Upgrade headlight housings on 5th gen

[92RC]

Overall closing thoughts, I'm sure either headlights would do depending on the application, had I looked up on Hella's website how they recommended these to be aimed I might have had different results and I might have come to a different conclusion. I haven't actually taken the Hella lights back yet but I just don't feel like testing them anymore, the Nokya housings are good enough for me at this time.

If I have problems in the future or the current housings break I'm sure it's worth a revisit especially if I can test durability. If they're available I might opt for symmetrical versions if it comes to that.

Another important note is I didn't do any testing in the rain, obviously this would be a great real world test, one that got me a bit when I first got the car so fingers crossed it's fine, again I feel either of these are better than what I had in regular night driving conditions, especially knowing the bit about the asymmetric design (I have since realized the old housings had that but they're pointed to the wrong side, not ideal for driving in countries where you drive on the right side of the road) I'm sure just like any car driving at night in the rain would just be slightly harder to see, nothing crazy out of the ordinary or a problem.

A few other things, I have since found out working on this.

• I've determined the Craftsman Philips head screwdriver I've had since about 2006 just doesn't work well with the majority of screws on this car (I had mentioned one of the adjustment screws was getting more and more stripped), it's been stripping screws left and right and I decided this screwdriver is the one I'll use for now on, it can be set to be long enough to adjust the headlights with the provided gaps, I'm sure I can get another high quality normal screwdriver to keep in the car just in case since it's too short for some of the things. I feel weird criticizing the most basic of tools but I'm not a huge fan of Craftsman these days anyway, especially their newer stuff.
  
  
  
  
• My alternator is bad, testing this and idling the car for a while got me to get my multimeter out and test out the battery and the alternator, at idle my alternator was reading 12.98 volts whereas I read online that shouldn't be lower than 13.6 volts (or higher than 14.6). It's a relief to know what's wrong with it, I don't have a way to test paradisiac power yet but hopefully I don't have that problem, I'm buying a new multimeter that has a feature so I can test that. I bought a replacement alternator, a different forum post here on AllTrac.net recommended Ace Alternators so I bought one of those (it just came in today), its rated at 90 Amps instead of the 70 the car came with so that should be a nice upgrade.
  
  
  
  
• Out of curiosity I tested my daily driver's headlights, I'm really thinking the Celica outperforms my other car's headlights now, the pictures below show the up close low beams, up close high beams, 25 ft low, 25 ft high. I honestly would like to adjust them (people mention they often have to remove the battery to get to some of the adjustments) but I'm not sure if I can improve them much since they slant so far down. Perhaps I can raise the right side above the tape marks a bit, these also need another polish and layer of ultraviolet protection added, they're not as faded as when I first got the car in 2014 but they need work.
  
  
  
  
  

But yeah that's it! Hopefully this helps people out, even if people reply telling me I'm an idiot, I think I can take it I have several other threads I would like to start sometime soon about my projects so far so hopefully I get around to getting those typed out!

 

[hoys]

You might be stripping screw heads because you are using a Phillips head not a JIS head driver.

 

[92RC]

You might be stripping screw heads because you are using a Phillips head not a JIS head driver.

Niceeeee, I just bought one, says it works with normal Phillips head screws so that should work out nicely. I’m amused, I didn’t buy a screwdriver until about 3 or 4 years ago because I was given so many various ones and now that I do very specific projects I’ve gone crazy with various sizes and types.

 

[Roreri]

All of this is OCD level so I approve.

Not surprising to me that your alternator isn't healthy--I wasn't even able to get home from where I bought my GT-Four without the battery level related indicator lights turning on. My alternator was putting out something shy of needful too. I've got a new old alternator installed and will be watching it closely after I pick it up tomorrow morning. Nice tip on the Ace Alternators.

Did you retrofit the ventilation boot to the new alternator or did you just go without?

For testing parastic power, take a look at this video: https://youtu.be/KF1gijj03_0

It's a bit long but detailed. Start at 3:39 if you're clear on making sure that everything is off and nothing like a dome light is sucking power (maybe simplistic but...). He starts with pulling fuses in the engine compartment, then the driver's side (making sure to disconnect the meter and clamping the door switch down before reconnecting it), then the passenger side. You can jump to 8:19 to get to the point, which is, he has a circuit that is at fault. Specifically, a switch that has been left on.

 

[92RC]

Did you retrofit the ventilation boot to the new alternator or did you just go without?

I took it to a local shop by me instead of attempting it myself, I'm sure as I get better with working on the car and have more space to do it I can attempt repairs like that in the future. It appears to be the Denso part redone and refinished so I imagine you take the whole assembly out, remove the old alternator, pop the new one in with the duct/cooler/snorkel thingee and put it back in the car.





Thanks for the link on parasitic power! I was following a ChrisFix video but it's always nice to have potentially too much information so I'll check that out!

Edit: Clarity

 

[underscore]

Hopefully this helps people out, even if people reply telling me I'm an idiot, I think I can take it

You're an idiot :wink:

Just kidding, thanks for all the work you put into properly testing these.

 

[92RC]

Hopefully this helps people out, even if people reply telling me I'm an idiot, I think I can take it

You're an idiot :wink:

Just kidding, thanks for all the work you put into properly testing these.

Awww thanks

 

[92RC]

Hi everyone, I think this is my last installment of the headlight upgrades I did, I took my Celica on a road trip at the end of September, it was about 3,000 miles roundtrip and I had a great time. I'm so glad I upgraded the headlights because they made a huge difference. I still haven't driven in heavy rain at night with these new ones as the final test but I think they're pretty good!

Here's a video from my dashcam, you can see I change from the lowbeams to the highbeams pretty early on as a comparison. Anyone not familiar with dashcams, this video is a bit worse compared to real life, the purpose of a dashcam is to have a wider viewing angle than normal (so you can see more in a 16:9 ratio) and a relatively cheap sensor to act as a "security camera". Real life wasn't that dark looking but you can see what parts are lit up pretty well.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZxH0kXaXM8

Anyone curious about the song it's this one from the Halo 2 Soundtrack, I don't think it was in the game at all, the glowing lights you can see on the top of the video are the buttons on the radio doing the typical "90s crazy display thing". I need more CDs for that thing before I can get some sort of aux situation going.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMXwpQTR_C4&t=24s

Also I got my alternator replaced, now my headlights aren't noticeably dimmer when the car is idling! Woooo!

 

[underscore]

Having seen dashcam video from my car with the standard lights that looks like a huge improvement.

 

[Roreri]

Very cool! I did a little research on mine, and as it turns out the JDM GT-Fours have housings that take H4 removable bulbs. I’ll have to do something like this eventually, because the headlights are definitely “retro bright.” Which is to say, not very bright.

 

[92RC]

Very cool! I did a little research on mine, and as it turns out the JDM GT-Fours have housings that take H4 removable bulbs. I’ll have to do something like this eventually, because the headlights are definitely “retro bright.” Which is to say, not very bright.

Note if you're into 90s computing Retr0Bright is a method to remove yellowing from beige plastic, I've never tried it because I couldn't find the correct hydrogen peroxide but apparently it works! https://www.retr0bright.com/

Yeah the JDM housings I have I'm not a fan of, you can read up on it earlier in this thread, long story short mine are old, faded, out of date, and aimed to the wrong side for "drive on the right side of the road" countries, I'm much happier with the ones I bought.

 

[92RC]

Having seen dashcam video from my car with the standard lights that looks like a huge improvement.

That's good to know!