1998 Isuzu Trooper lighting improvement

spearfishin

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Hi,

I have a 1998 Isuzu Trooper that is used as a back-up vehicle and for driving on the beach maybe once a month. The stock lighting is atrocious/borderline dangerous. I have done nothing to improve it because as I started reading on the best ways to do so, it seemed like many things I'd initially been inclined to do may be contraindicated with true improvement. I'm interested in improving the lighting primarily on the road. It is used as a beach driving rig, but seldom at night, and even then, I'm only going 15 MPH. The trip to or from the beach is ~2 hr from my house on 2 lane 55mph roads, and that's where the stock lighting is a problem. The low beams are to the point that you find yourself twisting the switch to cut them on, when they're already on.


The stock headlight housings both have condensation in them from an unknown source and the passenger's side housing is loose (appears one mounting tab is either broken or the bolt is missing). As such, I'd initially planned to get replacement housings. Isuzu no longer sells replacement headlight housings, so it would have to be Depo or LKQ or some other aftermarket body part supplier. The factory lens appears to be glass, the aftermarket offerings all appear to be plastic. Thoughts?


The truck takes a 9004 bulb, which I've read of no particularly good options for. What is the best option? Best place to purchase?


The truck has provisions for fog-lights in the bumper that I was thinking of utilizing and mounting some aux low-beam lighting in, but don't know if that's a good idea and if so, what would be a good choice of lights. The opening is approx 3.5"H x 6"W. I'd really like to avoid sticking lights anywhere else (top of bumper, etc.) if possible.


Any thoughts on improvement would be much appreciated.
 

-Virgil-

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Hi, welcome to the board. Thank you for asking a detailed, specific question including your driving conditions and the details about your vehicle. The best 9004 bulb is this one. Before you give up on the existing headlamps, remove them and wash them out -- literally, put them in the kitchen sink, pour in some hot (but not boiling) distilled water, add a couple drops of liquid dish detergent (make sure it doesn't have hand lotion in it), put the old bulb back in, and shake/slosh the lamp vigorously, then pour out the soapy water via the bulb hole. Do it again a few times, then rinse with plain hot distilled water several times until there's no more suds. Shake out as much water as you can. Then dry them in the oven: make sure the oven is clean (make sure there's nobody watching you who might raise a loud objection to car parts in the oven!), put the headlamps in, lens down, no bulbs, turn the oven on to bake at 350 and stand there at the oven timing off four minutes before shutting the oven off. Double-check to make sure it's off, and whatever you do, don't walk away or get distracted or play with your phone, etc during the four minutes; don't ask me how I learned this lesson. The whole time, leave the oven closed, and once you've triple-checked it's turned off, then leave it alone for a couple hours. When you come back, the headlamps should be pretty well completely dry. If they're not, repeat the process with the four-minute heatup and couple of hours wait.

Reinstall the headlamps on the vehicle and install the new upgrade bulbs. Get the lamps aimed properly, (very) preferably with an aiming machine. They're the "mechanical aim" type.

Beyond that, relays and good wiring would help. And yours is one of the few conditions where a set of fog lamps would be justifiable to add and use, because the main problem you have is that your headlamps produce almost zero foreground light. There's a ball of light sent a reasonable distance up the road, but no road-surface light and not much width. Snag two of these and put them in with carefully-chosen H3 bulbs and a decent relay/switch harness. Aim them about 0.7% down, again with an aiming machine.

That ought to make a decent improvement without spending a whole lot of money. Keep an eye on the headlamps; if the condensation returns, there are ways of adding vent and drain provisions if necessary, but the quick first thing to try is removing the rubber O-rings from the bulbs before installing them, to allow some breathing. The mistake that was made with a lot of these early designs of replaceable-bulb headlamps was to try to have it both ways: sealed except when the bulb is removed. That doesn't actually work; lamps really do need to breathe or yeah, you'll get water buildup.

(it sounds like you have already picked up on the importance to not try "HID kits" or "LED bulbs" in your halogen headlamps).
 
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spearfishin

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Thanks for the detailed reply. Bulbs ordered...I'll pull the housings this weekend and try to dry them out, go from there.

I looked at the linked fog lights; appear to be backordered/unavailable on Amazon. A broader search turned up both "Fog" and "Driving" versions, which I assume are truly distinct lights, as well as clear and yellow. Ideal choice would be "fog" and "clear"?

Thanks again.
 

Alaric Darconville

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I looked at the linked fog lights; appear to be backordered/unavailable on Amazon. A broader search turned up both "Fog" and "Driving" versions, which I assume are truly distinct lights, as well as clear and yellow. Ideal choice would be "fog" and "clear"?
You're correct-- fog lamps are fog lamps, having a wide, low, flat beam with very little 'reach', designed for low-speed crawling along in the fog so you can see the road markings. "Driving" lights are distinctly different as they are auxiliary high beams-- lots of distance, no cutoff, for higher speed driving in clear weather so you can more safely approach daytime highway speeds at night.

It should go without saying that just taking a lamp of one kind and changing the color does not mean you change it into the other lamp (a fog lamp putting out white or yellow light is still a fog lamp by pattern; an auxiliary high beam in white or yellow is still an auxiliary high beam by pattern). (A friend happens to have a Bosch selective yellow auxiliary high beam on his RX300, and it works quite well as a high beam-- in the fog it's still quite the backscatter generator.)

For on-road, in fog use, my preference is to a selective yellow fog lamp, but you'll be on a beach, with plenty of grey/whitish/yellowish/light browns/tans; a white light may be preferable to get more color information, such as to tell driftwood from sand or sand from stone. On road, once you're over 15mph, and certainly over 25mph, then the fog lamps ought to be switched off as they'll be impeding your distance vision at that point.
 
