I remember this as well. D2R applies to us folks with OEM HID low beams. A little precautionary research can save a lot of headache.

 

I can also tell you that these hooks are DA BOMB!

$90 worth of groceries and it only took up HALF the cargo space!




They were surprisingly strong. Held watermelons, 2 liter sodas, gallon of milk and they didn't even bend!

 

You'd die in the heat in Florida with all the black. Haha...luckily you're in New York, not that the sun doesn't shine there either. Is that a bichon frise? My fiancee LOVES those little puppies! I'm surprised you didn't plastidip them either since they only come in all white. Keep up the good work!

 

I don't know if it's because I'm coming from a cloth top blacked out convertible or of it's all the 5% tint all around, but it's really not that bad inside. It doesn't really feel like it's 120 inside when it's 100 outside. Or I'm still use to the heat from the middle east, lol, but I definitely do think the extremely dark tint made a huge difference in rejecting heat. Only 2/3 of my front windshield is the only part of the entire vehicle that doesn't reject over 90% of heat from the sun.

 

I can assure you, our window tint is what's keeping us from sweltering in the heat!

I used to think it was a myth that lighter color cars were cooler inside than a darker color vehicle. I proved that myth a fact when I worked at the port here in town for a high school job at Southeast Toyota Distributors. It's exactly what you're thinking of...it's the port where Toyotas and Lexus come off the ship straight from Japan, practically coming naked. Badgeless, radio-less, hell - the trucks don't even come with undercoating. Because some didn't have A/C, and I was a porter/driver, we would literally RACE to any white, cream, or light colored car in the huge field of new cars to drive because even if the particular model came with A/C, you weren't in the car for more than 3 minutes before you were going to find another car. The lighter colored cars, were incredibly noticeable in temperature sitting next to the black, dark colored cars that you'd hop into within minutes apart on a hot Florida summer day.

Long live Project Blackout though! Glad you're doing it and not me!

 

 

Okay, stopped by a dark wall on the way home, got a few shots and a video showing the DDM HIDs in the stock halo projector along with my A/V setup.








I'm not sure how it compares to the factory HIDs, but I am really stoked about having real HID cutoffs! This is my first car with stock projectors!

 

Halogen projectors aren't focused the same as HID projectors due to the way the bulbs output light. Halogen bulbs are 360 degree output, where as HID's by design are side firing/output. Because of this, the shape of the reflector and lens is different, as is bulb spacing from the glass. Some Halogen projectors will output OK with HID's, some will not. Generally (IMHO) HID's in halogen projectors are still better than halogen reflectors of any sort, which is why I have no problem helping out any of the ES guys with HID or other lighting/optics questions.

Now, this is the first I've seen the actual output of HID's in the Outlander Sport's Stanley projectors, and I must say that the cutoff is pretty sharp for a "plug 'n play". There is some noticeable glare above the cutoff, but it doesn't look to be too intense, so it shouldn't blind oncoming traffic. The cutoff shape is also a bit different. Yours seems to have a little curve with a point on the far right, where as the OEM has the standard "stepped" design with the little angles in the center.

Overall, yours looks really good. Now hopefully people will stick with HID's in the headlights and avoid the fog lights.

Does the ES have the leveling system?


Just for comparison, here is the OEM HID output:








And the OEM HID's on the SE model have the "Super wide" system, which is actually pretty awesome:

 

I'm not sure where the little light output above the cut off is coming from, maybe the super bright led bulbs I have in the parking markers, because I stood in front of the headlights, crouched down until the cutoff is just below my eye and I couldn't get any glare except for the led parking lights. If this is really good for aftermarket HIDs in factory projectors, then I can't imagine having factory HIDs!

and no, there's no leveling switch for the ES

 

Next time you're out there, try covering the LED's and see if that stops the glare. I'll laugh if that's the issue lol. They are pretty good for aftermarket HID's. The only major difference I see is that yours are a bit more of a hot-spot in the center than the OEM, but as long as you can see well at night and they're not blinding oncoming drivers you should be ok.

And that sucks about the leveling, it's a nice feature on the SE's.

 

manual leveling is mah... just ok.
I rather prefer auto leveling, Damn Mitsu - They have auto everything else. Why couldn't they just add this feature too.

 

I completely agree, but manual leveling is better than no leveling


I want to say that some sort of leveling system is required by NTHSA for any OEM HID projector set-up... but don't quote me on that.

 

Finally installed HIDs in my high beams. Took me about an hour to figure out how to tackle this since I couldn't fit everything inside the headlight housing. I ended up dissembling the harness that goes through the headlight cover so I could pull the wires out of it, then drilling the hole big just big enough to fit the HID bulb harness through it. Then I electrical taped all the connections up and zip tied the wires to wherever. I ended up tucking the ultra slim ballasts under the front bumper cover that has all the grommets and zip tying those in one of the holes on the frame for good measure. I did forget to cover up the hole I enlarged though. Gotta figure out what should I fill it with. Maybe use a glue gun?

I've heard of HID bulbs taking a while to fully heat up, but I had no problems flicking my flashers. They turned on instantly. Maybe HIDs and ballasts have advanced over the years?

Halogen vs HID



I don't know why it looks so blue in the pictures, but in person it's almost pure white




Tomorrow I will tackle on my backup camera. It turns out that it doesn't utilize the stock hole for the camera. It's one of those cameras attached to your license plate bulb case, so the seller lied with that advertisement of the OEM camera, but he refunded me all my money because I left negative feedback and I needed a new license plate bulb housing anyways since I broke the retaining clip on mine, lol.

 

^
impressive.

But, I'm not too keen on drilling holes in the headlight housing/lens... Too bad it couldn't JUST fit.

 

No no no, it's the back cover. There's already a hole, I just enlarged it so I can push the little HID harness sockets through.

This thing