Thanks wiztecy ... I need to take off the inner fender on the driver side to get my hood to release anyway.
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So I did the TRS upgrade (Retro-Quik: Tesla Roadster) a few weeks ago, from start to finish and I thought I'd post a illustrated guide and my thoughts.
Overall I'm pleased with the improvement in light output, however its a fair amount of work, and not entirely well documented. I did the passenger side first, and it took roughly 7 hours start to finish, the drivers side took about 5.
There is no Roadster specific guide, however there are guides for the various different components and steps. The ones you'll want to look at are:
http://www.theretrofitsource.com/diy-installation-guides/retro-quik-subaru-legacy-03-14.html (is an example with lens splitting)
The part guides:
http://www.theretrofitsource.com/diy-installation-guides/minih1-guide.html
http://www.theretrofitsource.com/diy-installation-guides/morimoto-standalone-can-bus-harnesses.html
http://www.theretrofitsource.com/diy-installation-guides/morimoto-amp-ballasts-guide.html
http://www.theretrofitsource.com/diy-installation-guides/butyl-guide.html
http://www.theretrofitsource.com/diy-installation-guides/aiming-guide.html
Notes on the installation:
- The wiring and light sockets can't be removed prior to baking, don't bother trying. Remove the bulbs and call it good.
- Removing the lenses is scary. Go slow, it'll be fine.
- No grinding of the reflectors is required because of the adapter plate, additionally, much of the included mounting hardware isn't need
- The Y-Adapter for the high-beam shutters isn't usable in the Roadster application (Roadster high-beams connect with blade terminals, not 9006 connectors), you'll need to find a way to connect the shutters yourself. I soldered them directly to the high-beam blade connectors and shrink wrapped.
- Depending on where you want to mount the ballast you'll probably want both a 9006 extension cable and a HID extension cable (I used Amazon.com: Motorcycle Car HID Xenon Light High Voltage Extension Wire Cable 1M: Automotive). I mounted my ballasts to the aluminium undercarriage plate, below the headlight assemblies
Its unclear if their CANBUS adapters are required -- they're designed to emulate the electrical properties of the original bulb and prevent spurious bulb out warnings (CANBUS is a bit of a misnomer, as it doesn't connect to the vehicles CANBUS -- in their speak it "cancels bus errors"). At the moment I'm not using them. I get an occasional (perhaps 1 in 4 unlocks) left headlight out warning on unlock, but it immediately clears. The drivers side light is slower to illuminate than the passenger (I'm assuming the lights are passenger to driver). Turning the headlights on from the switch they both fire as the same time without issue. I'll probably add them in and see if makes a difference in the not too distant future.
Overall, I'm a bit underwhelmed with the build quality of the TRS kit. Specifically:
- The laser cut adapter plates were not well matched to mounts inside the headlights.
- The drill (laser cut) holes for the mounting screws were too small and had to be bored out.
- The metal on the new reflectors was pretty crappy (pot metal)
- All of the new hardware internal to the headlight assemblies had a lot of swarf and was poorly finished
- The ballast metal was also pretty poor, for instance I stripped out a tapped hole attaching the mounting bracket - I sincerely doubt I over torqued it, either that or the intended torque is exceedingly low
- The alignment between adapter plate, shutter plate and reflectors is poor, requiring some boring out on the parts to get them aligned and resulting in some bowing & distortion after installation
- The kit I was sent was missing a feed through cable, getting the required cable took more than a week.
- The overall quality of the reflector and optics doesn't seem as nice as the original -- in addition to my comments about the quality of the metal the lens holder is plastic, the stock one is metal. The stock one seems more structurally sound.
- The stamping and cut quality of the bulb holders is pretty bad too. Required extensive bending to make it work -- one of mine was mashed out of the box beyond all recognition, the other was a poor fit to the mount casting in the reflector.
