Hello, I needed to replace the entire headlight assembly for my 2004 Lexus ess 330 after an accident. I bought a new assembly and while I was able to make it fit and hook up my directional lights. It appears the lowlight requires some kind of adapter to plug into the available wires. It looks like I need to plug the standard light bulb male prongs into this wire https://imgur.com/a/w8QV4lo but I'm having trouble finding a cable that will work as an adapter. What is the name of the type of equipment I need to purchase? I bought the headlamp from RockAuto so it should be a compatible replacement.

Any help is appreciated

The wire I believe I need to connect too

An extra wire that doesn't fit into the replacement headlamp I got. I believe it's for the auto headlamp sensor.

 

Hello,

The wiring harness on the Second picture is there for the Automatic Aim Adjustment, which was only available for the HID (High Intensity Discharge) headlights. The light you got appears to be a regular Halogen headlight, which can be a cause for why the other connector doesn't fit as well. There are several ways to go about it - get a factory HID replacement, get an OEM Halogen headlight that came with lower trims, or fabricate your own adapter for the new aftermarket headlight.

There is no plug-and-play adapter available for the factory HID connector and the standard H7 bulb that is currently in your new headlight, so you will have to find a pigtail that will plug into your factory connector and attach a standard H7 connector (like this one) to the other side. Combine that with the fact that you cannot run HID headlight with the Halogen one, so you will have to get a headlight for the other side as well, and you will be better off getting a used OEM HID headlight off of eBay. They are fairly expensive, about $200 each, but they more than make up for it in performance compared to regular Halogen ones.

Hope this helps and best of luck!

 

Good morning Arsenii - Thank you for the reply. This was very helpful. To confirm, what you are saying is that I either need to buy a new assembly, new bulb or rewire the whole setup to make a conversion myself?

I have been doing a lot of research and it seems a lot of people have run into a similar issue. It appears that the circuit for the two lights is completely different. Do you know if I need the Automatic Aim Adjustment to make the HID work? Are there risks for having one without the other?

I think the first move is to buy some HID bulbs and see if it will lock into the new assembly. I am clearly not an expert on cars but I have found some lights that seem to have comparable lock in bases.

 

It's a little more complicated than it seems actually.. Not getting into details, HID light bulb is just a capsule that contains Inert Gas, Xenon in this case, if you were to push a few kilovolts through it, the gas will light up. In cars like yours this magnitude of voltage is produced by the HID Driver installed in the headlight, and that is what your current connector was designed for. All that is to say that you cannot just throw in an HID bulb in the headlight that wasn't designed for it, you will need to get a different headlight assembly. Here is an HID headlight I am referring to.

Because of its light intensity, aim adjustment is another essential part if the HID system. There is a Body Position Sensor on the Rear Right control arm, it indicates how leveled the body is compared to ground, and the motor in the headlight corresponds to it by tilting the reflector of the headlight up or down to adjust aim. Without such system, you will have to manually readjust the headlights with every new item you put in the car, whether it's a bag of cement or a full tank of gas, if you miss the aim of a light even by a little bit, you may start vaporizing the eyes of everyone on the opposite lane, hence why I was never a fan of aftermarket HID setups.

The other option is to replace both headlights with OEM Halogen option that came with lower trims in that car. OEM lights are essentially the same as the one you got, for the exception of the light bulb type and its retention mechanism. With that, considering how involved that process is and how difficult it can be to locate an OEM Halogen light, it isn't worth the trouble in my opinion.

Hope this helps and best of luck!