MA240SX | Forums

Written by: George Gaisey (aka SimpleS14)
Updated August, 2006

** Some of the pictures consist of the new headlights I bought in August 2006. Older pictures consist of the headlights with black housing. **

This is a write-up I've decided to make to show how I completed an OEM Xenon (HID) retrofit to my 97/98 240SX headlights. With this write-up you will find steps, and pictures showing my progress from start to finish. I must note that some of my steps will not have a corresponding picture after it. Some of these photos were taken with my spare headlight that I used for research and development. You can review this write-up to give you ideas and/or suggestions towards your own retrofit project. Please remember to give credit where credit is needed. With that said, I would like to thank Scott Slater for wiring information (#1) and Russ for wiring information (#2). Also thank http://www.hidplanet.com for the vital information that inspired me to do this project.

Before I continue I must mention a few things:

* These are the steps that I have used on my car and I'm not at fault if anyone decides to use another method or cause any damage to their car.

* This project was successfully done with the help of having a spare headlight. Having another headlight (or set of headlights) is ideal, but I'm aware its easier said than done.

* Test your ballast, bulbs and projectors to make sure you do not have any faulty parts.

* Please read all the steps before proceeding with anything. This will allow you to review the steps and ask any questions before you take your headlights apart.

Ok after saying that now to get started. This project took me roughly 8 hours to complete once I had all my ideas laid out and prototype finish. Trying out multiple ideas and getting the layout took me a week to complete. This also ties into asking questions and testing out what works and what doesn't. I recommended that you have a plan or layout of how everything is going to work before you start on your main headlights.

TOOLS & PARTS

Here is a list of the tools I used for this retrofit:

- Rachet with 8mm, 10mm

- Phlips screwdriver (PH2 tip)

- Butter knife

- Tin snips

- Dremel (fiberglass cutter, drill bit)

- Soldering iron

PARTS:

Here is a list of ALL the parts I used for my retrofit. The projectors, ballast and bulbs were found on http://www.ebay.com. The only reason why I went with e-bay was because I wanted to save a few dollars here and there. Also the projectors I bought were not listed on HID Planet at the time I started buying parts for my retrofit. Most (if not all) of your wiring parts can be found at local automotive stores and Radio Shack. I choose to buy my 12G wire and relay (with waterproof socket) from http://www.route66supply.com/. The other parts such as bolts and gromment can be found at Home Depot or other hardware supply stores.


- Matshushita ballast and ignitor (from Infiniti Q45)- $167.50 shipped

- Bosch ECE projectors (from BMW M3, E46) - $143.00 shipped

- Philips 4100K D2S bulbs - $72.99 shipped

- HID Planet projector bezels - $33.21 shipped

- Hella Mini 20/40 amp SPDT waterproof and relay socket - $25.28

- (2) 15 amp inline fuse holders - $1.49

- 30 amp inline fuse holder - $1.79

- (2) 15 amp ATO blade type fuses (blue) and (1) 30 amp ATO blade type fuse

- 1N4005 diode - $0.79

- 12 gauge and 14 gauge wire

- Misc bolts and nuts

- Bendable aluminum duct - $2.79

STEPS (basic):

The following steps are what I call "basic" because its essential to what needs to be done in order to complete a retrofit in general. Afterwards creativity is needed depending on your housing, projector size and ballast to get the final product.

* Remove the headlights from the car.

* Remove clips, bulbs, and wire harness from the headlight unit.

* Preheat the oven to 250 degrees (F) and place the headlight unit in the oven for 1-2 minutes:


* With gloves on, remove the housing from the oven and preceed to run a butter knife along the seams where the lens meets the housing. Repeat this step one more time running along the edges and corners.



* Now try to pry the lens from the housing with help from the butter knife or using your hands. Place the headlight in the oven to soften up the glue if needed (no more than a minute) and try not to be forceful when separating the lens from the housing.



* Proceed to remove the lens until its completely off from the housing. Now that you have the lens off the housing, look at the front lower trim around the projector. You will notice two philips screws on the very bottom, remove these screws and pull the trim off.