Overall its unclear to me if the TRS option is better or worse than the DMM. The DMM upgrade is certainly going to take less time to do, as you don't need to remove the entire headlight assembly, bake it, swap the optics and reassemble. However, if you have the headlight fogging issue, splitting the lenses and adding more butyl rubber selant will likely reduce or eliminate it -- which may justify the time investment for you (my passenger side headlight had a beach's worth of sand in it due to horrendous sealing). That said I didn't try the DMM first and don't have anyone with one locally that I could compare against. I'd wager the TRS folks are more responsive and better about replacement parts than DMM, so that in and of itself may justify the cost and time difference.
If anyone is considering doing the upgrade and has questions, feel free to drop me a line.
Oops. It seems I've written a small novel.
Midday 20 Sept 2014:
- Don't extend the high voltage cable like I did -- it appears it was causing electrical interference (the ballasts are quite noisy, extending the cable makes this worse). I checked using my spectrum analyzer, and they throw a huge pulse on power on.
- I also did a janky test, that I've used to measure RF/EMI before (clip the ground lead to the signal lead on a scope and place it near the RF source -- fun fact, you can use this to digitize/visualize slow signals, like prox cards, in a pinch). I was seeing induced voltages of 4-5V at a distance of a few inches from the HV lines at power on. I also see 0.2-0.4V in induced interference that continues through operation. I really wonder why the HV leads aren't better shielded...
- I've just moved the drivers side ballast to a similar location to Wiztecy, we'll see if this resolves my issue
- I suspect this was causing my transient ABS/TCS fault, we'll see if I get it any more. I'll update in a few weeks.
- Adding the CANBUS adapters back in result in the high-beams turning on and staying on with the headlights. Power cycling the lights typically resolves this. As a result I've taken them back out again.
[For reference: The ABS/TCS fault I was getting happened about 1/5-1/6 unlocks, only on unlock and would clear within a restart or two. Regen, ABS & TCS operation were not actually impacted while the fault light was illuminated. My two candidate causes for the fault were RE/EMI from the HID HV lines, or a 12V brownout from the HIDs firing on unlock. The fault never occurs while the vehicle is running and I toggle the headlights. I'll update as I find out more.]
Evening 20 Sept 2014:
Well it appears relocating removing the HV extension wiring and moving the ballast hasn't fixed the issue. Troubleshooting continues. Will update as I have more info.
16 October 2014:
Further troubleshooting -- called Tesla to see when the last time the 12V battery was replaced, less than 6 months. So that clearly wasn't it. Opted to unplug one ballast at a time and drive the car for a few days. Started with the driver's side unplugged -- no issues. Swapped over to the driver's side, started having issues almost immediately. Contacted TRS, apparently my ballasts are part of a group that had higher than normal current draw on start up. They replaced them under warranty. No issues so far.
While I was replacing the ballasts, I changed the mounting as well. Given the issues I've had, I now have them attached to the sides of the headlight assemblies using 3M Dual Lock fasteners (a more heavy duty version of how EZPasses are attached). I believe it will hold just fine, with the added bonus of being able to remove the ballast without having to take the wheel off.
Some final thoughts. If I had it to do over again, I now think I wouldn't go with the TRS gear. The reason is simple, if you have an issue with it you're pretty much stuck till they can get you replacement. With the DDM gear, you can always swap the halogen bulb back in. While the TRS replacement reflectors take an H1 bulb, but they're not really compatible with halogen or other H1 type bulbs (I tried). Given the time it takes to do the reflector swap, cost difference vs DDM and the issues I've had the overall benefit is unclear.
Overall I'm pleased with the improvement in light output, however its a fair amount of work, and not entirely well documented. I did the passenger side first, and it took roughly 7 hours start to finish, the drivers side took about 5.
