Want to upgrade stock headlights, 1999 Jeep GRAND Cherokee (WJ)

My new-to-me Jeep. Bought it last summer after healing from the cataract surgeries. I won't bore you with the litany of repairs and minor upgrades. Suffice to say that it will remain stock and yet I will still go off road. My rock crawling days are behind me. Scenic and historic trails in order to take photos and see places that few can get to are my goals now.

This is my Jeep:


This is Gold Butte:




http://s2.photobucket.com/user/andysteiner/library/off road/2013-12-01 Gold Butte?sort=9&page=1
(In the album, there's a nice shot of one of Cliven Bundy's cows posing alongside the road for me.)

There's still a lot to see out here in Southern Nevada. So many more photos to take.



Hopefully you can see from the photo that I had the headlights polished. The haze that developed over the years is gone. Nice to have friends at a Jeep dealership. New housings were ~$200/ea. The polishing... gratis. Now I need something better than the stock bulbs.

Fanbois on Facebook are gushing over their new Chinese projector housings with halo thingies and HID bulbs that they managed to fit by filing off something or another. Others can't seem to buy 50" LED bars fast enough to mount over their windshields and popping in as many LED pods as they can squeeze in at the base of the A pilar, the front bumper, stinger, and the fog light holes. I know my needs are best served by ignoring them. I'm glad to have found this forum.

Honestly, it seems that I can drive all around the Vegas Valley without turning on my headlights there are so many street lamps. But I know I need something better than the 9005s and 9006s that are installed in there now.

I suspect that these are probably a really bad idea for low beams, but please treat me like a newbie who really doesn't understand WHY these are a bad idea.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HFK2R9K/?tag=cpf0b6-20

My stock bulbs are 9006XS (LB) and 9005XS (HB). From what I've gleaned reading various threads and the very few that focus on the Jeep WJ, a good upgrade for me might be these:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BQWQLQI/?tag=cpf0b6-20

True? Why? What makes them better than stock?


Thank you guys for your patience.

Andy

I don't know if this is a good conversion to your particular lights, but an upgrade that will provide more light than uprated 9005/9006 bulbs is HIRs

http://storе.candlе…оhirbuba.html

If you want to do it right, go with new OE (no aftermarket junk) headlight assemblies and install the Philips HIR bulbs. In place of 9005, you'll want to get 9011 and in place of 9006 you'll want to get 9012. All it takes is a simple modification to the tabs on the HIR bulbs. Good luck.

We also have WJ, a 1999 Grand Cherokee Laredo (BTW, headlight assemblies differ between Laredo and Limited. They interchange, but limited has clear markers that use yellow bulbs, while Laredo has yellow markers). We have 5-1/2" Rock Krawler suspension and 255/85R16 rubber that barely fits the wheelwells and rubs the long arm suspension in full lock turns. In retrospect, we spent a lot on suspension, shocks, driveline mods, even exhaust mod, and should have just kept the 2" spacers from Less Schwab. It's noisy, gets worse gas mileage and does have more ground clearance. The oversized spare is on a roof rack, and the spare tire well is full of survival gear.

These Jeeps take a straight version of the 9005 and 9006, don't recall the numbers offhand. So it's not just a matter of simply grinding a tab on the 9011 or 9012 bulb, then replacing a 9005 or 9006. To fit the 90 degree angled bulbs takes some surgery on tne headlights. You may not want to do it. I am experimenting on a spare headlight assembly (no time lately to pursue this), to be sure I want to do it.

Glad to know I can still find new headlight assemblies at a dealership. This won't be true forever. I will start saving up.

That headlamp "polishing" job stripped the anti-UV, anti-abrasion hard coat off the front of the headlamps. They will now degrade again, worse and faster than before -- so really all that's been done is to postpone your need for new headlamp assemblies. When that day comes, get genuine Chrysler headlamps because all (yes, really, all) of the aftermarket ones are garbage no matter whether they look just like the originals or are the fanboy-type toys.

"HID kits" and "LED kits" such as you linked are not effective, safe, or legal. See existing threads here and here.

The Philips Xtreme Vision bulbs you linked are the best 9006 bulbs made (higher luminance and more precise filament placement means better beam performance and focus). They are not available in the straight-base variant. Don't get confused; the Philips product is designated "9006XVS2", which expands to "9006, Xtreme Vision, 2-pack". Even though there's an X and an S in the designation, they are the 90° angle-base type of bulb.

In fact, there are no upgrade bulbs available in the straight-base variant, just fanboy-type so-called "whiter" bulbs like the Sylvania Silver Star junk (see here). If you mean to install better bulbs, they will be the angle-base type, and you will have to do some extra work as described and pictured here.

