pseudonym

Looked up the member who you’re referring to and the threads you’re talking about and with the amount of praise these vleds get and lifespan without the need to bake and perform surgery to install, I’m ordering right now.

Do you just install them in place of the halogens? Hows the light output vs halogens and of course, their lifetime?

Oh yeah I'm anticipating it will be. If only there were an easier way to install better (longer lasting) lights in this thing.

 

Here’s the concept I whipped up for my plans. Interested to see how it turns out.

I would just clean the headlights and throw the Laminx over them once the clearcoat is dry. It seems like a lot of work to crack open headlights and have to possibly bake them.

 

The cracking open I'm referring to is in order to convert to xenon in place of the halogens. Not for the cleaning/tinting process.

 

The end result hopefully will be headlights that won't go yellow from UV and eliminating the need to change my lightbulbs twice a year.

Glad to hear the praise for laminx. It's looking like my weekend will be filled with wetsanding/buffing/polishing/ReNuLite to get these things looking new and ordering the Laminx and installing when they get here.

 

I'm not exactly looking forward to cracking these open to install the xenon replacements. Anyone know if this is a relatively straight-forward install once the glass has been removed? I know the brackets are laser cut and all that but i cant exactly keep this thing off the road with it being my daily driver.

Have you recently upset a very clever girlfriend?

Awesome, thanks for all the help here guys. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this finally satisfies me and I can stop making headlight posts.

 

There is a kit on theretrofitsource.com that drops in. Projectors with laser cut brackets. https://www.theretrofitsource.com/morimoto-retroquik-subaru-legacy-CRK-RQ-LEGACY?quantity=1

 

Member brunzo here has also posted details of his own conversion including the bi-xenon projector type he used and bracket dimensions, and he has found links to premade brackets on aliexpress and kindly posted them too.

That route may come out cheaper, have not done the math yet. (For euro/jdm/ausdm/rest of the world lights, not sure yet if they fit the US lights).

 

There are films specifically for headlights and limited previous research says they have UV protection for what you want.

 

Some info and pics on headlight retrofits here:

https://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/did-you-do-your-5th-gen-todayii-v4-267765.html?p=5923624#post5923624

 

Link to prefab brackets posted here:

https://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/2012-legacy-liberty-gt-dim-low-beam-282880p2.html

 

Just to be clear, with the retrofit kit, a ballast is necessary for these to work? And as far as "drop in", does this involve baking and removing the glass/plastic/whatever it is in front of the projectors?

 

I believe Lamin-X sells headlight film that is tinted.

 

 

Edit: here is the link

 

https://lamin-x.com/subaru-legacy-10-12-headlight-covers.html

 

 

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I've never gone the laminx route, I was actually considering going to a shop that does this stuff which I'm sure costs way more. Anyone try laminx on here without issue?

My 2010 OEM lights are starting to show their age and I know sanding and putting a UV protectant on will clear them up, but I also know that that will turn into a yearly project. I've tried aftermarket headlights but holy shit what a terrible experience aiming them. What I did like about them was the mild tint they had that looked great on my black car. I'm curious if I were to clean/buff/whatever my OEM housings and then have someone put a tint film on them, would they still yellow, and if they did, could you even tell under the film?

 

Sidebar, are there any decent tutorials on retrofitting HID/xenon/whatever lights into our OEM housings?

Yea thats beyond the scope of what I feel like doing.

You could always do what I did, but it is a lot of work (at least it was to me).

 

 

and that would be?

 

So I'm seeing that some euro/japanese models come with xenon/hid from the factory as well as black housings? Is there a source for those I'm unaware of? Beyond that, are the connections different or something that would make a swap of this nature more of a headache than its worth?

Reviving this to update that I've put the stock housings back in place once the bulbs burnt out on the aftermarket replacements. Once the factory housings went back in, I realized just how badly I must've been blinding other drivers for months with the aftermarkets. As mentioned in this thread, the adjustments are a massive pain in the ass and in the end aren't effective. So I'm back on the hunt for another set of headlight housings. I'm thinking of doing a junkyard search for some OEM's that I can modify with something from retrofit source. I really did enjoy how good the darker housing looked so I'm considering getting them professionally tinted.

The output is the same but I really need to adjust the height.

ill post better pictures after a wash and away from my garage.

so everything went smoothly including the reapplication of the bumper. guess practice really does make perfect. i need to figure out a more permanent solution for my foglights. it looks like whatever tabs they use to hold them in place have all snapped. theyre currently being held in place by gorilla tape.

 

sorry about the filthy car. its been raining alot lately. I really like the dark housings with the black paint job. makes me want to do something with my grille.

