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Any interest in headlight modifications?

113K views 327 replies 85 participants last post by  Mrlandy 
#1 · (Edited)
Finally got the projectors installed! This is a very time consuming thing especially if you live in a apartment without a garage.

Here is my write up.


Disclaimer: I am no way responsible for any damages to your car or headlights due to your decision to tackle this project. If you feel this project is too challenging for you, hire a professional to do this modification.

Things you will need:

1) BI-XENON MORIMOTO MINI STAGE III KIT (H1) with Mini Gatling Gun Shrouds & H11 Wire Harness & 35w Bulbs/Ballasts- $270.00
2) Morimoto H11 Stand Alone Can Bus Harness- $30.00
3) Lots of Time
4) Lots of Patience

Step One: Very carefully get the headlights out of the car by removing the two screws and sliding them forward to remove them off the car. Then remove the headlight plugs.

Step Two: Now pre heat your oven to 275 degrees. While you are waiting for the oven to heat up, take a sharp hobby knife around the gap of the headlight to score the adhesive, as you are doing that remove the access adhesive that is sticking out from the factory. Once the oven is heated up, place one of the headlights in the oven for 7-8 minutes. Once 7-8 minutes have passed remove from the oven (BE CAREFUL ITS HOT SO USE OVEN MITTS) and start going at the headlight adhesive with sharp razor and scoring the adhesive, try to remove as much as possible. I also used a small flat head screw driver to pry up on the black plastic. BE CAREFUL TO WITH THE PLASTIC BECAUSE ITS HOT AND SOFT, IF YOU PRESS TOO HARD ON THE PLASTIC WITH THE FLAT HEAD YOU WILL PUNCTURE IT OR TEAR IT. Repeat this process until you have the headlight separated. Once you have the headlight separated, you need to remove the reflector from the black plastic piece. It just pops off with a some pulling. Firmly but carefully. If you wanna remove the crome inner-ring of the lens, you need to remove the screws by the turn signal housing with a T-10 screw driver. The it will require some wiggling around and it will come out easily.

All apart


Step Three: Next remove the little head light bulb end cap. Its a single screw (T-20) on the base of the reflector. Once you get that out, take a dremel and sand some material out of the bulb socket, go a little at a time until you are able to fit the projector in the hole snugly. Now. Where the bulb end cap was, grind out a little material so you can get the projector solenoid wire through it. Once you are done with that. Clean up all the dust. Install the silicon washer on the projector and install the projector by feeding the threads through the hole. If you look on the back of the projector (the shiny side) on the lip you will see "TOP" make sure that it is upright and on the top and as level as possible. Once you get the projector in place, you will need to wire the solenoid wire into the high beam harness. I pushed the blade tips into the backside of the pin connector on the black housing. Once you get that done, you will need to slice the rubber access covers that go on the backside of the black housing to make way for the the factory wire and the bulb wiring. The bulb wiring from Morimoto has a rubber grommet on it so I just pulled that through. Now reattach the reflector housing to the black housing by aligning the holes to the silver poles, done this firmly but carefully.

This is where I did the grinding to the slot where the little bulb end cap was.


This picture shows where the wire went through the slot and how the silicon grommet has to go on the projector.


The projector installed


The projector installed with the Min Gatling Gun Shroud.


How I fed the wires through the rubber plugs



Step Four: Reassemble the entire headlight assembly. Make sure you have removed most of the factory adhesive if not all. Now lay down your butle adhesive that you got from TRS. This stuff is very reactive so as soon as you start pushing the lens back on, it will start sticking so make sure you have the two plastic pins lined up as you are placing the lens back on. Then start pushing the lens on firmly. Once you have the headlights together place them in the oven at 275 degrees for 7-8 minutes. Once they come out the oven you may have to press some places of the headlight together again. Let the headlights cool off.

Step 5: Install the headlights into the car and wire the bulbs and ballasts. Everything in the kit connects together with 9006 plugs. I tried using the Stand alone Can-Bus Harness by itself as TRS advertises but it doesn't work, well it works part of the time. I think the harness overheats. So you have to use the regular harness that TRS normally packs in their kits.


Optional Mods: Ti Style Shroud and LED outlining.

The LED Outlining Mod:

I used the underside of the black part I painted. I just super glued the LED strand to the bottom of it. I had to super glue each LED until they dried. So it took me a while. Once they where all dried, I ran the wire to the back and assembled my headlight assembly. I ran the positive wires to the fusebox and used a slot that was powered when the car was started. I ran the ground wires to the ground on the strut mount.

