Silver Build
- Thread starter inspekt
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I know what you mean. I had the same thing happen with my wrx. It was such a nice car, and in perfect shape. What happened was I got a forester to beat up with kayaking and mountain biking, and a crx for dedicated autocross. The wrx got driven less than once a week and it was such an incredible car. The Dixie (FL) region SCCA president bought it for his wife, so I was glad to see it go to a good home. It had such an awesome life (auto-x, rally-x, mountain runs, forest service roads, etc.) until I was able to afford the extra vehicles and I couldn't stand to just let it sit.
BigBlueDart
Member
- :
- 2012 Mazda2 Touring MT
Would you consider parting it out?
If I do pursue selling the car and can't find a buyer interested in the way it is set up, I'll consider parting it out.
Setheronie
Member
- :
- 2012 Mazda 2 Sport
Aww, Inspekt, I so enjoyed reading all your experiences with your 2 and springs etc and now you're selling it! Sadness just crept into my heart. . .
But you're still around on the forums? still have the 2?
I'm almost 100% sure I want Eibach springs now. :3
But not sure I want to shoot out another $400 for CS shocks..
Very nice reviews though! Thanks!
But you're still around on the forums? still have the 2?
I'm almost 100% sure I want Eibach springs now. :3
But not sure I want to shoot out another $400 for CS shocks..
Very nice reviews though! Thanks!
Hey, thanks! I'm def keeping the 2. For a minute there, it looked like I might be moving internationally, and the 2 would not have been coming with me. But, things changed, and I'm happy to be keeping it. I did end up ordering some FK projector headlights though, and I'm hoping they'll arrive any day.
Setheronie
Member
- :
- 2012 Mazda 2 Sport
Ah, well hope things worked out for you. 
Headlights Update:
If you order a set of these from FK, they will arrive in a large box that contains two of these boxes. One for the left side, one for the right side:
The headlights arrive well isolated from movement, and shrink wrapped as you can see here:
Here is a head-on view:
In this view you can see more closely the integrated DRL LEDs:
This view shows a detail of the wiring:
The green circle is the two-blade prong that the main bulb plugs into. Sorry from this angle you can't see the prongs. The blue circle shows what I assume are the fuses for the LEDs. The magenta circle is the three blade prong that remains outside the weather seal and I assume this plugs into the main factory harness for power to the headlights. The red and black wires running adjacent to the magenta circle are the power and ground for the LEDs.
I hope to have them installed with pics in a few weeks!
If you order a set of these from FK, they will arrive in a large box that contains two of these boxes. One for the left side, one for the right side:
The headlights arrive well isolated from movement, and shrink wrapped as you can see here:
Here is a head-on view:
In this view you can see more closely the integrated DRL LEDs:
This view shows a detail of the wiring:
The green circle is the two-blade prong that the main bulb plugs into. Sorry from this angle you can't see the prongs. The blue circle shows what I assume are the fuses for the LEDs. The magenta circle is the three blade prong that remains outside the weather seal and I assume this plugs into the main factory harness for power to the headlights. The red and black wires running adjacent to the magenta circle are the power and ground for the LEDs.
I hope to have them installed with pics in a few weeks!
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I finally installed the headlights yesterday. Many thanks to the tips that Minimazda gave me for getting the lights out! Definitely saved me from getting confused or frustrated over a few unnecessary bolts. These are the easiest headlights to remove and install of any car I've ever owned. I think it took me about 1.5 hours max to remove the factory headlights and install the new headlights including taking a few breaks here and there. The lights look fantastic. Had to do some unexpected wiring work, which took longer, but all is good. I will post up photos as well as technical details in the next few days.
FK Headlight Pics!
When I took these pics today it was hugely sunny here in Portland, which is rare this time of year and a major cause for celebration. Unless you are taking photos. Because it's so bright out, you'll have to look closely to see that the LED drls are on. I have these wired up to come on once the car is started and turn off when the ignition is turned off. I removed my outboard wedge bulbs since they were made totally redundant by the LEDs. The projectors have a very nice clean cutoff, stepped properly for left hand drive, and light output is improved over stock. Not shockingly better, but a step in the better direction (and I thought the stock headlights were completely adequate for reflectors). I'll try to get nighttime shots soon.
Some interesting technical issues came along with these. I will write more about that later. Suffice it to say they are not exactly plug and play as advertised, and it seems to be a problem with the way the wiring is configured. After a lot of tinkering, I have a theory as to why it is not correct and what the actual problem is.
All that said, they are operational and this was the look I wanted for the car, so I'm definitely happy with these!
I initially installed one side to make sure the fit was good and everything worked correctly. The install was easy and quick (thanks for the tips Minimazda!). Once installed, the factory harness remains in use, so the outboard running bulb, and the blinker bulb worked fine as they normally do. I spliced in the wires for the LEDs (as the instructions indicated), and those came on as well. Strangely, nothing at all happened when I turned on the low beams - there was no illumination at all from the main beam, and when I would activate the high beams, the LEDs would turn off, and there was still no light from the main beam.
I screwed around with it as best I could, but my multimeter only told me so much, and then I started getting confused when I traced all the wires around as to what was actually affecting what, and how. I have an acquaintance who is really good with these kinds of things, and he actually had a switch box that he uses for things like this, so he set it up to mimic a headlight switch, and a high beam switch. We plugged it in place of the factory harness and everything worked as it should! So then it was relatively easy to understand how the manufacturer messed up when they wired these. Or at least that’s how it seems.
