DIY: TheRetrofitSource/Morimoto Retro-Quik Install in FR-S

[civicdrivr]

DSC00693 by civicdrivr88, on Flickr


Mods - I know this is kind of a half assed DIY. It was over 100* when I did this and the bugs were outrageous, so I just wanted to get it done. There are some parts that I didnt get a picture of, but I will do my best to explain it. If in the future I am able to get pictures, I will update this DIY.

**BEFORE YOU BEGIN, PLEASE BE AWARE THAT I AM IN NO WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOURSELF, YOUR VEHICLE, YOUR PRIDE, OR YOUR NEIGHBORS BEST-FRIENDS UNCLES CAT. PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK**

All pictures are thumbnails, click for the large version.

So the guys at TRS got us a great retro kit using Morimoto Mini-H1 bixenon projectors, Morimoto 3five 35W ballasts, Morimoto bulbs, a relay harness, and of course the appropriate brackets.

On a scale of 1-10, I'd say the difficulty is about a 6, but that all depends on your comfort level as you do have to bake the headlights to take them apart.

Tools needed:
-Socket wrench
-10mm and 12mm socket
-7mm or 9/32" deep well socket
-Socket extension
-A few flat head screwdrivers
-Phillips head screwdriver
-Utility knife
-Scissors
-Oven
-Gloves (the headlight will be hot when you take it out of the oven)

I did the install yesterday in about 3 hours, and most of that time was spent taking the car apart. @DarrenDriven has a great DIY for blacking out his headlights, which has a step by step process for removing the lights from the vehicle and baking them. Theres no need for me to reiterate his instructions, so just refer to steps 1-20 in his DIY, take your time, Ill wait

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8788

OK, now that you've got the headlights apart, you should see this:


IMG_20120629_190501 by civicdrivr88, on Flickr


IMG_20120629_190715 by civicdrivr88, on Flickr

There are four screws holding the stock projector to the headlight basket. Remove those screws and set them aside as we will be reusing them.


IMG_20120629_190724 by civicdrivr88, on Flickr


IMG_20120629_190730 by civicdrivr88, on Flickr

You should now see this:


IMG_20120629_190846 by civicdrivr88, on Flickr

Now its time to attach the new TRS brackets to the new projectors. You'll have a bag with some hardware in it. There will be four screws, four lock nuts, and four spacer/nuts used on each projector.

Thread the screws through the holes on the projector, then put the spacer/nuts onto them. Dont tighten them down, as that will make the next step difficult. Slide the bracket onto the projector. The narrow end of the bracket faces down (it should be on the same side of the projector as the solenoid). Once you have the bracket on, now you can tighten those spacer/nuts. Once thats done, thread the lock nuts onto each screw and tighten. You should end up with this (courtesy The Retrofit Source, as I forgot to take a picture here):


jhwz01 by civicdrivr88, on Flickr

Now its time to put the projector into the basket. The solenoid should be on the bottom of the light. Make sure the highbeam wires are sticking out the rear of the headlight. Reinstall the screws and tighten. You dont need to wrench on it, just snug it down.


IMG_20120629_192711 by civicdrivr88, on Flickr

Now its time to close up the headlights. Refer to steps 27-28 in Darrens DIY thread.

Now that the lights are sealed back up, its time to reinstall them in the car, right? NO! We have a few more things to take care of.

First up, lets route that relay harness. Thanks to TRS, the harness is made to fit our car. The harness primarily lives on the passenger side of the car, with only one plug running to the driver side. I decided to mount the relays right behind the DRL relay behind the bumper. A 10mm socket is required for that bolt.


IMG_20120629_181954 by civicdrivr88, on Flickr

You will see a total of five plugs coming off of the relay harness. One is for power (it has an inline fuse), one is ground, two go to the new HID ballasts, and one is the input from the stock lowbeam connector (that one will have an adapter plugged into it).

I routed power and ground under the fuse box and wire harness, and up to the battery.


IMG_20120629_182040 by civicdrivr88, on Flickr


IMG_20120629_182114 by civicdrivr88, on Flickr

To make the connections at the battery, you'll need the 12mm socket. You can see in this picture where I connected the wires. I didn't want to use the two fused connections, as that may overload the fuse that are there. So I went for the big 12mm lug right at the top. I routed the power wire around the terminal, that way I can still reinstall the red plastic cover. I used the 12mm lug on the ground terminal as well.


