Bumper Removal, Headlight Removal, and HID Kit Installation
Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2014 5:45 am
This tutorial is a photo-heavy mega tutorial on removing the bumper, removing the headlights, and installing a HID kit (with a relay).
Prologue: My car's previous owner had a cheap HID kit installed. It served me well until recently when one of the bulbs stopped working. I decided to replace the entire kit with a more reputable Morimoto HID kit from http://www.retrofitsource.com. I opted for the Morimoto XB35 5000K bulbs with 3Five 35W Ballasts and their Heavy Duty Relay Harness. The relay harness sets this installation apart from many other HID kit installations.
The Kizashi does not have a headlight warning indicator so Can-bus harnesses were not necessary.
The kit included 2 HID bulbs, 2 HID ballasts (and mounting hardware), 1 HD Relay harness, 2 alcohol wipes, and some documents.
Tools you need:
- Rubber, nitrile, etc. gloves.
- Several zip ties.
- Needle nose pliers (My Leatherman tool worked great as usual).
- 10mm wrench.
- Philips screwdriver.
- Flathead screwdriver.
- Ramps or jacks to get under the car (optional).
Also note that in many of my pictures, you will see the pre-existing HID components that you will not see in your car if you are coming from the stock halogen bulbs.
However, the installation process is the same.
Step 1) Disconnect the battery then start removing the bumper. Open the hood and remove the 3 silver bolts and the 2 black rubber bumpers shown.
Step 2) Remove the bolts in the wheel well. One on each side.
Step 3) Remove the bolts under the vehicle. There are several under there. You will remove all that have a washer on them. Refer to photo.
Step 4) Gently pull the bumper off of the sides. It should pop off without too much resistance.
Step 5) Disconnect the fog light harness if you have fog lights.
Step 6) Gently lift the bumper and then pull it off.
Continue to remove headlights.
Step 7) Remove the headlight cover panels on each side. Each side is held by 4 plastic clips.
Step 8) Remove the 2 bolts and 1 plastic clip circled.
Step 9) Remove the 3 bolts circled.
Step 10) Disconnect the headlight harness.
Step 11) Slide the fog light harness out from its retainer clip.
Step 12) Gently remove the headlight.
Continue to install HID kit with relay starting with Left Hand (LH) side
Step 13) Remove the low beam bulb cap from Left Hand (LH) headlight.
Step 14) Unclip the H7 bulb retainer and remove old bulb.
Step 15) Unhinge one side of the retainer as shown.
Step 16) Drill a 7/8 inch (2.22 cm) hole in low beam cap.
Step 17) Clean the new HID bulb with an alcohol wipe. It was supplied by The Retrofit Source.
Step 18) Wearing rubber, nitrile, etc. gloves, carefully insert the bulb into the headlight. You will need to manipulate the unhinged retainer around the bulb's base and wiring.
Step 19) Once the bulb is seated properly, attach the retainer hinge and clip the bulb into place.
Step 20) Plug in the positive and negative leads to the headlight's harness inside the headlight. This harness is what connected directly to the halogen bulb. Make sure to match red with red (positive) and black with black (negative).
Step 21) Place the rubber seal in the hole in the cap and have it seated properly. It should fit well and make a seal with 4 wires running through.
Step 22) Cap the headlight and make sure it is sealed.
Step 23) Attached the supplied mounting bracket to the ballast with the supplied screws.
Step 24) Examine the relay. Note my labels. Update: The label "To LH HID Bulb" is incorrect. This harness actually connects to the headlight's original H7 connector for control input and power.
Step 25) Remove the harness portion from the connector to the HID bulb as pictured. You will not need this due to the Kizashi's headlight design.
Step 26) Ground the Left Hand (LH) side ballast harness ground lead to the location shown. I joined it with preexisting grounds.
Step 27) Mount the ballast here or some place you see fit. I experimented and found this to be a good location for the LH side.
