In 2022 what are my headlight upgrade options on a MK4 Jetta?

PakProtector

PakProtector

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Hey Nero, typical of H1 projector/bulb combinations. A wee bit o' work shimming the bulbs will give you a significant benefit. The D2S/D2H don't seem to suffer any where near so poor alignment.
cheers,
Douglas
 
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KrashDH

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PakProtector said:
Hey Nero, typical of H1 projector/bulb combinations. A wee bit o' work shimming the bulbs will give you a significant benefit. The D2S/D2H don't seem to suffer any where near so poor alignment.
cheers,
Douglas
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That alignment being off is because of the clocking of the projector, not the bulb, during the retrofit.

I've got mini H1s and D2S that are perfectly aligned, cutoff parallel with the vehicle ground.

The downside of having someone else make them for you is you don't get to test them with the lens off to make the clocking adjustments.

These companies that make these either use a donor car or a jig. Every car is slightly different too. So perfect on one vehicle could be off on another vehicle. Perfect on the jig might be clocked a bit off on your car. That's kind of the nature of the beast though if you're purchasing a retrofit.
 
PakProtector

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Nope, that is not it...the bulb mis-position is not quite right Krash. The hot spot is not where it belongs. I could not care less about clocking; that is a build/workmanship issue. The bulb w/o attention is going to be off, and most often on H1 types. The D2S are much better.
cheers,
Douglas
 
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Interesting, I have measured the hotspots on both my setups and are where they need to be. I've got a H1 and D2S retrofit for the truck and an H1 (and eventually I'll finish the D2S for the car...) for the car. All 3 setups didn't require any shimming of the bulb. So I guess it just varies depending on the quality of the projector. It would be better to see Nero's photo in the dark though.
 
PakProtector

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If they're where you want 'em then they're perfect. None of mine are landing where I want them. This includes some Mini H1 7.0. The Aozoom C212 are better but not quite perfect. The micro are all over the place, but consistent with different bulbs( bulbs shimmed the same way give the same results ).
cheers,
Douglas
 
benmarks

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I think it's an important question to ask because if they're discussing the Morimoto H1, I'm pretty sure it was designed solely for use with Xenon bulbs and it may not be a valid comparison if someone is using LED bulbs.
 
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J_dude said:
But what if it’s an LED projector?? Lol
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The only LED projector made is by Morimoto (and some knock offs now) and you don't "drop" LED bulbs into it. The LED is part of the projector unit and you cannot change it out.

While you can put LED bulbs in a HID projector, it's not quality output at all because of the design of the projector not being made how the cheap LED bulbs project light. You're better off with a quality halogen bulb with OEM reflectors at that point.

The Morimoto H1 projector is designed for HID bulbs.
 
J_dude

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KrashDH said:
The only LED projector made is by Morimoto (and some knock offs now) and you don't "drop" LED bulbs into it. The LED is part of the projector unit and you cannot change it out.

While you can put LED bulbs in a HID projector, it's not quality output at all because of the design of the projector not being made how the cheap LED bulbs project light. You're better off with a quality halogen bulb with OEM reflectors at that point.

The Morimoto H1 projector is designed for HID bulbs.
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Right, sorry, I’m just learning about this stuff. Shoulda kept the ol mouth shut
 
PakProtector

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benmarks said:
To make sure, you're all using Xenon bulbs right and not LED D2S bulbs?
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Even with Mori H1 Xenon HID bulbs their 7.0 were all sub-optimal. The custom bulb fixing aparatus makes it easier to get them where they should be, but compared to a handful of D2S projectors, the H1 style all leave me less than impressed.
cheers,
Douglas
 
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vandermic07 said:


KrashDH

Here's the link to what I had on the car installed by PO. Also I attached what he purchased to replace them. They are Morimoto. He said I would need new housings to complete it.
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Interesting that you would need new housings. Do you have photos of the completed headlights? It seems if it was a decent retrofit they should function ok. Maybe you do just need new lenses? You can buy just the lens, it looked pretty bad in one of the images. That could potentially be your only issue. Hard to tell without seeing the entire headlight units
 
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They are pretty foggy and yellow. The completed head lights with the foggy lenses are Volx Tuning. I found it in the PO's maintenance records. He installed them with new lenses in 2013. He didnt like them from the start. I will take his word for it.

He started procuring Morimoto but said the housings modified for the Volx would not work for the Morimoto parts (not sure on this but i trust that he did the research, because i have binders full of how-to's that he gave me). he had a brand new set of plastic lenses for the Morimoto setup. He was going to find a set of housings from a salvage yard, but ended up selling the car and everything he had to me because the car was too small for their family. So i have everything sitting in boxes trying to figure out what to do with it.
 
Nero Morg

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As a better followup... Finally drove at night.
 
ghohouston

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The Midwest lights are good. I've had one ballast go bad in two ish years, maybe a bit over 2 years. Otherwise, great lights. The plastic lenses have definitely yellowed though. I'm going to look into getting glass lenses.
 
Nero Morg

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On mine my ballasts are both working fine. I replaced the bulbs recently due to one going pink on me. Switched to a different spectrum, more white than blue so did as a pair. Only one lense went yellow though, been too lazy to fix.
 
Zak99b5

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Half those housings are not DOT approved because the low beam is the inner, highs on the outside. If that matters to you.

Spec-D and Spyder are junk. The other brands look equally crappy quality-wise. Not going to insert my taste as to how they look.

Basically Hella and Valeo make good headlights. Depos can be good too, but not always.
 
TornadoRed

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Zak99b5 said:
Half those housings are not DOT approved because the low beam is the inner, highs on the outside. If that matters to you.

Spec-D and Spyder are junk. The other brands look equally crappy quality-wise. Not going to insert my taste as to how they look.

Basically Hella and Valeo make good headlights. Depos can be good too, but not always.
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I'm modifying a set of Depo headlights with my own retrofit.

3d printed a mounting system that can handle the heat of the projector bowl. I'll have to update my thread soon
 
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