Another H3 HID retrofit thread - lots o' details

[High Five H2]

I started doing an HID retrofit recently. General info about retrofits is pretty easy find, but harder to find about H3's specificially. I borrowed a lot of information From Deriano6's, Adventr, and someone named 4u33er who doesn't appear to actively post on this forum any more. Here they are:

http://www.hummer4x4offroad.com/for...etrofit-projectors-into-oem-headlight-housing
http://www.hummer4x4offroad.com/for...7-Retrofitting-projectors-into-heads-and-fogs
http://www.hummer4x4offroad.com/forum/showthread.php?9744-Adventr-2009-Championship-Build

The hardest part about doing a retrofit is mounting the projector inside the housing so that it points forward at the correct angle, and there aren't a lot of details about that. I took lots of pictures, at least for me. I usually take 1 picture and then quit because I have a hard time multitasking. I don't document every step scientist-style like SuperBuickGuy or you other guys with really detailed build threads.

So, I was a grad student and I have some published research. No big deal, i know (hey, i got a master's in developmental bio! I interject that into every conversation possible because why not right? I figure I'm allowed to brag. it was a lot of work!) When I write something up I use tons and tons of detail. I can't break that habit. (here's my thesis if you're curious: http://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5308&context=etd handy if you can't sleep).

Stuff that you will need (materials?)
hand tools (duh)
new set of headlights - i found a set on amazon for $142 or something like that
Retrofit kit - the retrofit source seems to be the source for everyone. Their instructions are good for the easy parts, which is kind of helpful.
14 gauge ground wire.
JB weld
butyl rubber sealant

Methods?? -I did it a different way, but this is how I would do it a 2nd time.
Mount projectors in new housings
Take grill and old headlights off
Mount ballasts/wiring
Install retrofitted headlights

If you get your kit from the retrofit source, then you'll get most everything that you need. Your choices from them are the D2S and the mini H1. Both have their pros and cons for light output and for the actual retrofit. I like the D2S light pattern better, some prefer H1. If you're interesting in a comparison, there are plenty on HID planet or other retrofit sites.

As far as mounting goes, the H1 is a tiny bit smaller. The threaded end on the H1 is shorter and smaller in diameter. You won't have to make the bulb holder wider if you use it, but you will have to cut it down less, which could make ensuring that the flat mounting surface is flat a bit harder. Since the mounting end is a lot smaller than the bulb holder hole, it won't fit snugly. I don't know how that affects installation. Derian06 and GhostBuster went that route, so you may ask them.

Adventr and I both used the D2S, and I borrowed from his build thread to do mine. It's not really that hard to widen the bulb holder, I think. But, it is harder to make enough clearance in the housing to make room for the D2S projector. Mine actually touches the lens. Time will tell if that will cause problems. HID bulbs don't emit as much heat as halogen bulbs and the clear projector lens doesn't seem like it should get that hot. We will see, I suppose.

 

[High Five H2]

Retrofit:

1. Take the new headlights off of the brackets: They are held on with 3 clips, that's it. Carefully yank them off. I had to put them on the ground and hold the bracket down with my knees.

Remove headlight lens:
1. Set oven to 230F, put the housings on a cookie sheet and bake them for 20 minutes or so. They aren't cookies so they (probably) won't burn. I balanced them on the bulb holder on the rear of the housing just in case the lens could get damaged from resting on the cookie sheet.

2. Use a big flathead screwdriver or something like that to pry the lens away from the housing. Do it slowly and carefully to avoid breaking the lip. This is another reason to use new headlights. The lip will break right off on old ones. It takes some coordination to get the clips off and pry off the lens at the same time, but you can do it!

3. Remove as much of the old sealant as you can while it's soft. I use a really little flathead screwdriver to scrape it out. Once it gets a bit harder you can get it off in strips. You don't have to get all of it off. In fact, if you don't have new butyl rubber sealant, you can't just leave the old sealant in there and use it again.

4. Modifying the housing, step 1: bulb holder part 1. I used a dremel cut-off wheel to cut down the bulb holder, but left enough so there would be a flat surface that to mount the projector to. It's very important that the cut down surface is as flat and even as possible to the original surface, otherwise the projector will be pointing in a different direction than its supposed to. I used a wide metal file to get it flat and smooth. This is another picture that got lost, so I took a picture of an old housing.

