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JDM Light Install on the R50


vmodi
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JDM Light Install on the R50

 

First off, big shout out to XPLORx4 for helping make this happen! This project took two of us ~7 hours and mostly because XPLORx4 knew what he was doing. J

 

I am going to outline the high level steps we took in order for someone interested to take advantage of the same. I thought I had seen a detailed walk through of this but I can’t find it on the forum anymore.

 

List of parts:

 

OEM Nissan Pathfinder R50 96-99 Terrano HID Regulus Headlights Projector - $450

 

Wiring Kits with Relays - $30 x 2 = $60

 

http://www.pepboys.com/product/details/9214822/00873

Note that O’Reilly and Autozone did not have a similar kit so if there is no Pep Boys around then you would have to make your own.

If you can't find the kit at whatever auto store you shop at, you'll need 2 relays and their sockets, 2 fuses, and about 10 feet of red 16AWG wire, and 5 feet of black 16AWG wire.

 

Self-Stripping Electrical Tap Connectors 18-16 Gauge (need 3-5 of them) - $5

 

http://www.amazon.com/3M-Scotchlok-Blue-18-14-Pcs/dp/B0002BFZ8E/ref=pd_cp_hi_1

You can also find this at Pep Boys or another automotive store.

 

#194 LED lights to be used for the “City Lights” or DRL - $30

 

http://www.v-leds.com/5K-WHITE-4-LED-2W-HIGH-p8761053-1-2.html

These lights would typically turn on with the parking lights but we connected them to be used as DRL.

 

Shrink tubing

 

Wire looms

 

High beam lights – I forgot to buy these ahead of time for replacement so be sure to add $ for a set. You will want a fresh set depending on the old bulb condition.

 

Total parts cost - $545

 

The total cost is highly dependent on how much you end up paying for the lights. I have no idea if I under or overpaid per today’s going rate.

 

Install:

 

Sadly we don’t have any pictures during the install process but I am going to write down as much info as I recall. Next time I need to carry a camera along!

 

There are 4 major steps:

 

1. Prepping the car by removing the old headlights

2. Metal cutting

3. New wiring

4. Install of the headlights

 

We haven’t fully completed the install, as the leveling kit is not yet in place but will update again after we are done.

 

Step 1: Car Prep

 

1. The first thing to check before you start work is to ensure that the new set of lights are actually in good working condition – no point in finding that out after hours of labor

a. Connect a battery pack to each positive and negative terminal for the low and high beams to check if they are working correctly

2. Disconnect the wires going to the headlights, remove the positive and negative terminal from the battery

3. Remove the grill; be sure not to break of the plastic tabs that are held in place. Use a regular plier

4. If you have a regular bumper then the vertical beam below the hood latch needs to be loosened from the bottom and top in order to easily reach the plastic tab holding the grill in place.

5. Be sure to keep a safe place for all the nuts and bolts that you remove, don’t want to misplace them.

6. A nifty tool that helped us is to have a magnetic “pencil” that can be extended so that in case you drop a bolt or nut in the engine you can pull it out (yes that happened to us)

7. The parking lights are held in place a 10mm screw on top and a plastic tab on the bottom, which releases by pulling. Pull them out straight forward.

8. Once the parking lights are out then you will observe four 10mm nuts holding the headlight assembly in place: two on the side, one on top, and one on the bottom

9. Remove the nuts holding the headlight assembly in place

 

Step 2: Metal cutting

 

1. At this point place all the loose wires and existing wiring harness out of the main cutting area

2. Hold the new JDM headlight up to the sheet metal and with a sharpie draw out where you would need to cut the metal. This is easier with 2 people so ask a friend if possible

3. Be advised that on the top outermost corner of each headlight the frame meets the sheet metal of the front of the car so be sure to mark it such that you don’t cut in to the frame

4. Use whatever tools you have available to trim the sheet metal. We used sheet metal cutters, a Dremel, and a die grinder. Wear eye protection when cutting!

5. Once the cutting is done be sure to use a metal file to smooth out the edges

6. Smoothing out the edges is an important step as you will be putting your hand through the new opening several times over during the wiring and you don’t want to cut yourself

7. Go slow and steady, as a newbie I never thought I could do this but after doing it I have a lot more confidence of what needs to be done

8. Ask a friend to help out if you are not too confident using the power tools

9. Once you have an opening that you think is good enough try fitting the light through and see if it is hitting metal or the existing wiring

10. A lot of time was spent to get the fitting just right, we ended up hitting metal and having to grind off small pieces here and there

11. A side issue that we developed during this process was that we cracked the radiator coolant reservoir on the car! The coolant reservoir’s plastic becomes brittle after years of exposure to sunlight that may shine behind the grille. If you crack it, be sure to spray-paint the replacement part where it might get exposed to sunlight.

