Before I start this DIY, I’d just like to thank AcuraLegend94 for his great work in heading up the most recent HID Group Buy and I’d like to also thank theGodfather and Octane for their contributions with this DIY.
This DIY was intended for a 91-95 Acura Legend Sedan/Coupe however I don't see why it would be much different for other Acuras.
IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are not mechanically and/or technically inclined, I would recommend you get some help when performing the following installs as some steps can get rather tricky for the technically challenged.
FIRST THINGS FIRST:
DISCONNECT YOUR CAR BATTERY!!!!!
JDM ONE-PIECE INSTALL
1) Before you can remove your headlights, you will have to remove the corner lights. This is easily done by unscrewing the top Philips screw that holds the light in place and pull the light straight out. It may be a little tight so I suggest wiggling it as much as possible while you keep it straight when pulling it out. Also keep in mind that you will have two bulbs that are connected to the back of your corner light so be cautious not to pull too hard on the lights when you’re pulling them out to avoid damaging the wiring. Remove the bulbs and you’re corners are out!
2) In order to install your JDM Headlights, you are going to have to remove your old ones (duh!). There are 4x10mm bolts that hold your USDM headlights to the chassis of the car that will have to be removed. The top two bolts are easily accessible from the top of the lights however
removing the bottom two requires removal of the front bumper cover.
3) Because I have a custom body kit installed, I am not going to give you instructions on how to remove your factory bumper cover. I am sure if you ask on the forums or read a shop manual, you’ll be able to figure it out yourself because it is rather simple to do. I will however mention that the bumper support beam (reinforcement bar) that sits behind the bumper cover will also have to be removed in order to gain access to the bottom two bolts of your headlight assembly.
4) With the front bumper cover off, your next step will be to remove the reinforcement bar (re-bar) . In order to do so, get yourself a 12mm socket and remove the two bolts on either side that hold the beam in place.
5) With the support beam off, the bottom two headlight bolts are now accessible. Remove the bottom two bolts from the headlight, disconnect the wiring harnesses connecting your headlights and carefully remove them.
6) The installation of the JDM headlights are the same as the removal process but in reverse. I will first explain how to install the HID bulbs into the JDM headlight assembly.
HID BULB INSTALLATION
1) Unlike the dust cover on the USDM headlights, the JDM uses a rubber dust cap with a wiring hole already in the center of it. Because of this very convenient factor, no drilling is required. Gently pull back on the dust cover of the LOWBEAM socket to reveal the bulb. A Philips screw driver will be required to remove the screws that hold the stock H4H bulb and support bracket in place. You do not have to remove the HIGHBEAM bulb as I will explain how to make use of it later.
2) In order to remove the H4H bulb completely from the dust cover, you’ll have to pull the connecter from the bulb. This may take a little strength and patience but it will pull apart sooner or later. You can now completely remove the dust cover. Do what you wish with your old H4H bulbs as they will no longer be needed. You may have to use a flathead screw driver to gently pry the rubber away from the base of the bulb before it is removed.
3) With the old H4 bulbs removed, it is now time for a little craftsmanship on your part. You must first realize that the Japanese H4 bulb and 9006 bulb have slightly different bases which do not allow you to easily install a 9006 into the JDM housing without some minor modifications. There are a few different ways of making a 9006 bulb fit into your JDMs. One involves using a dremmel to modify the 9006 base, the other involved modifying the bulb socket base of the JDM headlight housing itself. I will explain the latter as I believe it leads to less headaches if your bulb ever requires changing.
If you take your HID 9006 bulb and place it in the JDM socket you will notice that only one of the three seat posts will line up similarly to the picture below. The post that fits and lines up (top) will be important for proper bulb alignment however the other two notches will have to be modified in order to have the bulb fit perfectly flat and secure.
As I mentioned earlier, I chose to modify my headlight assembly instead of modifying my bulbs. The way in which I did this was as follows.
1) Place the bulb in the housing (as shown above) so that the top stem sits in the notch.
2) With a black marker, stencil around the outer edge of the other two misaligned stems as these markings will be your
boundaries when dremmeling.
