With the growing popularity and falling prices on the "STi Projector" headlight housings, many people choose to buy the JDM headlights. Many of those people, fail to realize the significant differences between the headlight beam patterns that their new RHD headlights project. The cut off point of the RHD projector is exactly where you would want to have most of the light intensity while driving a LHD car in a country that drives on the left side of the road. That could not possibly blind the upcoming traffic, but also put you at high risk of accident at night.

Although the STi projector beams is "adjustable", you cannot adjust its' pattern. All you can adjust is general up and down and left to right. I played a lot with those settings and was not able to get adequate lighting where I wanted. That is why I decided to do the unthinkable and modify my STi headlights.

First of all, I would like to mention, that the following mod is not easy and you can potentially damage or completely ruin your headlight. Please proceed at your own risk.

***

Here is the STi headlight assembly. Take your time and get to know the assembly better. All the nuts and bolts and clips. The better you know it, the less of a chance you can screw it up.

http://www.i-club.com/images/stihl/sti_hl_1.jpg

Turn the headlight over and find one or two tiny phillips screws that are located right by the edge of the headlight and secure the lens in its' position.

http://www.i-club.com/images/stihl/sti_hl_3.jpg

After you take them/it out, it is time to cook the headlight. What we want to do is to warm it up enough to soften the goo that holds the lens. I used a regular oven at 450F and kept the light there for 3-4 min.

Warning: You WILL melt your headlight if you are not careful. Temperature, oven size, heating elements positioning vary, so figure out a safe way to heat the headlight up. You can also use heat gun or any other way to heat it up.

http://www.i-club.com/images/stihl/sti_hl_6.jpg

After the headlight is nice and warm, you need to open it up. Once again, this is not easy and extremely dangerous so figure out your own way of doing it. I used a small flat head screw driver and slowly pried it open while pulling on it. Remember, there are few plastic tabs/clips that you need to push to help the lens come out.

http://www.i-club.com/images/stihl/sti_hl_7.jpg

This is the lens with the mask insert still in place.

http://www.i-club.com/images/stihl/sti_hl_8.jpg

This is the back piece with the projector lens in place.

http://www.i-club.com/images/stihl/sti_hl_9.jpg

If you have the HID version of the headlight and use the aftermarket ballast and bulb, you can remove the OEM igniter from the headlight.

http://www.i-club.com/images/stihl/sti_hl_10.jpg

...

Now you need to remove the projector assembly from the back piece. Use an 8mm socket to unscrew the adjuster shaft from the projector.

http://www.i-club.com/images/stihl/sti_hl_12.jpg

Flip the back piece of the headlight and remove the big phillips/10mm head screw and unsnap the projector assembly from the back piece. Remember to remove the ground strap of the igniter from the projector housing.

http://www.i-club.com/images/stihl/sti_hl_13.jpg

Pull the assembly out and be careful not to loose the plastic clip that you have just unsnapped.

http://www.i-club.com/images/stihl/sti_hl_14.jpg

Disassemble the assembly by removing the small phillips head screws.

http://www.i-club.com/images/stihl/sti_hl_17.jpg

Look at the projector and the projector beam plate. You need to get it out of there.

http://www.i-club.com/images/stihl/sti_hl_18.jpg

Once it is out, you need to trim the top of it to be flat. I used a file and gently evened it out.

http://www.i-club.com/images/stihl/sti_hl_19.jpg

Here is a pic of two projector plates. The one on the right is modified. The one on the left is still RHD type. After you trim it, use a black marker and paint over any shiny part of the plate you created to avoid any kind of internal reflection.

http://www.i-club.com/images/stihl/sti_hl_20.jpg

After that, re-assemble everything. Before putting the lens back on, heat the back piece up again to soften the glue. Also, remember to wipe the projector "eye ball" and the lens clean of any finger prints and dust.

***

What you have done is evened out the projected beam pattern. Now, your lowest part of the beam will be higher. In order not to blind the upcoming traffic, I suggest you lower the beam down a little bit using the adjustment screws.

Also remember, that your headlights are not legal in most if not all states in RHD or modified form.

Now lets see the new beam pattern:)

areg

very brave to do such a mod.

I am surprised to see that there are no comments or questions about this.

Im surprised as much as u Impreza but u have to realize what u did. U toke a $2000+ object and experimented with it. Most people have to save up for the Lights muchless try to mess with them and potentially ruin them. ISeems as though what u did has alot of difficulty and the average person just wants the lights for looks and says screw safety. =o)

Nice Work though... Very nice!!

Alex,

I archived the post for future reference. I will attempt it when I get enough courage. Heck, I think I might have been one of the first people brave enough to put their OEM headlights in the oven so I could remove the orange condom..

- Neil

Alex,,,I think the small response is a cost issue also.Lotta dough to be experimenting with and possibly ruin your lites.
I was one of the 1st to do the headlite mod(painting inside) on the RS,same procedure basically.What i did was go to a junkyard and get a set of junk lites($15) and play around with em.Here we dont have that luxury.Another reason i see mite be that the JDM,EDM, lites have a plastic lense where the RS had glass.You get that grey goo glue caulk on the plastic lense it's gona be hell to get off.
Ive got the page bookmarked and may try it in the near future if im brave enough.
Rudy

Wow...I'm impressed. The only question I have is why not just buy the LHD JDM HID??

Also, Sti Wagon...you have to do this to remove the orange turn signal cover?? I've been wanting to remove mine.

--joe

Joe,,cost is the issue,,,,,JDM/RHD= $7-750,,EDM/LHD=$875 and up in projector versions.
HIDs are outa my ballpark!!
Rudy

AH...Got it now....I was wondering what it was...i knew there had to be a reason for the time put into it.

