I have some pics below of both the cutoff and and road pics of the light output of the 08 projectors with 4300k bulbs. Right now I am really considering and HID retrofit. I just bought some 05-07 headlights today off ebay for $123 shipped. I am looking at a site called Lightwerkz to do the retrofit. I just wanna know from anyone who has retrofitted lights if it is absolutely worth it to shell out $1000+ for a retrofit. I am looking at going the Honda S2000 route, and maybe even with some 55w digital ballasts. How much better will that retrofit be than what I currently have in these pics below?

you can DIY or have to pay good amount for a really clean job by lightwerkz

well I think I could save some money by goin the diy route, but it seems extremely hard 2 me...idk...I was thinking about just paying lightwerkz the 800 plus the cost of the kit and CCFL rings.

I am thinking about doing some retrofit for my 07. I've been reading on some of the DIY for retrofit and it does seem challenging but I don't want to fork out 800+ for someone to do it. I just bought some s2k projectors and right now i'm debating if i should do a retrofit or just sell those s2k projectors. I was thinking about getting some 07 headlights off craigslist and doing it on those. I was planning on doing halos as my DRL and a strip of LEDs in my eyebrows as a turn signal. It'll take time and money but not as much as 800+. Right now i'm trying to decide which shroud i should go with.

Yea see, I dont want to spend 300 on some projectors and lenses and then when I get them I dont know what the hell to do with them. And if I went the lightwerkz way it would actually be around 1200 after shipping cost, and the extra cost of the bulbs, ballast, wiring harness and all that. I think the diy cost would probably be around 7-800 after all that, so....I guess I can ask some people on here how hard it is, i know for sure it's gonna be time consuming.

See my price break down is this:
s2k projectors : 114 (yes i paid that little for them)
E46 shroud: 50
set of 07 headlights: 80
d2s bulbs: 80
d2s adapters: 30
angel eyes: 50
LED strips: 30
others: 30
total: 454
Being one of the fews to have retrofitted headlights in down : Priceless
I'm hoping this is all its going to cost me.

where did u find the s2k projectors for so cheap? And did that include the lenses as well? Also are there any special tools you need to do a retrofit or can u do it with common tools?

From someone on the forums. And I think you only need common tools.

LMK if you decide to sell off your 08's!

why not just retro your 08's?

you wont have to use a shroud, and your lighting will improve dramatically! although the 08 cutoff with HID isnt bad either.

i say DIY, you will end up saving a ton of money and the experience is great! S2k projectors are a little harder to retro because of the lack of mounting tabs, start with something easier to retro like Tsx's or rx330 projectors!

BTW, theretrofitsource.com has replica fx35 projectors that are awesome anc cake to retrofit, and soon will be releasing s2k replicas for around 200 which are said will perform better then OEM s2k!

LMK if you decide to sell off your 08's!

Hey I'll definitely be selling off my 08's as soon as im done with the retrofit. And chico I'm doing the retro on a different set of lights because idk how long this is going to take me and so I cant have my only set of lights for my car under construction. I would like to use the 08's because I like the look of those better anyway but it just isnt going to work out. And thanks for the info about the mounting screws....I still want the s2k's though lol That cutoff looks amazing and especially when the color mod is done, and also another thing that I noticed is that the s2k's probably have the widest, brightest, and most even light spread. That's what I want.

its WELL worth the price. i actually bought ALL the parts i needed for the retro and saved on shipping and sent them directly to Lightwerkz (Ceasar). He was cool enough to hold them for me. I saved some money by buying some materials from this guy...

http://myworld.ebay.com/ebaymotors/oem_xenon_parts/

if you search his store, you can probably even ask him if he can get you a deal on projectors, shrouds, ballast, bulbs, whatever. there are some other good projectors out there. your going to spend at the least $250-300 for S2K projectors alone? You might be better off buying something else with a lense swap to save money? check out the link in my sig for my retro pics, Lightwerkz did all the work!

yeah, s2k's are the best, but you will honestly rarely notice the difference, i personnaly would rather go for a modded fx35 or modded rx330 for a little less then half the price!

i was saying to put the 05-07 lights on while you work on your 08's!

TFX FTW! I love having a bi-xenon projector.

I was going to ordder some paRts off of theretrofitsource but they are closed til the 10th of sept. Guess I gotta wait. I did see the post on their website about the s2k projectors they are developing and I gotta say that it's very interesting. But not sure how longits going to take them to perfect it.

its WELL worth the price. i actually bought ALL the parts i needed for the retro and saved on shipping and sent them directly to Lightwerkz (Ceasar). He was cool enough to hold them for me. I saved some money by buying some materials from this guy...

http://myworld.ebay.com/ebaymotors/oem_xenon_parts/

if you search his store, you can probably even ask him if he can get you a deal on projectors, shrouds, ballast, bulbs, whatever. there are some other good projectors out there. your going to spend at the least $250-300 for S2K projectors alone? You might be better off buying something else with a lense swap to save money? check out the link in my sig for my retro pics, Lightwerkz did all the work!