There is no Roadster specific guide, however there are guides for the various different components and steps. The ones you'll want to look at are:
http://www.theretrofitsource.com/diy-installation-guides/retro-quik-subaru-legacy-03-14.html (is an example with lens splitting)
The part guides:
http://www.theretrofitsource.com/diy-installation-guides/minih1-guide.html
http://www.theretrofitsource.com/diy-installation-guides/morimoto-standalone-can-bus-harnesses.html
http://www.theretrofitsource.com/diy-installation-guides/morimoto-amp-ballasts-guide.html
http://www.theretrofitsource.com/diy-installation-guides/butyl-guide.html
http://www.theretrofitsource.com/diy-installation-guides/aiming-guide.html
Notes on the installation:
- The wiring and light sockets can't be removed prior to baking, don't bother trying. Remove the bulbs and call it good.
- Removing the lenses is scary. Go slow, it'll be fine.
- No grinding of the reflectors is required because of the adapter plate, additionally, much of the included mounting hardware isn't need
- The Y-Adapter for the high-beam shutters isn't usable in the Roadster application (Roadster high-beams connect with blade terminals, not 9006 connectors), you'll need to find a way to connect the shutters yourself. I soldered them directly to the high-beam blade connectors and shrink wrapped.
- Depending on where you want to mount the ballast you'll probably want both a 9006 extension cable and a HID extension cable (I used Amazon.com: Motorcycle Car HID Xenon Light High Voltage Extension Wire Cable 1M: Automotive). I mounted my ballasts to the aluminium undercarriage plate, below the headlight assemblies
Its unclear if their CANBUS adapters are required -- they're designed to emulate the electrical properties of the original bulb and prevent spurious bulb out warnings (CANBUS is a bit of a misnomer, as it doesn't connect to the vehicles CANBUS -- in their speak it "cancels bus errors"). At the moment I'm not using them. I get an occasional (perhaps 1 in 4 unlocks) left headlight out warning on unlock, but it immediately clears. The drivers side light is slower to illuminate than the passenger (I'm assuming the lights are passenger to driver). Turning the headlights on from the switch they both fire as the same time without issue. I'll probably add them in and see if makes a difference in the not too distant future.
Overall, I'm a bit underwhelmed with the build quality of the TRS kit. Specifically:
- The laser cut adapter plates were not well matched to mounts inside the headlights.
- The drill (laser cut) holes for the mounting screws were too small and had to be bored out.
- The metal on the new reflectors was pretty crappy (pot metal)
- All of the new hardware internal to the headlight assemblies had a lot of swarf and was poorly finished
- The ballast metal was also pretty poor, for instance I stripped out a tapped hole attaching the mounting bracket - I sincerely doubt I over torqued it, either that or the intended torque is exceedingly low
- The alignment between adapter plate, shutter plate and reflectors is poor, requiring some boring out on the parts to get them aligned and resulting in some bowing & distortion after installation
- The kit I was sent was missing a feed through cable, getting the required cable took more than a week.
- The overall quality of the reflector and optics doesn't seem as nice as the original -- in addition to my comments about the quality of the metal the lens holder is plastic, the stock one is metal. The stock one seems more structurally sound.
- The stamping and cut quality of the bulb holders is pretty bad too. Required extensive bending to make it work -- one of mine was mashed out of the box beyond all recognition, the other was a poor fit to the mount casting in the reflector.
Overall its unclear to me if the TRS option is better or worse than the DMM. The DMM upgrade is certainly going to take less time to do, as you don't need to remove the entire headlight assembly, bake it, swap the optics and reassemble. However, if you have the headlight fogging issue, splitting the lenses and adding more butyl rubber selant will likely reduce or eliminate it -- which may justify the time investment for you (my passenger side headlight had a beach's worth of sand in it due to horrendous sealing). That said I didn't try the DMM first and don't have anyone with one locally that I could compare against. I'd wager the TRS folks are more responsive and better about replacement parts than DMM, so that in and of itself may justify the cost and time difference.
If anyone is considering doing the upgrade and has questions, feel free to drop me a line.