a. Be sure to inspect your reservoir before the install, if you think it needs replacement might as well order the part and change it out once the job is done

b. You will need to move the reservoir several times in order to get the left headlight on and off to fit in to the new cut out

12. Once the headlights fit through the opening one of the hardest parts is done!

 

Step 3: Wiring

 

1. The wiring kit from Pep Boys is pretty nifty and will save a lot of time, the info below is using that kit

2. Note that the headlight I received had all the connectors but the wires were cut so need to spend a lot of time prepping the new wiring kit to attach to the new headlight connectors

3. If you wish to power the “city lights” as DRL, find a circuit that is hot when the ignition switch is in the “ON” position. Use a voltmeter or circuit tester to find any +12vDC source that is active when the ignition is “ON”. We opened the fuse box behind the battery and tapped into the fuel pump relay. Otherwise, tap into the corner marker lamp positive wire.

4. Remove the battery

5. Bolt the relays on the right side of the car between the battery and the fuses

6. Connect the power lines from the wiring kit to the fuse box

7. Using the tap connector tap in to the left headlight high and low beam wires and connect the wires between the relay and the high/low beam wires

a. You will need two tap connectors, one for high and one for low beam

8. Find a suitable ground point and bolt all the ground connectors to that point

a. We used an existing ground point by the corner of the right headlight and the interior frame

9. The old headlight connectors we wrapped in plastic, zip tied and placed out of the way. This way if you ever need to go back to the old headlights you have the old connector to use anytime.

10. Wrap all the wiring about the relay and fuse in a wire loom

11. Run the wiring to the left and right headlight

a. For running the left headlight wires we using the existing wiring harness as a guide and zip tied the wires to the existing harness

12. Using a wire stripper expose no longer than ¼ inch of wire on the new wiring kit and the headlight connectors

13. Taking a soldering ion, tin the existing connectors on the new wiring kit and the new headlight connectors

14. Cut to about ½ inch in size several pieces of shrink tubing and place on all the headlight connectors

15. One at a time solder the new wiring harness to the headlight connectors keeping in mind the shrink tube

16. Once all the connectors are soldered use a heat gun (in our case a blow torch!) to heat the shrink tube on top of the solder joint.

17. You are ready for the install!

 

Step 4: Install

 

1. Replace the Halogen bulb if you think its needed (Type: 9006)

2. Connect the headlight connectors for high/low beam and the city lights

3. Mount in to the new cut away and bolt on as before

4. Follow all the procedures from the dismantling to put it all back together

5. Enjoy!

 

Operate low/high beam simultaneously

 

If you want the ability to operate both the low-beam Xenon projectors and the Halogen high-beams simultaneously, you'll need an additional relay. The relay typically has 4 (sometimes 5) terminals:

30: batt +

85: activation circuit +

86: ground

87: closed circuit when activated

(87a): closed circuit when not activated (note that not all automotive relays have this terminal)

 

http://www.bcae1.com/relays.htm

 

To wire the relay as mentioned, connect the terminals as below:

30: batt +

85: High beam activation wire, from the tap into the OEM harness (not the high beam output wire to the lamp)

86: ground

87: Low beam activation wire, from the tap into the OEM harness (not the low beam output wire to the lamp)

 

So, now you have one relay for the low-beams, one relay for the high beams, and another relay that activates the low-beams also when the high-beams are on.

Since the current operating this third relay is so low, you don't need very heavy wire, and you can accomplish all the connections using the wiretap connectors.

 

With the addition of the third relay, you would then have

Low beams only

High beams plus low beams

You lose the "high beams only" mode. It's all automatic.

 

Few things that still need to be done and will be updated once complete:

 

1. Leveling kit

a. Still need to install a leveling kit for leveling the headlights

b. Both my headlights are level but hard to tell if they are too low or too high

c. The leveling kit uses 6 wires (pos, neg, and 4 positions), so to simplify the installation of wires that need to run into the cabin, we used CAT5 network cable instead of 6 individual wires.

2. Clear side markers

a. The clear side markers that came with the headlights have a P21W/1156 bulb while the stock side markers with the amber reflectors have a #194 bulb.

b. My existing ones are faded so I will be installing the new ones but I need to follow the process to use tap connectors, solder the new wirings, install shrink tube, and then install the new markers

 

Pictures

 

IMG_0226.JPG

 

IMG_0227.JPG

 

IMG_0231.JPG

 

 

 

 

 

Headlights with the City Light LED turned on

IMG_0241.JPG

 

IMG_0243.JPG

 

Low beam HID headlight + LED + Foglight

 

IMG_0244.JPG

 

City light LED's only

 

IMG_0245.JPG

 

Low beam HID headlight + LED

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