DIY: HID retrofit into 10thgen Halogen headlights

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Old Dec 28, 2019
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DIY: HID retrofit into 10thgen Halogen headlights

I initially made this to be a reference guide. This ended up being a wall of text DIY guide, so bear with me. That, and the process is pretty involved and I was kinda limited on time, so I didn't take pics. I will, however, provide the links for the retrofit DIY guides so you have an understanding on where this transpired from. Both links are going to be from CivicX.com (another forum I'm on. Yeah, I'm cheating on you guys.).

I've retrofitted headlights that came with OEM H4 bulbs before, and The Retrofit Source has made it STUPIDLY easy to do. The Morimoto Mini H1 has always been a damn near PnP retrofit, and I thought it couldn't get easier. Enter the 10thgen retroquik kit. For the FK7 (and, by association, FC1/2/3/4, FK4/8 halogen equipped civics), TRS sells brackets that are made to fit into Altimas/Maximas, but they also work with the 10thgens with some very minor modification. Literally 15 seconds worth of modification if you have a dremel with a cutoff wheel. Which you probably own if you're doing retrofits anyways. They sell the Morimoto RetroQuik kit for the 2016+ Civic with OEM Halogens, which includes the projectors and brackets, with the option to add bulbs, ballasts, relay harness, high beam splitters, etc. Items marked with an asterisk (*) in the parts list are included in the kit with no additional options, and items marked with a degree sign (º) are available options when you buy the retroquik kit. Do yourself a favor and add those items individually to your cart for a little surprise.. Unless they fixed it by the time you read this. (hint: it's cheaper piecing it together yourself). Also, this is going to be a very picture light DIY guide, since you have to have a LEEEEERRROOOOOYYYY JEEEEEENKINS attitude when going into a retrofit. Google is your friend for more tips and tricks.
DIY HID Projector Retrofit by @FK7Hatch
TRS Retro-Quik Kit Install by @SpeedyPro

Estimated time: 4+ hours

Parts Required:
Tools Required:
  • Wrench set/socket wrench set (8mm and 10mm is what you're gonna be using)
  • 12" (or greater) socket extension
  • Phillips and flathead screwdrivers
  • 5mm allen wrench
  • Oven heated to 200-210°F (prolly 95-100°C will work for you metric types)
  • Pliers/blade/soldering iron (optional - for bezel painting section)
  • Clamps that are non-marring (e.g. rubber on the clamping surfaces)
How it do:
  1. Take off your front bumper and set it aside (video here)
    1. In the engine bay, there are... a **** ton of clips you'll have to remove. Easily done with a flathead screwdriver. above each headlight, there are 3 smooth-top clips each on top of the weather seal. They're a bit of a pain to take off, but doable with a flathead, even easier with the plastic fastener removal tool. They also make a very disconcerting cracking sound when you pop them off. Above each headlight, right on that trim piece, there are 2 slots each. There's a clip you have to depress to release that trim piece from the headlight. That 5mm allen wrench I said you needed works great here.
    2. In each fenderwell, there are 2 Phillips head screws each.
    3. Under the car, there's a massive **** ton more clips, 2-10mm bolts (on each far end), and 2 hex head bolts you'll need that 5mm allen wrench for.
    4. Once all those clips are removed, Start at one fender and give it a good yank. Some recommend using a flathead or something to release the clips on the fender and headlights, but a good yank will do just fine. More disconcerting crack sounds, but they release with good yanks.
    5. Once all of those are released, you can probably feel the bumper wanting to come off. If you have fog lights, BE CAREFUL. You yank the bumper off without disconnecting the fog lights, and you'll find yourself re-wiring those, too.
  2. Each headlight is held on by 5 bolts that use a 10mm socket. 2 on top in the engine bay, one on the outboard side, 2 on the lower/front side. The lower inboard bolts will require at least a 12" socket extension to reach. Also, pay attention to where the black bolts with the shoulder go. Those only fit properly on the front/lower two bolts. Disconnect all the electrical connections and remove the headlights. There are also 2 friction fit.. wire.. holder.. things.. attached to the high beam wire and mounts onto the headlight housing. Pry that sucker off with a flathead. It'll push right back on when you're set to reinstall (if you want to, that is). Set aside as you're gonna bring these to the oven later.
  3. At this point, you're gonna have to get a bit creative, depending on how you're doing your setup. Mount the ballasts in such a place where the ballast amphenol leads will adequately reach the bulbs' amphenol leads, but still allow you to reinstall everything properly. My ballasts are mounted very close to or on the aluminum bumper/reinforcement. If I have the bumper off in the future, I'll take pics and update this thread. My passenger side involved a drill and tap. You're also going to be limited in placement with regards to where the ballasts are getting their power from. If you're directly connecting them to the OEM H11 harness, then they're probably going to be limited to the engine bay. If you're using a relay harness (highly recommended), you get a little bit of freedom. In my 2018, I'm using a relay harness and using one of the fuse box leads to provide +12VDC, and the bolt for the battery-chassis negative line for the ground. Relays are mounted on the driver's side bumper reinforcement beam mount. Like my passenger side ballast, it required a drill and tap. Again, pics will be provided when I take my bumper off again.
  4. Now time to take the headlights apart. Do one at a time. Heat your oven to 200-210ºF (95-100ºC should do the trick).Remove all bulbs and sockets (except the bottom outboard one. That's wired to the DRL), remove rubber seals, and remove the 5 small silver Phillips head screws that are on the backside of the headlight. Also remove the bumper bracket attached to the bottom of the headlight held on by 2-10mm bolts. Don't touch the 8mm adjusting bolt just yet. After that, pop that bad boy in the oven for 10-15 minutes. I personally did 200ºF for about 10 minutes because I was impatient. I should have left them in there for 15. Start at one corner and carefully pry the clear lens from the black housing. If you need to, use a flathead screwdriver to get you started, and if you chose this route, I'd recommend that initial pry point on the inside corner. Warning: the headlight will be quite warm, and it will be tough to separate. Once it starts to separate, be sure to release the plastic tabs (pull upwards along the edge that hold the housing to the lens or a) you'll have a hell of a time or b) you're gonna break one or more. Not a huge deal, though, if you break some of those. Not recommendable, but not a big deal.
  5. SKIP THIS STEP IF YOU DON'T WANNA PAINT YOUR HEADLIGHT BEZEL. Since step 5 will be all about removing the bezel.
    1. Locate the 4 mushroom headed plastic "rivets" holding the bezel down.

