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After waiting almost a year for Anzo to drop their 2018 headlight and now being pretty let down by the outcome....I’ve decided to retrofit my oem halogens with the Morimoto HID retrofit kit. I’m looking at the Mini H1 7 kit. To anyone who has any experience with this, I’m all ears. I’ve never tackled a job like this but believe I can do this as I’m pretty handy with DIY projects. Thinking of buying a spare set of headlights and then resell mine as I don’t have an extra vehicle while this may take place over a weekend. I plan on opening the headlight, painting the inner black and retrofitting the Morimotos. Still researching on adding the DRL strip around the outside of the headlight but seems it may take some splicing. Anyone with any thoughts?
Definitely get a spare set while you're working on them.
I retrofitted my headlights/foglights on my 2012 a while back and it was a learning experience to say the least.
Overall, not incredibly hard as there are tons of how-to's on doing it. But, not something i'd likely do again.
Biggest key is patience. Lots and lots of patience...
I opened up my 2005 headlights to do a retro, was very straight forward and pretty easy. About a month ago I took my 2018 lights off and attempted to open them the same way I did my 2005 lights, no dice. What a treat, I didn't even get one light completely open. I heated and pried at that thing for a couple of hours and finally threw in the towel. After a little more research it seems the newer lights have PERMASEAL, the name says it all. I honestly think the easiest and maybe cleanest way to open up these OEM lights is by cutting the lens off. If that's something you're comfortable with, then by all means. I literally ruined my headlight just trying to open it up, planning to just buy the Morimotos and call it a day.
If you can get the lights opened, retrofitting the projectors is a breeze. If you're truly wanting to go with a retrofit over Morimoto, Anzo, etc., I'd almost consider waiting for the "knockoff" OEM replica headlights to find their way onto eBay and get a set of those to Retrofit. I mostly say that because those lights are not Permasealed, so opening them would be very easy with traditional methods.
Wish the 2018s opened as easily as these ones did, I'd probably do something similar.
You need patience with permaseal lights. They suck, but are very doable. Heat cycles of around 240 degrees, work a small area, reheat in oven, work more, reheat as necessary. Use retrorubber from TRS to reseal.
Thanks for the advice. I’ve been watching some YouTube videos on the baking method and this is the part that concerns me the most.i saw one guy who did a 2017 and he says it wasn’t hard at all. 260 degrees for 15 minutes. But everyone else is saying what you guys are. I don’t know how much longer I can stand these halogens.
Gotcha. I’ve been looking at the eBay hid kits. Still deciding if I want to go that route or spend the money on the Morimotos. My head is saying Morimoto but bank account says eBay.😂
Retrofitting 2018 Headlights