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haha1234

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You can use the European headlights which take H4 bulbs.

In Europe, it was called Opel Monterey. So, on ebay.es search for "Monterey faro [derecho/izquierdo]" (Spanish words for right/left) or you could go to ebay.fr and search for "Monterey phare [droit/gauche]" or ebay.de and search for "Monterey scheinwerfer [rechts/links]"

If you elect to buy the European headlights, be sure to get the correct style. They changed the headlight shape in 1998. The older style is rectangular, while the newer style has one of the corners rounded. You will know which ones your headlights look like, so choose the ones with the same shape :)

The Spanish ebay site ebay.es seems to carry both styles, in both right and left, and they ship to the US
 

-Virgil-

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European headlamps are not necessarily better than US headlamps. H4 headlamps are not necessarily better than 9004 headlamps. European headlamps that look (from the front) like they're the same size and shape as the US headlamps don't necessarily fit on a US-spec vehicle; there are sometimes different brackets, different structures the headlamps bolt to, headaches with European headlamps that require electric leveling motors in order to be able to aim them versus US vehicles that don't have provisions for the motors, etc. And all I'm seeing listed on ebay.es is used headlamps and possibly some aftermarket knockoffs. All of this adds up to a lot of expense and trouble with no guarantee that what is received will be worth using, will fit, will be better than the US lamps, etc. Not a good bet.
 

Alaric Darconville

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You can use the European headlights which take H4 bulbs.
There being good and bad headlamps of both E-spec and US-spec examples, and good and bad headlamps of either the H4 or the 9004, it's not an immediate 'win' to do such a replacement. I can see the allure, though, because it is a little easier to make a good headlamp with an H4 than with a 9004, but that doesn't mean they set out to make it any better. A lamp made for either bulb will have some compromises.

Differences in pedestrian protection requirements in effect in Europe vs. here could mean the lamps don't even fit, despite their appearance, due to a difference in mounting. There's also the issue of fakes, or getting some in worse condition you started with. Granted, the ones the OP has might be in bad condition (they do seem to currently take in more moisture than they can vent) but getting different ones in bad condition solves nothing.
 

irsa76

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My concern with chasing an E-code light for the Trooper is the likelyhood they'd be the same as the lights you can already get in the US. The Isuzu Trooper isn't a common vehicle in Europe so the likelyhood of finding genuine E-code lights maybe slim, and as we all know, just because it claims to be approved doesn't mean it is.
And in my experience I've yet to find a good Japanese headlight, even LHT E-Code ones.
 

-Virgil-

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My concern with chasing an E-code light for the Trooper is the likelyhood they'd be the same as the lights you can already get in the US

No, they aren't. The European lamps are H4 items built to ECE regulations. The US lamps are HB1 (9004) items built to US regulations. Totally different.

And in my experience I've yet to find a good Japanese headlight, even LHT E-Code ones.

Wait, what? You're claiming to not have ever seen a good headlamp from Japan? There are tons of excellent headlamps designed and made in Japan.
 

spearfishin

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Current status: wife went out of town yesterday, so I took the opportunity to clean and bake some headlight housings in her absence. New bulbs installed...will reinstall on truck later this week. Working on a relay harness, hope to have that sorted by the time I put the housings back on the truck. Got some Hella fog lights, but will need to make some alternate provisions for mounting them in the stock location as (predictably) the factory mounting points are not going to work out.

Even after cleaning, the headlights do not look great inside, so long term, may need replacement.
 

Alaric Darconville

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Current status: wife went out of town yesterday, so I took the opportunity to clean and bake some headlight housings in her absence. New bulbs installed...will reinstall on truck later this week.
You'll definitely need to aim them, preferably with the appropriate equipment.

Even after cleaning, the headlights do not look great inside, so long term, may need replacement.
You might want to do that in the short term. The excess moisture in the lamp assembly may have caused damage if it could get to the (vapor-deposited aluminum) reflective coating itself.
 

spearfishin

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You'll definitely need to aim them, preferably with the appropriate equipment.


You might want to do that in the short term. The excess moisture in the lamp assembly may have caused damage if it could get to the (vapor-deposited aluminum) reflective coating itself.

Junkyard headlight assemblies that were in much better shape (all the reflective material on the inside was still reflective), a headlight relay harness, new bulbs and a garage door aiming job.

Not to be corny, but it's a... Night and day difference...:D
 

-Virgil-

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That's great that you've been able to get more light by replacing worn-out parts, upgrading the wiring and putting in new bulbs. But that "garage door aiming job" is nowhere near good enough. It really just isn't. Please, for the sake of your own skin (and whoever else rides in this vehicle, and all those who share roads with you at night) find a shop equipped with an optical headlamp aimer and pay them to use it on your Trooper.
 

spearfishin

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That's great that you've been able to get more light by replacing worn-out parts, upgrading the wiring and putting in new bulbs. But that "garage door aiming job" is nowhere near good enough. It really just isn't. Please, for the sake of your own skin (and whoever else rides in this vehicle, and all those who share roads with you at night) find a shop equipped with an optical headlamp aimer and pay them to use it on your Trooper.

While I certainly understand, and appreciate, that it would be best served with optical aiming, I think my efforts are likely well closer to "correct" than the lights I replaced (truck has been through a few collisions in it's 250k miles of driving). Given that it's a seldom driven vehicle and we live in a rural area with no shops nearby able to perform this service, it will suffice for the time being. If an opportunity presents itself for "proper" aiming, I'll avail myself to it, for sure.

Thanks to all for the recommendations for improvement.
 
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