DIY 09 Sedan Retrofit
06-24-2010, 01:27 PM
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DIY 09 Sedan Retrofit
I'm new to this forum, and I think people here may be interested to see the headlight retrofit I did to my civic 09 sedan. This been posted in a different forum some times ago.....
First is the projector I used. I'm calling this new projector "Mini H1 Projector", as it is small in size, and using PnP H1 bulb which widely available. Here is what I received (note: there are a couple parts not shown in the picture, due to I'm one of the first few peoples ordered this and the seller forgot to pack everything in the package, which I got them later after I took the pictures).
The shrouds in this picture is an E46-R shrouds, which I ordered separately. The regular mini H1 projector kit is come with a Mini Gatling Gun shrouds instead. This is the Mini Gatling Gun shrouds normally come with the Mini H1 Projector. It is smaller than the E46-R, but it still require a little bit trimming in order to use in our Civic reflector.
OK, the first thing I did after I taken the headlight apart was to test fit this new projector. It is as simple as the G3 projector (another PnP projector) installation, which you just will to put the projector through the 9006 bulb hole, and then lock it onto the reflector using the supplied locking ring.
The two wires (red and black) shown on the 2nd picture are the wires for the bi-xenon solenoid.
After I test fit the projector and make sure it does fit our civic headlight, I decided to have the reflector blacked out this time. Just simply use painter tape covered the high beam area and spray a couple layer black paint on it. After a few tries, I found using 2 layers of Duplicolor Trim Paint Flat Black (TP 70) and then 2 layer of Duplicolor Engine Emamel Low Gloss Black (DE 1634) give me a pretty good result. I'm not very good on paint job, so you can use whatever method you like.
The next thing to do is the shrouds. I want some special on my style, so I decided to drill some holes on the shroud and have some LED shine thru them. so, first to do is drill some holes.
Then the E46-R shrouds is bigger than our reflector, and require some trim work. I have no dimension on how much needed to be cut, just do it slowly and keep test fitting. (I forgot to take pictures when trimming the shrouds, so I just use some later stage picture here)
and have it test fitted.
Then I put some Amber LED behind each holes. They are Cree P4 Amber Superflux. High quality LED here is important, as it will be ran under very hot environment. I used high temperature black silicon to fix the LED in place.
There are total 17 holes, so I'm wiring them as 3-4-3-4-3. I also decided to have the current regulation curcuit running outside of the headlight (so minimum components inside the headlight hot environment), so there are 6 wires (1 common ground and 5 seperate positive) instead of just two.
Then to see how it works, I test run it with bread board. I'm using LM317LZ to regulate the current to 38mA instead of using simple resistor to limit the current, as I think the Vf for the LED may be having big difference between Low beam is off (Cold) and on (as hot as 180F - 200F). It also give me an advantage since I don't need to remember which wire is for 3-series and which is for 4-series.
After some tests, I decided to add a heat shield to try my best to keep the LED away from the projector heat. I cut some thin alumnium sheet, and put some chrome tape on one side so that it wont cause short circuit in case it touched the LED legs, then use it the shield the LEDs from the direct heat from the HID bulb. I also lowered the current for the LEDs to 27mA instead of the 38mA. IMO, there is no visual difference between 38mA and 27mA.
Then I put the shrouds onto the projector. The wires are pass through the same hole as the bi-xenon solenoid wires.
Then fire it up and see how it looks.
And how it looks like under direct sun light, at about 20ft.
And here is how it looks with the mini gatling gun shrouds:
Then, I did the rotation aiming by putting the headlight with the the front lens to the car, fire the lo beam up and rotate slightly the projector from the front by hand, just like what I did with the G3 projector. Then I put some black silicon around the projector and attach the shrouds on it. Let it dry for one day.
After I made a couple G3 Kit PnP harness for other peoples, I'm pretty good on making a clean PnP harness now. When I look at my first PnP harness I made for my own G3 kit and compare with what I made now, it is a mess at that time. Anyway, here is how my PnP harness for this kit looks like.
It is started with a H4 Hi/Lo harness I brought, then I cut the H4 plug and connect it to my custom made Control Module. The Control Module will turn on the Amber LED ring when DRL and Park, send power to Solenoid wire just when real high beam is on, and provide a Delay On for Lo beam with time set by a trimmer, so that I can now flash others with my halogen high beam in day time without afraid my lo beam ballasts fired. The harness will just plugged into the driver side Hi and Lo OEM plug, and just tap into the Park light wire as I still unable to found the special 3-pin plugs used for the Park/signal bulb. The driver side high beam bulb is powered with the this harness, and the passenger side high beam is just powered with the OEM plug.
