I used oven to baked the light instead of boiling water, 225F per heat then turn oven off, set light in oven for 7mins, if not open I will try another 5 mins!

Thank you for all detail step by step!

noooooooo, everything is gone in this thread....

This post has been edited by mkernz22: Oct 6, 2017 - 6:19 PM

Give me a couple of days, I’ll try to get everything back up.

Don't do a flat cutoff :lol: You want more light to shine down the side of road you're driving on and the shoulder. Flat cut-offs are for fog lights down low so they don't glare up into oncoming traffic. Do the stepped 'HID' cutoff, but bear in mind that the headlight bowl and lens are built for a halogen light source so light distribution from a HID capsule won't be exactly the same. Some halogen units do fairly well with HID and some do not. On a whole many Toyota (Koito) halogen projectors do fairly well but tend to lack a good hot spot for far distance lighting and tend to wash out the foreground a bit more than is optimal. I haven't seen inside the JDM projector light, but there's a good chance that the projector unit can be removed and a true HID projector unit installed in the headlight and have that real HID bling! The SC430 and LS430 projectors are amazing Koito units, but expensive and harder to come by. You can swap a bi-xenon unit as well and get HID high and low beams. If there's room there's also some readily available low beam LED units from Koito with near HID performance and low/high LED units with HID like performance. There's also aftermarket LED and HID units around some of which are pretty good parts, the Chinese G5-R projector is really impressive for the price but a bit bulky.

Well, I was able to save one whole picture... Better than none, I guess. Let me dig through my own Photobucket account to see what pictures I still have.

Edit: A few pictures I was able to find still on Google. None of the following pictures are in any particular order.












Here's what I dug up out of my own Photobucket account.

funny is that 56k is going to feel it? lol, oh those times. i may have my pics somewhere available.

Yes, that headlight is a GREAT example of one that has room to fit a real HID projector into it! That is for sure a Koito halogen low beam unit, it's not far off from what's in the 7th gen Celica actually. A simple adapter plate to snap into the factory adjusters and you could bolt in whatever HID projector would fit that ample available space. I can't remember the guys name but there's a member on HIDP that makes custom steel plates just for this kind of thing and they work perfect, they let you reuse the factory adjustment. The only possible concern would be the room behind the rear of the headlamp.
https://www.hidplanet.com/forums/

Is that a 2, 2.5, or 3 inch lens on the projector? That projector body looks super familiar. It looks like it's using a H1 halogen bulb?

This post has been edited by Bitter: Oct 8, 2017 - 9:37 AM