Today a friend of mine and I took on the task of installing a pair of driving lights behind the lower grille on my 2004 hatch. The job took about 6 hours or so. I opted for the Hella Black Magic driving lamps. I have always liked them and figured the "black when off" would add to the stealth apprearance I wanted. So here is my how to using this set. If you attempt this, your lights, wiring harnesses may vary. These instructions too are merely a guide and offered as an aid to those looking to do the same...
The lights:
Get the car up on ramps or jack stands, disconnect the battery.
Remove the big splash shield and the small one in front of it:
Remove the grille from the bumper (we did this first but later removed the whole front bumper. The grille is held on by 8 clips. Push in the tabs and push the grill out towards the front of the car:
I don't have pics, but after assesing everything, we removed the front bumper cover. To do that remove the 3 screws per side underneath the side of the bumper, the two push in clips from each fender liner and the screws in the top corner of the bumper cover. You will also remove the two big screws from the center of the cover along with the two plastic clips (there are how tos on here that show this process). We removed the foam piece as well, by taking off the two gray clips that hold it in place.
Now to the install:
When the cover was still on, we marked where we wanted to install the brackets. Some on here used the radiator frame. We used the bumper. To do that we drilled a hole for each bracke to mount to and used a Dremel with cut-off wheels to give us access to tighten them down.
Then we installed the brackets and back of the lights and tested clearance against the bumper cover:
We had to cut some more notches in the bottom of the bumper "tube" so the lights would fit and have the ablility to tilt up more:
Not quite enough, so we cut some more:
While Chris worked on that, I tackled some of the wiring following the directions that came with the kit. Power off of the battery:
Snaking the three wires for the switch using the small grommet on the drivers side. This was a pain:
I zip-tied the relay and fuse holder to the battery box:
Then ran the wires down to the lights. The nice thing about this kit was everything was loomed already. We just had to cut things down to the size we needed. With this kit, it was suggested to tap into the highbeam circuit. I wanted them on when ever, so I tapped into the fuse box with a blade connector to a blank that came on with the ignition (this is the same spot many tap into for the independant stock foglight mod) the purple wire is the one that is for the Hellas:
I have not finalized the install of the switch. For now it is just inside the car. I will update this once I complete that portion.
We tested everything and they worked fine. Then it was time to reinstall everything. We left the grille piece out and headed out to aim them:
Having two people for this was nice I could sit in the car and direct Chris where to move them. As it stands, they are aimed just past the low-beams but not as far out as the highs. They do a good job of filling in that space. Sorry for the crappy night pics, but here is the finished product and daylight pics will follow tomorrow:
Not sure if this will belong in a how-to or not. If it needs to be moved cool, by me. Any questions or comments, please post and I will snap some daylight pics when I have a chance.
The lights:
Get the car up on ramps or jack stands, disconnect the battery.
Remove the big splash shield and the small one in front of it:
Remove the grille from the bumper (we did this first but later removed the whole front bumper. The grille is held on by 8 clips. Push in the tabs and push the grill out towards the front of the car:
I don't have pics, but after assesing everything, we removed the front bumper cover. To do that remove the 3 screws per side underneath the side of the bumper, the two push in clips from each fender liner and the screws in the top corner of the bumper cover. You will also remove the two big screws from the center of the cover along with the two plastic clips (there are how tos on here that show this process). We removed the foam piece as well, by taking off the two gray clips that hold it in place.
Now to the install:
When the cover was still on, we marked where we wanted to install the brackets. Some on here used the radiator frame. We used the bumper. To do that we drilled a hole for each bracke to mount to and used a Dremel with cut-off wheels to give us access to tighten them down.
Then we installed the brackets and back of the lights and tested clearance against the bumper cover:
We had to cut some more notches in the bottom of the bumper "tube" so the lights would fit and have the ablility to tilt up more:
Not quite enough, so we cut some more:
While Chris worked on that, I tackled some of the wiring following the directions that came with the kit. Power off of the battery:
Snaking the three wires for the switch using the small grommet on the drivers side. This was a pain:
I zip-tied the relay and fuse holder to the battery box:
Then ran the wires down to the lights. The nice thing about this kit was everything was loomed already. We just had to cut things down to the size we needed. With this kit, it was suggested to tap into the highbeam circuit. I wanted them on when ever, so I tapped into the fuse box with a blade connector to a blank that came on with the ignition (this is the same spot many tap into for the independant stock foglight mod) the purple wire is the one that is for the Hellas:
I have not finalized the install of the switch. For now it is just inside the car. I will update this once I complete that portion.
We tested everything and they worked fine. Then it was time to reinstall everything. We left the grille piece out and headed out to aim them:
Having two people for this was nice I could sit in the car and direct Chris where to move them. As it stands, they are aimed just past the low-beams but not as far out as the highs. They do a good job of filling in that space. Sorry for the crappy night pics, but here is the finished product and daylight pics will follow tomorrow:
Not sure if this will belong in a how-to or not. If it needs to be moved cool, by me. Any questions or comments, please post and I will snap some daylight pics when I have a chance.