Cut along the red line:

5. Modifying the housing, step 2: Bulb holder part 2. I used a cylindrical grinding stone drill bit to widen the hole. A lot of material needs to be removed from the lip that the bulb locks into. It's going to be pretty thin. I used a D2S projector, which is wider rear area. The other option from TRS is the mini H1. The rear threaded mount is smaller so it will fit without any modification, but there will be lots of extra room for it to move around, which is why I didn't use.

Red line again:

6. Modifying housing, step 3: housing bowl. First, I removed the reflector and tossed it. It mounts with a single screw. The projector sticks out of the housing if you don't remove some material from the bottom of the reflector bowl. I used the same grinding stone here as step 5, but it would be easier to use a rounded one. Don't go hog wild here. It would be very easy to remove too much material and have a weak housing or grind all the way through, especially in one thin spot near the bulb holder. I also ground off most of the mount that the reflector screws into and then used a 11/64 in drill bit to widen the reflector screw hole and drilled all the way through the housing for the high beam wiring.

I wish I had the finished picture, because it's a lot more helpful than this picture. You can thank Apple for that:

6. Paint. I painted mine black. You can find more detailed instructions all over the place, so I'll keep it short. It's not very hard to do once the housing is open. Use a scotch brite pad or sand paper to scratch up all the surfaces that you want to paint. There's a small vent on the lower outside corner just outside of the reflective bowl. There's a little blue fabric cover on the rear of the housing. You can see it next to my hand in the picture for retrofit step 5. Make sure it's covered up so any moisture can get out of the housing. I painted the reflective surfaces in the housing and the projector shroud. 2 coats of engine primer, 2 light coats of engine paint, and 1 medium coat. Get your artistic wife to do it for you while you're at work and it will be extra easy. I used dupli-color engine enamal primer and matte black from auto zone.

7. Mount projector. Stick the threaded mounting end of the projector through the rear of the housing, and screw on the hexagonal nut. The reflector mount goes to the top of the housing, and the solenoid on the projector goes to the bottom of the projector. There a big rubber washer that goes in between the housing and the projector on the inside. There's no room for it so I didn't use it. I used a level to verify that the headlight mounting screws on the bracket are level. Then, I put the clips on the back of the housing on a flat surface to ensure that the housing was level. I used a level on the top of the threaded rear of the projector to make sure the projector wasn't rotated in the housing. There's a flat spot on top with no threads. Here's where you can see why the bulb holder lip has to be as even as possible. It's the support that the hex nut rests against to mount the projector.

8. High beam wiring. Plug the high beam pigtail into the plug that points to the front of the projector. Thread the wires through the hole that was drilled through the housing. Slide the seals over the pins with the thin end towards the pin end. Plug the pins into the weatherpack connectors with the flat edge facing out. It should click into place. Push the seal into the weatherpack connector. The brown wire is ground and white is (+). Intuitively, white goes to red and brown goes to black. Probably. I'll verify when I turn it on tomorrow. Hopefully it won't blow the solenoid. Put some JB weld on the inside lip of the shroud with the clips and slip over the projector. The shroud is directional, so verify that the clips on the shrouds match the holes in the projector.

9. Seal housing. Mix up some JB weld and thin it with acetone enough so that it can be sucked up into a children's medicine syringe. Squirt the thinned JB weld between the big hex nut and the housing and the hole for the high beam wiring. Put some butyl rubber headlight sealant in the channel that the lens goes in. Heat in the oven again, 230F for 20ish minutes, and then press the lens back into place. If the rubber gets hard and the lens won't fit into the channel, then heat it again. If it's hot enough it will go in pretty easily. My projector touched the lens. I don't know if that will cause problem, and if anyone has any solutions to get a bit more clearance, I'm all ears. Here's where a mini H1 projector would be easier to mount.

Rear of the housing sealed up with JB weld. The bulb retaining spring and nut are on in this picture.

That's the end of the hard part.

 

[High Five H2]

Remove grill - I had pictures for this but there is some kind of iPhone bermuda triangle, apparently, because I am missing a few pictures that I'm pretty sure I took. It's not hard, though.

