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Hello, just finished some projector retrofit I thought I'd share my joy after 5 days of labor that everything runs :-) not bad lookin either

 
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Wow man that looks sweet! I remember your post about doing the gauge cluster with leds. That helped me out alot when I did mine.

 
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Yeah, your gauges look sick I wish my needles shone that much... gotta go back some day and work on mine a little... might change them to blue or red or something

 
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aren't the stock ones red or orange already?
btw, the retro is cool
is it high-low or just low beam?

 
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My Si stock gauges were orange... not quite red, not quite that goofy mustang orange... white they became.

I bought the Bi-Xenon projectors, meaning the have a solenoid which drops a shield which makes them hi and low... you can get just low beams if you have headlights which have hi and low beams seperate. Mine only had one bulb for both Hi and low, and chose to go with the bi-xenon option. I don't think you actually need High beams to pass inspection, well, almost positive you don't here in VA, YMMV.

Check out this forum anyone who's interested:

http://hidforum.com/forum/

that's the place where it's goin on in retrofit world... or this faq gives alot of good info as well

http://faq.auto.light.tripod.com/

 
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Diy?
Looks great.

 
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can ya post pics of the beam pattern on the wall and on the street?

 
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hehe, you mean it is supposed to hit the wall ? :-) I made the mistake, when sealing the projectors, of sealing them with a permanant epoxy (jb-weld) which defeats the aiming ability... tommorrow I Have to cut a hole open in the back to give them some play.

There are already alot of good DIYs, much better than I can explain, but I do have pertinent Wiring info for our civics... I'm not sure if coupes/sedans ex/dx etc... have H4 as well? There wiring may be different, but I had a hard time getting my wiring straight since it's ground switched (two negatives and a positive, rather than 2 positives and one negative for highs and lows)... I will post that schematic up later when I get it scanned in.

Here is THE DIY for projectors, you can pretty much apply your situation to this guy's general instructions.

http://hidforum.com/forum/showthread...&threadid=6214

My situation was bad because I had Bi-Xenons with the solenoid at the bottom, which meant I couldn't mount the projectors too far inside, so the projector had to be mounted behind the original reflector, which caused all sorts of problems with space issues... if you've ever been inside a Civic Si or RSX engine bay, you know why... ZERO space, my ballasts are tie strapped to the windshield wiper fluid on the left side because there's just no room, and the ballast has to go within like 12" of the lightbulb... Anyways, I'll post pics after I get my situation straightened out, but I did post what one projector looks like against my wall, note the slight blue tint... check hid forums for different projectors with awesome beam patterns. If I am able to get my projectors aligned tommorrow, I'll give myself an 8 out of 10... This project was by far my hardest mod I've done to date, harder than switching out the gauge cluster for LEDs, harder than doing my coilover, less work than gutting my car and sound proofing it, but much more frustrating because everything has to be "pretty" this takes patientce and delicate hands... of which both I lack. I degress it's late. enjoy the pics, feel free to ask any Qs

I followed basically this guy's Pictures for a guide

http://members.rogers.com/wewong_hid/

there are alot of retrofit ideas here:

http://www.hidretro.com/navigation.htm

 
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Oh, price if you were wondering, and I'm not shy, I paid ~400$ for my projectors, ballasts, plus bulbs... and then another 100$ or so for random stuff... I would NOT pay any less, it was a sketchy behind ebay deal, and if I were to do it again, I would take my time read Hid forums and see which projectors really are nice and buy a better set. I have no affiliation with the ebay sellers I will reccomend below, but just be warned, there are some sketchy and bad people to deal with out there selling BMW/Mercedes etc... headlights, I got lucky, but not so lucky because I wish I would have paid a little more and get some of projectors which everyone raves about, which have a crazy beam pattern... but mine are nice, and cheap (relatively) and bi-xenon. No regrets as long as they all work in the end. Just tryin to help some people learn from the mistakes that I made.

henrylampa and deepakmanuel are the reputable vendors on ebay...

some of my searches for ebay were headlight or projector and then fill in the expensive car BMW Mercedes Audi etc...