Hey Yanki, I remember seeing your fx35 retrofitted lights a while back. But after seeing alot of pics of the s2k I think I really wouldnt mind spending top dollar for them. Now when you said you bought all the parts and sent them directly to lightwerkz was this for the fx35 project? Because I think I've seen other posts were u had a tsx retrofit. And I would really like to be able to do this myself but I already know with work/school/everything else I just dont have the time to do a retrofit myself. Does lightwerkz have a user on this message board though? Is that the guy Ceasar your referring too?

Lightwerkz = Ceasar. when i bought my OEM headlights on eBay, i asked the seller to send Ceasar the lights to save on shipping. If they came to me, i would of had to spend another $25 for shipping to ship them to him. I think that was all i sent him, maybe the projectors but i dont remember? Ask him before you do this though, idk if he still likes to hold things there. Yea s2k projectors are nice, it all depends on what you want to spend? Yea Ceasar did the "TFX" retro (FX35 projectors w/ TSX clear lense swap). I tried to do a retro with TSX projectors on my own but couldnt and didnt have the patience. I ended up switching to the TFX setup instead of TSX. I dont think Ceasar is a member on here, you can email him at "Sales@LightWerkz.net"

Lightwerkz = Ceasar. when i bought my OEM headlights on eBay, i asked the seller to send Ceasar the lights to save on shipping. If they came to me, i would of had to spend another $25 for shipping to ship them to him. I think that was all i sent him, maybe the projectors but i dont remember? Ask him before you do this though, idk if he still likes to hold things there. Yea s2k projectors are nice, it all depends on what you want to spend? Yea Ceasar did the "TFX" retro (FX35 projectors w/ TSX clear lense swap). I tried to do a retro with TSX projectors on my own but couldnt and didnt have the patience. I ended up switching to the TFX setup instead of TSX. I dont think Ceasar is a member on here, you can email him at "Sales@LightWerkz.net"

Yea see I dont think I have the patience to diy either. Because I'm pretty sure I'd still have to do a bunch of wiring stuff especially if I wanted LED's or CCFL's. I already bought the lights though so ill just have to eat the shipping costs on that. Have you tried using 55w ballasts though? If so how much brighter is it, and is it too bright to the point where your blinding people even when they are above or outside of the cutoff?

nope, i have Denso Slim ballast (35w). ive been thinking about going with 55W digital ballast but i preferr OEM over china made.

nope, i have Denso Slim ballast (35w). ive been thinking about going with 55W digital ballast but i preferr OEM over china made.

How much did you spend on the Denso ballast? I know they must be pretty good if they are Denso branded....are they cheaper than the Hella Balasts? And would you reccomend maybe going a cheaper route and just getting some MobileHID ballasts? Those have been pretty reliable for me...

plenty of retrofitters have switched over to 55W digital ballast for it being brighter. i havent yet, i might but not right now? my ballast were around $130 i think? All Lexus and Toyota models use them. You can find plenty of new/used OEM HID ballast, projectors, shrouds, and bulbs on HIDPlanet.com/forums. If you go with digital ballast, use OEM D2S bulbs. the D2S is the size needed to fit the s2k projector. You can get a D2S adapter on ebay or from Ceasar, he sells them. i preferr Philips 85122+ (4300K). they dont need to be brand new, because the bulbs will be around $100 brand new. just find a matching set with low hours, they color shift to a hint of blue as they get older, should be no more that $35-40 for a pair.

Now will using the 55w ballasts cause the bulbs to color shift faster? Because I'm pretty sure there is no such thing as a 55w HID bulb.

IIRC, they color shift by hours, not wattage? But I'm not 100% sure. Nothing to worry about though. Get which ever ballast u want, as long as you have a d2s adapter if it's not oem.

i was saying to put the 05-07 lights on while you work on your 08's!

i was going to suggest the same thing. do it the way you really want to the first time, so you don't end up putting in more work/money into doing how you really wanted to do it from the jump.

OP where are you located?

and chico, I was going to throw your name out there since he already has two sets of headlights.

i was going to suggest the same thing. do it the way you really want to the first time, so you don't end up putting in more work/money into doing how you really wanted to do it from the jump.

OP where are you located?

and chico, I was going to throw your name out there since he already has two sets of headlights.

Well this actually wont be the first time sadly...itll be the first retrofit but if I hadnt wasted money on ebay projectors, and now these 08's (which actually werent a waste of money) I probably would have had the s2k retrofit by now. I didnt have the money for a retrofit back then either. So since I'm already going to be spending a pretty penny for this project no matter which way I go, I might as well get the best. I've seen some pics of the tsx retrofits and wasnt at all impressed by the cutoff. I didnt like how it flared up on the sides. Even the 08 cutoff doesnt do that if you adjust it properly. I just want my car to stand out from other tC's as well as other cars period.

i actually purchased a set of 2008 tC headlights and was going to retrofit those. after getting some feedback, i decided to use the 05-07 headlights and use the shroud method. nothing beats a custom set of headlights looking at you. there's nothing custom about the 08-10 headlights, it will look like a stock projector. they wont be able to see the custom work. 05-07 retroed FTW!

