Let There Be Light

"Maybe If I Tape A Couple Of Flashlights To The Hood..."

To be quite honest, the headlights on the Stealth kind of suck.

Language, Spock!

Like may cars from the early 90's, the Stealth has "Pop Up" Headlights, which while cool in a Retro sort of way, means that it uses "Sealed Beam Headlights".

Sealed Beam Headlights consist of a  single or dual lighting element and a parabolic aluminized reflector in a integrated glass housing.  For over 40 years these assemblies were mandatory for any vehicle sold in the United States.  They worked, but the light output was pretty terrible.

In the mid 80's Automobile manufacturers were no longer required to use these assemblies, but some did into the 90'as for whatever reason.

Mitsubishi was one of those companies, and the Stealth/3000GT didn't get fixed headlights until the 1994 model year.

Original Headlights In The Garage

But, I Like Pop Ups?

So do I, but I also would like to be able to see at night.

After having replaced the headlights in my now, DEAD VW Golf TDI with a set of aftermarket projector headlights, I've gotten spoiled.

I COULD SEE EVERYTHING AT NIGHT with those headlights. 

•  Rabid Skunks doing donuts in the middle of the road.  
• Armadillos psyching themselves up to try and cross the road.
• Stupid Deer thinking about running in the middle of the road.
• Possum, Cougars, Foxes and whatever other animals that haunt Kansas Country roads at night getting ready to do something extraordinarily stupid.

*Really didn't help me against a Hyundai Sonata with a sleepy driver behind the wheel, but that's neither here, nor there.*

There were upgrades available for cars with Sealed Beam Headlights, just not a lot of good ones, unfortunately.

What Are Our Options, Then?

• Sealed Beam Upgrades
• Aftermarket Projector Housings
• LED Upgrade Housing
• H4 Housing Conversion

Sealed Beam Upgrade

Sylvania sells a "Silverstar" H4666 Headlight Assembly that's supposed to be brighter than a standard Halogen Sealed Beam unit.  This would be the easiest to install as it basically just replaces the standard headlight with one of these.  Unfortunately while brighter, you still have the diffuse light inherent with the sealed beam design.  These wouldn't be an upgrade, rather serving as a Band Aid for a oozing wound.

Aftermarket Projector Housings

These seem like the best of both worlds.  A modern projector housing enclosed in a housing shaped like a sealed beam housing.  Unfortunately due to the dimensions of the sealed beam housing, the projector isn't really able to be properly installed in the housing, resulting in output that isn't as good as it should be.  Add to that, that pretty much all of these housings are only available from Taiwan or China, made me very dubious about their quality.  I've bought fog lights and other lighting off E-Bay for past project cars, and I've learned to be very skeptical of anything that seems to be too good to be true.  The projector housings also looked to need a slightly deeper opening than the conventional headlight housing.  Another concern, due to the pop up headlights used on the car. 

LED Upgrade Housing

These were also only available from Taiwan or China, and were priced way too low to be of any kind of good quality.  I was also concerned about the output and light pattern.  I didn't want to blind anyone in the the oncoming lane, and I hated the way that they looked with multiple single LED bulbs.

H4 Upgrade Housings

This seemed to be the best bet, as I've had past experience with this option.  I had a 90 Eagle Talon TSi/AWD that I bought with this upgrade already performed.  They were older 4X6 Hella Headlights that the previous owner kludged into the car.  They worked fine for the 7+ years that I owned the car.

Doing some research I found a set of H4 Upgrade housings for the Stealth, also made by Hella. Model # HL2110A with Manufacturer's Part#: 1AB 008.888-101 008888101. 

Hella is a German company that provides OEM lights and aftermarket lights for a variety of manufacturers, so I wasn't concerned about quality.  These headlights featured a clear glass lens, and advertised a very sharp and distinct cutoff for the low beam lights.  A definite advantage over the Sealed Beam Unit, but probably not as good as a properly set up Projector Housing.

Everything is a trade off, it seems.

After confirming a few measurements with my OEM Headlights, I returned a different set that my GF had bought for my birthday (Thanks Weezie!) and used the credit to place an order from Amazon for a set of the HL2110A Headlights, a set of H4666 to H4 Wiring Adapters and a pair of Silverstar Ultra 9003 Halogen Bulbs.  

"Drop In Replacement"

Yeah, Right... 

I received everything a few days later, but had to wait for a weekend to work on it.  I started by removing the original headlights, the covers and plastic trim to expose everything.

  I had to remove the headlight buckets in order to modify them, but I used White Out to try and match mark the adjustment screws so that the headlights wouldn't be COMPLETELY out of whack when they were reinstalled.

Skeletal

It wasn't exactly a drop in replacement unfortunately.  As noted before, there were some modifications that needed to be made in order to use them in the car.

Clearance, Clarence..

The new Headlights had a slightly extended circular area in the center of the headlight, resulting in a slightly thicker overall dimension than the original headlight.  

The new headlight also had a mounting boss for a Non Operative European Spec "City Light", that really couldn't be ground down to clear the headlight bucket.  Grinding it would have opened up the rear of the Headlight Housing and destroyed the reflector for the light.

The only real option was to enlarge one opening on the bucket  to clear the extension and also notch it to clear the "City Light" boss in the rear of the headlight.

I used a Dremel tool with a metal grinding bit to enlarge the opening for the extended area of the headlight.  I drilled a hole in the area of the Headlight Bucket for the "City Light" boss and then used the Dremel tool and grinding bit to shape the hole to accommodate the projection on the back of the light.

"Modified"

 Surprisingly, it all fit pretty well after grinding, filing and checking the fir of everything numerous times.  

If It Fits, It Ships

Test Fitting The Assembly

After confirming fitment, I went head and dressed all the cut edges with a file and spray painted all exposed metal with spray paint.

Electron Flow

My original plan was to use wiring adapters from the OEM H4666 wiring to the H4/9003 Bulbs in the back of the headlights.  After some thought, and opening and closing the lights a few times, I went ahead and made the decision to solder the H4 connectors in place of  using an adapter harness.

The original H4666 connectors were cut off and the H4 Connector wires were soldered in place, heat shrunk and wrapped in electrical tape after consulting this wiring diagram to confirm everything was hooked up correctly.

Red Goes To Red...Black Goes To..

After getting everything wired, protected and routed, everything was reinstalled and I hit the lights to check operation.

Success!!   I checked the High and Low Beam Function and also opened and closed the lights a few times to make sure none of my new wiring was going to get caught in the Pop Up mechanism.  

I went ahead and reinstalled the Headlight Trim and Headlight Covers.  

A few days later, I dropped the car off at a friend's shop to have a 4 Wheel Alignment done and to have the headlights adjusted.  A Headlight Adjustment wasn't something they usually did, but they got it in the ballpark.  

I haven't had a chance to test it out yet, since we seem to be rolling into the "Crappy Weather" time of year here in Kansas, so the car has been hiding in the garage for right now.

When it clears up one night, I will definitely get out there and check it out.

Alpha, Mike, Foxtrot.....