With the harness ready, I put it on the car. Here is where I installed the harness.
For people wondering how I attached the relay module to that location, here is what I use and you may found it useful on your installation.
But then there is a problem I encountered at this stage..... The H4 Hi/Lo Harness has the ground connectors for each Ballasts plug, and they are pretty short in length and I can't have them reach the regular grounding points! So, for a last minute fix, I just did some quick and dirty patch, which the driver side tap into the lo beam ground wire need the custom module, and for passenger side, I add a 9006 male plug and connect it to the unused lo beam plug.
It's almost done, and the final thing I did before I put the headlight back to the car is sealing the Lo beam area. The Hi bulb doesn't come with the rubber boot like the G3 kit bulb does, so I just use some foil tape to wrap around the reflector base and stick it to the small rubber cover for the Hi bulb, use some hot glue to make sure the foil tape stick with it. Then put the original rubber cover back to the Lo beam hole.
And now with the headlight and wiring ready, I put everything back and here is how the finally result.
First the first picture I took after the installation finished. all lights are off, the Lo beam and fog just looks like they are on because of the flash.
Then with the Park light on.
And here are some day time pictures. first is with DRL and Park on.
And a close up.
Then with the Lo and Park on.
And close up.
Then more pictures and cutoff....
Hope you guys enjoy this.
First is the projector I used. I'm calling this new projector "Mini H1 Projector", as it is small in size, and using PnP H1 bulb which widely available. Here is what I received (note: there are a couple parts not shown in the picture, due to I'm one of the first few peoples ordered this and the seller forgot to pack everything in the package, which I got them later after I took the pictures).
The shrouds in this picture is an E46-R shrouds, which I ordered separately. The regular mini H1 projector kit is come with a Mini Gatling Gun shrouds instead. This is the Mini Gatling Gun shrouds normally come with the Mini H1 Projector. It is smaller than the E46-R, but it still require a little bit trimming in order to use in our Civic reflector.
OK, the first thing I did after I taken the headlight apart was to test fit this new projector. It is as simple as the G3 projector (another PnP projector) installation, which you just will to put the projector through the 9006 bulb hole, and then lock it onto the reflector using the supplied locking ring.
The two wires (red and black) shown on the 2nd picture are the wires for the bi-xenon solenoid.
After I test fit the projector and make sure it does fit our civic headlight, I decided to have the reflector blacked out this time. Just simply use painter tape covered the high beam area and spray a couple layer black paint on it. After a few tries, I found using 2 layers of Duplicolor Trim Paint Flat Black (TP 70) and then 2 layer of Duplicolor Engine Emamel Low Gloss Black (DE 1634) give me a pretty good result. I'm not very good on paint job, so you can use whatever method you like.
The next thing to do is the shrouds. I want some special on my style, so I decided to drill some holes on the shroud and have some LED shine thru them. so, first to do is drill some holes.
Then the E46-R shrouds is bigger than our reflector, and require some trim work. I have no dimension on how much needed to be cut, just do it slowly and keep test fitting. (I forgot to take pictures when trimming the shrouds, so I just use some later stage picture here)
and have it test fitted.
Then I put some Amber LED behind each holes. They are Cree P4 Amber Superflux. High quality LED here is important, as it will be ran under very hot environment. I used high temperature black silicon to fix the LED in place.
There are total 17 holes, so I'm wiring them as 3-4-3-4-3. I also decided to have the current regulation curcuit running outside of the headlight (so minimum components inside the headlight hot environment), so there are 6 wires (1 common ground and 5 seperate positive) instead of just two.
Then to see how it works, I test run it with bread board. I'm using LM317LZ to regulate the current to 38mA instead of using simple resistor to limit the current, as I think the Vf for the LED may be having big difference between Low beam is off (Cold) and on (as hot as 180F - 200F). It also give me an advantage since I don't need to remember which wire is for 3-series and which is for 4-series.