IMG_20120629_202352 by civicdrivr88, on Flickr

Next, grab the stock low beam connector and connect it to the adapter on the relay harness:


IMG_20120629_182024 by civicdrivr88, on Flickr

You should be left with two connectors now, one for each ballast. I routed the longest cable across the bumper bar and over to the passenger side.


driversideballastconnection by civicdrivr88, on Flickr

Now its time to figure out where to mount the ballasts. Toyota/Subaru was nice enough to leave a hole right on the front frame rail that is perfect to use for the ballast. Just attach the supplied bracket to the ballasts and use the supplied bolt, lock washer, and nut to fasten it. Unfortunately, it was quite late when I did this and couldnt get a picture of it. But, to give you an idea of where to look, I've circled the areas in red:


ballastlocation by civicdrivr88, on Flickr

Now that thats out of the way, lets move on to finishing up the headlights and getting them ready to install. You'll need the rubber caps, the HID bulbs, and the little bag of parts that was in each of the projector boxes - specifically the male plug connector, the two grommets, and the bulb holder spring.

First, clean off the bulb using some alcohol prep pads. My kit didn't include any, but luckily I still had a box laying around from previous retros. Wipe down the bulb and the brown wire. Place the bulb in the projector, and install the spring. I like to use pliers to secure the spring since it is under a bit of tension. You want the spring to curve towards the bulb, not away from it.

Next, pass the power and ground wires through the grommet that the HID bulb wires pass through. Then put the tiny grommets supplied with the kit on each wire with the fat side closer to the bulb.

Take a look at the stock highbeam connector to see which side of the new connector is ground (black wire), then stick the wire into that slot in the connector. It doesnt take much for it to click into place. Do the same for the red wire. Then push the grommets down into the connector to form a nice seal.

Next up, cut a hole in the rubber cap. The grommet will sandwhich the rubber cap, creating a seal, so the hole needs to be smaller the size of the grommet. Ideally, you'll want the hole to be the size of a quarter. You should now be left with this:


IMG_20120629_203903 by civicdrivr88, on Flickr

I used the highbeam splitter, but that is optional. You could choose to use the splitter, giving you both a halogen and HID high beam, you could connect the high beam directly to the projector to have just an HID high beam, or you could just connect it like stock to only use the halogen high beam.

Now its time to reinstall the headlights. Then connect the two wires from each ballast to the two wires on each bulb. Connect the factory high beam connector to whichever high beam you chose to use.

You should have one factory connector that is not being used - the driver side low beam wire. I tape up the end of that connector to protect it from dirt/water. Zip tie and loose wires, and reinstall the bumper.

Once you are done, turn on the headlights and enjoy being able to see:


IMG_20120629_215429 by civicdrivr88, on Flickr

[civicdrivr]

I finally got around to getting the headlights aimed properly.

Tools Needed:
-Tape (painters tape is preferred since its easy to see, but all I had was duct tape)
-Measuring tape (one that is at least 25')
-Phillips head screwdriver
-Wall and flat, level ground (I find that loading docks are perfect for this)
-Night

The basics: The DOT standard for aiming lights is simple. Park the car on flat, level ground 25' from a wall. Measure the height of the head light from the ground (use the little dot in the headlamp lens to measure from), subtract 2", and line up the uppermost portion of the cutoff with that number.

For example: The headlight in the below picture 26" from the ground. Therefore, the top of the cutoff should be 24" from the ground (when parked 25' from the wall).


aiming by civicdrivr88, on Flickr

The adjusters youre looking for are these:

Passenger side:


IMG_20120630_191748 by civicdrivr88, on Flickr

Driver side:


IMG_20120630_191739 by civicdrivr88, on Flickr

The screwdriver goes between these two slots:


IMG_20120630_191739 2 by civicdrivr88, on Flickr

Remember the old saying - righty, tighty, lefty, loosey? Well, righty in this case raises the beam, lefty lowers it.

And its as simple as that.


DSC00684 by civicdrivr88, on Flickr


DSC00683 by civicdrivr88, on Flickr

Color band at ~100'


DSC00689 by civicdrivr88, on Flickr

Overall, these projectors are very impressive given their size and price point. The highbeam impresses me most. Unfortunately I was unable to snap pics of that as I was being questioned by cops.

[|-Goku-|]

Very Nice!

Might have to do this

[Mr.Jay]

did you paint your housing while you were at it?

can't wait to see how it looks since we got the same colour and my kit is on its way XD

[VADER]

Damn, I'd love to do this but if I were to do so I'd fail miserably or take a day or 2 instead of the suggested 3 hours. I want to order the kit but I don't have the expertise to install. This being my first car you can't blame me. Is there anyone as experienced as civicdvr in FL that I can get to help me out? I know, I seem desperate but this would be a huge complicated project to me.

