Installed new oem front lights on forte.

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Feb 19, 2009
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I’m really excited about this one and it was a simple replacement that really took years of “age” off the car. The fog lights were very foggy-ish no pun intended and original to the car, and both headlights have what appeared to be a million micro cracks so there’s a lot of glare even though they’re not “faded“. The headlights are also original so I thought it would be a great time to give the Kia somewhat of a “facelift” and replace the fog lights and the headlights.

This is cosmetically as much as safety in my opinion to have clear headlights that are aimed correctly without glare.

I was still able to find genuine fog lights straight from Kia in Korea and the headlights will be DOT approved, if I get a few good years out of them – I’ll be happy.

These are the original fog and headlights:
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A couple teasers shots after:
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I will post pictures of the headlight installation tomorrow.. the factory service manual had me removing the front bumper to replace the fog light assemblies….. I removed the splash shields instead and went in via the backside that way.

🙏
 
not a big fan of non-oem headlight assemblies.. they are a total crapshoot as far as quality and beam location.
 
Installed the headlights today plus aimed them.

They were low but perfectly even with one another. The adjustment mechanisms felt better than they should have, plus no hot spots or glaring.

But. They sent me non-smoked headlights… and I kind of like them 😂

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@1 SX That's awesome! You got them directly from S Korea, perfect! Yes I agree that replacing headlights makes an old car look brand new! I've done that on my civic, not only does it help to see the road, the appearance also refreshes it! They look exactly like what you had, which is awesome! good job! (y)
 
I forgot to post these pictures of the "cut off" and light output before/after.

Before with original factory light housing:
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after with the non smoked chrome headlights:
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The light output is a lot better/brighter/whiter/ more "focused" without the glare or intense area in the middle with the new headlights.

They look and function way better than the worn out factory smoked housings, and I still can't get over how NICE the adjustment mechanisms felt on the new headlights:LOL: :LOL:

I will keep the lens of the headlights and fog lights waxed to help "protect" them and hopefully keep them clear for sometime.

Last thought and a "little" OT:
I have driven and owned cars with factory HIDS in both reflector and projector housing and LEDS in projector housing (Sonata) and this old school halogen setup on the kia would "blow" away a HID setup and give a "factory" correctly engineered LED set up a run for its money.
I always "upgrade" and aim on any halogen equipped vehicle to SS Ultra If using a reflector housing or I use the highest quality LED bulbs I can find in a projector housing such as I did on Sonata - yeah not every ones cup of tea and I know some do not agree with that decision but the basic H7 halogen bulbs in the projector housing on the Sonata are pretty unsafe to drive at night, and i'm extremely gun shy because three different sonatas over the course of three-four different years were totaled out at night because of deer and driving blind from lack of acceptable light output.

The biggest knock on wood since I have installed the H7 LED into the projectors on the sonata I can see a mouse running across the road at midnight doing 73 MPH and have not hit a deer since.. I have been rocking this LED setup for a couple years now in the Sonata and I have not got flashed once. There is no glare/hot sports or anything negative since the sonata headlight housing has a HID option.. Cut off line is also picture perfect.

As badly as I want to put some high quality H11B bulbs in the kias headlights (nvm- H11B LED are super hard to find and I would need an adapter to run a H11 bulb plus extension wire.... ) also I know it would be glare city and don't want to blind others on the road.
 
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