Got this car 2 years ago, always wanted one. It's in great shape but the light output was horrible from the fancy bi-xenon HIDs. Color was off so clearly bulbs were going but no light throw in front of the car was the primary issue. Also had issues with the ballasts firing both bulbs on start up. Couldn't drive it at night safely. Found out (I never had HIDs before) that the bowl portion of the projector assembly was "cooked" - all the coating was gone. This is common on these cars b/c the DRL is the HID (dumb). So finally found 2 new old stock housings, replaced all the bulbs (high flasher, parking, turn, and HID), new/used ballasts, and holy cow...amazing upgrade for this beast. Got them aimed and adapted using the scan tool. Seem to be working perfectly and I can see at night again! These are every bit as good as my LED in my newer Atlas and the LED retrofits in my Golf. Went with 6K HID bulbs and Osram Cool Blue Intense parking and highs. I may refurb the old ones with new Morimoto EvoX-R 2.0 projectors that with a small mod will fit the old housings. Finally, to not have this issue again, I pulled the relay for the DRLs so while DRLs are great, not interested in buring my HIDs during the day. Also swapped the OE light switch for a "Euro" switch which allows you to have more control over the lights i.e. parking lights, parking lights w/fogs, lows so now I can run parking/fogs to get visibility in the lower light afternoons/evenings without buring those precious HIDs!
Walk through on these amazing 2003-era lights:
Driving with new setup:
(not mine but same car/lighting) showing "cooked" bowl
Walk through on these amazing 2003-era lights:
Driving with new setup:
(not mine but same car/lighting) showing "cooked" bowl
