First off, this install applies mostly to the 00-1, however I'm sure that the 98-99 guys with 2 piece headlights can use this too since the headlamp housing's are pretty much the same dimensions.
If you've got a 1st gen and are doing this, here's the thread for you, (
http://www.nissanclub.com/forums/gen...s-1st-gen.html)
I am in no way responsible if you mess up your OE housings or your projectors while doing this.
First things first. What you'll need,
-Morimoto Mini H1/D2S Stage III kit from TheRetrofitSource
The D2S variant can use an OE ballast and uses OE bulbs but it produces a lot more foreground lighting and is generally considered the worse of the two projectors.
-Dremel/Rotary tool with cutoff and sanding wheels
-rubbing alcohol
-Spare set of headlamps
That's it!. The TRS kit includes the projectors, ballast's, bulb's, relay harness, and shrouds for the projectors. Halo rings are an option as well but I chose not to go that route.
Now what's optional is,
-buytl rope
-various paint
I remember way back when I first joined NC there were a couple guys who had done retrofit's, but at the time they were a relatively unknown mod and required hacking apart a housing to mount the projector and if the projector was not rotated properly then all that work you may have just done to your housing that may or may not be undoable was all for naught since the projector would have to be adjusted again. And the other issue was bi-xenon projectors did not exist yet so for those like us that use a dual filament bulb, say bye bye to your high beams. These members were Racing Gear, Coach, and later on Glenn14. If you look over on HID Planet you can find Racing Gear and Coach's retrofit threads.
Thankfully like most things in the automotive world, the aftermarket gets ahold of it, tweaks it, reproduces it, and makes it cheaper and more affordable. Now, affordable is a relative term. These bulbs and ballasts are not your cheap eBay or DDM quality. These are about as close to OE as you can get with an aftermarket setup. Now, I'm not knocking DDM at all, they provide very cheap PnP HID kit's. But their longevity is hit or miss.
These projectors are as close to PnP as you can get. However, with that said, with our headlamps you will still need to cut part of the halogen reflector which will make them useless if you ever decide to try and put them back to stock. Keep that in mind when doing this project. That is why I bought spare housings.
Now, what you'll wanna do is first bake open your headlights. If you don't know how, here's the FAQ on it, (
http://www.nissanclub.com/forums/f-q...ts-w-pics.html).
Once you have them baked open, now is the time to paint the housing if you so choose to. Just follow blackalti's steps and you'll be fine.
The spare headlights that I bought were already prepainted and precut for the MH1 projectors from the previous owner. However I wanted to make sure that the black on the housing would match the black on the halogen reflector bowl. So I took this opportunity to respray the housings.
Now that you have the lens and housing separated from the actual headlamp you're going to need to remove the reflecting shield from the halogen reflector. This step I can not comment on since my housings were already modified. However this is what they should look like when done.
Once you have the shield removed you need to test fit the projector and mark where the solenoid for the bi-xenon function will sit.
Closer view.
Without the reflector bowl being cut the projector will not sit flat and you will be unable to complete the install.
All of these cuts are completely hidden when everything is reinstalled. So if you follow what's done here you will have no issues. Theoretically that is.
Once all of your cuts are made to the reflector bowl it's time to mount the projector inside the housing so you will know how much you need to trim off of the shrouds.
Here's the top part of the shroud cut down.
And the bottom portion.
When cutting your shrouds be very careful. There IS a top and a bottom to these and the plastic is semi-flimsy. If necessary make multiple small cuts, test fit, and try again.
Back of the shroud.
Notice how the lower 2 mounting holes are wider than the upper? That's how you know which is the top and bottom.
Once you have the shrouds cut to size it's time to take the projector back out and begin final installation. Assemble the shrouds onto the projector with the supplied hardware first. Now take your rubbing alcohol and wipe down the housing. There's no sense in leaving dust or finger prints showing after all this hard work. Then take the supplied silicone washer and stick it on the backside of the projector. This washer will serve to help lock the projector in place as well as to help absorb shocks while driving down the road. Now insert the whole assembly through the housing. Next, take the supplied 9007 adapter plate and line it up with the projector. These plates are supplied to take the guessing out of the installation. However, if your 9007 mounting tabs do not line up perfectly it will result in an off level installation. If you do decide to use it be careful not to damage the threads on the projector and not to pinch the solenoid wires as well.
Now take your locking ring and carefully thread it on. The threads are relatively fine and have been known to cross thread easily. Once you have the projector mounted it's time to install the bulb and the bulb holder assembly. Once that's done take your headlight out to your car, do a rough install without the lens on to make any final adjustments prior to resealing the headlamps.
Once your final adjustments are made, remove the bulbs, reheat your oven, and reassemble your headlamps. Install them, stand back and marvel at how you are using HID's the "correct way"
Here it is mocked up with the black housing, chrome reflector bowl, and chrome shroud. I had the parking lamp lens removed for paint in this picture.
Final install pics of my setup will come in the next couple days. I'm currently in the process of painting everything and I'm sure I'll have some minor tweaking to do before final installation.
Here is the supplied PDF from TRS of an MH1 install,
http://www.theretrofitsource.com/pdf...1_Retrofit.pdf. I would also like to say that the customer service at TRS is top notch. They reply promptly and courteously to e-mails and every issue I've seen pop up on various forum's while I was reading and researching about these projectors was taken care of quickly and with no questions asked. They are based in GA, I ordered the kit on a Friday, the kit shipped Monday, and I received it on Thursday.
In no way am I advocating PnP HID's nor am I condoning them. I personally have ran 8000K, 4300K, and 6000K PnP HID's for the past 3 years. I always thought that if I aimed them down slightly that the glare would not be that bad for oncoming drivers and that by adding eyelid's I was also reducing the glare. Which after being in front of my headlights at night, they're not obnoxiously blinding. There are some halogen reflectors that respond well to HID bulbs. But there are also other's that do so horribly. But I feel now that with the cost of retrofitting coming down like it is and the ease of installation for most headlamp housings that retrofits should be the only option for lighting upgrades. People will spend thousands of dollars for bolt on performance, but they refuse to spend a few hundred for a projector HID setup. Instead they'd rather spend the $40 on eBay and call it a day.
bluestreak
Sexy G
Linear Mode