 

So my DNA Auto headlights arrived today and apparently they read the reviews/comments on amazon because the advice I'd received here as well as the mentioned online mega mall was false. The H1 LED bulbs I bought for these did not fit. The H7 bulbs I had, however, did. Anyway, they get mounted on the car tomorrow. I'll post pics of the bulb issues in this post and hopefully a success story tomorrow after the bumper has been reapplied...

 

 

the two prongs above wouldnt allow the bulb to sit flush below

 

 

 

not sure if others' lights have this marking surrounding the bulb housing.

Can anyone possibly post a link for all the stock bulbs? I feel like there’s 12 different lights in our housings.

 

Edit: Does this seem correct?

 

2010 Subaru Legacy Replacement Light Bulb Size Guide

 

Low Beam Headlight Bulb Size: H7 or H7 HID Upgrade Kit

High Beam Headlight Bulb Size: 9005 or 9005 HID Upgrade Kit

Parking Light Bulb Size: 168

Front Turn Signal Light Bulb Size: 7440

Rear Turn Signal Light Bulb Size: 992 (7440A)

Tail Light Bulb Size: 7443

Stop Light Bulb Size: 7443

High Mount Stop LIght Bulb Size: LED Bulb

Fog/Driving Light Bulb Size: H11 or H11 HID Upgrade Kit

License Plate Light Bulb Size: 168

Back Up Light Bulb Size: 921

Front Sidemarker Light Bulb Size: 168

Rear Sidemarker Light Bulb Size: 7443

Map Light Bulb Size: DE3175

Dome Light Bulb Size: DE3175

Step/Courtesy Light Bulb Size: 168

Trunk/Cargo Area Light Bulb Size: 168

1. Don't waste your monies on aftermarket LED, they do not last long even the good ones.. most of the ones I have used last 1-2 years and the the LED chips blow out due to poor regulation. Get a proper HID kit... you will not be disappointed.

 

 

 

2. When you sand and polish your headlights you need to put a UV coating on them when you are done to keep the plastic from yellowing for a while. I would use a clear paint adhesion promoter followed by 3 or more layers of clear coat with UV protection on the lenses...and then ceramic coat them.

 

 

3. when you wax your car, raise the hood up so you are not getting any rubbing compound/polish/wax on your headlights

 

I’m well aware of the UV coating and everything associated with it. Despite best efforts it was a once a year pain in my ass. You mentioned 1-2 years for the life of the cheap led bulbs? That’s a vast improvement over the mayyyybe half a year I get from oem bulbs.

just ordered a pair of DNA's and the H1's linked. wish me luck.

I just bought the DNA motoring ones on eBay (black housing and clear corner). I went through the frustration of finding that the original H7 bulbs do not work. CarID (Lumen) are the same exact ones and the spec showed H1.

 

 

I went out to autozone to find H1's and they did NOT fit. The connector inside has two prongs while H1's normally have 1 pin.

 

 

Most LEDs will have a huge heatsink that will not fit with the dust cap.

 

 

I did some research and found these on amazon. They are great so far and work great with the DNA motoring headlamps.

 

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CNZPPC2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

 

Did all the other bulbs fit as they should?

So my headlights are yellowing on my '10 and after the yearly sanding and buffing I had to do on my last car to keep the housings clear, I've decided to just replace the assembly's due to wayyyyy more affordable pricing than my last car (mazdaspeed 6).

 

The problem I'm running into is there are a large amount of options, though most just look like rebranded versions of each other. I'm not interested in the $600 ones that theres a thread about that apparently have a fitment issue. I'm finding on amazon Acanii, DNA motoring, and CarLights360. On CarID I'm seeing spyder and lumen.

 

Anyone have anything good or bad to say about any of these brands? I see they all change the style bulb from H1 to H7 or vice versa. Does this type of bulb last longer than the 7 months the stock bulbs tend to run? Fitment issues? I believe I remember people saying that 2012+ assemblies will fit my 2010 despite cosmetic differences? Whatever you've got to say on the subject, I'm all ears.

stunning paint job

http://i.imgur.com/INZpJhu.jpg

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20161023/a6de7b9a1194663f860e191e445c3f93.jpg

 

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gonna need exact measurements including offset. what coils are you on?

Got my GT back from the airbag recall and the tech who serviced it ran out to catch me before I left. Started chatting me up about the GT. I was surprised he knew how rare the 5th gen GTs are. Told me that when he was pulling it into the bay to get work done on it, some of the other techs said "wtf is that??" They popped the hood and were confused that there wasn't a turbo visible Then the tech who worked on my car threw it up on the lift apparently to show the other guys where the turbo went. He then went on about how clean my car was and that some of the other techs snapped some pics.

 

all that would do for me is make sure i set the AP to valet mode with every visit.