The LED strip I used I was able to cut with 36 LEDs (I think) on each side. Here is the link where I bought them. They are the Cool Blue that cost $22.95+ Shipping
http://www.superbrightleds.com/more...ies-96-led-waterproof-flexible-light-bar/123/

All Installed pictures: Daytime








Installed pictures night time:




Light Shot from drivers side of car with High Beams Off 5000k bulbs



Light shot from drivers side of car with High Beams On 5000k Bulbs and Stock High Beam bulbs installed



Cut off with Highbeams off 5000k Bulbs



Overall, the install was very time consuming and not the easiest thing. But these projectors are very bright with a nice cutoff. I plan on upgrading the bulbs in the high beam space to some that match the color of the HIDs. I do still have the bulb out warning come on but for now the lights work flawless. Feel free to ask questions about the install. I hope this helps anyone willing to tackle the job.
 
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#276 ·
I did the heat gun trick and spent nearly 4 hours opening my headlights. On my second set, I used a dremel to cut off the top housing lip and pried the front right off. Dremel was better for me, it took 20 minutes. Hot knife took way too long even with a 60 watt iron.
 
#279 ·
Hey guys. Started my retrofit this afternoon, first headlight came apart with little effort compared to the lens on my truck.

I've hit a snag though, I ground out enough material from the locking part of the bulb socket to get the projector through the bulb hole, but not nearly enough of the projector's thread pokes through to get the silicone thing, lock ring, washer and bulb holder in place. I can only thread the main nut enough to hold it in place. Anyone have any suggestions on how I can get the projector far enough back in the housing to get it secured?



 
#281 ·
Hey guys. Started my retrofit this afternoon, first headlight came apart with little effort compared to the lens on my truck.

I've hit a snag though, I ground out enough material from the locking part of the bulb socket to get the projector through the bulb hole, but not nearly enough of the projector's thread pokes through to get the silicone thing, lock ring, washer and bulb holder in place. I can only thread the main nut enough to hold it in place. Anyone have any suggestions on how I can get the projector far enough back in the housing to get it secured?]
Could you try a hole saw to open it up a bit more?
 
#280 ·
Finally got the projectors installed! This is a very time consuming thing especially if you live in a apartment without a garage.

Here is my write up.


Disclaimer: I am no way responsible for any damages to your car or headlights due to your decision to tackle this project. If you feel this project is too challenging for you, hire a professional to do this modification.

Things you will need:

1) BI-XENON MORIMOTO MINI STAGE III KIT (H1) with Mini Gatling Gun Shrouds & H11 Wire Harness & 35w Bulbs/Ballasts- $270.00
2) Morimoto H11 Stand Alone Can Bus Harness- $30.00
3) Lots of Time
4) Lots of Patience

Step One: Very carefully get the headlights out of the car by removing the two screws and sliding them forward to remove them off the car. Then remove the headlight plugs.

Step Two: Now pre heat your oven to 275 degrees. While you are waiting for the oven to heat up, take a sharp hobby knife around the gap of the headlight to score the adhesive, as you are doing that remove the access adhesive that is sticking out from the factory. Once the oven is heated up, place one of the headlights in the oven for 7-8 minutes. Once 7-8 minutes have passed remove from the oven (BE CAREFUL ITS HOT SO USE OVEN MITTS) and start going at the headlight adhesive with sharp razor and scoring the adhesive, try to remove as much as possible. I also used a small flat head screw driver to pry up on the black plastic. BE CAREFUL TO WITH THE PLASTIC BECAUSE ITS HOT AND SOFT, IF YOU PRESS TOO HARD ON THE PLASTIC WITH THE FLAT HEAD YOU WILL PUNCTURE IT OR TEAR IT. Repeat this process until you have the headlight separated. Once you have the headlight separated, you need to remove the reflector from the black plastic piece. It just pops off with a some pulling. Firmly but carefully. If you wanna remove the crome inner-ring of the lens, you need to remove the screws by the turn signal housing with a T-10 screw driver. The it will require some wiggling around and it will come out easily.

