[BopsKA12]

I drive 500kms every weekend (Highway and Ghats) and I my OEM headlamps in the Creta seem woefully inadequate. I definitely need an upgrade but not sure if I should go for brighter bulbs, HID or LED. Also does HID void the warranty of electricals? Is it advisable to get the Morimoto's from the US? The price I see on Amazon is about $150, so this is only about 3-4K less so is it worth it or do I buy them locally with warranty/support etc? Greatly appreciate all your inputs. Thanks

Thats something that i am looking forward to. I have a 2017 Creta SX CRDI which does about 600-650 kms during the weekends and around 100 kms in the city. The stock projectors are below average on the highways with most on high beams and pathetic when it rains in bangalore.Looking at aftermarker flood+spot setup for highway use only. Any suggestions are welcome!

[ARAY]

Very detailed description of the work. I was about to go for bi-xenons but finally ended up with LEDs in the sealed beams from AuxBeam. Duster AWD also uses canbus to acknowledge circuit miss or error. LEDs work fine in them. Have been using LEDs for last 2 years and the cutoff and beam pattern is perfect. Would be looking forward to a long term review on the Morimotos.

[One:1]

vsrivatsa, this upgrade is worth every penny.

Like other members had suggested, the vertical adjustment has to be spot on for 2 reasons.
1.so that it won't glare oncoming traffic
2. if the low beam is too high, your high beam shoots off into the trees making them redundant

i learnt this from trial and error

leave the vertical alignment parallel to the ground during alignment and not the usual 2" below at 30ft. You'll lose a bit of intensity on the road, but the low beam throw will be sublime and so efficient that you'll end up using highs just to flash during the night.

also, it seems that your horizontal alignment is off terribly. the cutoff is seen on the tempo which is on the left and there is a blind spot or shadow on the entire passenger side.

(P.S. I'm running Morimoto D2S 4.0 projectors on a 35w ballast and 5500k bulbs)

Originally Posted by sameerpb

This is perfect, exactly what I was looking for. I may go with the same option, I am thinking to order from US, On Amazon I see XB35 & XB55 I need to check whats the difference between the two.

Check out https://www.theretrofitsource.com
you'll get a detailed and clear picture of different morimoto products and their specifications.

i purchased my D2S HID projector setup from them.

35w setup glows at the rated temperature and last as stated
55w setup glows 1000k below the rated bulb temperature and you loose 10% lifespan.

another problem with 55w is that the light is so intense (if you're running anything above 4300k) that it reflects back from the road, and while on low beam, once you look up above the cutoff line, you're practically blind.

one problem with HID is that you loose the option to flash your lights during the daytime unless the bulbs have warmed up fully.

Originally Posted by vsrivatsa

......

Coming to the topic of XB35 Vs XB55, the heat levels would be lower with the XB35 and hence the bulb life would possibly be longer. Note that the HID bulbs have a relatively shorter life as compared to LEDs and Morimoto website claims that these bulbs are built to last for about 2,500+ Hours.

yes, 55w burns much hotter, also, if you were to flash HID bulbs, it reduces their lifespan drastically.
also, compared to LED's HID are very finicky about the input voltage, anything below 12v and they start flickering, even at 11v.

[vsrivatsa]

I see multiple people quoting different figures for warranty and hence I had dropped an email to Morimoto Authorized Dealer in Delhi and received the following responses from Mr. Dikshit Bhasin. He can be contacted at the following number directly: 997-139-5678.

Also given the interest level that has been shown on this thread, I felt these responses coming directly from Morimoto Authorized Contact person from Delhi would be of great benefit to all BHPians looking to take this route:

Here is the Q&A with Dikshit Bhasin done via an email:


Question 01: If the purchase and installation is done via an authorized Morimoto contact person within India is the same full warranty as called out in the USA site applicable to the product? For example for the 9005 Morimoto 2Stroke 2.0 LED the warranty on the USA site is called out as 3 years: Refer URL


Morinoto USA Warranty Example

Would the same 3 years of Warranty be passed on to the India Customer if purchase and installation is done via Morimoto authorized contact person or is this something lesser for India?

