So my GF just picked up a 98 QX4. She really wants HIDs in it but Im not sure its possible to do it. The headlights arent the “clear” kind. 97 an 98 QX4’s came with that “hazey” or whatever type of headlights. 99-00 came with clear headlights and 01-present came with completely differant styled HID equiped healights. If I were to get her HIDs for Xmas, Do you think that they would work at all with her style headlights? Her Idea was to try them in her headlights that she has now and if they suck, then try to find some 99-00 styled ones. What do you think?
they will suck in the ons you have , if she passes a cop she will most likely get a ticket
check ebay for the smooth headlights, especialy if she can get ones either
a) already fully equiped with the hid equipment
b) hid headlights that have ben stripped of their hid bulbs / ballasts
converting stock lamps should be used as the backup plan whenever you can get factory hid lite housings
the less smooth the lense is, the more glare it will have, and any unit that has just a chrome reflector can have realy bad glare w/ hids
Dont bother. If the headlamps had projectors in them then you might be able to get away wit just a “kit”. You need to buy 2 complete headlights from a 01+, then ballasts and bulbs. This conversion will EASILY cost OVER $1000. I told you she should have bought a 01+ QX4.
Your best option is to buy her and install auxiliary HID driving lights. Its better not to buy FOG lights. A Fog lamp beam pattern is not the same as a driving light beam pattern.
Something like this. Osram, Sylvania or Hella is 10x better then the shit “conversion” kits you see out. Check it:
A kit like this usually retails for over $600 so I would jump on this.
The 99-00 headlights have a “diamond cut” clear housing. The 01+ headlights dont fit on her truck. They re-did the front end of the truck in 01 and the headlights are a little different. Is there a way to retrofit the driving lights shown above into 99-00 “diamond cut” clear headlight housings?
^^^ just stick them in the bumper on either side of the license plate and make sure they are aimed perfect
she wont like that. If anything, she would want them to be retroed into her 99-00 headlights. Isnt there someone on the board who does retro’s? I thought it was you?
A retro is going to cost you about $800
ive heard im the one to talk to about retrofits , lol … but i dont even have a full retro under my belt yet, longs are still chillin in my room cause i have to fiberglass the hell out of them and no warm place to do it
personaly i would say to put then in one of the lower fog light spots. it would be relativly easy to turn one of those lights into just an extrior shell, and set the above system into it, then just fab a cover for the rear thats easily removed for service , that way you cant see thru the unit and out the back
these headlights, right ?
looks like they retained the fenders, and made roor for a tallet headlight with a thinner filler strip and then changed the grill over to the newer design, so another option could be the HID headlamps & fillers and either
a) get the new grill & paint it
b) trim the stock grill and run a bit of touch up paint along the edge to get it all brown again
dealership touch up paint & clear can be used to obtain a very nice finish if you have a warm clean workspace , some fine sand paper and some compound. i managed to paint an entire audi spoiler like that as schmitts one day
~piant this now, the customer will be in at 830 for teh install
the paint wont be delivered till 10
~rattle can it !!!
ok, but anything that happens is NOT my fault