Monday, 28 March 2016

Let there be lights

This is more of an aesthetic change more than anything else.  Although they are an improvement over the factory lights, this is mainly because I really like the look of them.  I also wanted a set of lights that give daytime running lights (DRL's), for no other reason than i think they look cool.



If you look at it as just a replacement of the headlight units, its a very simple straight swap.  However, (it's a pretty big however!), you need to take the entire front bumper off!  

Lots of T25 torx screws, about 20 I think.  
 - Some are inside the wheel arches holding the wing liners on - 3 each side.
 - 3 each side under the bumper in front of each wheel
 - 2 inside the wing liner on each side...  ..oh you know what?  It's a pain in the arse and probably better explained by these two images I found on the forums.


The nightmare here are the 10mm nuts that are shown in item 3 of the first image.  This requires the hands of a 2 year old, a ratchet socket, extension, universal joint and another extension.

I actually didn't bother with the three torx screws underneath the bumper as this gave me enough room to get the old lights out and the new ones in.



There is a little bit of re-wiring required to get these lights to run with DRL's which I've researched on the forums and it's a case of trimming the positive wire for the halo's and running it as a direct feed to the fuse box near the main battery to get a direct ignition feed.  In my case, this was a light blue wire if you're reading this and wondering which wire.