What Did You Do With Your Kizashi Today?

Thu Aug 30, 2018 8:50 pm

Interesting. It's hard to tell from the photos if the headlights are just improperly aimed or if the LED bulbs are not reflected properly inside the projector thus creating a weird beam profile. The right side looks decent and maybe the left side is angled down too much.
Thanks for the photos and input.

DiggerDerrik · Fri Aug 31, 2018 1:59 am

Until I put these LED bulbs in I’d never realized that when your high beams are on your low beams stay on as well. I always figured they were like the old single bulb setups where only one or the other was on at one time.

Fri Aug 31, 2018 7:10 am

DiggerDerrik wrote:Until I put these LED bulbs in I’d never realized that when your high beams are on your low beams stay on as well. I always figured they were like the old single bulb setups where only one or the other was on at one time.

I think most cars with separate high beam and low beam bulbs work the way the Kizashi does. The high beams essentially put a more focused beam of light ahead of the low beams and they work in concert in high beam mode.
The single headlight design used a dual filament bulb like an H4 which essentially shifted from one filament to a different filament for high beam to output more light. Sometimes, the power wattage wasn't much different but the high beam filament didn't have a hider so it would reflect more brightly. In some designs, the bulb physically moved for high beam mode, utilizing a different reflector profile. These single bulb/dual filament designs put out more light in high beam mode vs. low beam but didn't actually provide additional light on top of the low beams. It was more like a brighter mode or beam tilted up mode rather than an extra light mode. I certainly prefer the separate bulb design which provides additional light where it's needed and a single bulb failure doesn't risk both outputs.

motosonic · Fri Aug 31, 2018 1:11 pm

This certainly looks like an acceptable field of vision. Would these bulbs work in Both High/Low? Considering they're the same bulb? (Ie would they fit without any issues/mods). If So, I think I may just order 4 of them and do a 1-time swap out and be done with it.

bdleonard · Fri Aug 31, 2018 10:12 pm

motosonic wrote:This certainly looks like an acceptable field of vision. Would these bulbs work in Both High/Low? Considering they're the same bulb? (Ie would they fit without any issues/mods). If So, I think I may just order 4 of them and do a 1-time swap out and be done with it.

Just beware that not all LED bulbs will work properly when used as Daytime Running Lights. The high beam bulb is used for this in the US/CA Kizashi. They may be overly bright as DRLs, or not light up as DRLs at all depending on the DRL implementation (voltage reduction / PWM / etc, not sure the mechanism used in the Kizashi) and the design of the LED bulb. However, testing a specific LED out in the vehicle is the way to know for sure.

Sat Sep 01, 2018 2:31 am

bdleonard wrote:
motosonic wrote:This certainly looks like an acceptable field of vision. Would these bulbs work in Both High/Low? Considering they're the same bulb? (Ie would they fit without any issues/mods). If So, I think I may just order 4 of them and do a 1-time swap out and be done with it.
Just beware that not all LED bulbs will work properly when used as Daytime Running Lights. The high beam bulb is used for this in the US/CA Kizashi. They may be overly bright as DRLs, or not light up as DRLs at all depending on the DRL implementation (voltage reduction / PWM / etc, not sure the mechanism used in the Kizashi) and the design of the LED bulb. However, testing a specific LED out in the vehicle is the way to know for sure.

Yup. Throwing LEDs into the high beams isn't exactly an easy solution for all kits. The Kizashi's DRL system uses PWM (Pulsed Width Modulation) which is essentially a deliberate fluctuation in the power going to the bulbs. This is how the high beam halogens are dim when used as DRLs. PWM for halogen systems don't quite work the same way with LEDs and will cause them to flicker irregularly instead of dim. The way to cure this is to stabilize the PWM with capacitors that steady the output to the bulbs. However, this will not make them dim but rather operate close to full power. This is currently my set-up and it's fine. With all the OE factory DRLs out these days, my Kizashi doesn't look odd with the LED DRLs (which aren't that bright in daylight anyway). I've received no complaints.

Woodie · Sat Sep 01, 2018 11:06 am

Easiest solution to this problem would be to disable the DRLs and carry on as if we were adults with the ability to make our own decisions.

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BLyons · Sat Sep 01, 2018 4:58 pm

Woodie wrote:Easiest solution to this problem would be to disable the DRLs and carry on as if we were adults with the ability to make our own decisions.

viewtopic.php?f=32&t=3012

This is exactly what I did. I did it before I had put the LEDs in for high beams, but it was also helpful knowing I could make that switch and not have to worry about anything else with the DRLs.

DiggerDerrik · Sun Sep 02, 2018 2:10 am

Left the house at 3am. Drove the Kizashi 860.7 miles from Puyallup Washington to Klamath Falls Oregon and back, to pick up our new puppy. Got home at 4:45pm. Car did great. Lie-o-meter on the dash said 33.1mpg. Car used 27.87 gallons so that actually comes out to 30.88mpg. Not bad. The dash also said I averaged 63mph. Which is believable.

This was the first time I’d ever really driven with the new headlights in total darkness. While I normally drive to work in the dark it’s on city streets and interstates with street lights and the headlights of other drivers. These LED’s are brighter then the Phillips Halogens I normally used. However they do not project the light out any farther then the halogens. So their ability to improve visibility at night is limited.

shekoski · Mon Sep 03, 2018 5:42 am

n8dogg wrote:Performed 90k mile maintenance. Oil, filters and rotated tires per usual plus first time coolant flush. Did it myself, as well as replaced thermostat and radiator cap. The manual doesn't call for replacing the thermostat and cap, just experiences from previous cars. I did test the cap on a pressure tester and it was about 4 PSI different from the new cap.

Hi, do you know how many gallons of coolant do I need for an entire coolant flush? I'm a little worried because it looks like coca-cola and it's almost empty. I'm going to use mitsubishi super long life coolant (premium).