Oops. It seems I've written a small novel.
Midday 20 Sept 2014:
- Don't extend the high voltage cable like I did -- it appears it was causing electrical interference (the ballasts are quite noisy, extending the cable makes this worse). I checked using my spectrum analyzer, and they throw a huge pulse on power on.
- I also did a janky test, that I've used to measure RF/EMI before (clip the ground lead to the signal lead on a scope and place it near the RF source -- fun fact, you can use this to digitize/visualize slow signals, like prox cards, in a pinch). I was seeing induced voltages of 4-5V at a distance of a few inches from the HV lines at power on. I also see 0.2-0.4V in induced interference that continues through operation. I really wonder why the HV leads aren't better shielded...
- I've just moved the drivers side ballast to a similar location to Wiztecy, we'll see if this resolves my issue
- I suspect this was causing my transient ABS/TCS fault, we'll see if I get it any more. I'll update in a few weeks.
- Adding the CANBUS adapters back in result in the high-beams turning on and staying on with the headlights. Power cycling the lights typically resolves this. As a result I've taken them back out again.
[For reference: The ABS/TCS fault I was getting happened about 1/5-1/6 unlocks, only on unlock and would clear within a restart or two. Regen, ABS & TCS operation were not actually impacted while the fault light was illuminated. My two candidate causes for the fault were RE/EMI from the HID HV lines, or a 12V brownout from the HIDs firing on unlock. The fault never occurs while the vehicle is running and I toggle the headlights. I'll update as I find out more.]
Evening 20 Sept 2014:
Well it appears relocating removing the HV extension wiring and moving the ballast hasn't fixed the issue. Troubleshooting continues. Will update as I have more info.
16 October 2014:
Further troubleshooting -- called Tesla to see when the last time the 12V battery was replaced, less than 6 months. So that clearly wasn't it. Opted to unplug one ballast at a time and drive the car for a few days. Started with the driver's side unplugged -- no issues. Swapped over to the driver's side, started having issues almost immediately. Contacted TRS, apparently my ballasts are part of a group that had higher than normal current draw on start up. They replaced them under warranty. No issues so far.
While I was replacing the ballasts, I changed the mounting as well. Given the issues I've had, I now have them attached to the sides of the headlight assemblies using 3M Dual Lock fasteners (a more heavy duty version of how EZPasses are attached). I believe it will hold just fine, with the added bonus of being able to remove the ballast without having to take the wheel off.
Some final thoughts. If I had it to do over again, I now think I wouldn't go with the TRS gear. The reason is simple, if you have an issue with it you're pretty much stuck till they can get you replacement. With the DDM gear, you can always swap the halogen bulb back in. While the TRS replacement reflectors take an H1 bulb, but they're not really compatible with halogen or other H1 type bulbs (I tried). Given the time it takes to do the reflector swap, cost difference vs DDM and the issues I've had the overall benefit is unclear.
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I noticed that as well. 9006 in the wheel wells, near the wiring bundle for the brakes? If so, no idea -- was a bit surprised to see that it wasn't capped. Ended up sealing it up with some electrical tape.
I could believe fog lights, though its unclear where in the body they'd intended to have put them. DLRs typically use the existing headlights and wiring (sometimes at a slightly lower power/brightness) -- I believe this is how its done on the Canadian spec Roadsters.
Is the W5W you changed the turn signal or the parking light?
What model number Phillips LED did you use? I wonder if there is a slightly higher temperature available.
It's the PHILIPS - W5W LED T10 12V 1W 4000K X-treme Vision for the parking light.
Original W5W on the right, Philips on the left.
I will take a picture with the xenons on tonight, to show the difference in temperature.
Original W5W on the right, Philips on the left.
I will take a picture with the xenons on tonight, to show the difference in temperature.