All apart


Step Three: Next remove the little head light bulb end cap. Its a single screw (T-20) on the base of the reflector. Once you get that out, take a dremel and sand some material out of the bulb socket, go a little at a time until you are able to fit the projector in the hole snugly. Now. Where the bulb end cap was, grind out a little material so you can get the projector solenoid wire through it. Once you are done with that. Clean up all the dust. Install the silicon washer on the projector and install the projector by feeding the threads through the hole. If you look on the back of the projector (the shiny side) on the lip you will see "TOP" make sure that it is upright and on the top and as level as possible. Once you get the projector in place, you will need to wire the solenoid wire into the high beam harness. I pushed the blade tips into the backside of the pin connector on the black housing. Once you get that done, you will need to slice the rubber access covers that go on the backside of the black housing to make way for the the factory wire and the bulb wiring. The bulb wiring from Morimoto has a rubber grommet on it so I just pulled that through. Now reattach the reflector housing to the black housing by aligning the holes to the silver poles, done this firmly but carefully.

This is where I did the grinding to the slot where the little bulb end cap was.


This picture shows where the wire went through the slot and how the silicon grommet has to go on the projector.


The projector installed


The projector installed with the Min Gatling Gun Shroud.


How I fed the wires through the rubber plugs



Step Four: Reassemble the entire headlight assembly. Make sure you have removed most of the factory adhesive if not all. Now lay down your butle adhesive that you got from TRS. This stuff is very reactive so as soon as you start pushing the lens back on, it will start sticking so make sure you have the two plastic pins lined up as you are placing the lens back on. Then start pushing the lens on firmly. Once you have the headlights together place them in the oven at 275 degrees for 7-8 minutes. Once they come out the oven you may have to press some places of the headlight together again. Let the headlights cool off.

Step 5: Install the headlights into the car and wire the bulbs and ballasts. Everything in the kit connects together with 9006 plugs. I tried using the Stand alone Can-Bus Harness by itself as TRS advertises but it doesn't work, well it works part of the time. I think the harness overheats. So you have to use the regular harness that TRS normally packs in their kits.
Very Awesome, Good job, your car is very nice looking!
I absolutely want retrofit projector as I think HID in stock housing are somehow dangerous....

I have a question about what you bought,
"BI-XENON MORIMOTO MINI STAGE III KIT (H1) with Mini Gatling Gun Shrouds"
they are Bi-Xenon? once they are installed, you can put single beam HID in them and keep your High beam on the other bulb? (halogen bulb).
I already have my HID kit and all that working perfectly on low beams only, so i'm wondering what I need to buy exactly...

Thanks for your help guyz,
and again Craig, very well done ! looks pretty ![8D]
 
#282 ·
This picture shows where the wire went through the slot and how the silicon grommet has to go on the projector
When I did my first set it used 4 threaded rods bolted through the back of the stock reflector from the projector housing and that was solid. Does the road vibration effect the lights at all?[:)]I was thinking about using this setup but I just noticed that you can see the grommet and im painting my lights all black so I guess thats not going to work :(
 
#284 ·
Finally got the projectors installed! This is a very time consuming thing especially if you live in a apartment without a garage.

Here is my write up.


Disclaimer: I am no way responsible for any damages to your car or headlights due to your decision to tackle this project. If you feel this project is too challenging for you, hire a professional to do this modification.

Things you will need:

1) BI-XENON MORIMOTO MINI STAGE III KIT (H1) with Mini Gatling Gun Shrouds & H11 Wire Harness & 35w Bulbs/Ballasts- $270.00
2) Morimoto H11 Stand Alone Can Bus Harness- $30.00
3) Lots of Time
4) Lots of Patience

Step One: Very carefully get the headlights out of the car by removing the two screws and sliding them forward to remove them off the car. Then remove the headlight plugs.

Step Two: Now pre heat your oven to 275 degrees. While you are waiting for the oven to heat up, take a sharp hobby knife around the gap of the headlight to score the adhesive, as you are doing that remove the access adhesive that is sticking out from the factory. Once the oven is heated up, place one of the headlights in the oven for 7-8 minutes. Once 7-8 minutes have passed remove from the oven (BE CAREFUL ITS HOT SO USE OVEN MITTS) and start going at the headlight adhesive with sharp razor and scoring the adhesive, try to remove as much as possible. I also used a small flat head screw driver to pry up on the black plastic. BE CAREFUL TO WITH THE PLASTIC BECAUSE ITS HOT AND SOFT, IF YOU PRESS TOO HARD ON THE PLASTIC WITH THE FLAT HEAD YOU WILL PUNCTURE IT OR TEAR IT. Repeat this process until you have the headlight separated. Once you have the headlight separated, you need to remove the reflector from the black plastic piece. It just pops off with a some pulling. Firmly but carefully. If you wanna remove the crome inner-ring of the lens, you need to remove the screws by the turn signal housing with a T-10 screw driver. The it will require some wiggling around and it will come out easily.