[RRnold]

Very nice writeup!! I plan to do this mod when I pick up my FR-S! :happy0180:

[frs]

very nice write up. would be better for beginners if theres more details on the the connections and pictures.

[VADER]

Originally Posted by frs

very nice write up. would be better for beginners if theres more details on the the connections and pictures.

Or possibly a video. I'm sure I don't know what a lot of these pieces are called.. I know, I'm a car noob.

[lordtakuban]

Thanks for the writeup. I know it's difficult taking pictures at the right time while you're in the middle of the install.

When I ordered the kit, I thought that the ballasts and everything else would somehow be tucked inside the headlight housing. This seems to be about the same as the cheaper kits with the exception of having a proper projector included. I would also like to paint the chrome away once the headlights are separated. So I was hoping for more pics of the headlight components when disassembled. But, the writeup overall was good and informative.

Thanks again.

[tonystewart]

Thank you for the excellent write up, your help is greatly appreciated!
For those who feel this lacks something...
Use this post
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8788
for the "fill in the blanks"

[civicdrivr]

Originally Posted by Mr.Jay

did you paint your housing while you were at it?

can't wait to see how it looks since we got the same colour and my kit is on its way XD

I didn't paint the housing. I thought about black housing them, but then the turn signals in the bumper would annoy me. I will probably swap out for BRZ or GT86 headlights later on down the road, so the top priority was getting the system in and working.

Originally Posted by frs

very nice write up. would be better for beginners if theres more details on the the connections and pictures.

Yea, I apologize for not going further in depth.

Originally Posted by FR-S Dan

Or possibly a video. I'm sure I don't know what a lot of these pieces are called.. I know, I'm a car noob.

If anyone is in Central VA that wants this done on their FR-S and wont mind taking pics/videos along the way, PM me. Ill gladly do the work as long as they take the pics/lend a hand.

Originally Posted by lordtakuban

Thanks for the writeup. I know it's difficult taking pictures at the right time while you're in the middle of the install.

When I ordered the kit, I thought that the ballasts and everything else would somehow be tucked inside the headlight housing. This seems to be about the same as the cheaper kits with the exception of having a proper projector included. I would also like to paint the chrome away once the headlights are separated. So I was hoping for more pics of the headlight components when disassembled. But, the writeup overall was good and informative.

Thanks again.

There may be space in the headlight assembly itself to stuff the ballasts, but if the ballast were to go bad somehow, you'd have to split the housing the get it out.

Originally Posted by tonystewart

Thank you for the excellent write up, your help is greatly appreciated!
For those who feel this lacks something...
Use this post
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8788
for the "fill in the blanks"

Thanks!


BTW - I have not been able to align the headlights or take output pics yet. We have had crazy storms the past few nights. Hopefully we wont have any rain tonight, so I can snap some more pics.

[DarrenDriven]

Added to the DIY Directory:
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7365

[UncleFester]

Thanks for the guide it helped me install my 6k kit today.

I'm very pleased, looks better than I thought it would. I opted to remove the halogen drl's and high beams altogether.

Couple of notes from my install.

1. I used a 7mm deep socket instead of 9/32 for the bracket nuts.

2. I mounted the ballasts to the frame with 3m mounting tape, instead of using the provided brackets.

3. Marker lights are easy if you find the silver press clips with a screwdriver. Bottom first and then side, makes them come right out.



Location I mounted the ballasts with tape.


Picture of the lights side by side.


Picture of the wiring.


A not so great picture of my lights. I will have to take another with a better camera.

[civicdrivr]

Originally Posted by UncleFester

Thanks for the guide it helped me install my 6k kit today.

I'm very pleased, looks better than I thought it would. I opted to remove the halogen drl's and high beams altogether.


Couple of notes from my install.

1. I used a 7mm deep socket instead of 9/32 for the bracket nuts.

2. I mounted the ballasts to the frame with 3m mounting tape, instead of using the provided brackets.

3. Marker lights are easy if you find the silver press clips with a screwdriver. Bottom first and then side, makes them come right out.

I took some pictures and I will try to upload them tomorrow.

Thanks! I updated the DIY with the socket size. I was able to just pry the marker lights diagonally, and luckily I didnt break anything. I was nervous though.

Im heading outside in a few to re-aim the headlights and take some output shots. I should be able to update post #2 in a few hours.