Amazing 1st Gen Headlamp Upgrade

With the halogens, and the mini projectors the rubber boot should fit fine. The mini projectors, the large portion of the heatsink, comes off to attach the boot, and then you thread that large portion back on. With the last LED bulbs you pictured, the mounting collar gets removed from the bulbs, attached to the bowl, the clip holds it down, and then you reinsert the bulb into the mounting collar. You may be able to stretch the small inner hole of the rubber boot to fit around the LED fan/heatsink body. If not, there are extended boots availble that may fit over the back of the bulb. Just need to measure the collar on the back of the headlight that the boot will grip to get a correct size. Ideally, you want the LED bulb body outside the boot though, to help with cooling of the bulb.

 

Decent image of that here, 3rd pic. Note the heat sink hanging out the back side of the boot.

 

Ok thanks. I think the problem might be that the wire on these particular bulbs comes out the side of the lights body, not the back. Between that and the body being large, there's no way to get the boot on without tearing. Not going to fly once it's winter.

I'll see if I can find more pictures of each bulb to make sure the wiring comes out the back of the body instead of the side. Just want to make sure there's some level of weather seal.

Finding a level surface is currently difficult for me, at least at home, so I've been putting off headlight adjustment. But if it moves up the priority list I can go find a business parking lot and the side of a building. But I've seen no clean cutoff line on my current bulbs and I figure either way I'll want to replace them. Luckily up here in the north this time of year if it's dark I'm in bed. Haven't needed headlights.

 

I obsessed about this for a while until I finally figured out to but the bulb through the boot, fold it back on itself, and then install the bulb in the housing. Afterward just fold the boot back onto the housing.

 

Huh. Yeah that sure seems completely obvious now that you say it, but it never occurred to me.

 

So at this point in time, what do you all believe is the best bulb to order in order to do this conversion.

 

CO Light still sells the one everyone is using @ https://www.led-colight.com/collections/led-light-bulbs

I believe it's the Y6 (fanless). I believe the the Y7S (also fanless) is the upgrade, but I wasn't able to get more info on how the three-way system works.

They also have the Y9 and Y9 Plus now, but they've got fans, so I'm not interested. (if the fan fails, you're melting down).

CO Light seems to have decent support. I'm not sure if you can buy any of the above four on scAmazon or not, but ...

 

Just tried to find these on the Amazon and nothing came up. Can I bother you to post a link? Thanks.

 

Yeah, this. ^ I hadn't seen that three way bulb yet. It's intriguing.

 

The only ones that I am seeing that are fanless on their site right now are the Y7s model but I'm not too sure about the tricolor thing.

 

That link is dead for me.

 

Huh. Yeah, looks like since posting that photo, they're gone. I put a bunch of stuff in my List on scAmazon so I'd remember what I was looking at. That one no longer exists.

 

Alright I’ve had these for a year now. I think for a “drop in” bulb they’re pretty good, but I just want more performance out of my headlights. I can report zero issues. I just want brighter and wider spread. Also might be the time to switch to all clear headlights and turn signals.

 

So far, nothing beats these for a drop in bulb. If I need more light than this, I need auxiliary lights. I used to have a 20" 3 row LED lightbar mounted on my bullbar. It got smoked in the #2 deer strike. Bar is trashed, lightbar survived unscathed. Could mount behind the bumper opening I guess.

 

Single row works great there.
https://www.tundras.com/threads/bumper-cutout-light-bar-install-early-1st-gen.100198/

 

Works great for me, dunno what to tell you. Something blocking it on your end?

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Perhaps

 

You want brighter and wider, bake them bishes open and throw down some 3" bi-led projectors. Plenty of room in the bucket and if you get some that have the threaded shaft the install is easy peasy why the fuck didn't I do this sooner lemon squeezy.

 

I have another brand new pair of housings in the attic too. But I have a REALLY wild idea cooking. Just expensive and idk if it’s going to live up to retrofit technology. They’re really good these days.

 

Now that the days are getting shorter and I'm finding myself driving when it's dark, this is moving up the priority list. It looks like the Y6 is now "upgraded" to having a fan. Fanless is no longer available. I'm strongly considering the Y7. Anyone ever get any answers on how the Y7 switches colors?

I've been assuming it's all internal, nothing I need to do. But I have no idea. Seems like they're updating their descriptions fairly often. It looks like the high beam is pure white, while the low beam is a mix of three light types. So there's no switching. High is bright white, low is mixed types of light to provide all the benefits of those different type lights at once. Yes? That's how I read it.

 

Well I went ahead and ordered the Y7, so I'll let people know.

 

I'm pretty sure all those color switching bulbs work the same way. You turn the light on and it is the first option, you then turn the light off and back on within some amount of time (maybe 5-10 seconds ) and it will switch to the next option. Every time you start the truck or turn off your headlights for a long enough time (again not sure what the time period is) it will default back to the first setting.

 

I added these LED bulbs to my foglights and wow. Really fills in the lighting to compliment the mini projectors.

https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=15106445&cc=1357938&pt=11696&jsn=1519

 

Well I'll let you know when I find out. If they require on/off to switch colors, I assume they'll come with instructions explaining that. I'm actually hoping they operate like the description I posted implies: low beam is a constant mix of three different colors, so that you're always getting the benefit of each different spectrum. High beam is bright white. No on/off switching required. We'll see.

 

that opportunity is long gone haha

 

Help me out here please. I can be dense...

Can you explain this a bit more?

First, do I have the right line? This is the driver side headlight.




Second, I see that there are two adjustment screws, that allow the bulb to rotate on its axis, but I don't see a way to move the entire fixture up/down to get it centered with this line. The fixture sets in its place with the three tabs, and locks in with the metal clip attached to the housing. To have that line dead-center, the entire fixture would need to move up slightly, at least from this viewing angle. I can move it, but I'm prying against the retaining clip. It always sets back in place, flush, when I let go. I'm sure I'm missing something obvious. I usually do.

Rotational screws in red. Metal clip in blue.




Based on a Q&A I saw on the product page, these Y7s are as I feared. You have to switch the headlight on/off to run through each low-beam color setting. It's not all three colors at once, only one at a time. Will confirm once they're installed.

 

Those two lines in your upper pic should be parallel, not on an even plane. That gets the LED "bulb" portion aimed at the appropriate part of the reflector. But I can't see the bulb part of your projector lamp, so I'm not sure if it's lined up or not.

 

Hmm...I'm not understanding your point. Which two lines? You can see the bulb in the reflection at the bottom of the photo. Basically the open side of the fixture is aligned facing down.

Here I'm holding the headlight upside down. Should be able to see the orientation. I believe it's oriented right in the macro scheme of things, as in the open face is pointing down. But in the micro scheme, getting it "pre-adjusted" based on `shifty's post, I'm confused.

 

Maybe this is what he's talking about? Getting this line on the fixture in line with this line on the housing?

If that's the case, I'm good, no adjustment needed.

 

Is this what I'm wanting? Lined up with the silver part? When I turned it to line up with the black part, it was visibly crooked in the housing, kind of cocked facing down and out toward the side of the truck, rather than straight down.




There's this black plastic, which is probably the true dead center, then there's the chrome part. Seems like lining up the chrome part is the right way, based on what I said above. But I don't know...