Response: Morimoto USA is providing warranty more than India or any other location around world. We (Morimoto India Authorized Dealer) are giving warranty of 2 years on all products supplied by Morimoto India only. We are not catering to any products bought from trs or any other dealers.


Question 02: On the Morimoto Website, I see only the Delhi contact listed but when asked we did find out that there are other contacts for various cities. Please share additional details.
Response: We are officially supplying to India and as of now we have around 5-7 dealers and out of that 2 are officially supplying in
1. Hyderabad
2. Bangalore(Chennai too)

We are Delhi based and we are catering right now to northern india with installation also. We are also supplying to dealers based in:
1. Mumbai
2. Jaipur
3. Kolkata
They are taking booking and placing order with us right now.

Yes we have lot of queries coming for dealership but yes, we have to see their background, service that they can provide and knowledge of the product.

The problem right now we are facing in India is that the MRP is going almost above any other brand, and we are fighting against Philips/Osram which are bigger brands as compared to Morimoto. And that too in india where customers have little brand knowledge or I can say they are brand loyal (so if one sticks to Philips their relatives/friend will have Philips as well).

It is taking a while to promote a brand which is better and expensive too due to higher import and tax structures. We have compared with them and found that Morimoto are better in terms of intensity, throw and light output.


Question 3: In case of any issues faced with the local city based contact provided by Morimoto New Delhi, would Morimoto New Delhi be the point of escalation ?
Response:
Yes, we can help you out for any issues that arise while installing or After Sales or Any Warranty related issue. We are a small company as compared to USA, but yes whatever we are dealing in India, we try to keep stock updated. Last year we had a bad experience by losing lot of client due to delay of shipment. It was bad luck due to delay of company dispatched, then shipment lost and we were without products for almost 6-8 months.

We are still in phase of learning and find various issues with new installation in every car, so sometime I would say it can take time. But we will be there to resolve the issue ASAP. Feel free to ask any other question, I will answer those as well.

I would like to thank Dikshit Bhasin for taking the time and providing his prompt responses the same day the questions were sent to him.

Disclaimer: I have no connection to Morimoto, its dealerships or any other person involved except as an indirect customer (since my Uncle purchased the Morimoto Headlights)

[COMMUTER]

There are a few, if not none, other options at the price that "can hold candle" to this HID setup's raw output. There are two places where you can keep looking for improvements as the technology progresses. The warm up time required might make one feel it to be tedious thing to go all guns blazing in an instant just to see what is in front of and be safe. The second place of improvement might be the performance under heavy rain.

Please do keep updating your experience in those lines.

[di1in]

This looks interesting. Any idea of how this compares to OEM HID in terms of performance?

[anilkumar]

Originally Posted by vsrivatsa

For people in Bengaluru, here are the complete details of the contact person:
Anton
The Automotive Lighting Experts
Contact Number: 733-777-7444
Facebook Link: URL
Youtube Channel: URL

I wanted to know is it possible to do the same for Sport plus variant of Jeep Compass ?

[vsrivatsa]

Originally Posted by anilkumar

I wanted to know is it possible to do the same for Sport plus variant of Jeep Compass ?

Please check on what is the stock socket/bulb specifications for the Petrol Models - I think Jeep Compass has varying Headlight setup based on the variants also so it would be hard to comment.

[Unrealistic]

Originally Posted by vsrivatsa

I see multiple people quoting different figures for warranty and hence I had dropped an email to Morimoto Authorized Dealer in Delhi and received the following responses from Mr. Dikshit Bhasin. He can be contacted at the following number directly: 997-139-5678.

UPDATE:

I JUST had a chat with Mr. Dikshit. He outright refused any tie-ups with dealerships in Mumbai, extended no support for installation outside of Delhi and said warranty would only be fulfilled if the product is sent back, by the individual, to their store in Delhi.

As great as the product is, the process to procure, install and attain warranty, if needed, is far from hassle free.

I guess Mr. Dikshit has had a change of heart since 2018.

