90° bulbs in place of straight-base in WJ Grand Cherokee?

WJ Grand Cherokee. Made for the straight version of 9005/9006. Because I replaced a headlight a while back, I've been fiddling with the one I removed, doing a little careful surgery. I THINK I can run the common 90 degree 9005/9006, and of course the 9011/9012 improvement. But I want to be sure before I order new lights. Can't find factory lights for Laredo, but factory lights for Limited (same except lens color on signal/markers) run $345 apiece.

this thread seems to indicate "yes".

As far as Laredo lights go (with the preferable black bezel and amber turn signal lens), looks like you can do a little better than the $345/ea price; RockAuto lists genuine Mopar lamps 5103400AA for $295 and 5103401AA for $321 if you do a search-by-part-number. And there's always a 5% discount coupon code floating around that would knock it down further.

That's interesting. Pretty much everyone else says Laredo discontinued or unavailable, but they list the Limited lights. Also, it appears the European WJ Grand Cherokees had self-leveling headlights.

No, they aren't self-levelling. They have a switch on the dashboard that allows the driver to electrically lower the aim to compensate for cargo load in the back of the vehicle.

That's interesting. I remember a lever on the outboard headlights of a four headlight Alfa Romeo that I test drove in 1978. I think the following year had self-leveling suspension. I've often wished for a "master elevation" control that would let me correct elevation on all my lights at once.

Hamilton Felix said:

That's interesting. I remember a lever on the outboard headlights of a four headlight Alfa Romeo that I test drove in 1978.

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For "load compensation", or for traffic directionality (depending where you test drove this thing)?

I think the following year had self-leveling suspension. I've often wished for a "master elevation" control that would let me correct elevation on all my lights at once.

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Even if you start with a *real* aim, those controls can be iffy. You'd have to know just how much the load weight in the cabin/bed or the tongue weight of the trailer affects the aim. If I had my 'druthers, I'druther the computer used suspension sensors and just did it automatically. A lot of people just wouldn't know what to do with the switch and would futz with it until they see worst and blind others the most.

True, there is always the issue of competence. I drove that Alfa in Seattle (before buying a Saab 99 Turbo), so the lever was just an elevation adjuster on the outboard high-low lamps. I have no great love of complexity. But a simple master adjuster would mean mounting all one's lights on the same bulkhead, then putting an adjustment on that - perhaps possible on my 1986 F250, but not on modern cars.

Hamilton Felix said:

WJ Grand Cherokee. Made for the straight version of 9005/9006. Because I replaced a headlight a while back, I've been fiddling with the one I removed, doing a little careful surgery. I THINK I can run the common 90 degree 9005/9006, and of course the 9011/9012 improvement. But I want to be sure before I order new lights.

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I also have have a WJ, and am running 9011 highs with X-treme Vision 9006 lows. The way I installed them was by removing the Torx screws holding the retaining ring that the bulb slots into so that I could carefully sandwich the bulb between the ring and the headlight assembly itself. I also needed to remove the blue terminal position assurance clips from the bulb's connectors to get enough room; this puts the wires at a tight 90 degree angle, but I didn't have to make any permanent modifications to the headlight assembly or even the bulb to get it to work.

Thanks. I will look into that. What I had been doing with the cloudy old "test" headlight on the bench, was cutting a section out of that raised rubber seal that goes around the bulb mounting, so it would clear the 90 degree bulb and connector.

I was hoping keep relamping easy I don't want to remove headights to change bulbs. Can you change bulbs with headlights in the Jeep?

Hey, it worked! Brand new headlights in the WJ, with 9002 and 9011 bulbs.
Disregard my nonsense above about changing bulbs without removing headlamps. It's been so long since I was into the Jeep lights that I forgot it isn't one of my Corollas. There's no changing bulbs without removing anything on this vehicle.

Interestingly, I did not have to trim as much off the bulb tabs as usual when replacing 9005 & 9006 with 9011 & 9012.

Though I ordered the lights from one supplier, they were shipped from different states and suppliers. The left headlight has a barcode sticker that says Valeo Sylvania LLC and is marked 02/06/2015 10:15:02 am. The right headlight has a matching sticker, but marked 01/19/2017 10:33:46 am.

I guess my new lights have been on the shelf for a while, but at least they were still making them 2 years ago.

I did not know that Valeo and Sylvania were even connected.

I look forward to aiming these lights after work tonight.

Valeo Sylvania was a joint venture in Seymour, Indiana. They mostly made headlamps for US automakers (sold a lot of lights to Chrysler) but they also had an aftermarket venture called "XeSighting", whose products were 7" and 5.75" projector and reflector BiXenon replacements for sealed beams. They were OK, but pretty clunky, and very expensive.

Sylvania backed out some years ago and now it's Valeo's Seymour, IN location.

Interesting. Thanks. I can't even keep up with who bought or merged with whom, in my own (electrical) industry.

Hamilton Felix said:

Interesting. Thanks. I can't even keep up with who bought or merged with whom

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Yeah, there's that.

-Virgil- said:

Yeah, there's that.

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Thought this would be an "Adam Ruins Everything" about eyeglasses or mattresses. Or maybe something about how FCA, or Renault & Nissan. But no, you had to post one of the very worst songs of the 20th century! (It's a relief that the band was "Starship" for that song, so as not to completely obliterate the contributions to the musical landscape Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship made.)

Getting back to topic, brand names can be deceiving. Bell & Howell used to make legitimate products like 8mm cameras and movie projectors, or had products like the Apple II+ made for them (the "Darth Vader" Apple II+), but now their name is stamped on "As Seen on TV" products. With many brands, manufacturing date and a knowledge of the company history helps differentiate the real from the "in name only".