* Look at the back of the housing, you will notice three bolts. One is for adjusting the beam horizontally and the other two are for adjusting the beam vertically.


* They are holding the projector/reflector plate (what I call it) onto the housing. Proceed to loosen these bolts until the plate is loose and completely off.


* Look at the front of the projector, you will notice four philips screws securing the projector onto the plate. Remove these screws and take the projector off the plate.


* With the stock projector out, you can compare it to the Xenon unit. You will notice a difference in size and placement of the holes for securing screws or bolts. In my case, the Xenon projector is a much smaller unit compare to the stock unit, but in a case like this...bigger is not always better.


* Align and test fit the projector with the plate. Make sure the projector is properly leveled (looking at the shield inside) and mark where you need to drill holes to secure the unit on the plate. Drill the required hole and secure the projector onto the plate with bolts, nuts and washers.

STEPS (custom):

The following steps are where I started to get creative and modified the headlight unit to meet my requirements. The end results of the following steps will be show on the final product, which will be pictured at the end of this write-up.

* I decided to touch up the finished look of the projector and provide a shroud to prevent light escaping from unwanted areas. I decided to take some aluminum duct work, cut it and test fit it around the projector. With the bezel trim piece in place the aluminum duct work stay in place around the projector. To make sure the aluminum stayed in place, I decided to use JB weld and adhere the aluminum to the projector. Because JB weld requires pressure to be apply for a certain duration of time and to dry completely in 24 hours, I decided to apply zip ties around the aluminum to fasten it in place. I also applied JB weld around the inside of the bezel to keep the aluminum in place behind it. Once completely dried, I removed the zip ties.



* Looking at the base of my housing, I realized that this area is exposed to very little water if I have a fender liner and under liner in place. With that notion I decided to mount the ballast underneath the headlight. I drilled three holes thru the bottom of the housing so I can secure three bolts that the tabs of the ballast will slide onto.


* Because of my rough suspension I realized the headlights would be exposed to great amount of force and vibration. It would be a bad idea to over tighten the nuts on the ballast taps, since the amount of force can break the taps. This is just a theory I created...but I didn't want to take any chances. So between the ballast taps and the base of the housing I placed rubber grommets (typically used for electrical work) to act as a bushing and prevent myself from over tightening the nuts.

* In order to have enough space for the igniter wiring to pass into the housing, I created a notch within the inner rim of the opening. This was trail and error, as you can see I made two notches in the back of this housing, but only used one.



* Now I secured the plate back into the housing and the trim piece after that. Here is picture of the end result before I placed the lens onto the housing.


* Placed the lens onto the housing and applied pressure to attach it to the housing. I had to place the headlight unit into the oven to soften up the glue so I can ensure a proper seal when applying pressure (using most of my body weight). Applying new silicone or other sealant wasn't necessary.

STEPS (wiring)

It's essential that you have a separate harness for your HID retrofit. A pre-made harness can be found at sites such as http://www.xenondepot.com. I decided to make my own harness in case something goes wrong, I know where the problem occurred and how to solve it. As I mentioned in the very beginning there are two methods I used. One method was created entirely by Scott Slater and the other was created by information given to me from Russ (aka RDM II and R240NA) and looking at the 97/98 240SX FSM. Both of these methods show how to send a signal to the relay inorder to trigger power from the battery to the ballast. Follow the wiring diagram utilized on the each method to figure out what pinout on the relay you should use, connect the relay to the battery, how to utilize the inline fuse holders and how to ground the ballasts and relay. If your still lost and need more information after reading these two methods, please contact me and I will try to clear things up.