All apart


Step Three: Next remove the little head light bulb end cap. Its a single screw (T-20) on the base of the reflector. Once you get that out, take a dremel and sand some material out of the bulb socket, go a little at a time until you are able to fit the projector in the hole snugly. Now. Where the bulb end cap was, grind out a little material so you can get the projector solenoid wire through it. Once you are done with that. Clean up all the dust. Install the silicon washer on the projector and install the projector by feeding the threads through the hole. If you look on the back of the projector (the shiny side) on the lip you will see "TOP" make sure that it is upright and on the top and as level as possible. Once you get the projector in place, you will need to wire the solenoid wire into the high beam harness. I pushed the blade tips into the backside of the pin connector on the black housing. Once you get that done, you will need to slice the rubber access covers that go on the backside of the black housing to make way for the the factory wire and the bulb wiring. The bulb wiring from Morimoto has a rubber grommet on it so I just pulled that through. Now reattach the reflector housing to the black housing by aligning the holes to the silver poles, done this firmly but carefully.
...
Thank you very much for your write-up, I got my retrofit done this weekend :)
Retro + black housing + amber lens removed
 

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#285 ·
I have to thank you so much for your write up. Your efforts definitely deserves credits and thanks to your tips I was able to do mine too =)
 

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#292 ·
This thread has really inspired me. I just bought a used headlight off eBay to practice on, I think most of the lights here look way more OEM/ Factory than any of the aftermarket lights available. I think they are even better than the reproduction ST3 lights cause that extra "turning lamp" looks weird. I can't wait to get started, I'm going to do something similar to the batman lights
 
#296 · (Edited)
If you want the very bright look I suggest you do what others did on this forum. Buy the grill replacements with the drl built in. That's just my view. The reason I did mine is cuz I didn't want it to look like the cheap " stick on the outside of headlight" look. And plus because the tube is white it has a larger surface where the light emits and makes it pretty bright for less light ie: sunset or evening. Only time wouldn't see it is when it's high noon lol
 
#302 ·
Yes the gap is a bit more. Theres more clearance around the entire shroud compared to batman. It also sits farther away from the original shroud so if that's the case you'll have to use the same one batman mk3 did and not the Morimoto Mini h1.
 

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#300 ·
Haha I had the same questionning... Decided to go with "unique vertical", different from mercedes, audi, and most little civic with aftermarket led..
If you need further assistance, pm me, will be my pleasure to assist you ;)
There are some little things that has to be know and done for that headlight modification ;)
 
#305 ·
Those look quite good. I'm in the middle of trying to stuff FX-R 2.5" projectors into a spare set of headlights, not the easiest thing in the world. Something like that would make a proper retro a breeze!
 
#307 ·
What method did you use to open your headlights? I noticed you got a really clean edge around the housing.
 
#311 ·
I think it said that the Hella projector would fit directly. That's probably your best bet.
 
#314 ·
Personally, I'm going to wire them up with my existing high beams for "Epic Quad High Beams of Death!"
 
#316 ·
Lol!
"Epic Quad high beams of death", love it xD
For myself, I thought a lot about painting the housing of the high beam, adding like orange LED there to be used as turn signal light, use the high beam wired on the projector (bi-xenon) and from the headlight point of view, where the turn signal used to be, cover this area with like body color dip or something, to make the headlight look more aggressive (FR-S or BRZ headlight style)

Here's what I mean... (paint lol)
Unfortunately decided to go the "easy way "
But i'm pretty sure it would have been awesome looking, if someone is welling to try this ;)
 

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#318 ·
I thought about doing it too but because my car is already black with the black housing I didn't want my headlights disappear. And plus it might look weird if I have a large piece of black plexi covering something. I think it might actually look good with a "color" such as white or yellow focus
 
#319 ·
Well what I am doing is sort of like that. I have a black car, and I am smoking out the turn signal lens, so it will look somewhat like that... I'm afraid I must once again link to the "Batman MK3" for reference:
 
#322 ·
Q5 is going to be brighter, wider, whiter in output with OEM bulbs and have a sharper cutoff. I myself prefer the Hella 3 only because its OEM. But OEM doesn't always equal better. Plus the Hella's (both) require modifications to even put in a clear lens. I know my choice doesn't make sense but I like OEM stuff.
 
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