1. Open hood, remove 2 10mm nuts on the far ends of the grill on the top pointing towards the engine bay.

2. Remove 2 more nuts behind the grill, on the second-innermost grill slats. Find the 2 in the middle, move out 1 slat, there you go. They're easy enough to get out with a short ratchet and longish socket.
[picture coming soon]

3. Gently pull of the grill. There are 2 or 3 clips on each side. Some will probably break. Good luck.

4. The headlight housing itself is mounted to a bracket with 3 clips. The only way to get the headlight housing off is to yank it off as gently as possible. You will probably break the mounts off of the housing. The plastic is old and brittle and breaks easily, which is why you should get an extra set of headlights. You can also do the retrofit with a completely assembled rig. I did not do this and I couldn't drive at night for about 3 weeks.

This picture is the driver's side bracket with the 3 screw heads that the clips attach to. You can see the broken mount on the bottom left:

Get an extra set of headlights - trust me:

5. I took off the bracket. You probably won't need to. I guess I just like extra work (actually, I put on blacked out side marker lights and turn signals). There are 3 10mm bolts to remove. This picture is the driver's side. The 2 bolts on the right are easy enough. They are on the outside edge of the headlight. The 3rd one of the bottom left is a pain in the rear. Use a wobble.

 

[High Five H2]

Wiring

1. Mount ballasts and control box. The wires should be pointing down so water doesn't damage them.

I was going to drill holes and screw the control box and ballasts in place, but I couldn't figure out a good way to get a drill in there. I got some heavy duty mounting tape from home depot. There is also pretty heavy foam tape at auto zone that would probably work. For the ballasts, I cleaned off an area next to the headlight opening on the fender. I stuck it as far up as I could to protect it from rain and water crossings. Sorry the pictures are so dark, but it's hard to get in there with a camera.

Driver's side ballast:

Passenger side ballant:

Control box. Other side of driver side headlight, but still under the radiator support. I'd put it higher if I was doing it again. You can see the igniter that connects to the back of the headlight. it's the silver box to the left. The fuse box is on the bottom of the picture:

I ran the wiring to the passenger side through a hole that some other lighting wiring was going through. The hole is right under the horn:

The hole under the passenger side is visible here. This picture is taken from inside the engine compartment:

There's a handy grounding point on either fender, but the grounding wire needs to be extended about 18 inches on the driver side and 6 inches on the passenger side.

Driver side:

Passenger side. You can also see where I zip-tied the wires to the hose between the airbox and the fender:

I zip tied the power wire and driver side ground wire together to some other wires on the fender. The power wire was routed along the front of the battery. it wasn't long enough to go behind the battery:

Here's the power wire on the battery terminal:

Last step. Clip the headlights to the brackets and plug everything in. There should be 2x ground wire, 1 power wire to battery, 2x control box to ballast, 2x control box to high beam, 1 control box to driver side bulb pigtail. The passenger side bulb pigtail that plugs into the old headlight is unused.

Level the headlights.

That's it!

 

[Ghostbuster]

I have done this.

Here are some tips.

1. If you paint your housings, cover up the little hole in the bottom corner. On the backside of that hole you can see a little fabric like patch over the hole. It is there to let moisture escape. Also, a can of easy off oven cleaner can remove the chrome on the headlights. It did this so the spray paint could adhere better.

2. But you also need to keep moisture out. I used a can of liquid tape from Walmart to seal the back side of the projector and housing area. You need to do this all around the back of the bulb too. I mean cover it up... Like completely...

Use butyl rubber sealant around the lens. I also used clear silicone over that for good measure. If you buy aftermarket housings, which I highly recommend, they are already sealed with butyl. You don't have to clean it off you can just reseal them with it.

3. Don't buy the retrofit source's overpriced Chinese ballasts... You can get good Chinese ballasts from Amazon for like $40 and up. Mine have been going strong for a year and a half in my Alphas hot engine bay.

4. Make sure you get a wiring harness for your hid kit.

5. Keep your original headlights just in case.

Good luck.

 

[High Five H2]

I have done this.

when you did yours, did the projector touch the lens?

thanks for the extra details. I'll add those too. You did some things that I didn't do.

 

[Ghostbuster]

when you did yours, did the projector touch the lens?

thanks for the extra details. I'll add those too. You did some things that I didn't do.

I used a mini H1 7.0 projector. It looks like you used the Mini D2S style projector. The H1 only requires you to hack off the housing part that protrudes out the back. With the right set of washers the projector didn't touch the lens. I think the mini H1 style of projector is by far the easiest to install.

