COlight mini-projector lifespan

I think it may be the latter.

With or 2020 Highlander w/projectors, I start seeing the cutoff lines on speed limit (and similar rectangular) signs at a little less than a football field's distance away. I have a street I need to drive a few days a week to drop the kids off, so I was able to drive the Highlander, see where I start to noticer cutoff over a few days time, dial in my mini-projectors at home, and confirm I was hitting around the same as the Highlander on that stretch.

But it seems like the ballpark for cutoff is around 100yds out for a standard-height stop sign.

 

Mine may be pretty close then. I could not see the cutoff on the ground anywhere in front of me, no one flashed me on the way home (after cranking them down at the airport a solid 20 degrees or more).
You can see how far down I had to point the drivers to get it aimed better

 

How's your aiming on yours @shifty` ?

 

I had to point mine down pretty far too. Not that far, but yeah, it makes the top edge of your headlight housing a lot more noticeable.

Maybe I'm just in an area where people are used to assholes with constant hi beams, but I was able to adjust mine further upwards than I expected to be able to. Like, I originally adjusted mine that far down, but I ended up adjusting them back up a bit. Nobody has flashed their hi beams at me. I parked my other car 20-25 feet in front of the truck and made sure that they weren't too high.

 

Mine sit flush to the blinker, I'm pretty sure. I wonder if it's different for the 00-04 fixtures?

I initially dialed mine in at the house, then went on a drive, and adjusted until I sat about 1" below the trunk line of cars in front of me, like this. And regarding my upward scatter comment, this is what I saw.

I'll snap a pic up close of my housigns on the way out. All I have is this pic from when I parked this AM. Yes, I take random ass pics of my truck. I like it that much. And no, the parking space isn't painted straight on the passenger side. This deck is striped horribly awkward.

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Others can correct me if I'm wrong, but the products sold by "BraveWay" and "COlight" seem to be the same products. I'm not sure about others, but you can buy the COlight ones on ScAmazon or directly from their website. I believe they're normally very comparable in price, but for some reason the BraveWays had a huge sale. I paid $60 for my COlights on ScAmazon.

 

.... And don't harass me to sell, I already passed the killer deal along to another member who needs more than me.

 

Same here

 

This is strange. On my 05, the headlight is attached to the body at 3 points, one up top near fender, one inside corner near grill, and 1 outside under turn signal assembly. When I adjust my lightbulb, the reflector bowl inside the light attached to the adjustment screw is the only thing that moves not the whole headlight assembly. What gives??

 

mine is same.

 

Im not so sure about that. I got a fix it ticket for having Blue clearance lights on my motorcycle, and my buddy in his Tacoma got a fix it ticket for having blue front clearance lights.

Both of these occurred in Santa Cruz.

 

Ticket from who? Had to be county sheriffs or city cops. It was a CHP that I heard that from. I see big rigs on the fwy with blue fronts often, but that's a state highway. I'm not sure if my local laws are any different.

At least they're just fix-it tickets, eh?

 

May have to get me some 05-06 headlights when I replace these then. I do have a 2” or so lift up front with the 5100s and my rear springs are OE tired. Borderline bro-lean with the campershell now. Probably contributing to the extreme headlight angle needed.

 

It still strange to me that the lamp is physically angled like that. Usually the reflector bowl inside is attached to a pivot point and when you adjust the adjustment screw it just moves the bowl on that pivot point inside the headlight not the whole outside headlight assembly. I have had an issue once on a retrofit where the projector I used naturally pointed downward somewhat because of its design and when I maxed out the headlight adjustment I had to shim the light assembly mounting bolts using a couple of washers.

Some projectors include a silicone washer that is molded thick on one side and thin on the opposite side to help mitigate the projector being too low or too high and keeping sufficient adjustability inside the headlight assembly.

 

I forgot whether it was Sheriff or City Police, but it was not CHP.

The said only deputized officers can display blue lights.

I heard that’s a reason they were going to change blue racing lights to green.

 

Just found this. I guess the law must’ve changed sometime in the last 5 years or so. I doubt a CHP would give incorrect info regarding legal vehicle requirements.
Also, read in a couple different articles that red, blue, and green are the most likely to warrant a stop and possibly a citation.

California Headlights Type and Installation Law
California Vehicle Code 25950 states that headlights must be installed at a height of not more than 54 inches but not less than 22 inches. Section 25950 additionally mandates that all front lights should be in the white or yellow color spectrum. This color of light is sufficient to illuminate a driver’s front view.


California Fog Lights Law
Fog lights are supplemental lights installed at a downward angle to illuminate the ground when driving through fog. These are legal in California, but the state’s vehicle code has these conditions:

• A vehicle must not turn on more than two fog lamps at a time.
• Fog lamps must be used with, not instead of, regular headlights.
• Fog lights must be in the white to yellow color spectrum.
• A vehicle must not be equipped with more than eight headlamps at a time.
• A vehicle must not turn on more than four front lamps at a time.

 

$50. Not bad

https://a.co/d/8TqP2Pk

 

Ouch.

 

Rubbins racin

 

.....back to the drawing board

 

I suspect @RUSTYNUTS will find similar on his truck, but I think he'll find one or more of the LEDs are either burnt or non-functional. Ultimately what @artsr2002 posted happens in production, even with name brands. But probably to a higher degree with these parts, as I highly doubt they received as much QA/QC as, say, a Sylvania invests. Which is one of a few reasons Sylvania charges more.

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Got em last night. I will take pics when I swap them in a bit.

 

1 new, and 1 failed after 2 years of use

 

Yup, same as the scAmazon part from the review @artsr2002 posted above. Interesting. So obviously these have a failure point. And indeed, that spot is exactly on the back side of the LED chip.

It would appear these may have a design flaw, wherein the wires aren't heat-shielded, and the LED chip is getting so hot, it's melting the wire sheath, and wires are arc'ing together?

@RUSTYNUTS you should go into scamazon site, go to 'orders', look up your old order, and review/update your review to upload pictures to share. I wonder if this is why BraveWAY was purging at that price? Maybe they're aware there's a problem with these bulbs melting down, and they're planning to dump and run?

There are some subtle differences in the two packages also, it's totally possible they fixed the issue in the latest versions, also.

 

I can't believe some of you put new projectors in old ass yellow housings.
Buy some new housings off Rock Auto.

 

I installed my first set of mini-projectors into brand new black-chrome aftermarket housings. To be fair, none of us replying up in here have installed legit projectors. These mini-projectors are an attempt to get the benefits of a projector, without the hassle and work of actually retrofitting, which is much more involved, as well as more costly.

 

Yeah and the results from the mini projectors actually look better than my full size projectors.

I'm just giving people shit for putting them in old oxidized housings.

 

I was previously unaware that you got projectified. It's really as simple as a bulb change so......meh. Now, if someone were to go full retro-projecto, as you have done, but into old oxidized housings...... off with their heads! That's almost as bad as buying a new set of wheels, and mounting old cracked and bald tires on them.

 

Well, kids, I called it. The price drop WAS in fact their way of purging inventory. Both CO LIGHT and BraveWAY have pulled this projector off the market. CO LIGHT doesn't even have it at their website anymore.

I may break down and buy CO LIGHT's other fanless bulb and give it a shot during the holidays. I'm hovering to see if they put out the $75 fanless H4 projector at their website on scAmazon.