1992-1995 Civic Projector Headlight Retrofit Write-Up

31dev31

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I recently finished a retrofit on my car a while ago but I haven't had the time to write it up due to my grandfather passing away the day after I finished it, and coming back to university after missing a week from flying out to a different country. But behold, here's my write up and the lack of pictures that I took during the process. It is 4:30 am as I write this so pardon me if I make mistakes. Now, onto the write-up! This project took me over 3-days, so it's best if you picked up a pair of used OEM headlights for your car when you do this project, so that you can still drive your car to work/school if it's your daily driver. The guidelines are pretty similar if you're working with a 6th or 7th gen civic.

The retrofit kit I bought is the Bi-Xenon Morimoto Mini Stage III Kit (D2S) with Morimoto 3Five 4300K D2S Bulbs and E55-R Shrouds from The Retrofit Source (http://www.theretrofitsource.com/product_info.php?products_id=237&osCsid=efaea8b227200b9d0e71da7ab48db48d). It's a pricy kit, but well worth it in my opinion. These projectors were a bit big for my application, so if you want to do less work, then opt for the H1 kit.

The kit comes with:
A pair of projectors, with cutoff shields, high beam solenoids already installed, and H4 adapter plates ;)
Relay harness for high and low beam and powering your ballasts
A pair of 35W Morimoto 3Five ballasts (unless you upgraded for the 50W ballasts)
A pair of Xenon bulbs, in the colour that you desired
A pair of shrouds, design pending on what you ordered.
Miscellaneous things such as bolts, nuts, washers, screws, zipties, etc.

The tools you will need:
10 mm and 12mm sockets and ratchet (really handy if you have both 3/8" and 1/4" drive for the smaller bolts)
Side cutter and linesman pliers
Phillips screwdriver (handy if you have both small and large sizes)
Standard (flat) screwdriver (handy if you have both small and large sizes)
Dremel with grinding and cutting bits
Paper towels/rags
Baking oven or Heatgun
Oven mitts or mechanic work gloves
SAFETY GLASSES. SAFETY GLASSES. SAFETY GLASSES.
HIGH TEMPERATURE Silicone/sealant
Headlight aligning/aiming machine (if you have access to one, I used the one at my work)

OPTIONAL: Black spray paint, if you want black housing projector headlights.

Procedure:
1- Uninstall the front bumper off your car. (If you can't do this, then this project will turn ugly quickly :evil:)

2- Uninstall the front headlights off your car. (Read notice above again :evil:)

3- Clean up the headlights with paper towels/rags and soap/water. Remove the headlight bulbs and the 5 metal clips along the edge on each housing,

4- Preheat the oven to 350F (this is the same procedure for DIY black housing headlights)

5- Put the headlights in the oven, watch it while it's in there so that you can quickly remove them if the plastic starts to melt. It should take between 4-6 minutes before the glue softens up enough so that you can pull the glass off the plastic housing, a flat screwdriver will come in handy, but do NOT force it apart, you will crack the glass/plastic.

6- Crack open a beer and relax, have a smoke or whatever. Let the headlight housing cool down.

(Optional 6.5 - If you want black housing projector headlights, this is where you will paint the reflective portion in the headlight housing, and allow it to dry before proceeding)

7- Now the tricky part. The projectors I had were rather large for my application, so I had to trim the bottom corners on my projectors in order for the projectors to fit into the headlight correctly. You shouldn't run into this if you ordered the H1 kit and not the D2S.

8- The projectors will have two nuts on the opening where the bulb goes, remove both, and MEMORIZE the order that they came off along with the rubber washers, metal ring, H4 adapter plate etc. Feed the solenoid wires through the front of the housing where the normal (and outdated) halogen bulb usually goes.

9- Then feed the threaded section of the projector following the solenoid wires. Set the H4 adapter plate in place, front behind the headlight housing over the threaded projector portion, and tighten down the first nut, don't forget the order that the rubber washers and seals came off and goes back on!

If you did it right, you should have something like this:

This was only for one side, you will have to do the same for the other side as well!

10- Now the shrouds. This step varies depending on what projector shrouds you bought for your kit. But a lot of time, patience, and a steady hand, you will have to trim the projector shrouds to fit into your headlights. Once you've done that, use some silicone to glue and hold the shroud in place.

This is my result, it took me about 30 minutes to trim down each shroud correctly.


11- Put the glass back on the headlight housing, this is done by adding some silicone, put the 5 metal clips back on in place, then place the headlights in the oven at 350F for about 4 minutes. I found that it's easier if you place the headlights with the glass side down on the rack, since the weight of the plastic housing plus the projectors will pull the two pieces together.

12- Let the headlight housings cool down again.

13- Install your xenon bulbs. They require a rubber seal, a metal ring and the other projector nut to place it in the projector. Don't forget to wipe them down with alcohol pads and avoid touching the bulb, to prolong the service life of them.

14- Install the headlight housing back on your car!

15- Install the ballasts and the wiring harness. The wiring harness is easy to connect, as it will have one red positive wire for the positive battery terminal, a H4 headlight bulb connector to connect to your existing headlight harness, and three connectors to run on each side of the car, all being the ballast power cables, the high/low beam solenoid signal wires, and ground wires with ring terminals. Pretty self-explanatory there, no?

16- Install your front bumper back on!

16.5- RECHECK, RECHECK, and RECHECK your connections.

17- Power on your headlights and gaze in awe at it's brightness and shininess :roll:

18- Aim your headlights using a headlight aiming machine. If you don't have access to one. Then shine the headlights at a wall about 15 feet away. The general guideline is, as you back your car up, the light cut off line should lower the further away you back the car up.

19- Hit up town and amaze those JDM fanboys about how JDM these headlights are :lol:

My results:




And how my car sits today, before all the snow started:


Hope you guys find that this was an interesting read, inspires and guides you with your future project plans! =)
 

R3dline

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looks good man, would look even better if you had some clear lens on the headlights
 


31dev31

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Can a mod move this thread to the correct section? Thanks!

I couldn't find any clear lenses (but do you know where I could get them), but I will swap the lenses later on in the future. I am talking about just the glass portion and not the whole housing.
 

rey_boricua

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good job thanks for the write up
 


R3dline

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you could probally get a cheap set off of ebay with a clear lens, and just put them on yours
 

31dev31

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you could probally get a cheap set off of ebay with a clear lens, and just put them on yours
I've looked around on ebay, and the legit clear lens headlights are +200 including shipping :(
 

lethal6

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Good write up. I have thought about doing this, but just don't have the time.

[shameless plug] I have a set of clear lens black housing aftermarket headlights for sale. $100 shipped if you are interested. http://www.clubcivic.com/board/showthread.php?t=163333 Can get better pics if you would like.[/shameless plug]
 

31dev31

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looking at ddmtuning do I want 55w or 35w probably going somewhere between 6-8k

What else do I need?
Depending on the size of the light housing you're working with. I recommend 35w for all applications, but if you can afford 55w, I only recommend 6th gen and up, because it is hotter to run to begin with. You will need projectors and shrouds as well for your application.
 


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