      Photo from @FK7Hatch on CivicX.com - Yellow arrows courtesy of yours truly
    2. Use any method of choice to break these 4 points free. I used a pair of vise grips, grabbed that mushroom head rightly, and twisted it off slowly and carefully. I used a blade to cut any remaining overhang bits and that allowed the bezel to release from the lens. I've read some people took a hot soldering iron to melt those off.
    3. If you wish to paint this and want to preserve any reflector chrome, fear not. Reflector bowls are safely attached to the headlight housing at this point. You don't have to tape anything off, just spray the hell out of it. Lots of angles, so be mindful of your spray patterns and how much paint you lay down, otherwise you'll end up with runny sections. Hopefully, if you do this, you've lucked out like me, and can't see the runs unless you're looking for it. Hard.
    4. When your paint is all dried and you're ready to reinstall the bezel, you can use the remaining stumps of those rivets to index the bezel and glue it in place. I personally used home made ABS plastic glue. You can use superglue, plastic bonder, caulk, windoweld, whatever you desire.
  6. Locate the 8mm adjustment bolt on the backside of the headlight housing. Fully back that sucker out. You'll see that the bolt will no longer engage the adjustment nut attached to the plastic reflector bowl apparatus.
  7. Turn your headlight around and locate the two black ball joints that protrude through the top of the reflector assembly. Release them from the reflector assembly by depressing 2 tabs each and "pushing them through" the reflector assembly. Keep upwards tension after you release one of them so it doesn't re-engage the reflector assembly. From here, you should be able to lift the reflector assembly/projector out of the housing.
  8. On the backside of the reflector/projector assembly, there are a bunch of screws on the backside of the projector. 4 of those screws in the 4 corners hold the projector to the reflector assembly. Remove the 4 screws to separate the projector from the reflector.
  9. There are 3 screws holding the black projector lens to the back bowl portion. Remove those. The goal here is to take the shield assembly out. You only need to do this on one headlight. You're going to use the OEM shield portion as a template.
  10. Place the OEM shield over the Altima/Maxima bracket. It only lines up one way. Take a metallic sharpie, pencil, scribe, and outline the bottom portion (as indicated in the picture below). That exposed black portion my arrow is pointing at is what you're gonna cut off. a dremel cut off wheel makes short work of this. A flat file and a round file will make it clean. Alternatively, you can cut the reflector housing, but I figure it's easier to replace the bracket if I f--- it up rather than a single part of a headlight's internals.

