[TheManiacal1]

a friend of mine got me some H1 PIAAs for the car and after about 15-20 mins of exposure to 20 degrees Chicago weather today, i gave up.
it looks like to me that i have to remove the entire headlight assembly to change the bulbs, is this true? if so, how do i get that blasted assembly out? there seems to be a screw or something holding it in place underneath? if not, how in the world do i change the bulbs?

 

[alxm]

a friend of mine got me some H1 PIAAs for the car and after about 15-20 mins of exposure to 20 degrees Chicago weather today, i gave up.
it looks like to me that i have to remove the entire headlight assembly to change the bulbs, is this true? if so, how do i get that blasted assembly out? there seems to be a screw or something holding it in place underneath? if not, how in the world do i change the bulbs?

Yeah I know what your saying man, I read that crap in the owners
manual that if I ever need to change the bulbs on the car I have to take it to the dealer!!! So I said to myself let me check this out at first it does look like you have to possibly remove the whole front bumper to get them out but after more inspecting I believe you have to remove the air filter assembly on the drivers side to access the bulbs and to get to the passenger side bulbs you have to remove the windshield washer reservoir. I haven't done it yet but I'm 99% sure thats the way the bulbs are changed. If you are purchasing the car it would also be a wise investment to purchase the service manual, and if you do don't get those crappy
ass Haynes or Chiltons service manuals get the original one from Nissan. Good Luck man .

NISMO 4 LIFE!

 

[Guest]

Here is what I put on a post on changing the bulbs. Takes about 15 minutes Perhaps the moderator can put this in a "HOW TO" section since there are a lot of people who have wanted to change their lights and don't want to do the Nissan approach (which is there to increase you cost having the dealer doing it).

Low beam bulbs are standard H1 bulbs and you don't have to remove the light assembly to change them. I posted how to do it someplace but I will give you the
method again just in case you can't find it.
Passanger side: using a 10mm socket remove the two bolts on the radiator
overflow bottle. Move the bottle and place it in an uprite position between the
radiator and the dipstick location. You will notice that the overflow rubber tube will lift off the windshield washer bottle cap, replace the cap so nothing falls in.
The next step is optional but I did it because my hands had a hard time fitting
into the space. On the front right fender you will see a little bracked that one of
the bolts came from. That too is bolted to the fender with a 10mm head bolt. I
suggest that you use a 2" extension to remove this and a 10" extension for the first two bolts. When you see the light, you will see a large round cover. You
need to remove that counterclockwise. There is a rubber gasked inside, just pull
that cover back a few inches and you can change the bulb. I suggest that you
see how the bulb goes in so it aligns correctly. Also, there is a metal clip that
holds in all H1 bulbs. This one is a real pain to get off. On the bottom of the bulb
housing you will see a little ring, push down (towards the ground) to release it. I
found that using a 4" long piece of duct or electrical tape to hold the clip up out
of the way is very helpful. Put the bulb in, clip it in place and put everything back
together.
Driver Side. This is easier. remove the 10mm bold that holds the air box down
(this is the gold colored bracket on the left fender). I suggest releasing the two
clips that hold the air filter and remove the filter. An easy way to do this is once
the two clips are released, press on the top of the soft rubber hose (to the right
of the air box by the mass air sensor) and rotate the top of the air box so the
plastic index clips can rotate out of the attachment points (like the old power
supply wires on computer mother boards). You can then lift the top of the air box
out of the way. With that off, push the plastic tub from the underhood "ram air"
assembly towards the front of the car (it will move about `1/4 inch), grab the
front of the bottom of the air box and pull straight out. It takes a little force
because it is held in place by two rubber male shaped plugs that go into, you
guessed it, holes. Once you have this out, the bulbs are easy to access.
I found the most difficult part was aligning up those round dust covers behind the
lights. You have to figure which little square goes where on the lamp assembly.
When I finished, I put a marker line on the round part and after I rotated so it
could come off, put a mark on the lamp assembly so it will be easy to put back
on.

Putting back the air box, follow the following procedure (it works much easier).
Grab the airbox bottom and align the two pointed rubber connectors and push
down hard. Make sure the front air tube is out of the way. What I find easy is to
stick my fingers in the front opening that faces down. Using that as your guide,
put that part in first and everything else works. After you get the bottom of the
air box in, install the bolt on the fender, replace the air filter (my suggestion is
get a K&N drop in (same as the 2000 altima) and then finish putting everything
on. One note, there is a little tube from something below, I believe it is a vent.
That is going to fall out of the clip so youhave to make sure that it is clipped
back in place. Hard to explain but you will see it right away.

