Front Bumper Removal / HID Install

NCMazda6

Member
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2014 Liquid Silver Mazda6
I am one of those people that refuses to be forced to look at wires and ballasts when I install my HIDs. So I remove my front bumper so I have open access to everything and can hide the ballasts. Good thing about a 3rd gen 6 is that taking the front bumper off is just about identical to removing a 2nd gen's. I also refuse to do a "plug and play" HID kit. I always use a relay harness, no ifs ands, or buts...but the set I installed last weekend has been installed in every car I have had since 2007...my 2007 Mazda3, My 2007 Silverado, My 2010 6, and now my 2014 6. They are a DDM tuning kit and have never given me a lick of trouble. So for those of you that say this was a waste of time...no it wasn't. It only takes about 10 minutes to get the front bumper off, so why not. Here we go.

1. Remove all the philips screws and push pins from above the grill, under the hood. You can tell which ones need to go...in this pic, they are already gone. There is also one under the little intake snorkle that has to come out from the left side as seen in the 2nd picture.

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2. Next, remove the 3 push pins in either fenderwell, then the 4 philips screws under the front edge of the bumper that hold the fender liner to the bumper. Then get all the push pins along the front edge of the under body liner as well as a couple of screws No picture of that part...sorry.

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3. Pull the fender liner back at the joint of the bumper and the fender, there is a philips screw with the head facing down. The bumper is actually cut out to fit a screwdriver...that was nice of Mazda. In the picture, which is sideways, the hole on the right is where the screw resides but the little semi-circle on the left is where you insert your screwdriver. This is a pic of the driver's side for reference.

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4. Before you go any further, run a little masking tape along the edge of the fender where it meets the bumper. If you are new to this, run it up a few inches to protect the fender paint from the edge of the bumper. Next, pull the bumper out to release the clips.

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5. When you release the clips, pull the bumper straight forward, unplug the foglight harnesses, either from your foglights or the back of the filler panel. No, these do not work unless you get the stalk with the switch that comes with the factory foglight kit...and here what you have.

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6. Now, remove the 10mm bolt and the screw-down push pin on the top of the headlight at the fender

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7. Then remove the bolt on the side closest to the lens. Also, go ahead and unplug the harness that connects the headlight to the car.

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8. Now remove the bolt at the inside tip of the headlight, as well as a forward facing push pin on the other side of the plastic. It took me a minute to see it, but it's plain as day when you look at it from the center.

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9. Pull forward and it's free.

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I will apologize about the blurriness of the next pictures...not sure what happened but I am going to show the wiring and headlight harness.

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H11 bulb goes right in. (Blurry)

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I strapped the ballast to the horizontal brace behind the headlight, right next to the fender liner. I grounded everything using the factory grounding points, but I removed them, sanded them down to bare metal, and painted them after installing to prevent rust.

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Driver's side

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Now for a short explanation of what happened next since I apparently got excited and forgot to take pictures.

The relay harness has a main power lead that runs to the battery. I used one of the empty studs on the terminal (i just happened to have a nut for it). I used a MAXI fuseholder with a 20A fuse which is tucked next to the battery.
The grounds got put to the factory grounds in the pictures above. The trigger for the relay came from the red wire under the headlight going to the low beam. I used a t-tap and di-electric grease for a good connection. The rest plugs together to the ballasts. I ran my passenger side wire along a main harness in front of the top of the radiator and fastened with lots of zip straps. I wrapped my un-used headlight plugs in electrical tape to keep them dry until I get rid of the car. Put the car back to together, install the fuse, and you are good to go. I also aimed the headlights up a little bit. For this, you need a long #2 philips screwdriver to turn the adjustments screws.
Again...I'm sorry for the lack of pictures but I hope this helps.

Finished product:

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Driving shot

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Nice write-up!

How about some beam pattern pics against a wall from 15-20' away?
 
x2 on that close-up beam pattern image. It would be an interesting comparison to the beam pattern on the factory xenons.

Info on ballasts (35W vs. 55W) and the lumen rating of the lamps?
 
The kit is a 35w kit....55w is just rude to oncoming drivers. The bulbs are 4500k. I will try to take a pic soon against my garage door. I will say the beam pattern/spread is near better than in my 2nd gen. I actually do not feel the need for fog lights on this one like I did on my '10.
 
No problem. I try to be as helpful as I can because it is posts like this that have helped me do things to my cars over the years.
 
Thanks for the write-up. Well done for a bumper removal. Question: Why the need for the grounding straps, relay harness, etc? I don't use them in my morimoto kit. Do you feel there's not enough clean juice to run them? Our cars obviously have a limited can-bus system. When one of my bulbs was not plugged in during install it didn't even register a bulb out. Maybe there is only a can-bus system on the GT because of the advanced lighting system?
 
I just don't believe in connecting a cheap piece of electronics into my cars electrical system without some sort of protection. Relay harnesses completely isolate the lighting from the car so I never have to worry about a warranty issue or anything. Also, a lot if people in town do plug and play kits and have issues with off coloring and ballast failure. My kit in its 4th car since 2007 when I bought them for my 3. Put them in my silverado with new bulbs since they didn't fit, my 2010 6 and now this one with zero problems.
 
Need help with HIDs

I have a few questions for people with experience with HIDs. This is my first car and first time playing with after market stuff. Your answers are much appreciated.

  • For the touring w/tech package, how does the auto on/off feature work for the HIDs? I had heard they take a while to light up and cool off.
  • As we know the touring has one projector in it, does it work flawlessly for HIDs as well or do we need to change that too?
  • What about the DRLs? Wouldn't they look odd when compared to the white HIDs?
  • Also, can this installation be done without taking off the bumper?

Also I am planning to get this:http://www.theretrofitsource.com/product_info.php?products_id=242

Let me know how you guys feel about this HID system and what else I need other than this kit to get the job done. Thanks a lot in advance!
 
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I am not sure about the tech package HIDs. Not sure if a regular high/low kit works as normal or what. If you get bulbs in the right color range, matching the DRLs should be easy. This can be done without taking the bumper off, but since taking it off is so easy I did it so I could hide the wires and ballasts.
 
This is very confusing. TRS guys take too long to respond. The issue with tech package is that it comes with auto on/off and this might kill the xenons if a sudden fluctuation is there.
 
If you use a relay harness, there is no fluctuation. It's on or off. The extra switching can shorten bulb life a little but you should be fine.
 
Is it possible to take the headlights off without doing anything to the bumper? I never actually looked into the assembly inside the hood.
 
Alright, so I was able to get my HIDs in, not by myself but I hired a guy to help me out with from craigslist. I must say the engine bay is heck complicated so we had to take off the wheels on both sides(one at a time) to open the wheel well and mount the ballast and the HD Relay. I got the 4300k elite HID kit. Must say it looks amazingly good! I will post some pics as I get a chance.
 
I started having some issues with my HIDs. They TRS Morimoto Elite system. I recently moved closer to where I work which more or less eliminated the need to take my car out everyday as a result of which it's standing there in the parking for a few days at least or longer at times as I have friends in the same complex who I go out with. Passenger side bulb won't turn on sometimes in the first go but if I switch off the lights and turn them back on immediately, they work. Usually whenever I am driving the car everyday regularly, this problem won't occur. I am not sure if that's something related to the battery or the ballast. Anyone else had a similar experience or suggestions?
 
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