    Photo of the bracket (under the overlay of the OEM shield) from @SpeedyPro on CivicX.com. OEM shield is mine.
  11. After trimming the bracket, remove the 6 screws on the front side of the morimoto projector. place the bracket (will take some maneuvering to get on) on top of the black projector lens bracket. One of the DIY guides, the guy sandwiches the bracket between the bowl and the projector. Doing so will change the focal point of the lens. Sure, it'll only be by a millimeter or so, but still changes it, nonetheless. Also, it only goes on one way, so if you mess that up, I'd be impressed. The brackets should come with elongated screws, so you will not be reusing the 6 screws you removed. Take off the original H1 bulb holder bracketry at this time. Just 3 screws, #1 or #2 Phillips head. Leave the nut installed on the back of the projector, and slip on the large silicone ring curving away from the projector, and reinstall the H1 bulb holder bracket. If you bought the Motoho1der, install the externally threaded portion in lieu of the original metal bracket. It also only goes on one way. See the picture below for how I think you should have the silicone ring. The projector shown below is a Morimoto Mini H1 5.0, but the layout on the back end is identical to the 7.0. This'll make sense later.
  12. With the bracket installed onto the projector, install the bracketed projector onto the reflector housing. Reuse the 4 screws you removed earlier that held down the OEM projector. Also take this time to attach the bi-xenon pigtail (brown and white dual lead pigtail) to the bottom corner of the backside of the projector. This is for the shield drop function upon high beam activation. Leave this unplugged if you don't wanna use your HIDs for high beams, too.
  13. Insert the new reflector/projector assembly into the housing. Make sure you route the shield wires through the OEM bulb opening on the back. Align the ball joints, press down until it clicks, then "tighten" the adjustment screw to engage the adjustment nut. If you center the back of the projector in the OEM opening, it'll aim it pretty damn close to where it's supposed to be.
  14. Take your resealing glue (3M Windo-Weld or Morimoto Retrorubber) and lay down a thin bead along the entire channel. Stretch the stuff to lay down probably 1/16"-1/8" (2-4mm) bead down. If you took the laborious time to clean out the entire channel, use more than that. How much glue to lay down is really a judgement call.
  15. Put the headlight lens on the housing. Push it down a little, but don't force it. If your oven is still hot, pop that sucker back in for 10-15 minutes. Longer if you'd like. The goal here is to soften the glue enough for you to semi-effortlessly seat the lens on the housing.
  16. Once it's all nice and hot, take that sucker out and press that lens on. If you have access to non-marring clamps, you may want to employ those. Not 100% necessary though. Pop it back in the oven if the glue cools too much. This might take multiple reheating sessions. Reinstall those 5 silver screws on the backside to help you, too. Make sure you do it while the glue is hot.
  17. Once you're content with how the lens is seated on the housing, start reinstalling everything. Now, the reason I had you orient that silicone ring as such, is when you reinstall the rubber seal on the low beam, push it under that ring. to seal on the convex face. Make sure the shield wires are between that silicone ring and the rubber seal. This'll help seal the backside from the elements. Reinstall the high beam seal, bulb, and turn signal. If you got the Motoho1ders, insert the H1 bulb, the c-shaped piece (another piece that only goes on one way), then the internally threaded "nut" portion and tighten it down securely. If you're using the bi-xenon shield pigtail, insert the pins into the supplied 9006 connector. If you're using high beam splitters, plug the completed shield pigtail onto one of the splitter's male plugs, and the high beam bulb onto the other.
  18. Congrats, you've successfully retrofitted one headlight. Repeat steps 4-17 for the other headlight.
  19. Once you've retrofitted both headlights, reinstall them onto the car. Don't forget to plug everything in: amphenol connectors from the ballast to the HID bulb, high beam into the splitter (or high beam bulb), turn signal, and DRL connector. Reattach that high beam wire bracket thingy if you want. BEFORE YOU BOLT IT ALL UP, make sure it all works. Turn on your headlights, make sure all your bulbs light up. Now flip on the high beams. Make sure it works as expected: either just HID shield dropping, high beam activation, or both, depending on how you felt like setting it up. I personally went with the combo bi-xenon/OEM low beam bc why tf not.
  20. Once you've verified everything working properly, bolt her back up! Remember, the two black shouldered bolts go on the front lower mounting holes.
  21. Reinstall the bumper with the million and a half bumper clips, 2-10mm bolts, and 2-5mm allen head screws.
  22. Drive to the backside of your local WalMart/grocery store (or the most level area you can find with a nice empty wall), park 25ft from the wall, and aim these suckers. There's only one adjustment bolt, so that's nice. There's also only one adjustment bolt for both high and low beams. Use the following picture (taken from google images) as a reference. Note that the purple "2 inches" is highly exaggerated.
and what my aiming result looks like:

as I noted in my build journal thread, slight rotational misalignment, but extremely minimal. Not enough for me to care about opening it up to fix it.

Now, you may recall from one of my first sentences that I alluded to this retrofit being easier than that of a headlight that came with OEM H4s (EM2 Civic, EJ6 Civic, etc.). Why is that? With an H4, you have to remove the shield portion of the H4 reflector bowl before you install the projector. That's not required here. You take out the old projector, install the new projector attached to the bracket, call it a day. Rotational misalignment is much less of an issue than H4 reflector housings. Also, there's only one adjustment bolt for both high and low beam. The EM2 had 2, kinda opposite each other. You adjust one, it does side to side and left and right, and adjusting one would f-- with the other. With the 10th gen, there's one bolt that pretty much only does up-down adjustment. No need to worry about side-side aiming. No more fear of cross-eyed or wall-eyed aiming. It's fantastic. Aiming these headlights means parking at the requisite 25 feet, measuring the height of the centerline of the projector, and making sure the beam cutoff is 2" lower than that measurement you just took. Literally 2 minutes with a long Phillips head screwdriver and a small bit of masking tape (to mark the wall with where it's supposed to aim).

Now that you have this.. well.. it really ended up being an actual picture-light/text-heavy DIY guide.. But now that you have this DIY guide, GO FORTH AND RETROFIT!
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Old Dec 29, 2019
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Re: DIY: HID retrofit into 10thgen Halogen headlights

Nice guide.

The Morimoto Mini H1's are an interesting projector.

I like the form factor, but I wish they performed a little higher.

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https://drive.google.com/open?id=10S...l0hgMGE1JzJKBZ






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