 

[High Five H2]

I used a mini H1 7.0 projector. It looks like you used the Mini D2S style projector. The H1 only requires you to hack off the housing part that protrudes out the back. With the right set of washers the projector didn't touch the lens. I think the mini H1 style of projector is by far the easiest to install.

I thought that the mini H1 had a nut that fit into the H13 bulb holder, is that correct? It sounds I used JB weld the same way that you used liquid tape. Is that right?

 

[Ghostbuster]

I thought that the mini H1 had a nut that fit into the H13 bulb holder, is that correct? It sounds I used JB weld the same way that you used liquid tape. Is that right?

That would be nice! Haha I wish there wasn't any cutting involved... but that is not the case. I do know that you have to chop off the back like you showed in your first pic otherwise the mini H1 wont fit, but I would move that red line to the left some more. The cut mark should be flush to the housing for the mini H1 projector.

Post some pics when you are done. Don't forget the output shots.:cheers:

edit: Ya, I'll take a pic of the backside of the projector. It looks like crap... but it works.

 

[High Five H2]

success! (so far at least) we'll see how straight they are tonight.

 

[High Five H2]

I have done this.

did you do your fogs too?

 

[Ghostbuster]

Yes sir.

It's not pretty.. But it works.

 

[High Five H2]

Left side high beams don't work, but I think I know why. i couldn't get the pins to "click" into the weather pack connector. No big deal. I'm done with it for the weekend, though. I need snacks and movie.

 

[High Five H2]

i just realized that I bought RHD drive projectors and I need LHD.

 

[Ghostbuster]

Wow that sucks.

 

[High Five H2]

Well, I got another set of the same projectors but I couldn't get them to fit. I just gave up and got a STARR set. I didn't realize they were just about as cheap as doing a retrofit. I read some people got them for $419 or something super cheap like that last year some time.

Also, one of my STARR headlights doesn't work, so now I get to figure that out.

here's a decent guide if anyone wants to do it:

http://www.hummerforums.com/forum/hummer-h3-17/my-starr-hid-installation-guide-pics-34665/

 

[Ryan212]

Where can you get them for the $419 or so? I would love HID's in my truck, but do not have the time to do a retrofit.

 

[High Five H2]

I read there was a sale at headlight revolution last summer. mine were $600, there was no sale.

 

[derian06]

Mine are still going strong as well, one of the best and worth while mods IMO. Makes me truck look like no other.

 

[High Five H2]

yeah, I would recommend going with the mini H1's like you did. the D2S ones that I used don't fit. They do look pretty cool though. I just got my grill painted black and they look pretty good together.

 

[ConcealedGLOCK]

Glad I found this post. Im new to this forum and seen this retrofit look. Decided I want to give it a try. Hopefully this wont be as hard as it sounds once I have all the parts. Already bought oracle halos and waiting to receive my new headlight housings. Next would be the mini h1 projectors when I get the cash for it. Thank you for the more detailed thread.

 

[High Five H2]

Glad I found this post. Im new to this forum and seen this retrofit look. Decided I want to give it a try. Hopefully this wont be as hard as it sounds once I have all the parts. Already bought oracle halos and waiting to receive my new headlight housings. Next would be the mini h1 projectors when I get the cash for it. Thank you for the more detailed thread.

glad it's helpful. if you have questions, let me know. Derian and a few others also have good threads on HID retrofits. I don't post much anymore since I sold my 3, but I still lurk.

 

[Schwarttzy]

I still don't understand this obsession with HID. For myself, I never want to be that one jerk driving down the road blinding everyone else. This seems like a one-way ticket to just that. Are you guys suffering from night blindness or something? What am I missing? The cost, effort, and problems that someone could run into just doesn't seem worth it. What is wrong with the factory headlights? Have you tried the $60 Silverstar light bulbs...? It makes a huge difference. Same with the fog lights, you can buy way better than what comes in there.

 

[High Five H2]

if they're retrofitted correctly, then they don't blind people. If you just stick HID bulbs in there then they blind people. I think they do a much better job of lighting up the road and they look neat.

 

[ConcealedGLOCK]

glad it's helpful. if you have questions, let me know. Derian and a few others also have good threads on HID retrofits. I don't post much anymore since I sold my 3, but I still lurk.

Ive seen a video where someone glued the shrouds to the projectors when installing. Is that necessary ?