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3279/2899758339_08c4523f0b_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3130/2900603580_1e32dd7029_o.jpg

i actually purchased a set of 2008 tC headlights and was going to retrofit those. after getting some feedback, i decided to use the 05-07 headlights and use the shroud method. nothing beats a custom set of headlights looking at you. there's nothing custom about the 08-10 headlights, it will look like a stock projector. they wont be able to see the custom work. 05-07 retroed FTW!





Yea thats why I decided to buy the 05-07 lights for the retrofit as well. Im not a fan of how the lenses sit in the 08's I dont like how they sit so far back behind that ugly shroud and then you have like that inch or 2 of space between the shroud and lense. I definitely love the custom retrofit look. Plus no shrouds look better than the e46 shrouds in my opinion

i love em, i went with the E46 replicas due to going through 3 sets of the real ones and the chrome comming off soo easy. these are feel better built.

i love em, i went with the E46 replicas due to going through 3 sets of the real ones and the chrome comming off soo easy. these are feel better built.

WHAT?!?!? The chrome comes off?? Arent they supposed to be the same thing that are on bmw projectors?? How the hell would the chrome come off?? That sounds weird....and I found a link on the internet of a guy who actually did a s2k retrofit on a 06 tc.

http://www.geocities.com/jvxdriver/tC_s2000_retro.htm

It looks like the hardest part is just cutting of those huge original mounting brackets and making your own. I dont have a dremel cutting tool and idk how much one costs. But looking at this link really starts to make me think maybe I could do this retro myself.

yea thats a good DIY right there. the chrome comes off as you keep touching it. they are the same ones as the BMW's have. they are very delicate which is why i went with the replicas. from looking at my pic, you really cant notice they're replica's unless looking for the "XENON" printed on the side of the shroud.

WHAT?!?!? The chrome comes off?? Arent they supposed to be the same thing that are on bmw projectors?? How the hell would the chrome come off?? That sounds weird....and I found a link on the internet of a guy who actually did a s2k retrofit on a 06 tc.

http://www.geocities.com/jvxdriver/tC_s2000_retro.htm

It looks like the hardest part is just cutting of those huge original mounting brackets and making your own. I dont have a dremel cutting tool and idk how much one costs. But looking at this link really starts to make me think maybe I could do this retro myself.


Thats the same website i'm using to do my retrofit. A dremel tool isn't that expensive. I think you can find one at walmart for like 20-40 dollars.

Thats the same website i'm using to do my retrofit. A dremel tool isn't that expensive. I think you can find one at walmart for like 20-40 dollars.

Ok sweet. So lets say I dont want to add anything like LEDs or CCFL halos or anything. Is everything basically plug n play? Is the only thing electrical related needed is the relay harness and the d2s adapter??

Ok sweet. So lets say I dont want to add anything like LEDs or CCFL halos or anything. Is everything basically plug n play? Is the only thing electrical related needed is the relay harness and the d2s adapter??

I believe so. You might lose your DRL if you cut a big hole in your housing.

I believe so. You might lose your DRL if you cut a big hole in your housing.

We dont have DRLs....do we....?? I thought we just had parking lights. Is that what you mean?

no DRL, only parking lights

Yea I thought so. I think I've made up my mind of what Im going to do though. Ill probably just save up a quick $400 to put down for the deposit and then by the time they get my retrofit done ill have the other $400 because the waiting list on lightwerkz right now is like 6 1/2 weeks I think, so thats 3 paychecks. I should be able 2 do that. I'd def feel alot better if I could do it myself and be able to say "yea i did that" but hey...I dont have the time or patience for it

sounds good, keep us posted.

^yo yanki, did you use OEM lights or did you go with TYCs?

i remember you asking around a while back, and now i see them on ebay for about 100 a piece!

im going to do myself another retro and would like a fresh pair of lights to work on!

i say go for the retrofit because it's going to look a lot cleaner. you probably won't get pulled over for them compared to those people who have and HID conversion without a retrofit that have light scattering all over the place making it look like they have their highbeams on.

Go with retrofit. If you diy and end up making a mess, it will cost more to redo your work from a retrofitter. You can check out my old retrofit from Littodevil, it's the one and only machine mount, fully adjustable centered just like the OE unlike some of the ones you see out there glued on, off center, etc. The full write up link is on my signature, you can see the details that went in to make sure things work right the way they do.

In case you are wondering what I had, FX bixeon projectors and Audi Valeo projectors
with 4 CCFL halos and custom eye lid superflux led turn signal