[Ajax]

hey everyone, i have noticed a lot of people asking about the projector headlights from ebay but there was not a whole lot of in depth answers. I myself had a few questions to which there were no answers and that held me from buying them for a month or two until i decided to wing it.

This is not a hard job to do but without experience or confidence with this stuff it is intimidating, and it took me about 4 hours to complete.

Tools Needed:
flathead screwdriver
ratchet with 10mm socket (an extension could help but i dont think its required)
ziplock bags or some way of organizing all of the clips and bolts your going to remove
if you have VersaSpeed grill, more black paint

ok first off i bought my headlights on ebay from racerinnovation because it looked like a legit seller, for $176 USD with $25 USD shipping.

when the headlights arrived, they are packed in plain white unmarked boxes:

IMG_1956 by christopher.pyne, on Flickr


IMG_1957 by christopher.pyne, on Flickr
there are no real 'directions' but it did come with a sheet talking about waterleaking, really not that useful

i got my headlight in the evening so i used some waterproof sealant and sealed around the entire headlight where the clear plastic meets the black housing and let it sit overnight. i used GE clear premium waterproof silicone from home depot for about $4.

this is the back of the headlight. its entirely plug and play. it did come with a little black box with some double sided tape. not sure what that does

IMG_1960 by christopher.pyne, on Flickr

you can stick that little box on the bottom of the headlight right here (it doesnt interfere with anything once installed). if you have to, you can pull the wires GENTLY out of the housing a bit so the box can reach this spot.

IMG_2029 by christopher.pyne, on Flickr

here are the hi and low beam bulbs with the rubber caps removed. you can see the silver adjustment screws on the left and right. the headlights came with all bulbs installed (halogen) and is marked for H7 low and H1 hi

IMG_1965 by christopher.pyne, on Flickr

Now onto the installation

pop the hood and use the flathead screwdriver to remove the front intake piece, grill cover, and the grill. (if you have the VersaSpeed grill on and do not intend to paint the headlights black, you can leave the grill on the bumper)

IMG_1979 by christopher.pyne, on Flickr

remove the 2 clips by the hood latch

IMG_1980 by christopher.pyne, on Flickr

go under the car, and you will find 6 clips holding the bottom of the bumper on (only 5 are visible in picture). these clips work the same way as the ones you just removed, but they kinda lock in a little tighter to keep them from falling out i guess. just be patient and gentle when prying them out

IMG_1985 by christopher.pyne, on Flickr

at either side of the bumper, by the wheel wells, there are three 10mm bolts holding the bumper on. remove these

IMG_1986 by christopher.pyne, on Flickr

the wheel wells need to be partially removed so on the drivers side, remove these 2 clips towards the front of the well (you might want to turn the car on so you can move the wheels to help reach all of these clips)...

IMG_1987 by christopher.pyne, on Flickr

these three behind the wheel...

IMG_1988 by christopher.pyne, on Flickr

the one clip right above the wheel...

IMG_1991 by christopher.pyne, on Flickr

and under the wheel well, behind the wheel under the engine bay, are 3 clips that are pretty difficult to get to and photograph without lifting the car (only 2 are visible, the third is somewhere around there)

IMG_1989 by christopher.pyne, on Flickr

once you get those clips out, pull the wheel well out from behind the bumper and splash gaurds

IMG_1995 by christopher.pyne, on Flickr

this bolt holds the bumper onto the fender. remove it

IMG_1996 by christopher.pyne, on Flickr

and pull out to the side of the car

IMG_1997 by christopher.pyne, on Flickr

Dont forget to unplug your foglights if you have them!

picture of the passenger wheel well behind the wheel. it has only 2 clips here instead of the 3 on the drivers side. other than that, the passenger side is the same as the drivers side. dont forget those PITA clips under there.

IMG_1999 by christopher.pyne, on Flickr

screwed nto the bottom of the headlights are bumper clips about 5 inches long. once all of the above clips are removed, the bumper is now held onto the car only by these clips under the lights. support the bumper and pull from right under the lights to remove.

IMG_2003 by christopher.pyne, on Flickr

bumper removed

IMG_2005 by christopher.pyne, on Flickr

here are the 3 bolts on top of the headlight. remove these

IMG_1982 by christopher.pyne, on Flickr

the 4th bolt is on the side of the light

IMG_2010 by christopher.pyne, on Flickr

pull the light forward enough so you can unplug all three connections going into the headlight. remove the headlight and store it somewhere. upon installation of the projector headlights, i found that the turn signal connector was super tight, so i filed it down a bit but in the end i used some pliers and forced it in. its a tight fit but it worked.