I think I'm getting alot more "aggressive" people trying to F*#$ with me now... note to self of something I didn't see coming.

 
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lol i was wondering where i was gonna put those ballasts of mine. i stare in the engine bay for like 5 minutes and get nothing. glad to hear i'm not gonna be the only one with zipties in the bay i have a k20 em2 btw.

looks good though, motivating me to get started on my project

 
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Hey DoubleDuece,
I was struggling with the wiring, I had never heard of ground switching before this little experiment... but I might pick your brain if you don't mind... the only two questions i have is whether my DP4T relat rated at ~10a is capable of running constantly, I have it set up to trigger the relays on a Normally Closed switch, coming off of a ground and +12v from the battery I think... anyways, the point is that when the ballasts are on the relat is always activated unless I use the high beams, and I know i felt the relay getting hot. Just wondering if I'm gonna lose that relay, and/or if I should get a more suitable 5 pin SPDT relay made for automotive use. The relay was an old thing I was given that was meant to switch a pair of speakers.. can't remember the exact use, but preamp sort of I think. Anyways, I'd love to get an EE opinion on the harness that I concocted, maybe there was an easier way, but I couldn't think of one. I need to get a good copy drawn up, right now it's all just gibberish that I understand. Get your project goin :-) they're real nice

 
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Ok, here's the schematic I drew up, should be self explanatory, but if anyone has a better idea as to how it should be done, lemme know. Thanks, Bill

 
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i'd say spend the 7 bucks at radio shack for a 30 amp rated automotive relay and that should solve your heat problem. i attached the schematic i'm gonna use for my install, i really don't need high beams though.

comparing the 2, you can nix one of those relays you have set up if you get one rated for more power. see how i split the wire rather than use 2 relays independant? hope that makes some sense.

 
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just wondering how does the shroud mount on?

 
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The Shroud mounts with 2 little hooks that you probably can't see... but unfortunately one of them is kinda falling off. I put aluminum (thick embossing type found at a craft store) on the inside because the actual shroud is not light resistant. And it is very fragile, just touching the shroud removes the chrome agent, so be careful. That was the hardest part, figuring out howto block the light out and still leave room for the solenoid/shield to drop... I was lucky to get a projector and shroud that went together.

DoubleDuece, I suppose I could get rid of one relay, I just couldn't source any relays close that were decently priced. Radio Shack and I have a love to hate affair... last month, and in previous months they had absolutely 0 12v relays... because I gave up on them I tried to source some elsewhere... 10$ per relay at some auto stores... the generic auto-stores absolutely required that I have an application, wouldn't even consider letting me look at stock if I was going to use it for other purposes... Anyways, Radio Shack now apparently carries cheapo 30amp SPST relays, but no SPDT... I mean just ridiculous, costs 5$ for a bosch relay with diode online, and I can't even find any SPDT relays...

About your schematic, do you have H4? If yours is the same as mine, your negative ground would be your high beam ground, and your +12v will be the parking... since low beams turn off if you use high beams, that way if you accidentily flick the high beams you won't cycle your ballast. Have you considered doing foglights for your high beams? I've heard of some people having good luck with that. Or if you're not going to do that, are you going to use a diode across the high beam to low beam ground? That is what I originally did, but since I had diodes across the coils of the relays, they way it worked out is that a 12v trigger flowed back up coil and down the high-beam trigger... because the low beams turned off when high beams were on... safe to say,I regret not checking my wires because they were very difficult to figure out based on the diagram in my manual. Let us know how it goes!

 
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yes i have H4's. from an acura tl. retrofitted bulbs are ready to go, shield is on them, i just need to find time now. plus, my battery is in the trunk, i am new to the whole coupe thing (running wires back there sucks compared to the sedan!), and i have placed power steering and airconditioning ahead of hid install. i'm new to the whole hid thing, but it seems pretty straight forward. i too don't particularly like radio shack, but i wanted the relay and i got the only one they had. got fuse holders at the auto parts store but when i said relay he showed me turn signal brain things...