[vsrivatsa]

Originally Posted by Unrealistic

UPDATE:

I JUST had a chat with Mr. Dikshit. He outright refused any tie-ups with dealerships in Mumbai, extended no support for installation outside of Delhi and said warranty would only be fulfilled if the product is sent back, by the individual, to their store in Delhi.

As great as the product is, the process to procure, install and attain warranty, if needed, is far from hassle free.

Thanks for sharing you recent experience. Maybe this could be due to the Covid-19 scenario - note sure.
In any case, you could try speaking to the other Contact - Anton as well who typically used to multiple places in South India (URL)

[Vyas]

I recently got FE Retrofit Fog Lamps installed in my 2017 Fortuner. In the initial days, I often had to correct the misalignment as the cut-off on the low beam is clearly visible and I got it fixed today. I feel that these lights are overpowered and are irritating for the oncoming traffic in case my beam is turned on by any chance or I am using a dipper on undivided roads(Fog lamps also have a high beam). None the less, quite satisfactory in terms of visibility.

[hydroadie]

Hi, I recently bought a JC Limited Plus AT. Obviously the lights are not that great. I wanted to upgrade. I am told not to make changes to the HL as they are Bi Xenon HIDs, but just to fix the FE Retrofit fogs from the Automotive LIghting Experts. Is this ok? Or, is there anything else that I need to do. Please guide.

[vardhann5]

Thank you @Vsrivatsa [quote=vsrivatsa;4477982] for the detailed write up.
Given there are practically no reliable solutions in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai and following this post I am impressed and took the decision to get the fogs installed on my 2020 Jeep Compass Limited plus.
Connect with Anton on WhatsApp and booked appointment.
Positives:
1. The low beam lighting (illumination right in front of the car is very good. I did a small little trip on the Kanakapura single road and the fogs alone provided good road visibility against all the high-beam monsters whose only intention I believe is to blind the oncoming vehicles.
2. These fogs get to full glory in about 5-secs time and are more than enough for city roads.
3. The high beam is very good. They work in tandem with with headlights and provide enough visibility.
Negatives:
1. Only 1 year replacement warranty. I expected atleast 2years if not more. Philips LED’s on my Swift came with 3yrs warranty. (Not really apples to apples but still)
2. Anton is a turn off right from get go and sounds uninterested on most of the conversations. I rejected him twice before taking a final decision again considering the other options I have. Even at garage he wasn’t available and his technician as well spoke very less.
3. I paid 22,000 for these fogs including installation. (The original post from Vsrivatsa says it’s 13,500). Not sure if these are worth the 22K especially when the website said 17K and Anton doesn’t clearly explain the 5K difference. Importing from outside India will cost further less given they sell under 200 dollar on Amazon.
4. The address is very hard to find. The approach road on 1 side is narrow and the other side basically has no road with a steep climb on kacha road at the end ( don’t take this road on a rainy day)
5. Even after enquiry, they only showed 1 model fog lights. (They dint show me LED ones nor the other models that are listed on the Morimoto website)
6. I asked for headlight upgrade options for which they had only I model again hella something (not the Hella brand) and quoted 35,000.

Here’s how the lamps looked before and after.




Video of the light output before and after upgrading.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=wkDtmyD9_qs

https://youtube.com/watch?v=i1-6TsY4u7k

[revvharder]

Originally Posted by vardhann5

6. I asked for headlight upgrade options for which they had only I model again hella something (not the Hella brand) and quoted 35,000.

Was 35,000 quoted for replacement HID bulbs for your existing projector headlamps or retrofitting another projector in your existing headlamps alongwith bulb replacement ?

[vardhann5]

Originally Posted by revvharder

Was 35,000 quoted for replacement HID bulbs for your existing projector headlamps or retrofitting another projector in your existing headlamps alongwith bulb replacement ?

Adding another projector setup. He dint had any options to just upgrade the HID bulb within (sounded more like a lazy answer). For everything I ask. His only answer for everything is to get fogs first and then headlights only if required. Just checked online and the price for those is 12,350 INR. Not sure what the 35K includes when the bulbs setup and wiring are only 12,350.
https://feretrofit.com/products/bi-xenon-hella-g5