Anyone whos driven an XJ or MJ knows that the factory headlights just flat out suck. Many who know me know that Im very big on safety, and to be quite honest I think that the factory headlights are actually pretty unsafe, especially if your Jeep is lifted. I was getting very tired on not being able to see at night, and felt even more uncomfortable letting my wife drive her XJ at night knowing that it was hard to see.

 

So I decided to look into doing a headlight upgrade on her XJ. One of the biggest things I wanted to do was to do away with the older sealed beam style light and go to a projector light. Doing so have several benefits, the two biggest being that they throw the light better and also the fact that you only have to replace the bulb itself, not the entire assembly.

 

I looked a lot into the higher brand units like Hella, IPF, and Cibies; all of which I have experience with in other cars. However knowing that these were going into a Jeep that would see some trail use I just couldnt see myself spending the $100+ on a set. So I decided to go with the Autopal headlights for about half the cost.

 

Now these are not your eBay specials that are made with a plastic lenses that melts after a few hours of use. The Autopals have a glass lens with a reflector. The housing it made of very thick plastic and the bulb cover thing is made of metal. I was overall very impressed with their build.

 

In the photo below you can see the difference between the factory sealed beam headlight and the Autopal headlight housing. Notice the hole in the back that accepts an H4 bulb.

 

Once you have the bulb in the housing, its held in place by a metal bracket that snaps into place. The kit also comes with a rubber housing cover that covers the bulb and the bracket to keep water/mud/whatever from coming into the housings.

 

Here is a close up of that rubber cover with the bulb.

 

Install is very simple. Just remove all the phillips screws holding the housing/grill on. Only tool needed is a phillips screw driver. Took me 20 mins to install both housings start to finish. The Autopals are a plug-n-play setup, so no modifications at all are required to install them.

 

Here is a photo of the old factory housing installed.

 

And here is a photo of the new Autopal housing installed with the H4 bulb.

 

Just looking at the difference in design you can that the Autopals will throw the light much better.

 

I did do a comparison shot, however our camera does NOT like the dark so the photos are not the best. This is just on normal brightness. Notice how much more defined the light pattern is with the Autopals.

 

 

Overall I am very happy with the Autopals. There is defiantly a noticeable difference in light, and I feel like I can actually see again driving the wifes XJ. The beam pattern is very good, and has a very nice cutoff on the top to not blind oncoming traffic. High beams also throw the light almost twice as far as the factory units did. I feel like it is actually safe to drive at night again. Id recommend the Autopals to anyone, especially those who care about being safe during night driving.

 

On a side note the bulbs included in the kit are a 60w bulb. I would not run anything higher than that without upgrading your wiring harness in your Jeep prior. I feel that the 60w bulbs are plenty bright being that their is a more defined light pattern.

And for those interested in getting your own set of the Autopals you can purchase the kit from Motion Offroad here; http://motionoffroad.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=165

 

 

-- Edited by LEAD_NOT_FOLLOW at 18:41, 2008-09-13