mrobers
Full Member
Somehow most USA cars seem to lack good lightoutput from the headlights, especially compared to most of the cars over here in Europe. And then there is the (lack of) cutoff. Horrible
When I first bought my '02, I immediately replaced the normal bulbs for a Xenon aftermarket set which made a difference between night and day. Litteraly. I drove like this for almost three years now, but never liked the cutoff. Gladly enough I didn't blind upcoming traffic, but I did light the entire neighbourhood including the trees
After reading several posts about retrofitting projector lights and the fact there are no aftermarket headlights for our
cladded Avy's, one of my friends bought a G5 HID BiXenon Headlight Projector kit with angel eyes from ebay :
http://r.ebay.com/bKSsx1
What a difference! The result was noticably more light-output and a razorsharp cutoff. I couldn't resist and also bought the same set and a week later, my headlamps were in the oven Underneath I will try to write a 'How To' for alle steps involved, together with some pictures.
In this picture you see my original headlights with the Xenon-aftermarket kit. Don't mind the roadsalt; it's cold over here and they keep salting our roads.
Open up the hood, remove (or put aside) the turnsignal-housings. Remove your headlights and take them inside. Here you can see my slimline Xenon-ballasts.
The G5 HID BiXenon package includes everything you need; the projectors (shown here), H1 Xenon-bulbs, wiring-harness with relays, convertor-plates for H4, 9005, 9007 etc. etc.
We used a heated air oven set at 110 degrees Celsius and placed the headlamp inside (one at a time) for about 10 minutes. Remove the headlight (HOT!) and carefully begin to pry the clear plastic lens off using a flat screwdriver and a butterknife. It takes some strenght and when you think it is too hard, put it in the oven again for a few minutes. The temperature softens the seal so the lens can be removed.
When the lens is removed, you can remove the headlight-adjuster on the back of the housing by turning it 90 degrees
counterclockwise and pull it out. It takes some strenght because it connects to a balljoint inside the housing to hold the reflector.
Once the adjuster is removed, you can pry out the black reflector-housing and after that, pull out the reflector itself. The reflector is held by two balljoints on the bottom.
Next, you have to remove the antiglare bucket to make room for the projector itself. Carefully pull it out and get rid of it (unless you are are planning on restoring the headlight in a later stage.
Here you can see where the antiglare cup was mounted (upper side of the reflector)
Just slide the projector-units throught the bulb-hole while making sure the 'up' text is pointed upwards and tighten the
retaining-screw which holds the projector in place.
Here you can see how it eventually looks inside the reflector-housing. Looks factory huh?
Place the reflector back in the housing and click it firmly on the lower balljoints. Put the adjuster back in and also push
it firmly back into the balljoint on the reflector. Turn the adjuster upwards as seen in the picture on the backside of the
housing. Replace the black reflector housing.
Once everything is put back together, push the plastic lens back onto the housing and place it in the oven (lens facing
upwards) for another 10 minutes. The original sealant will soften. When you remove the headlamp from the oven, keep the lens pushed firmly against the housing. I used duct-tape to keep it in place while it cools down. After it is cooled, you can put some extra sealant around the edges for some extra protection and to keep moisture out.
Put the H1 Xenon bulbs in the projector from the backside and fasten with the supplied small screw. Put the rubber boot tightly against the housing and you are ready to put everything back on the Avy! Here you can see both headlights mounted back on my truck. I re-used my existing ballasts but the kit comes with ballasts and also a wiring-harness you can use for cabling directly on the battery. The harness also provides hi-beam (they are BIxenon) and the angel eyes. I didn't use the harness but might do it in a later stage.
Well, it doesn't look aftermarket, does it? Looks like factory to me!
On top you can see the lightoutput before. Remember I already had Xenon (6000K) in it. You can clearly see the 'blobs' of light and there is virtually no cutoff. The picture below shows after I retrofitted the projectors. You can see the
lightoutput appears to be brighter and there is a razorsharp cutoff. In this picture I still had to adjust the headlights to
the correct height but it shows the difference. It might be necessary to loosen the retaining nut of the projectors and turn them a bit to get the cutoff nicely horizontal.
Here you can see the halo (angel eyes). Looks nice, but could look a bit tacky on our Avy's. Maybe I'll connect them at a later stage
I hope this gives you a good impression of how to retrofit projector lenses in your cladded Avalanche! With many thanks to Michaelmiata89 for helping me. If you have any questions; please let me know!