For a while there EDM's were going at $650. Thats when I got mine.

Even with LHD EDM lights, you might want to look into doing this since the upsweep puts alot of light on the road at the rear of drivers to the right of you. This can annoy them. Enough so that I got road raged by a guy on the way back from Vegas one night because he thought my lites were too bright. He followed me for about 15 minutes with his brights on. I would have sped away but it wasn't a gread road to be doing that on.

I know of one guy who did this to his headlights a while back and it sounds like the best way to have your lights, LHD or RHD. This way you can aim them just high enough not to bother people going the oppisite direction and get maximum beam penetration without bothering people going your direction.

Dan

Awesome...Maybe when I save up the money for getting the courage the plop it on my credit card i will try this out with some expert help.

:)

Originally posted by jkwon
Wow...I'm impressed. The only question I have is why not just buy the LHD JDM HID??

Also, Sti Wagon...you have to do this to remove the orange turn signal cover?? I've been wanting to remove mine.

--joe

Yep, you have to crack open the lights to get those pesky orange condoms out...

Thanks for jumping into this problem & finding an alternative to pissing off all other nite drivers. I installed a set of these RHD projectors yesterday, I had to go help a friend that night & got flashed at least 4 times in a half hour of driving. Well, I'm stuck home with a sick kid so into the oven they go! If I can't get all yhe info I need from your previous post i'll be bugg'n for help. Thanks, Vince...

I know its been a while but Alex, where did you come across those headlights, if you don't mind me asking.

That took guts to do that. Is there a headlight that looks like
that but doesn't require the "messing with" to get it to work
for the USA ?

-Subbywrx

The LHD version of those headlights Subaru uses on their STI cars in Switzerland, Germany and a few other places.

This is a really great mod guide to fix the "blinding on coming cars" problem. Don't be skard. Its not bad just take your time & be patient. its great knowing your not one of those jerks with the rude headlights.

Bump from the dead

Okay - so there is a clear plastic shield that goes on the outside of the headlight. And then there is the black "8)" piece that surrounds the turn signal and the low beam projector lens:
http://www.i-club.com/images/stihl/sti_hl_8.jpg

Can the piece that is metal in that picture ^^ be separated from the clear plastic part?

In other words - if you have a set of STi projectors with scuffed plastic, but clean internals, can you swap a plastic shield from another headlight over and preserve the internals?

Thanks,
John

Bump so that people can find this

thanks alex... for those of you that are weary on the oven deal a heat gun may be a little easier. none the less so far most methods work... good luck and dont rush!

Does anyone have pictures of the beam patterns compared? I can't understand how they can be that different. The lights on my car point directly in front of my car, or so it seems? Do they point up more on the JDM ones or what? :confused:

They are way higher on the drivers side and taper down to a low point on the passenger...exactly the opposite of what you want when driving on US roads. I just upgraded to JDM HID's and i blind people bad...gonna try this mod probably tomorrow or the next day. I'll put up pics of before and after beam patterns...hope it works. Them on the car right now:

http://inlinethumb56.webshots.com/5239/2110386660100436750S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2110386660100436750lekFMV)

i tried the mod and it didn't work. just so people will know, the pics are of the jdm hid lights. the non hid's do not look the same. the cutoff shields are totally different. in the end, i had the shield grinded down completely flat and it wasn't worth a damn. you can see what modding the non hid light looks like. the driver side light was lowered to match the stock light on the right. by doing this, you cause a lot of glare off the chrome cup in the low beam. you can see the reflection on the garage door.

I talked to lightwerkz and he did not recommend grinding for that ^^ reason exactly. Just gonna deal with it for now i guess.

yup, i dealt with caesar already and he did a tsx retro for my jdm lights. he probably told you not to do it cause he saw my pictures. non hid's don't work out

you know what why not just take both the lights out and switch the internals?? should that work since they are the same

I talked to lightwerkz and he did not recommend grinding for that ^^ reason exactly. Just gonna deal with it for now i guess.

better late than never i guess
you are better off making a new cut off shield that will be the same height as the old one. grinding it down it will create problems.

what internals are you talking about switching? the jdm rhd hid's and what?

just the whole lens assembly just switch them

you are switching them with what? the cutoff shield from the jdm hid is different that the jdm/edm non hid light. thats what the retro fit is for. you would completely remove the stock projector and put another one in its place. i have a tsx projector in mine. if you should remove the projector, you should try to upgrade not downgrade

dang this looks hard

Are there any write ups on a TSX retrofit? I've been looking for a while now.

U Can Do This To 06 07 Models Too. Pretty Much Every Model.. My Boy Got A 07 And He Did The Same Thing.. "to Open It" He Self Tinted His Lights Came Out Really Nice

wow...tough work, you can probably start charge people for doing this for them...haha

alan'09

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e7/Greek_uc_sigma.svg/400px-Greek_uc_sigma.svg.pnghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2e/Pi-symbol.svg/600px-Pi-symbol.svg.png

Bump!!

you have a PM

Hi guys I am new around here :wavey:

I came across this site looking to modify my RHD lights as I live in France.
My Prodrive STI is a non HID version so I opened them up and instead of grinding the deflector plates down I built the low part up using chemical metal then smoothed them off until the shape was slightly higher (to make sure they didn’t kick up at all to the left)
We have to have a test done on the car here called a CT and originally it failed due to the lights and a full decat but with the mod done the lights passed no problem :thumb: (also had to put a STD downpipe on)

Just thought I would let you guys know that works for the non HID lights the beam pattern is perfect thanks to the original poster for the info :thumb: