Testimonials and Updates on the Projector Retrofits

[brandonbeeb]

ya thats some bad news. there could be so many factors. anything electrical related if it popped should stop at the fuse though. the hid kit you should contact them about. the l.e.d are 12v and should be wired into the parking lights which have a fuse that would have popped if anything went wrong. did you have an amp (power cable under the hood) or anything else? sorry for your loss

[dangeris]

Dom, when your car was running, did you have your headlights on or park lights or were they totally off when you were inside closing up shop

[brandonbeeb]

ya, also dom how did you have them wired up have you noticed any problems with the lights popping fuses before?ive heard of hid kits causing fires in cars before but on like 1992 cars with weak wiring harness and what not. all the voltage with an hid kit is used on startup after that it kicks back to 12 volts.

[legend_217]

That is scary. It might be caused by LED lights or angel eyes. Some led needs a resistor to work tho.

[brandonbeeb]

ya, also dom how did you have them wired up have you noticed any problems with the lights popping fuses before?

[brandonbeeb]

That is scary. It might be caused by LED lights or angel eyes. Some led needs a resistor to work tho.

Hey guys i just spoke with dangeris on the phone he gave me a call to discuss what happened. the led are prewired with resistors in them and dont really draw any power. as long as dom wired the lights into the factory spot and not directly to the battery then there is lik 99.9% chance that the lights couldnt be the problem. the hid kit he was using wasnt purchased from me. all he was running was angel eyes (which have a power inverter that are 12v and hooked up with the leds into a fuse) and a projector i installed for him. other then that there was nothing that could have caused a problem. if there was a problem with the angel eyes or the leds i would go after the company directly from who i buy them from who also manufactures them as even the l.e.d come pre wired with resistors. i hope everyone feels a little bit easier about this. i dont know how much the insurance company will figure out considering it would be hard for them to figure out where the problem started from, considering by the looks of it there isnt much left of the front let alone any wires for them to determine anything. Dom if i was you i wouldnt admit to doing any mods on the car even if its an aftermarket filter because thats where some insurance companies try and avoid letting claims go through.

[rjdmmfl1]

Dom, I'm really sorry that this happened.... and I hate to ask you, but is it possible I could get that passenger side side mirror from you?

[brandonbeeb]

if anyone has recieved there lights thats waiting to instal them i posted this before but if you cant do them yourself or are having trouble take them to a shop to get them isntalled as i cant be held responsible for any problems that are caused during instalation unless i perform the instalation myself. f any parts are found to not be working once recieved please send me an email letting me know and i can address the situation then. Also remember modifying your car can cause issues with warranty, insurance and the police. Like when i modified my subaru and blew the bottom end because of a lack of oil warranty and insurance would not cover my $5000 problem lol

did you just ask for a mirror doc lol?

[spockrock]

wow that's nuts, I cannot see the headlights causing that.

[dldjros69]

Dom, I'm really sorry that this happened.... and I hate to ask you, but is it possible I could get that passenger side side mirror from you?

Nice Doc...

Sorry for you loss dom.

[Infantry1327]

Damn dom, that sucks. I am sorry to hear about your loss.

As bad as it looks thow they should be able to tell exactly what started the fire. I have seen fire inspectors find the cause of a fire from houses that where in complete rubble. The origin of the fire usually leaves some kind outwords pattern or flash mark where the flames spread from. But if they can't prove with a 100% certanty that the lights caused the fire. Then the lights did't cause the fire, and your warranty is good. Even if your warranty is void, your insurance should cover the car. So you won't be out the 23k, just the deprecation

But glad to hear you are ok

[Miss_Lanaya]

x 2 they should be able to find the source ..... but wow thats $hitty, makes me nervous!!! I hope this is just some sort of freak incident, and not an issue that could affect other A/C's. Anyhow sorry to hear about your car, and I hope everything works out with your insurance.

[dangeris]

Hey guys i just spoke with dangeris on the phone he gave me a call to discuss what happened. the led are prewired with resistors in them and dont really draw any power. as long as dom wired the lights into the factory spot and not directly to the battery then there is lik 99.9% chance that the lights couldnt be the problem. the hid kit he was using wasnt purchased from me. all he was running was angel eyes (which have a power inverter that are 12v and hooked up with the leds into a fuse) and a projector i installed for him. other then that there was nothing that could have caused a problem. if there was a problem with the angel eyes or the leds i would go after the company directly from who i buy them from who also manufactures them as even the l.e.d come pre wired with resistors. i hope everyone feels a little bit easier about this. i dont know how much the insurance company will figure out considering it would be hard for them to figure out where the problem started from, considering by the looks of it there isnt much left of the front let alone any wires for them to determine anything. Dom if i was you i wouldnt admit to doing any mods on the car even if its an aftermarket filter because thats where some insurance companies try and avoid letting claims go through.

Yeah I was thinking about the whole thing after I saw Dom's post. Got me thinking. At first I thought to myself "O Shiz-nits! I hope it wasn't the headlights that did this." Then after really thinking about it, there's no way the headlight mod did this. Think about it, All Brandon is doing is modifying the headlight to projectors. That basically involves separating 2 plastic pieces and retrofitting a metal/glass projector and a plastic shroud. The only lights that he's installed are the LEDs and angel eyes which probably draws 20Ma for the LEDs each tops and 60Ma tops for the transformer regardless if you ran 2 or 1 angel eye. So if you got 6 LEDs and 1 or 2 angel eyes, that's a total of 180Ma. Since there's 1000 Milliamps for 1 amp that's not even .2amps!

If you use you're own HIDs like I did, that didn't change, but if you're using an aftermarket HID kit, the draw of the initial current to fire up the lamps shouldn't be that much. If it did, you'd be replacing fuses every time you turn on the headlights.

So basically guys, if you look at the facts, I'm pretty certain that the headlights wasn't the cause of this sad tragedy. Like someone said, it could be anything, an arc from the battery due to a bad amp wire connection, a battery gone bad (which I've seen..justs explodes), Hell for that matter it could of been a snake that happened to slither its way up into the engine bay and died on top of the battery terminals and it made it arc. Who the heck knows. The future investigation will determine the cause but for now, at least for me, I can say it wasn't Brandon's work.

if anyone has received there lights that's waiting to install them i posted this before but if you cant do them yourself or are having trouble take them to a shop to get them installed as i cant be held responsible for any problems that are caused during installation unless i perform the installation myself.

I have to agree with Brandon on this. He provides the lights that require simple wiring, how you install them is up to you! Everyone here knows that you need to have some kind of technical competence to mod a car or at least know your limitations and know if a project is over your head to hire the help of a professional

[brandonbeeb]

i hate to say it guys but i doubt they will find out the cause. there most likely sending out an adjuster and hell just say the cars a write off and dom will get his cheque. for them to figure out what the cause was if they could would be pretty impossible and they probably couldnt care for just one care. they just want to see how much to pay him. Also say they where to find out the cause we wouldnt even know if it was an installation error, a bad angel eye/ l.e.d/ hid kit theres just to many variables i think to point it at one factor, the main thing is that dom didnt get hurt.

[domdada]

Ok Guys and Gals, Here's a quick update.

1) I have not hooked anything up to the battery. Everything is hooked to factory wiring. I have been working on cars for a very long time so I kinda know what to do.

2) I appreciate all the sympathy and kind words from you all as well and please don't think that I'm yelling at anyone or putting anyone down.

3) From what I'm understanding from the inspectors, This maybe mechanical failure, and whatever the outcome is, I will let you all know.

4) Oh and Doc, If I still had the car, I would but the insurance took the car the following day. Sorry Man.

[brandonbeeb]

hey dom when they say mechanical are they refering to say a fuel leak, because i was speaking to another member with a 3.5 and says he is smelling fuel under the hood of his car.

[domdada]

not sure yet bro....I will know in a couple weeks.

[maxentropy]

not sure yet bro....I will know in a couple weeks.

Dom, keep us posted. Sorry about your loss man. I hope insurance more than covers it.

[dangeris]

hey dom when they say mechanical are they refering to say a fuel leak, because i was speaking to another member with a 3.5 and says he is smelling fuel under the hood of his car.

You know, I've smelled fuel around my car about twice now. Thought it may have been choke/exhaust smell.

[08Coupe]

You know, I've smelled fuel around my car about twice now. Thought it may have been choke/exhaust smell.

Yup when it's very cold and I quickly start car to warm up and jump out I can smell a "raw gas smell" from under the hood

Goes away when engine gets to running temp...

[domdada]

Ok guys here's the latest.....The projectors are not the cause of the fire nor nothing electrical. The issue is mechanical and is kinda scary. There may be an issue with a fuel leak either within the fuel line or from the fuel injector. The fumes from this leak possibly can cause a back fire if the fumes get to and reach the cone filters from an aftermarket intake....(injen, fujita, k & n, ect) I hope this is not the case and what happened, and if it is, I would recommend you all to go back to the stock intake systems. I will keep you all up to date once I get more new news.

[dangeris]

Glad to hear it wasn't the projectors or anything electrical but we're still sorry for your loss. However, you can always upgrade to the 370 now

Perhaps you should start a new thread on this so the content sticks close to the OP

[legend_217]

Dom ! I'm sorry for your loss. But is there anyway to part out your car. I want your tail lamps.

[headhunt3r]

Dom ! I'm sorry for your loss. But is there anyway to part out your car. I want your tail lamps.

I think this can be answered like Doc's request for his side mirrors.

Dom, I'm really sorry that this happened.... and I hate to ask you, but is it possible I could get that passenger side side mirror from you?

Ok Guys and Gals, Here's a quick update.

4) Oh and Doc, If I still had the car, I would but the insurance took the car the following day. Sorry Man.

[08Coupe]

Ok guys here's the latest.....The projectors are not the cause of the fire nor nothing electrical. The issue is mechanical and is kinda scary. There may be an issue with a fuel leak either within the fuel line or from the fuel injector. The fumes from this leak possibly can cause a back fire if the fumes get to and reach the cone filters from an aftermarket intake....(injen, fujita, k & n, ect) I hope this is not the case and what happened, and if it is, I would recommend you all to go back to the stock intake systems. I will keep you all up to date once I get more new news.

Report it! http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/ivoq/index.cfm

Also im glad no one was hurt and I have my factory airbox

And I agree this deserves a new thread...

[GreyZone]

And I agree this deserves a new thread...

Started:

http://forums.altimas.org/zero...-fire

[Kanard]

seen the post, decided to keep up to date on the lights.. and see 'fire' ... sorry about your car man... thats messed up. hope everything turns out for the better for you.. look @ the positive sides.

[dangeris]

seen the post, decided to keep up to date on the lights.. and see 'fire' ... sorry about your car man... thats messed up. hope everything turns out for the better for you.. look @ the positive sides.

Domdada said that the fire was caused by something other than an electrical part gone bad....Good for us ...bad for him

Hey, Dom, just bite the dang bullet and buy that Stillen 350Z already will ya... The auction is ending soon!!!!!

[mcheddadi]

I have to confess something guys. If I was given an opportunity to redo it all with what I have learned from this experience, I DEFINITELY wouldn't.

100% would not have my lights retrofited ever again.

This is too much a delicate product and shipping something like this requires buttload off stuff like Brian said. You need big thick boxes, lots of foam filling and wrapping and packing to even consider something like this.

Also to get service on your lights is SUCH a pain if the guy isn't at a driving distance. I think I became a master of the removal of my bumper. The massive downtime is crazy, and having to splice wires when I hate doing that with a passion doesn't help.

The lights are beautifull (when they arn't broken because of shipping thought).

IF someone was in the market to get some projector headlights what I would tell him is:

Try to buy some ALREADY RETROFITED lights that work 100% from someone who had his retrofited, so you can get a unique look and a good deal, or just wait for some aftermarket company to make some projector/angeleye combo headlights and/or taillights.

unless you are like 15 to 30 minutes from a retrofiter to get service, there is way too much probability that something will break in the shipping.

I guess I paid the price for trying too hard to bring projector headlights to my A/C community. sorry guys

EDIT: Some clarification, I wouldn't do a retrofit in the future because of too many factors like shipping and splicing, service down times and such. it's the nature of a long distance retrofit and since its the first one I had done ever, I now know better how the whole thing goes.

if Brandon was next to my house, I would probably have it done by him because the lights look so good, but the distance and the problems it creates for servicing the lights overweight the pluses for me.
Modified by mcheddadi at 2:06 PM 2/23/2009

[legend_217]

Seriously, there were 25 people in the gb, and Brandon finished like 18-20 orders already. For those who already received their lights, I don't see any comment on such the products. Why ? You guys should be honest to yourself and other folks. All comments are welcome here that what this thread is for. Come on guys !!!