Total time to remove everything, change the bulbs and re-install----- 15
minutes. I do suggest that after you get the bulbs in and are sure that the round
covers are in place correctly (as I mentioned, that was the biggest problem I
had) turn the lights on and make sure they work. I say this because you will see,
putting those covers on sometimes causes the red wier from disengaging from the
bulb.

 

[Rich007007]

I used pcsgrp's instructions this weekend. It is scary how accurate they are. I mean everything was exactly how he said. It took me 15 minutes not one second more. Thanks pcsgrp you saved me a shit load of time.

 

[TheManiacal1]

thx, pcsgrp!

i'm going to have to give this a shot this weekend. wish me luck..

 

[Joseph Lau]

Let us know!

I used pcsgrp's instructions this weekend. It is scary how accurate they are. I mean everything was exactly how he said. It took me 15 minutes not one second more. Thanks pcsgrp you saved me a shit load of time.

Can you get pics of the lights? Are they sweet looking?

Joe

 

[Rich007007]

I'll take some tonight or tomorrow and post them no later than satuday. I installed both, the headlights and the foglights. They are super sweet.

 

[ThaiBruin]

I have the PIAA H1 Super Plasmas for my low beams, and to me, as well as my friends, they are as close to true HID color as I've ever seen, the light is definitely not as bright, but it's definitely brighter. I personally love em! Perhaps I'll take some pics tonite of them...

 

[prdr]

Rich and Thai

I read in another thread that a service rep told an alti owner that HIDs would cook the wires if they were not factory installed. Have you guys had to rewire your cars to install these lights? Also can I have info as to where to purchase them. Thanks.

 

[ThaiBruin]

Re: Rich and Thai

I read in another thread that a service rep told an alti owner that HIDs would cook the wires if they were not factory installed. Have you guys had to rewire your cars to install these lights? Also can I have info as to where to purchase them. Thanks.

These are not true HID bulbs (which would require ballasts and possibly rewiring if you were to use the Nissan factory HIDs). These are merely bulbs charged with xenon gas and have a coating to the lens to give it the HID like color. They draw no more power than our normal halogens, but give off the brightness of a higher wattage bulb.

 

[Guest]

I put in the aftermarket HID kit with ballasts etc. Bulbs fit right in without a problem. Ballasts are a snap to locate and the only thing I had to do was lower the aim a bit because of the intensity of the lights. About the hardest thing to do is wait for the box to come, the install takes a very easy two hours. Big difference between the blue visions or other xenon bulbs and the HIDs. HIDs light up like daytime.

 

[ThaiBruin]

I put in the aftermarket HID kit with ballasts etc. Bulbs fit right in without a problem. Ballasts are a snap to locate and the only thing I had to do was lower the aim a bit because of the intensity of the lights. About the hardest thing to do is wait for the box to come, the install takes a very easy two hours. Big difference between the blue visions or other xenon bulbs and the HIDs. HIDs light up like daytime.

Let's not forget the big difference in price

I believe the set up pcsgrp is now around $500, whereas my PIAA bulbs were $65... and should you want generic bulbs, like Hiper or some other brand, they can be had for as little as $20 a set. Believe you me, if I had the funds, I'd have sprung for a true HID setup, but being a fresh college grad not making tons of money (just yet), I gladly settled for the next best thing.

 

[Guest]

I wanted the HIDs but couldn't find one with the options I wanted. I had very good success with the blue vision bulbs that are made in England or France. I got them from autoptics on the web for about $30pair. They really put out a lot of light except when the blacktop was wet. It was almost like the road just sucked up the light. In those conditions, the origional h1 bulbs were a better lighting source. When I went for the HIDs, the light even on wet roads was out of this world! Didn't matter if the road was wet or dry it was easy seeing everything and the way the lights are cut, you can get far to the right side of the road and pick out all those jerks that jog after dark in dark cloths without any reflective material at all and of course, the dear that can just ruin your day.

I had arranged a group by for $400 for the HIDs so that wasn't to steep for the pocket. Unfortunately, the window of opportunity for that purchase is no longer available for us. Now the price of the kit is around $525. A good thing about the HIDs is that they only take 35watts so the draw of power is less then the factory bulbs. No changing of the fuses or burning wires as could be the case for the higher output xenon bulbs. A friend of mine fried the wires in his car by putting in 80w 9005 and 100w 9006 (I think that is the right numbers for low and high beams on some cars)and had to go back and install connectors.