After some tests, I decided to add a heat shield to try my best to keep the LED away from the projector heat. I cut some thin alumnium sheet, and put some chrome tape on one side so that it wont cause short circuit in case it touched the LED legs, then use it the shield the LEDs from the direct heat from the HID bulb. I also lowered the current for the LEDs to 27mA instead of the 38mA. IMO, there is no visual difference between 38mA and 27mA.
Then I put the shrouds onto the projector. The wires are pass through the same hole as the bi-xenon solenoid wires.
Then fire it up and see how it looks.
And how it looks like under direct sun light, at about 20ft.
And here is how it looks with the mini gatling gun shrouds:
Then, I did the rotation aiming by putting the headlight with the the front lens to the car, fire the lo beam up and rotate slightly the projector from the front by hand, just like what I did with the G3 projector. Then I put some black silicon around the projector and attach the shrouds on it. Let it dry for one day.
After I made a couple G3 Kit PnP harness for other peoples, I'm pretty good on making a clean PnP harness now. When I look at my first PnP harness I made for my own G3 kit and compare with what I made now, it is a mess at that time. Anyway, here is how my PnP harness for this kit looks like.
It is started with a H4 Hi/Lo harness I brought, then I cut the H4 plug and connect it to my custom made Control Module. The Control Module will turn on the Amber LED ring when DRL and Park, send power to Solenoid wire just when real high beam is on, and provide a Delay On for Lo beam with time set by a trimmer, so that I can now flash others with my halogen high beam in day time without afraid my lo beam ballasts fired. The harness will just plugged into the driver side Hi and Lo OEM plug, and just tap into the Park light wire as I still unable to found the special 3-pin plugs used for the Park/signal bulb. The driver side high beam bulb is powered with the this harness, and the passenger side high beam is just powered with the OEM plug.
With the harness ready, I put it on the car. Here is where I installed the harness.
For people wondering how I attached the relay module to that location, here is what I use and you may found it useful on your installation.
But then there is a problem I encountered at this stage..... The H4 Hi/Lo Harness has the ground connectors for each Ballasts plug, and they are pretty short in length and I can't have them reach the regular grounding points! So, for a last minute fix, I just did some quick and dirty patch, which the driver side tap into the lo beam ground wire need the custom module, and for passenger side, I add a 9006 male plug and connect it to the unused lo beam plug.
It's almost done, and the final thing I did before I put the headlight back to the car is sealing the Lo beam area. The Hi bulb doesn't come with the rubber boot like the G3 kit bulb does, so I just use some foil tape to wrap around the reflector base and stick it to the small rubber cover for the Hi bulb, use some hot glue to make sure the foil tape stick with it. Then put the original rubber cover back to the Lo beam hole.
And now with the headlight and wiring ready, I put everything back and here is how the finally result.
First the first picture I took after the installation finished. all lights are off, the Lo beam and fog just looks like they are on because of the flash.
Then with the Park light on.
And here are some day time pictures. first is with DRL and Park on.
And a close up.
Then with the Lo and Park on.
And close up.
Then more pictures and cutoff....
Hope you guys enjoy this.
06-24-2010, 03:01 PM
#4
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06-24-2010, 04:31 PM
#6
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Re: DIY 09 Sedan Retrofit
Thanks guys.
It took me a couple weeks to get it done from the beginning. The projector installation itself is very fast, but most of the time was spent on trying different ways to get the halo look as I want. I tried a couple different shroud style, different ways to power the LED, tried CCFL nstead of LED, I even scraped a couple shrouds just to try different designs. Figuring out the harness control module circuit and prepare it also took me some serious time too.
If I were just install the mini H1 projector with the mini gatling gun shroud, without all the halo stuff, and just power the ballasts and bi-xenon solenoid with a simple harness, I would say I can finished the whole thing within 4 hours, from OEM headlight in the car, to finished the retrofit and put it back to the car. The time break down probably like this:
- 15 mins to take the bumper off.
- 5 mins to take the headlight out.
- 20 mins to bake the light and take it apart.
- 5 mins to put the projector on reflector.
- 30 mins to repeat for the other light.
- 10 mins to put the both lights (without sealing the front lens) back to car.
- 10 mins to do rotation adjustment.
- 10 mins to take both headlight out again.
- 10 mins to trim the shrouds and put them on both projectors.
- 30 mins to seal both headlights.
- 30 mins to route the harness. Since I already have ballasts mounted, that saved me some time, but mounting a pair of ballasts with bumper off shouldn't add more than 20 mins extra.
