LED Glow for your headlights - DIY Pics, 56k Doom on U!

[VTXFrank]

Alright. Some of you may have been following my other thread where I explained how I got this idea. But this is the official DIY thread since that other one has a lot of posts in it already.

This DIY is provided for informational purposes only. I am NOT responsible if you screw up your car doing this mod. By following this guideline, you agree that neither myself nor 8thCivic.com are responsible for any damages you may incur from not properly understanding these procedures. This is a 2009 U.S. model CivicSI (FG2). Wires colors may differ by country or even trim levels. I only know what the wires colors are for on my specific model. If you have a multimeter, you can easily figure out which wires provide power under what circumstances. In the pictures below, you will see me cut into the RED wire. This is the Parking Light power wire. The Brown wire is for Turn Signal power. The black is a ground wire.

When you remove the LED Flexible Strips from the package, CAREFULLY remove them so that you keep the battery powered "Try Me" button intact and operational. You'll see why in a bit.

Here we go. First off, take off your front bumper cover. No other covers need to come off. Here's a thread that tells you how to remove your bumper. (Thanks to 06blaksi)....and you need to disconnect the negative battery terminal. Make sure you have your radio unlock code handy and you know how to enter it before you do this!

Once the bumper is off, you will want to do one side at a time to keep it clean and organized. The following procedure is the same for either side.

Here are the tools I used. The socket is a 10mm. The ratchet is a 1/4" drive with extension. I used 3M Automotive Clear Duct tape from Autozone. It costs about $4.

You will also need at least two 18" flexible LED strips. I HIGHLY recommend you use four of them, two for each side. Autozone now has red, white and blue Flexible LED strips in sizes from 8" up to 24". One set I already had and those were 12" long. But I bought the second set, and they were much cheaper, at Autozone for $20. Total in parts is about $45 for the LED's if you get them from Autozone and $4 for the tape. I already had shrink wrap, electrical tape, zip ties and all that here in my garage. The white ones will look bluish, as seen in my other thread, and the red ones will look, well, red!



Remove these three bolts:







By the way, where that screw driver is sticking out, I put the ground wires on that bolt. We will talk more of that in a little bit.

Next up, remove the parking light socket and bulb from the housing. Just reach up in there, pushing the fender well liner out a bit if needed. Grab the two "fins" of the socket and turn it. Doesn't take much strength so if it doesn't move, turn it the other way.

Feed the wire bundle around the front end structure to get it out in the open and free to work with.



Remove the electrical tape that holds the wire protector to the wires for the parking light socket. Pull the wires out of the protector so that you expose about 10" or so of the wires. Then, cut the wire you want to power the LED's. I used the Parking Light wire (RED) as depicted here:



Then, remove about 2" of insulation from the red PL wire and twist (Doesn't have to be Gorilla strength tight either) the exposed copper wire:



Since you've disconnected the negative battery terminal already, just let those hang there for now. Next, do a rough mount to see how the LED strips will illuminate the lens. Do your adjustments and see how it appeals to you in different areas with different angles. I did NOT want to see a bunch of individual lights. I wanted a uniform glow, or as uniform as I could make it.



Once you've figured out where you want them, make an initial mount piece of tape with the LED strips on it like so:



Now, mount that to the area of the headlight that you like. If you will notice mine, I didn't want it extending into the turn signal reflector area too much. And also, you don't want to go up the vertical angle of the headlight too much because it looks like **** IMO. With the 18" and 12" placed on that piece of tape, here is what I did for placement:



I then put a few pieces of tape further down the strips to make them stay about where I wanted them.



Now here is why you wanted to be so careful about how you removed the LED Strips from the package....being careful to keep the "Try Me" power button operational. You now want to test the lighting effect of your strip location. If it appeals to you, then go on. If not, readjust and test again until you get the right spot. Here I have two buttons. I just depressed them both at the same time and BOOM! Just kidding....but I did get to see some lights come on! And they were perfectly placed. Just be aware the lights will be brighter when connected to car power. With the exposed turn signal lights power wire that's just hanging there, you can reconnect your negative terminal and test them out as well. Just make sure you hold the LED ground wires to a piece of bare metal before attaching the power to them. Here I am using the "Try Me" buttons to power the strips one more time before taping it all up:



So then, you want to go ahead and finish taping them into place. I made sure to completely clean all areas where the tape would be placed. I kept a slightly damp rag with me so I could clean a spot real quick when I found myself running tape somewhere that wasn't clean.

LED's all mounted/taped to the headlight:



Now, route the wires from the LED's into place like shown. If you need to, cut the wires so that you have about 18-24" of wire hanging. You'll need the extra length to get that parking light bulb back up in there and in the housing.





Next up, we need to wire them in. Returning to those hanging parking light wires, let's get our heat-shrink tubing and heat source ready to go. Measure out the amount of tubing you'll need and put them over the wires.

