H5s fit awful

[ADDvanced]

Hey guys, recently I drove home at night, an hour of country road driving, and my sugar scoops were godawful.

Since I had them laying around, I upgraded to H5s + Novsight LEDs and performance wise, very happy, see video:



However, the fit of the H5s and trim rings leaves a lot to be desired. There's a noticable gap between the top edge of teh headlight, and the trim ring. Like, bugs are going to go in there and pile up inside the headlight buckets. There's no real way to move the entire assembly higher, as far as I know. And also, the gaskets for the sugarscoop trim rings were pretty thick, I had to use a different machine screw on the bottom. Should I be deleting the gaskets entirely? Any tips on fitment?

[ADDvanced]

No advice? The gap between the trim ring and headlight seems odd and I see no way to adjust anything.

[mikesarge]

There are a bunch of threads on this if you search around for H4 stuff.

Some folks use VW Type 1 (bug) headlight gaskets (they're thinner) to address that part. It might help them fit in the bucket better and address your gap issue too.

The trim ring issue is discussed a lot in the ol' archives too- I don't recall exactly what solutions are offered, but try search terms around H4, rather than H5

[Ralph3.]

H4 trim rings fit way tighter than H5 trim rings.

[darrin]

@addvanced -- could you post a pic of your h5s upper cutoff when aimed against a wall/door?

[Ralph3.]

H5

H4

[FA-18C]

The current aftermarket H4 mounting rings are hard steel and many have issues getting them to fit the light bucket - me included. I went through 3 different sets, finally found on this site a set of H4 mounting rings that I had to transfer to the Audette LED set up with the spring clips. Lots of fun. The OEM older mounting rings are made of brass, so are more malleable. The trim, or finished covers mount with a single screw that goes into the hollow light mount. Along with AC, clearly designed by Oktober fest influenced engineers many pints in, with a nasty sense of humor.

VW seals are thinner and help as well.

This has been the flat my most frustrating project, and took over a year of patience to resolve.

So try H4 brass mounting rings, recommend matte black finish, then paint to match body from Paintscratch for covers - if that will work for you.

[ADDvanced]

Ralph, yes exactly. There's a visible gap between the upper edge of the light assembly, and the lower edge of the top of the trim ring. Are all of them like this???

[spuggy]

Originally Posted by ADDvanced

Ralph, yes exactly. There's a visible gap between the upper edge of the light assembly, and the lower edge of the top of the trim ring. Are all of them like this???

I don't think so. After driving country roads with H5s, I bought H4s and removed the H5s in disgust. I thought that the light pattern on the H5s stank; much too focused, the hot-spot was far too close to the front of the car on low beam when high beams were correctly aimed - and almost no illumination of the sides - eg kerbs, hedges etc - at all. In fact, the only lights I've seen that were worse than H5s were the 30 year old sealed beams on my 944...

However, the H5s I took out didn't have the large gaps you describe, they fitted tightly, just like the H4s. Sounds almost like yours aren't seated correctly.

I just re-used the same gaskets for the H4s, as they were still soft & pliable etc. The fun with H4s, of course, is getting them back on... One side is a mere 10-15 minutes of grunting, but the driver's side usually takes at least 30-40 minutes and 2 outbursts of incoherent & frustrated shouting... To the point where I've had some high output 55/60 bulbs sitting in the toolbox for the last 3 years and simply haven't wanted to fit them...

[Ralph3.]

Originally Posted by ADDvanced

Ralph, yes exactly. There's a visible gap between the upper edge of the light assembly, and the lower edge of the top of the trim ring. Are all of them like this???

As far as I know due to differences in mounting and trim rings all H5’s have similar gaps between the trim and the lens.

[pampadori]

my car had H5 headlights on it when i purchased it. It is the poor man's H4 upgrade.
Like Ralph's, mine has a similar gap. They are pretty much garbage but I don't hate them enough to drop $1000 on new H4 lights.

[ADDvanced]

Originally Posted by darrin

@addvanced -- could you post a pic of your h5s upper cutoff when aimed against a wall/door?

Low Beams:



High Beams:



Used them again a few nights ago, just... wow.... such a huge massive improvement from the sealed beams.