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wiztecy
Active Member
What temp HID bulb did you go with? That's really important so you have a good transition between the parking light and HID light. I went with the 5500k bulb to get the most white coverage across the road. Looking to swap out the parking lights since they run very hot in that small enclosed space risking the cover of the parking light to be disformed from heat.
I've always wanted to change the parking/side lights with LEDs but when I tried, it triggered the lamp failure system. Is there a way around this? An LED that wastes power?
I am about to order the DDM kit and would appreciate it if someone who has been through the low beam headlight upgrade process using DDM can confirm that this order is right for our cars (I am not upgrading the high beams):
From the page at DDM Tuning 35W and 55W HID Kits
Wattage: 55kW (my preference over the 35kW)
Bulb Type: 9005 (correct?)
Bulb Color: 5000K (my preference over the 4500K some have chosen; I want as pure a white as possible with no blue or yellow tint)
Mounting Brackets: For 55kW (obviously
HID Harness: None? Or do I need the "Dual In Dual Out" choice?
Error Eliminator: none
Adaptor Cables: none
I am also interested in changing the parking lights to LED. @Chillout recommends the "PHILIPS - W5W LED T10 12V 1W 4000K X-treme Vision" bulbs. In searching the web I see those are available in Europe but I can't find them in the US. I found this place in the UK that ships to the US Philips X-treme Vision LED W5W T10 4000K (Twin) | PowerBulbs Anyone else used those LED bulbs with success?
Thanks for your help.
From the page at DDM Tuning 35W and 55W HID Kits
Wattage: 55kW (my preference over the 35kW)
Bulb Type: 9005 (correct?)
Bulb Color: 5000K (my preference over the 4500K some have chosen; I want as pure a white as possible with no blue or yellow tint)
Mounting Brackets: For 55kW (obviously
HID Harness: None? Or do I need the "Dual In Dual Out" choice?
Error Eliminator: none
Adaptor Cables: none
I am also interested in changing the parking lights to LED. @Chillout recommends the "PHILIPS - W5W LED T10 12V 1W 4000K X-treme Vision" bulbs. In searching the web I see those are available in Europe but I can't find them in the US. I found this place in the UK that ships to the US Philips X-treme Vision LED W5W T10 4000K (Twin) | PowerBulbs Anyone else used those LED bulbs with success?
Thanks for your help.
strider
Active Member
I went w/ a 3W LED in the parking light housing and did not get any errors. That was in my old halogen housing though and when Tesla swapped them for HIDs due to the peeling issue I haven't gone back and put LEDs in again. I swear I took before and after pictures but can't find them rt now...
Also, I had a heck of a time getting the bulb into the housing and partially popped the little cover off inside the housing so I'm hesitant to try it again.
thefortunes
Active Member
I am about to order the DDM kit and would appreciate it if someone who has been through the low beam headlight upgrade process using DDM can confirm that this order is right for our cars (I am not upgrading the high beams):
From the page at DDM Tuning 35W and 55W HID Kits
Wattage: 55kW (my preference over the 35kW)
Bulb Type: 9005 (correct?)
Bulb Color: 5000K (my preference over the 4500K some have chosen; I want as pure a white as possible with no blue or yellow tint)
Mounting Brackets: For 55kW (obviously
HID Harness: None? Or do I need the "Dual In Dual Out" choice?
Error Eliminator: none
Adaptor Cables: none
I am also interested in changing the parking lights to LED. @Chillout recommends the "PHILIPS - W5W LED T10 12V 1W 4000K X-treme Vision" bulbs. In searching the web I see those are available in Europe but I can't find them in the US. I found this place in the UK that ships to the US Philips X-treme Vision LED W5W T10 4000K (Twin) | PowerBulbs Anyone else used those LED bulbs with success?
Thanks for your help.
Here's the line from my order:
| 1 | DDM HID Kit, 55W, 9005, 4500K |
I did have one ballast go bad after about 4 months that they replaced under warranty (although it was a little bit of a pain).
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