Step 28) Connect the wires. The large connector from the ballast connects to ground wire and harness wire. Connect the 2 small connectors from ballast to bulb. Connect the harness wire to LH trigger wire (goes to headlight much like bulb wires). Connections are circled.
Step 29) Mount the Relays. I had a hard time finding a suitable place. TheRetrofitSource instructs you to mount the relays upward to prevent moisture collection. It does not come with a mounting bolt so I opted to zip tie it as shown next to LH ballast.
Step 30) Run the long wire to the Right Hand (RH) headlight. I ran it in front of the A/C condenser and radiator. Use zip ties to secure it so it does not have much slack.
Step 31) Remove the RH headlight as previous described and install the HID bulb.
Step 32) Remove the HID bulb's harness with the red and black leads that go to the original halogen bulb harness. Pull the red and black wires out through the rubber seal's holes. Keep the other HID bulb's wires in place as pictured.
You do not need the red and black wire harness due to the HD Relay that supplies the power. You need to omit this part because the ballast will power the bulbs and the ballast is fed from the long harness.
Step 33) As the picture shows, you cannot mount the RH ballast in the same location as the LH ballast due to the washer reservoir.
Mount the RH ballast in the location shown.
Step 34) Connect the ballast to the harness. Connect the ballast to the bulb. Ground the ground wire to location shown.
Step 35) Connect the HD Relay harness' positive lead to the battery.
Step 36) Once the headlights are wired up, reconnect the battery and test the lights to make sure they work.
Step 37) After confirming it works, reinstall the headlights and bumper.
Epilogue:
The installation was a bit more difficult than a standard HID kit due to the HD Relay Harness. I had to think about things and how they got wired. Once I figured it out, the challenge was finding locations to mount the components.
The performance of the kit is impressive. The bulbs have very little warm-up time and output a very nice pure white color as a 5000K rating would imply. They flickered purple and pink at first then stabilized to white within seconds. I believe these brand new bulbs need some break-in time. Once on, they do not flicker and maintain a stable output.
I will post some on-the-road photos soon. It was snowing the night I installed these and my headlights were also filthy with snow/salt/dirt residue.
Prologue: My car's previous owner had a cheap HID kit installed. It served me well until recently when one of the bulbs stopped working. I decided to replace the entire kit with a more reputable Morimoto HID kit from http://www.retrofitsource.com. I opted for the Morimoto XB35 5000K bulbs with 3Five 35W Ballasts and their Heavy Duty Relay Harness. The relay harness sets this installation apart from many other HID kit installations.
The Kizashi does not have a headlight warning indicator so Can-bus harnesses were not necessary.
The kit included 2 HID bulbs, 2 HID ballasts (and mounting hardware), 1 HD Relay harness, 2 alcohol wipes, and some documents.
Tools you need:
- Rubber, nitrile, etc. gloves.
- Several zip ties.
- Needle nose pliers (My Leatherman tool worked great as usual).
- 10mm wrench.
- Philips screwdriver.
- Flathead screwdriver.
- Ramps or jacks to get under the car (optional).
Also note that in many of my pictures, you will see the pre-existing HID components that you will not see in your car if you are coming from the stock halogen bulbs.
However, the installation process is the same.
Step 1) Disconnect the battery then start removing the bumper. Open the hood and remove the 3 silver bolts and the 2 black rubber bumpers shown.
Step 2) Remove the bolts in the wheel well. One on each side.
Step 3) Remove the bolts under the vehicle. There are several under there. You will remove all that have a washer on them. Refer to photo.
Step 4) Gently pull the bumper off of the sides. It should pop off without too much resistance.
Step 5) Disconnect the fog light harness if you have fog lights.
Step 6) Gently lift the bumper and then pull it off.
Continue to remove headlights.
Step 7) Remove the headlight cover panels on each side. Each side is held by 4 plastic clips.
Step 8) Remove the 2 bolts and 1 plastic clip circled.
Step 9) Remove the 3 bolts circled.
Step 10) Disconnect the headlight harness.