- 10 mins to put the light back to car again.
- 15 mins to put the bump on.
While this mini H1 projector require a bit more effort to install than the G3 projector kit, it still very easy when compare with retrofitting with traditional OEM projectors. The output for this one is as good as FX, and not far away from TL. With the reasonable price and the ease of installation, I would say I made a good choice.
For the cost, I have my own channel to get those projectors/shroud at pretty decent price, but I don't think I can offer anything here since I'm not site sponsor. However, it is also available on a pretty famous site which selling retrofit parts, and the projector is listed at $135 + shipping on their site. It is running with H1 HID bulb, so most likely you will need to get a pair too (which general market price is about $20), and then if you already running PnP HID kit, you can reuse the ballasts, otherwise another $30 for the ballasts. A simple bi-xenon harness should cost you about $25, the only problem is there is no off-the-shelf bi-xenon harness for 9006/9005 combination I can found. So, you probably need to get some 9005/9006 plugs and modify the bi-xenon, which probably cost you another $10 for those plugs. So, the total cost is around $190 without ballasts, or $220 with ballasts.
It took me a couple weeks to get it done from the beginning. The projector installation itself is very fast, but most of the time was spent on trying different ways to get the halo look as I want. I tried a couple different shroud style, different ways to power the LED, tried CCFL nstead of LED, I even scraped a couple shrouds just to try different designs. Figuring out the harness control module circuit and prepare it also took me some serious time too.
If I were just install the mini H1 projector with the mini gatling gun shroud, without all the halo stuff, and just power the ballasts and bi-xenon solenoid with a simple harness, I would say I can finished the whole thing within 4 hours, from OEM headlight in the car, to finished the retrofit and put it back to the car. The time break down probably like this:
- 15 mins to take the bumper off.
- 5 mins to take the headlight out.
- 20 mins to bake the light and take it apart.
- 5 mins to put the projector on reflector.
- 30 mins to repeat for the other light.
- 10 mins to put the both lights (without sealing the front lens) back to car.
- 10 mins to do rotation adjustment.
- 10 mins to take both headlight out again.
- 10 mins to trim the shrouds and put them on both projectors.
- 30 mins to seal both headlights.
- 30 mins to route the harness. Since I already have ballasts mounted, that saved me some time, but mounting a pair of ballasts with bumper off shouldn't add more than 20 mins extra.
- 10 mins to put the light back to car again.
- 15 mins to put the bump on.
While this mini H1 projector require a bit more effort to install than the G3 projector kit, it still very easy when compare with retrofitting with traditional OEM projectors. The output for this one is as good as FX, and not far away from TL. With the reasonable price and the ease of installation, I would say I made a good choice.
For the cost, I have my own channel to get those projectors/shroud at pretty decent price, but I don't think I can offer anything here since I'm not site sponsor. However, it is also available on a pretty famous site which selling retrofit parts, and the projector is listed at $135 + shipping on their site. It is running with H1 HID bulb, so most likely you will need to get a pair too (which general market price is about $20), and then if you already running PnP HID kit, you can reuse the ballasts, otherwise another $30 for the ballasts. A simple bi-xenon harness should cost you about $25, the only problem is there is no off-the-shelf bi-xenon harness for 9006/9005 combination I can found. So, you probably need to get some 9005/9006 plugs and modify the bi-xenon, which probably cost you another $10 for those plugs. So, the total cost is around $190 without ballasts, or $220 with ballasts.
06-24-2010, 05:24 PM
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Re: DIY 09 Sedan Retrofit
Very impressive job and fantastic end result. I can't stress how much I love to see someone going about things the proper way 
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06-25-2010, 04:06 AM
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Re: DIY 09 Sedan Retrofit
love the work man! Until i saw the amber leds, I didnt even realize whos car it was. I just saw your build on hidp about a week or so ago haha. welcome aboard!
06-25-2010, 07:45 AM
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Re: DIY 09 Sedan Retrofit
Well, $220 is just rough estimation for regular installation. For my exact installation, there are some additional cost for the LED, electronics, and extra shrouds, but since I got my stuff at lower price, it is not a lot more than that.
06-26-2010, 12:10 AM
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Re: DIY 09 Sedan Retrofit
For my Odyssey though, since there are more space at the back of the headlight, I can even aim the rotation from the back, with the front lens already sealed.
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