Wiring information #1 (setup for 95/96 240SX and utilizes this diagram)

Written by: Scott Slater (aka RBS14 and PandaS14):

It took me a little while to figure out, but I got it. Take off the plastic pieces on the steering column. Then you will find that the turn signal stalk is held on by 2 easily accessible screws. Take them out and the stalk just pulls off of the column. There are 2 plugs, unplug both of them. Now, at the base of the stalk, if you look on the side of it where the plugs plug into, you will notice that the piece of plastic that the female end of the plugs are part of a plastic piece that composes the back of the stalk. This piece simply pops off, there are little notches on the main body of the stalk that you press down and the back comes off. Use a thin screwdriver. Be careful doing this, as there are parts inside of the stalk that will fall out of you do it upside down or sideways or whatever. So have the plastic piece you are taking off facing up. Now that you have the plastic piece off, orient the stalk so that the arm is facing off to your left, and the internals are facing up. There are 3 pieces of plastic sitting in there, each with with small pieces of metal pressed into them. There is one piece of plastic sitting in there for each function the stalk has, one for the off/running lights/headlights, one for the high beams, and one for the turn signals. Now turn on the headlight switch. Watch and see which piece of plastic moves while doing this.. It will be closest to the arm, on the left. Now look at the plastic piece that you took off. You will notice that it is intertwined with a bunch of metal strips, kind of like a circuit board. Kind of.

Now to identify where to solder the signal wire in, look at the side of the plastic piece you took off. If it is oriented correctly, as if you were to put it back on the stalk (with the actual arm of the stalk pointing left if it were in front of you, and the internals facing up at you), you will notice that on the lower left hand of it, there are a few holes in it with metal pieces that protrude into the openings of the holes. There are actually holes all over the plastic piece. If you hold it over the stalk, look through the holes while turning the headlights on and off, you can identify which of the metal pieces contact when the headlights are turned on. The one I tapped into was in the lower left side of the stalk. There are a total of 6 contacts made on the piece of plastic in the stalk that moves back and forth when you turn on the headlights. On the plastic piece in the stalk the number 1 contact is the one closest to you and number 2 is the next closest one to you.

Read this next sentence over a few times, with the stalk and plastic back of the stalk in hand. You want to solder a wire to the back of the metal in the plastic piece you took off the stalk that correlates to the number 2 contact when the headlights are tuned on. Solder on the wire to that little metal piece that is protruding into the open hole in the plastic piece you took off the stalk. Then pop the plastic piece that you just soldered the wire onto back onto the stalk. Then run the wire to the signal wire of the relay, and connect. Put the stalk back on the column, and put the plastic pieces back on the column. You're done!


-Scott

Wiring information #2 (setup for 97/98 240SX and utilizes this diagram)

* The 97/98 240SX comes with an extra relay (6-pin, DPDT) that allows the lows to stay on when the high beams are activated. The relay is a brown color and here is the part number: 25230-79964 . In case you don't want to buy a new one (~$15), this is the same relay used for the rear defrogger on various Nissan cars (ex: Altima) so you can find one at the junkyard.

* The relay is wired inline to the connector for the headlight switch. The wiring diagram to show this can be seen HERE. For comparison purposes the wiring diagram from a 95/96 240SX can be seen HERE. As you can see, the 95/96 240SX is missing a relay, resulting in the lows going off when the highs are activated....which is a big no-no for Xenon lighting.

PICTURES

Here are pictures of the final result. For some reason, my camera makes my headlights look brighter than they really are. There are NO hot spots or glare when you see them in person. Some of the pictures were taken while my car was on a hill...so the level of the beam pattern might seem uneven. Also due to the glass design of the headlights, the cutoff appears fuzzy. But on some of the pictures you can see the purple cutoff, which is the purple effect oncoming traffic will see from a distance.
























If you see any errors or have anymore questions, please e-mail me at: SimpleS14[at]gmail.com

AIM me at: SimpleS14

You can also PM me.


For anyone that is curious...i did this actually cause I was bored one day and wanted to try something creative.

Also for those that don't know...my car use to be green and I use to have a webpage under SS14.net.

Thanks for posting this again! Don't you just miss your car in green? lol

lagvoid Wrote:Thanks for posting this again! Don't you just miss your car in green? lol

Your welcome.

I miss the green...but not when it was in five different shades of green.

I'm aware that the wiring piece has old links.

I've done some searching and I've found this thread that contains great amount of information:

http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/viewtopi...cfb64e727d