Step 11) Slide the fog light harness out from its retainer clip.
Step 12) Gently remove the headlight.
Continue to install HID kit with relay starting with Left Hand (LH) side
Step 13) Remove the low beam bulb cap from Left Hand (LH) headlight.
Step 14) Unclip the H7 bulb retainer and remove old bulb.
Step 15) Unhinge one side of the retainer as shown.
Step 16) Drill a 7/8 inch (2.22 cm) hole in low beam cap.
Step 17) Clean the new HID bulb with an alcohol wipe. It was supplied by The Retrofit Source.
Step 18) Wearing rubber, nitrile, etc. gloves, carefully insert the bulb into the headlight. You will need to manipulate the unhinged retainer around the bulb's base and wiring.
Step 19) Once the bulb is seated properly, attach the retainer hinge and clip the bulb into place.
Step 20) Plug in the positive and negative leads to the headlight's harness inside the headlight. This harness is what connected directly to the halogen bulb. Make sure to match red with red (positive) and black with black (negative).
Step 21) Place the rubber seal in the hole in the cap and have it seated properly. It should fit well and make a seal with 4 wires running through.
Step 22) Cap the headlight and make sure it is sealed.
Step 23) Attached the supplied mounting bracket to the ballast with the supplied screws.
Step 24) Examine the relay. Note my labels. Update: The label "To LH HID Bulb" is incorrect. This harness actually connects to the headlight's original H7 connector for control input and power.
Step 25) Remove the harness portion from the connector to the HID bulb as pictured. You will not need this due to the Kizashi's headlight design.
Step 26) Ground the Left Hand (LH) side ballast harness ground lead to the location shown. I joined it with preexisting grounds.
Step 27) Mount the ballast here or some place you see fit. I experimented and found this to be a good location for the LH side.
Step 28) Connect the wires. The large connector from the ballast connects to ground wire and harness wire. Connect the 2 small connectors from ballast to bulb. Connect the harness wire to LH trigger wire (goes to headlight much like bulb wires). Connections are circled.
Step 29) Mount the Relays. I had a hard time finding a suitable place. TheRetrofitSource instructs you to mount the relays upward to prevent moisture collection. It does not come with a mounting bolt so I opted to zip tie it as shown next to LH ballast.
Step 30) Run the long wire to the Right Hand (RH) headlight. I ran it in front of the A/C condenser and radiator. Use zip ties to secure it so it does not have much slack.
Step 31) Remove the RH headlight as previous described and install the HID bulb.
Step 32) Remove the HID bulb's harness with the red and black leads that go to the original halogen bulb harness. Pull the red and black wires out through the rubber seal's holes. Keep the other HID bulb's wires in place as pictured.
You do not need the red and black wire harness due to the HD Relay that supplies the power. You need to omit this part because the ballast will power the bulbs and the ballast is fed from the long harness.
Step 33) As the picture shows, you cannot mount the RH ballast in the same location as the LH ballast due to the washer reservoir.
Mount the RH ballast in the location shown.
Step 34) Connect the ballast to the harness. Connect the ballast to the bulb. Ground the ground wire to location shown.
Step 35) Connect the HD Relay harness' positive lead to the battery.
Step 36) Once the headlights are wired up, reconnect the battery and test the lights to make sure they work.
Step 37) After confirming it works, reinstall the headlights and bumper.
Epilogue:
The installation was a bit more difficult than a standard HID kit due to the HD Relay Harness. I had to think about things and how they got wired. Once I figured it out, the challenge was finding locations to mount the components.
The performance of the kit is impressive. The bulbs have very little warm-up time and output a very nice pure white color as a 5000K rating would imply. They flickered purple and pink at first then stabilized to white within seconds. I believe these brand new bulbs need some break-in time. Once on, they do not flicker and maintain a stable output.
I will post some on-the-road photos soon. It was snowing the night I installed these and my headlights were also filthy with snow/salt/dirt residue.