When I first bought my '02, I immediately replaced the normal bulbs for a Xenon aftermarket set which made a difference between night and day. Litteraly. I drove like this for almost three years now, but never liked the cutoff. Gladly enough I didn't blind upcoming traffic, but I did light the entire neighbourhood including the trees
After reading several posts about retrofitting projector lights and the fact there are no aftermarket headlights for our
cladded Avy's, one of my friends bought a G5 HID BiXenon Headlight Projector kit with angel eyes from ebay :
http://r.ebay.com/bKSsx1
What a difference! The result was noticably more light-output and a razorsharp cutoff. I couldn't resist and also bought the same set and a week later, my headlamps were in the oven Underneath I will try to write a 'How To' for alle steps involved, together with some pictures.
In this picture you see my original headlights with the Xenon-aftermarket kit. Don't mind the roadsalt; it's cold over here and they keep salting our roads.
Open up the hood, remove (or put aside) the turnsignal-housings. Remove your headlights and take them inside. Here you can see my slimline Xenon-ballasts.
The G5 HID BiXenon package includes everything you need; the projectors (shown here), H1 Xenon-bulbs, wiring-harness with relays, convertor-plates for H4, 9005, 9007 etc. etc.
We used a heated air oven set at 110 degrees Celsius and placed the headlamp inside (one at a time) for about 10 minutes. Remove the headlight (HOT!) and carefully begin to pry the clear plastic lens off using a flat screwdriver and a butterknife. It takes some strenght and when you think it is too hard, put it in the oven again for a few minutes. The temperature softens the seal so the lens can be removed.
When the lens is removed, you can remove the headlight-adjuster on the back of the housing by turning it 90 degrees
counterclockwise and pull it out. It takes some strenght because it connects to a balljoint inside the housing to hold the reflector.
Once the adjuster is removed, you can pry out the black reflector-housing and after that, pull out the reflector itself. The reflector is held by two balljoints on the bottom.
Next, you have to remove the antiglare bucket to make room for the projector itself. Carefully pull it out and get rid of it (unless you are are planning on restoring the headlight in a later stage.
Here you can see where the antiglare cup was mounted (upper side of the reflector)
Just slide the projector-units throught the bulb-hole while making sure the 'up' text is pointed upwards and tighten the
retaining-screw which holds the projector in place.
Here you can see how it eventually looks inside the reflector-housing. Looks factory huh?
Place the reflector back in the housing and click it firmly on the lower balljoints. Put the adjuster back in and also push
it firmly back into the balljoint on the reflector. Turn the adjuster upwards as seen in the picture on the backside of the
housing. Replace the black reflector housing.
Once everything is put back together, push the plastic lens back onto the housing and place it in the oven (lens facing
upwards) for another 10 minutes. The original sealant will soften. When you remove the headlamp from the oven, keep the lens pushed firmly against the housing. I used duct-tape to keep it in place while it cools down. After it is cooled, you can put some extra sealant around the edges for some extra protection and to keep moisture out.
Put the H1 Xenon bulbs in the projector from the backside and fasten with the supplied small screw. Put the rubber boot tightly against the housing and you are ready to put everything back on the Avy! Here you can see both headlights mounted back on my truck. I re-used my existing ballasts but the kit comes with ballasts and also a wiring-harness you can use for cabling directly on the battery. The harness also provides hi-beam (they are BIxenon) and the angel eyes. I didn't use the harness but might do it in a later stage.
Well, it doesn't look aftermarket, does it? Looks like factory to me!
On top you can see the lightoutput before. Remember I already had Xenon (6000K) in it. You can clearly see the 'blobs' of light and there is virtually no cutoff. The picture below shows after I retrofitted the projectors. You can see the
lightoutput appears to be brighter and there is a razorsharp cutoff. In this picture I still had to adjust the headlights to
the correct height but it shows the difference. It might be necessary to loosen the retaining nut of the projectors and turn them a bit to get the cutoff nicely horizontal.
Here you can see the halo (angel eyes). Looks nice, but could look a bit tacky on our Avy's. Maybe I'll connect them at a later stage
I hope this gives you a good impression of how to retrofit projector lenses in your cladded Avalanche! With many thanks to Michaelmiata89 for helping me. If you have any questions; please let me know!