Lowbeam H11 to H9 bulb conversion

[conniecast]

An old discussion, but very timely as that is my project for September.
Has anyone actually swapped the earlier glass lensed headlights into an 05-07 model?

[Reverend]

I have the facelift plastic crap lights and I'm mulling over the glass (pre-facelift) lights with the 65w bulbs for the low beam, and the clear lens. If that fails, I'd go with Morimotos. I just can't justify the insane cost of the ABL headlights.

So I did replace my headlights. A couple of things came up as I tried to figure out which way to go.

Yeah, the ABLs were just too much money.
I ended up settling on OEM headlights (TYC and other aftermarket is absolute crap by any measure) and then decided to NOT get the adapters and just stick with facelift headlights. I ended up spending $800 on a set of E-code S60 headlights for the slight visual change and also because I then got the H7 bulbs instead of the H11/H9 combo of the US version of them.

It cost the same as OEMs locally, so it was an easy choice.

I also would *never* put the Morimoto Chinese junk on my car either. I've *never* ready anything good about them - especially not after some enthusiastic DIYer (like me) hack them into OEM headlight housings. Nope, nope, nope. Ignore what I said in my previous posts in this thread!

Another thing - I will never polish/"restore" plastic headlights again. They were laughable even when freshly polished, in comparison to the new OEMs.


Tl;dr, get OEM. Replace, don't polish.

The pre-facelift glass ones are reportedly Cibie CSRs made for Volvo and the European ones have a far better beam focus than the US ones, but you'll need adapters.

[unclegman]

I'm thinking of installing pre-facelift glass headlights in my 2007 XC70. Where can the connector adapters be purchased?

[Reverend]

I think Viva has them.

[A.Lucas]

I did this almost two years ago. Installed Sylvania Basic H9s (~$9/each) by the noted method of removing the notch (used a Dremel). At about the same time, I had the dealer adjust the software to turn off the DRL feature that just leaves the low beams on, as there are no dedicated DRLs on this vehicle. In the very hot and sunny climate I live in I didn't want the lights on during the day in the direct sunlight and heat, especially with the increased heat from the H9s.

No problems at installation or during use to this day, and much, much brighter than the H11s, which were more akin to mood lighting than real car headlights. Overall a great $20 upgrade (well, another $30 for the dealer's software mod).