If you will be carrying heavy loads in the vehicle and/or can't or won't be fastidious about correct headlamp aim, then the Philips Xtreme Vision 9006 is the pick for the low beams. If you aren't schlepping heavy loads and you can and will make the effort to get and keep the headlamps aligned correctly, then use the HIR2 bulbs in the low beams (the article linked above, showing how to install the HIR bulbs, contains pictures of the old Toshiba items that are no longer in production. The Philips items you can get now look a little different and work/last better.)

In either case, the HIR1 bulb would be the best pick for the high beams.

Except for the width of one plastic base tab which must be trimmed to make the swap, the 1875-lumen HIR2 (9012) bulb is geometrically identical to the 1000-lumen HB4 (9006) low beam bulb, and the 2300-lumen HIR1 (9011) bulb is geometrically identical to the 1700-lumen HB3 (9005) high beam bulb. So they are fully optically compatible. Note that the HIR2 low beam swap is possible to do safely in your headlamps only because they have a cap-type bulb shield over the low beam bulb.

-Virgil- said:

That headlamp "polishing" job stripped the anti-UV, anti-abrasion hard coat off the front of the headlamps. They will now degrade again, worse and faster than before -- so really all that's been done is to postpone your need for new headlamp assemblies.

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For me, that day is unlikely to ever come. I'm retired, drive very little and the Jeep is garaged. In the 18 months that I've owned it, I put less than 6000 miles on it. Fully 1/3 of the mileage was for trips back to Los Angeles. In town, the Jeep lives in the garage and only comes out every 3-4 days to go shopping.

"HID kits" and "LED kits" such as you linked are not effective, safe, or legal. See existing threads here and here.

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Copy that. What about projector HID kits? PS: What differentiates a projector housing from an OEM housing? IOW, what's a projector?

If you mean to install better bulbs, they will be the angle-base type, and you will have to do some extra work as described and pictured here.

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Time to borrow my friend's Dremel kit.

If you aren't schlepping heavy loads and you can and will make the effort to get and keep the headlamps aligned correctly, then use the HIR2 bulbs in the low beams. The Philips items you can get now look a little different and work/last better.) In either case, the HIR1 bulb would be the best pick for the high beams.

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Thank you for the Amazon link. I already ordered them.

Except for the width of one plastic base tab which must be trimmed to make the swap, the 1875-lumen HIR2 (9012) bulb is geometrically identical to the 1000-lumen HB4 (9006) low beam bulb, and the 2300-lumen HIR1 (9011) bulb is geometrically identical to the 1700-lumen HB3 (9005) high beam bulb. So they are fully optically compatible. Note that the HIR2 low beam swap is possible to do safely in your headlamps only because they have a cap-type bulb shield over the low beam bulb.

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If I remember, I'll take better photos and do a write up on NAGCA.


Thank you Virgil for the good explanations.


Andy

AndySteiner said:

What about projector HID kits?

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Don't! see here.

What differentiates a projector housing from an OEM housing? IOW, what's a projector?

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A "projector headlamp" (also called a "polyellipsoidal" or "ellipsoidal" or "DE" headlamp) is, in principle, the same as a slide projector or movie projector. There's a pretty good writeup here on Wikipedia. You can spot these lamps visually, they're the ones with the thick glass "fish eye" looking lens as the front appearance, rather than the metallic reflector appearance. There are no legitimate projector headlamps for the '99-'04 Grand Cherokee, only aftermarket trash (headlight-shaped toys) that are not effective, safe, or legal. Steer clear.

Thank you Virgil for the good explanations.

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You are welcome. Let us know how it works out for you. And do take care to make sure the lamps are aimed correctly -- it's really important.

Swapping in the 9012 bulbs into my WJ was easier than I thought. Trimming the tabs only took side cutters. The headlights didn't need removing, only the bulbs had to come out.














Before and after photos.






Thanks again for all the help and advice.

That looks like an easy install. I can't tell from your photos if you were able to get the HIR2 bulbs to rotate fully clockwise into the fully seated position. Also, it will be very important to make sure the lamps are aimed correctly, very preferably with the use of an optical headlamp aiming machine (information here), even if you're pretty sure they were aimed OK before.

Hamilton Felix said:

So it's not just a matter of simply grinding a tab on the 9011 or 9012 bulb, then replacing a 9005 or 9006. To fit the 90 degree angled bulbs takes some surgery on tne headlights. You may not want to do it. I am experimenting on a spare headlight assembly (no time lately to pursue this), to be sure I want to do it.

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It was easier than everybody made it out to be. Go for it Hamilton.