IMG_2019 by christopher.pyne, on Flickr

plug the new headlight in and test it ut to make sure everything works before bolting it on (i didnt know before this but the turn signals only work when the car is on, so dont panic like i did if the car is off and the turns arent working)

IMG_2017 by christopher.pyne, on Flickr

a comparison shot. (there are a few more photos on my flickr account)

IMG_2024 by christopher.pyne, on Flickr

both headlights installed, working, and bolted on

IMG_2034 by christopher.pyne, on Flickr

Now heres the only place where i had trouble. the projector headlights come with bumper clips already on them (black plastic things on the bottom of the light held on by 2 screws). HOWEVER, while trying to put my bumper back on, these clips were WAY too tight and i could not get the part of the bumper to fit into the clips. i tried prying them open a bit so the bumper would fit in but ended up breaking a clip. No worries though. just remove the bumper clips from the stock headlights if you have to and screw them onto the projectors. (the stock bumper clip screws are star shaped but if you have the right sized flathead screwdriver, you can get them out.) also i think getting the bumper back into the headlight clips is the hardest part.

installation is the reverse of removal. pop the bumper back into the headlight clips, bolt the bumper onto the fender, reconnect your foglights, get the wheel wells into place (over the splash gaurds and behind the bumper), put all of the clips back into the wheel well, install the 6 bolts on the bottom of the bumper (3 on each side), then install the 6 clips on the bottom of the bumper, install the 2 clips by the hood latch.

if you have the VersaSpeed grill, mask off headlights, bumper, and anything else, and spray the headlights black just like when you originally installed the VersaSpeed grill.

IMG_2035 by christopher.pyne, on Flickr

all done! (notice it was daylight when i started, lol)

IMG_2037 by christopher.pyne, on Flickr

awesome

IMG_2039 by christopher.pyne, on Flickr

light spread before any adjusting. (did not have level ground so this is a picture on the street, slightly uphill)

IMG_2047 by christopher.pyne, on Flickr

next day

IMG_2058 by christopher.pyne, on Flickr

thats about it. i hope i didnt forget anything. all i need to do now is get some HIDs. im thinking 5000k? i have some more pictures on flickr.com/ajax-11 so take a look. if there are any questions, im not an expert, but PM me and ill try and help

 

[iluvmyVersa08]

They look awesome!!!

 

[flversa]

Thanks man I have been waiting for someone to post a thread just like this. I am about to trade with Clean_4th Gen stock headlights for the projectors cuase his clips broke on his stock lights and he doesnt like the projectors and I was hoping someone would install this how to so it makes my installation easier

 

[westmex]

Nice post! I had no idea that it took so much work. I thought it was just the top bolts. I'm glad i never got started on this, knowing me, i would have got pissed and ripped it out before looking for the bottom bolt!

 

[flversa]

lol I was thinking of the same thing about ripping the bottom clip.

 

[McLeod1981]

Do the halos come on with the parking lights or the low beam headlamps?

The little black box looks like a converter/power supply for the halo's.

 

[Ajax]

The halos and the three leds on top are wired together and are now the parking lights. And as far as i know the only way to get to the halos and leds would be to cut the headlight assembly open (there is no way to access the three leds from the back of the headlight like on the stock headlight so there is no way to change those bulbs. Those leds are in there for good)

 

[Atx_Versa]

Very nice write up man! Thanks for taking your time to share with us.

 

[promiseland]

There is also a How-To video out there for the JDM headlights. It's similar to this one.

 

[#1Tango]

nice write up. hopefully you don't get the 3LED "flicker" that 90% of us had. I was so happy when both headlight LEDs went out. now its just the halo.

 

[Ajax]

my fingers are constantly crossed about that. one of my halos did come loose already though. i had to remove the headlight and play operation. i stuck a wire in thru the bulb hole, applied a tiny bit of glue, then pulled the halo back into place while the glue dried.:neutral:

 

[JoshG]

Nice write up man. I was wondering if there was a way to remove the LEDs but it looks like I'll be trading with flversa so I'll help him put the projectors on.

 

[flversa]

There has got to be a to fix a LEDs though even if its cliping were they connect and sodering new ones to the old connections.

 

[llaliber]

Really useful ! I did it today with a friend and we changed the lights for a HID kit without having to remove the whole bumper. We removed only the splash guards to reach the 4th bolt of the headlight behind the wheels and the first bolt of the bumper to remove the headlight.

 

[CodeRed]

You don't actually have to remove the entire front number. Just pull it back far enough to remove the one headlight bolt.

Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk

 

[homero89]

Hi, do u know if adjusting the headlights are the metal circle in picture 5? I ask cause I havent been able to adjust mine with those, is there a certain way to turn them?

 

[Ajax]

in pic 5 there are two metal circles with teeth on the back of them, these are for adjusting the height of the headlight beam. i installed 6k hids about 2 months ago and tried adjusting the beam while i was working on the headlights but i was turning and turning and was getting nowhere. i think these headlights just dont adjust that high, or my adjustment screws were broken. ive gotten used to it though

 

[Miguel]

Man, this is a great write up for this how to, too bad the build quality for the lights is not very good. You have saved me $200.00. Still, at least I learned how to properly remove the bumper and the wheel wells. I thank you for that.

 

[allmsthere]

i have brand new headlights for $200 plus shipping if anyone is interested!

 

[eecc17]

to OP: can you show what the projector beam pattern is like on a wall?