Here's how I do heat shrink tubing. I put a small diameter piece on one end and a slightly larger diameter piece on the other end.



I then heat shrink the smaller diameter tubing to the wires, if using a flame type device like mine, quick passes over the tubing! Don't hover in one spot or you'll burn right through it pretty quick:



Once the smaller piece is done, I then slide the larger piece over the whole thing and shrink it:





Finally, I will use a high quality electrical tape to finish it up, placed back in the protector as much as possible. I had to cut some of that protector tubing off since the wires were now slightly shorter. I left the power wires for the LED strips outside of the protector though:



Now, you need to put the ground wires on the bolt I mentioned earlier. You will need to strip about 3" of insulation off of the ground wires. Twist the two together if you have two LED strips like mine. Then, put that bolt back in the headlight lower bracket as shown in the picture below. Don't tighten that bolt all the way down just yet. Wrap the ground wires around the bolt and then tighten it down. But not so tight that you cut the wires! Once you have it tight, slightly pull on the ground wires to make sure you didn't cut through them with the bolt. If they don't come off in your hand, you're good to go!



Put the parking light bulb back into the housing and make sure you turn it to lock it in place. Be careful as you're reaching up in there with the wires, you could drag some of the wires across a sharp piece of metal and strip off some of the insulation, which would cause a short and a blown parking light fuse if/when your car battery is connected. Now is a good time to reinstall the other two bolts into the lower headlight mount bracket. You don't need to torque the hell out of them. Tighten until you feel a sharp rise in torque and then turn 1/4 of a turn more and that's good.

Use zip ties or electrical tape to clean up the LED strip wires. I attached them to other wire bundles in that area. Make sure that where ever the wires can touch metal, you wrap those sections very well with electrical tape. The vibrations from driving could cause a short by the wires rubbing against sharp metal corners and such.

Now, do the other side. You will notice that once you've done one side, the other side goes MUCH faster. Over all, it has taken me longer to write this DIY than it did to install these things.

Reconnect your negative battery terminal if needed.

Before you install your bumper cover, make sure you test the lights by turning on your parking lights. Hopefully, since you've tested the lights already, your wires are connected properly. If they aren't, no worries. It won't blow anything or damage the LED's. They just won't come on. But still, check for proper operation before reinstalling the bumper cover.

Now, ENJOY!

I'm friggin beat. So if I missed anything or something isn't clear, just let me know and I'll fix/clarify as needed.

[sick-k20z3]

pics of the lights at night?? sound very creative, but not for me

[chutoyy]

Nice

I shall do this in the near future.

[jasonyu668]

NICE~will do this next week!

[VTXFrank]

Forgot to post those, but they are in the other thread.



















The White LED's show through kind of bluish:










And yes, I installed two different colors just so 8th Civic could see for themselves! I think the bluish color looks a little classier. But I LOVE the red since it matches my interior lighting and because I think it makes the car more aggressive looking.

[sick-k20z3]

that looks sick Frank!! i thought they would look way different. Kudos bro.

[07k20z3ftw]

very interesting props

[VTXFrank]

Originally Posted by sick-k20z3

that looks sick Frank!! i thought they would look way different. Kudos bro.

Yeah, the pictures just don't do it justice though! My camera is a point and shoot though. But still, you have to see them in person! Look like little lasers in there!

I want frikkin Civics with frikkin laser beams on their heads!!! (lights!)

[sick-k20z3]

[iwant_turbosi]

Originally Posted by VTXFrank

Yeah, the pictures just don't do it justice though! My camera is a point and shoot though. But still, you have to see them in person! Look like little lasers in there!

I want frikkin Civics with frikkin laser beams on their heads!!! (lights!)

LOL as do i and i will being joining the civic with lasers group shortly!

[iwant_turbosi]

could you post a pic of the red leds with no lights on like you did the white plz.

[andrepyo]

looks good. nice write up

[aceasarsalad]

suuuuper gangsta mod, yao

[VTXFrank]

Originally Posted by iwant_turbosi

image


could you post a pic of the red leds with no lights on like you did the white plz.

Ask and ye shall receive!






















Any more picture requests will have to wait until tomorrow. I'm going to bed.

[iwant_turbosi]

Originally Posted by VTXFrank

Ask and ye shall receive!


Any more picture requests will have to wait until tomorrow. I'm going to bed.

Thanks!! i am sold on the red now....will definitely be putting lasers on my Si.
kudos once more

[curtis265]

Good write up!

[dil2502]

Originally Posted by curtis265

Good write up!

[VTXFrank]

Thanks guys. It isn't very hard to do this. Doesn't take long at all.

[DYNASTY XSV]

looks good, but watch out for cops cause i know nationwide its a felony to have red or blue lights on your car if your not a cop

[dil2502]

a felony...what