The factory 9003 harness that we have has 3 prongs. This is because the 9003 bulb has two filaments, unlike most bulbs. One blade/wire is the ground, the other blade/wire is the power to the low beam filament, and the third blade/wire is the power to the high beam filament.
The reason this presents a huge problem is this: What the headlight switch does, when activated, is kill power to the high beam blade, and send power to the low beam blade. This turns on your low beams. When the highs are activated, it kills power to the low beam blade, and sends power to the high beam blade, turning on the high beam.
The harness that came with the headlights converts from 9003 to H7 by allowing you to plug the 3 blade factory harness into a 3 blade receiver on the headlight harness. Inside the projector dust cap is an H7 two blade female receiver/socket. Here is where the major f-up comes. The new FK headlight uses a moving shield to switch between low beam and high beam. They attempted to wire this correctly, and actually did, with the harness that came with the headlights. But it only works if you have a two blade system coming in (which we mimicked with the switch box). The 9003 harness is constantly killing power to one of the two filaments in the bulb, in order to operate the other, so what is happening by the time that signal gets to the H7 bulb receiver is that it never has enough power, nor a proper ground. This is why it worked when we hooked the harness into the switch box. When we did that it was a getting a clean fully powered, and properly grounded signal for each switch. They headlight appears to be wired correctly, but for the wrong type of system. I would be amazed if these worked for anyone with a Mazda 2 that uses a 9003 system.
He did a little bit of handy splicing for me (totally reversible) and everything works now as it should. I’m really happy with these, but I would not recommend them to anyone who is uncomfortable with a little wiring modification.
When I took these pics today it was hugely sunny here in Portland, which is rare this time of year and a major cause for celebration. Unless you are taking photos. Because it's so bright out, you'll have to look closely to see that the LED drls are on. I have these wired up to come on once the car is started and turn off when the ignition is turned off. I removed my outboard wedge bulbs since they were made totally redundant by the LEDs. The projectors have a very nice clean cutoff, stepped properly for left hand drive, and light output is improved over stock. Not shockingly better, but a step in the better direction (and I thought the stock headlights were completely adequate for reflectors). I'll try to get nighttime shots soon.
Some interesting technical issues came along with these. I will write more about that later. Suffice it to say they are not exactly plug and play as advertised, and it seems to be a problem with the way the wiring is configured. After a lot of tinkering, I have a theory as to why it is not correct and what the actual problem is.
All that said, they are operational and this was the look I wanted for the car, so I'm definitely happy with these!
I initially installed one side to make sure the fit was good and everything worked correctly. The install was easy and quick (thanks for the tips Minimazda!). Once installed, the factory harness remains in use, so the outboard running bulb, and the blinker bulb worked fine as they normally do. I spliced in the wires for the LEDs (as the instructions indicated), and those came on as well. Strangely, nothing at all happened when I turned on the low beams - there was no illumination at all from the main beam, and when I would activate the high beams, the LEDs would turn off, and there was still no light from the main beam.
I screwed around with it as best I could, but my multimeter only told me so much, and then I started getting confused when I traced all the wires around as to what was actually affecting what, and how. I have an acquaintance who is really good with these kinds of things, and he actually had a switch box that he uses for things like this, so he set it up to mimic a headlight switch, and a high beam switch. We plugged it in place of the factory harness and everything worked as it should! So then it was relatively easy to understand how the manufacturer messed up when they wired these. Or at least that’s how it seems.
The factory 9003 harness that we have has 3 prongs. This is because the 9003 bulb has two filaments, unlike most bulbs. One blade/wire is the ground, the other blade/wire is the power to the low beam filament, and the third blade/wire is the power to the high beam filament.
The reason this presents a huge problem is this: What the headlight switch does, when activated, is kill power to the high beam blade, and send power to the low beam blade. This turns on your low beams. When the highs are activated, it kills power to the low beam blade, and sends power to the high beam blade, turning on the high beam.
The harness that came with the headlights converts from 9003 to H7 by allowing you to plug the 3 blade factory harness into a 3 blade receiver on the headlight harness. Inside the projector dust cap is an H7 two blade female receiver/socket. Here is where the major f-up comes. The new FK headlight uses a moving shield to switch between low beam and high beam. They attempted to wire this correctly, and actually did, with the harness that came with the headlights. But it only works if you have a two blade system coming in (which we mimicked with the switch box). The 9003 harness is constantly killing power to one of the two filaments in the bulb, in order to operate the other, so what is happening by the time that signal gets to the H7 bulb receiver is that it never has enough power, nor a proper ground. This is why it worked when we hooked the harness into the switch box. When we did that it was a getting a clean fully powered, and properly grounded signal for each switch. They headlight appears to be wired correctly, but for the wrong type of system. I would be amazed if these worked for anyone with a Mazda 2 that uses a 9003 system.
He did a little bit of handy splicing for me (totally reversible) and everything works now as it should. I’m really happy with these, but I would not recommend them to anyone who is uncomfortable with a little wiring modification.
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The projector gives the car eyes so it looks more like a face.
Very nice, can't wait to see the write up!