3) Using a dremmel and small cylindrical grinding bit, slowly dremmel the plastic that you’ve just marked off MAKING SURE NOT TO GO PAST YOUR BOUNDRY MARKS! Take this step
VERY SLOWLY! This is a one shot deal so if you mess up, you’ll be sorry! As you get closer to the boundry marks, try fitting the bulb in place to see if it fits right and continue to dremmel until it does. Keep in mind however that when dremmeling, DO NOT go deeper than the original stock notches as this will cause your bulb to be misaligned if you go too deep. Basically all you’re doing is creating a new shelf in which to have the 9006 HID bulb sit in. If you did it properly, your bulb should line up perfectly since the top notch is not to be touched and should cause the bulb to line up once the dremmeling is complete. Here are some pictures of the completed dremel job.
There is one very important thing I want to mention regarding the above step.
DREMMELING PRODUCES A LOT OF DUST! Which means that unless you can come up with a way to prevent the dust from getting into your headlight housing, there will be a lot of dust inside your headlights after this step is complete. To remedy this, I ran over to my local gas station and used their airline tube along with an air gun attachment and blew out all the dust. If you are still not satisfied with the look of your headlights after blowing out the dust, you can always bake them and take them apart to clean them even more if you wish to do so.
WIRING:
With the HID bulbs installed, it is now time to wire them up to your car.
Let’s take a quick look at what’s inside the box of the McCulloch before we start…
1) The first thing you want to do is take your ballast assemblies and cut the ends off the positive and negative terminals.
2) After this is complete, cut off the main headlight harnesses from both the left and right side of the vehicle. You should know which harnesses I am referring to because you would have had to unplug them from your stock headlights prior to removal. It will be a harness with 4 wires attached to it. Their color codes are represented as follows:
BLACK - Ground for Lo-Beam
RED/BLUE - Ground for Hi-Beam
RED/YELLOW - 12V+ for Lo-Beam
RED/GREEN - 12V+ for Hi-Beam (and DRL reduced voltage goes through here)
Connect the black lead from the ballast to the black ground wire of your main wire harness (as shown).
Connect the white lead from the ballast to the Red/Yellow wire of your main wire harness.
Once you have twisted them together, I would strongly advise that you solder these connections THEN use electrical tape and/or heat shrink tubing to protect the connections.
The remaining two wires (Red/Green and Red/Blue) can be used to connect the JDM yellow fog lamps if you so wish. This gives you the ability to still have daytime running lights (for Canadian Legend owners) and will allow you to use your high beams as yellow fogs. If you do not want to use these wires, make sure and tape them up to prevent any electrical shorts.
The method in which I used to wire up the high beam lights was as follows:
1) Observe the distance from the main wiring harness to the high-beam connector on the back of the JDM headlight housing. Lengthen these wires by simply soldering any desired length of wire to each remaining lead (Red/Green and Red/Blue).
2) Once these connections have been made, you can connect and solder the other ends to the existing high-beam harness connector. Connect the Red/Blue wire to the BLACK wire of the high-beam harness and the Red/Green wire to the RED wire. Solder and tape these connections. You should now simply be able to plug the connector back into the high-beam socket with ease. Your high-beam/fog/daytime running lights are now properly wired up.
3) Once everything has been wired, soldered and taped up, this would be a good time to reconnect the car battery and test out your HIDs! Connect the ballasts to your bulbs and plug the high-beam harness into its respective socket. Turn your lights on! If you followed the above steps exactly, your HIDs should be lighting up your entire street by now! If you do not get any light, immediately disconnect the battery and double check that you wired everything correctly. An incorrect wiring job will result in blown fuses and/or frying your ballast so ensure you’re not color blind before switching on your HIDs for the first time! Remember that the initial voltage drawn from the car’s electrical system in order to ignite the bulbs is extremely high (20,000+ volts!). This sort of voltage can easily damage your electrical system from a mis-wired install.
4) Once you are satisfied that your lights are working as they should, choose an appropriate location for your ballasts and mount them.
5) Remount the JDM headlights to the body of your car using the same method used to remove the USDM lights. It’s always good to keep your engine bay neat and tidy so ensure that any excess wire is tied up well and out of the way of any moving parts.
With your new JDM headlights properly installed and wired, you can at this point reinstall your bumper.
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CONGRATULATIONS! You have just completed both a JDM Headlight Conversion and Custom HID 9006 Install!
I am currently performing the Angel Eyes mod to my JDMs so I will post completed pics ASAP!
I hope this DIY was helpful. Please feel free to post your comments.
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