How To: Install Hid Lights / Take Front Bumper Off

August 24, 2009

First off a disclaimer, I accept no liability if you get hurt or injured doing any of the following. This is purely a description of how to take the front bumper off and fit HID’s. It is the responsibility of the owner to comply with all necessary legal regulations and all that kind of stuff.

1. First thing to do is to remove the radiator support cover, there are 4 push clips, lift the centers with nose pliers or a screwdriver, then pull them out. Once this is done, the item will lift off.

then remove the bonnet buffers with a screwdriver

2. Remove some of the undertray from the bottom of the car, the undertray is in several pieces but I am going to describe them as the “lip” the “passenger” and “driver” parts. The passenger and driver trays are actually more than one part that is clipped together.

3. To remove the lip, there are 5 screws holding it up these are right by the front of the car and are hexagonal in shape with a crosshead screw in the middle. Take these out, then proceed to each wheelarch. The bumper at the wheelarch will meet the liner, undo these two screws as well.

4. Once this is done, you can then remove the lower part of the bumper, just pull and it will come off, you may need to pull quite hard.

5. The “lip” will now drop to the floor. This can now be removed.

6. Once the lip is removed, this exposes a further seven screws and 6 clips which hold the passenger and driver sides of the undertray up. Remove these.

7. Now working in the wheel arches, remove the 2 screws and 1 clip in each arch, the liner should drop to the floor.

8. Peel back the liner slightly, this will expose a further screw behind, remove this on both sides

9. Remove the top bonnet clips and disconnect the fog lamps.

10. Now the bumper is ready to be removed, work from one side and give the bumper a good hard tug, this will disengage the clips. Work your way round from one side to the other.

11. Remove the headlights, there are two screws in the top, and one bolt on the side by the front wing. Once these are out, give the lamp a firm tug and disengage it from the clip – it will be stiff.

12. Once the bumper is off, its time to figure out a position for the HID’s. I’ve done the hardwork for you and positioned mine like this on the driver side. I got a piece of metal (13 x12 cm) and fastened the ballasts as shown in the picture.

13. with the headlight removed, its time to install the lights. This involves drilling two holes in the headlamp fitting, 25mm, unless you want to trash your reflector I suggest not using a Spade bit! If you are just doing the dipped beam, only one hole adjacent to the dipped beam is necessary. TIP: When drilling the holes, leave your old bulbs in to stop the shavings going into the sealed unit.

14. Same for the main beam, I would hoover it out at this point.

here's a photo of the H7R bulb that I got from HIDS4u, No glare apparently

16. Put the new HID light in and then reclip the spring.

17. Do the same for the main beam

18. Connect the red and black spade from the HID kit to the OEM H7 Connector, do the same for the main beam

19. Put the headlamp back in situe and then connect to the ballast.

20. Make sure you test it.

21. Going back to step 12, repeat for the other side.

here's pics of the other side bracket

22. Once you’ve done all this put the bumper back on, the process is the reverse of removal!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Here's the photo of the finished article, they are seriously bright. I will post up a photo of the front of the car once my non yellow sidelight bulbs have turned up! I hope this is made a sticky and it helps someone. Happy driving.

August 25, 2009

Just one thing to add, the dipped are H7R, the main beam are just H7

August 25, 2009

good diy, i should have done one when i did my front bumper, i need to mount my ballasts aswell so this is a good oppurtunity maybe one sunny weekend to get the bumper off and get this done.