AutoLamps HID NSX Kit Installation
By Dr. Darren Hartung, DC July, 2001
First let me say it would be helpful if you have the ability to work with tools i.e.: soldering (optional) and heat gun (for heat shrink tubing), and the removal of the headlamp cover and then the headlamp assembly from the car. If you are not comfortable with this then find someone that is qualified to help and welcome to the world of luxury High Intensity Discharge Lighting!
The only company you can get this kit from is, http://www.autolamps-online.com they offer free shipping worldwide and the kit is currently $600. I have done countless hours of research and this is hands down the best kit available to date! It truly is a unique kit because the base of the bulb has been redesigned for 9006 applications specifically (the NSX type bulb) and it is small enough so that your Bulb Retainer Clip and Weather Cap need NO modification.
That’s right Folks; this is truly a Plug and Play Kit considering that no cutting or modification needs to be done to the OEM equipment! Older kits just took a HID D2S or D2R bulb and put on a 9006 base. These first generation kits still gave good light but the problem was they were bulky and you could not use your Weather Cap and you had to modify the Bulb Retainer Clip. But with this kit you have no need for these Modifications. Here are pictures of the bulb and kit components:
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Necessary Tools: Ok the 1 or 2 specialty tools you need besides all the rest, (Phillips screw driver, 10mm socket 1/4inch drive etc.) is a heat gun, and a solder iron is optional. The soldering iron will only be used to solder the 2 bulb wires to the female/male gold connectors after you crimp them, and you are not comfortable with your crimp job or lack the specialty crimp tool. You can solder the joints if you want to be absolutely sure you have a great connection that is resistance free. Otherwise this step is not necessary. The Heat Gun will be used to shrink the HTAT (high quality heat shrink tubing) supplied with the kit for weather and electrical proofing. Remember folks we are working with High Voltage 23KV.
NOTE: This conversion should be done one side at a time so you do not loose track of what you are doing.
- Remove the spare tire and put aside.
- Put the headlamps in the up position by using the Retractor switch on the dash.
- On the sides of the headlight covers you must pry off the little caps to access the Phillips screws that secure the covers. I used a Jewelers Flat head screwdriver to do this. Take your time and do not scratch. Refer to page 23-185 electrical section in the NSX service manual. It is a little tricky, so take your time. NOTE: Reassembly of the headlamp covers and headlamp assembly is the exact opposite of the order as described above. Please note that the service manual does not explain the procedure very well, so please pay attention to these tips or you may scratch your cover:
- Place electrical tape or masking tape on the leading bottom edge of the headlamp cover and place a cotton cloth on the front bumper portion tucking it under the headlamp opening inside the front bumper.
- After removing the four screws, CAREFULLY tilt the headlamp cover forward so to access the four 10mm bolts (which secure the headlamp assembly) and let it rest on the front bumper. Or better yet if you have a 3rd hand let the other person hold the cover tilted up and forward.
- Remove the four 10mm bolts that secure the headlamp assembly and lightly lift up on the entire headlamp assembly, preferably the front portion.
- While lifting up on the headlamp assembly you create enough room to carefully lift the headlight cover up and forward and out of harms way.
1. Removal of 10mm bolts |
2. Removal of headlamp cover |
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- Remove the entire headlamp assembly from the car. You must disconnect the wire harness connector to do this. Refer to page 23-185 again in the shop manual. There are squeeze release taps on just about all the Acura electrical connectors. Just depress this on this particular connector and pull. Now that wire harness connector is disconnected, remove the headlamp assembly and place it face down on a cotton towel or rug on the floor. Now we can get to work on the conversion.
- With the headlamp assembly on a shop towel or rug face down, remove the Philips screw that holds the male side of the headlamp electrical connector and pull the connector and wire up and away out of the way for now.
3. Removal of Philips screw |
4. Lifting away of wire harness |
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- Take off the low beam and high beam weather cap.
- Carefully remove the halogen connectors from both of the OEM bulbs. This will provide slack for the wire when removing the center grommet.
- Remove the Bulb retainer clip from the low beam bulb only.
- Take out the low beam Halogen bulb and put it in safe storage. Do not touch the glass part of the bulb. If you do touch it, the oil from your hands must be cleaned with isopropyl alcohol or it will crack next time it is used.
- Carefully pull back the Center Weather Grommet this is where you will pass the 2 black and red high volt wires through. Lifting away of center grommet pic
- Take the HID bulb out of its protective sleeve and install the bulb into the housing being very careful with it. The brown insulator wire on the bulb goes at the 6 oclock position. Just like the stock bulb there is only one way for the bulb to fit so youve got to get this right. Slide the bulb retainer clip over the wires and install it to hold the bulb in place.
- The 2 bulb wire must be routed down into the housing, around the neck of the headlamp and then back up through and out of the center hole. Be careful here and take your time. I used a dental instrument to help me route the wire down around and back up and through. A needle nose pliers should work fine.
- Use a small awl to carefully poke 2 holes into the center weather grommet to make passageways for the 2 wires. We already have three OEM wires through this grommet so it is tight. Take your time and go in-between the OEM wires.
- With the wire through the center hole and next to the weather grommet, wet the tips of the wires and the holes you made in the weather grommet with your saliva or silicone to lubricate them. Pass the wires through the weather grommet one at a time. I found you are better off using your own saliva because it will dry and leave no residue unlike silicone. Refer to pic showing one wire passed through:
5. Creating holes with awl |
6. Routing high voltage wires |
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7. Reinstalling center weather grommet |
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- Carefully replace the center grommet. Just wet it with good old saliva again around the outer ring to help you get it back into position. You can use a flat blade of a screwdriver to help you with this. Be careful you do not push too hard and damage the outer ring of the grommet.
- Take up any slack of the High Volt Wire by slowly and carefully pulling on the wire while holding the grommet so you do not pull it out. You may want to wet it again with salvia from the inside so you do not pull the grommet out. Do this only if it is necessary.
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NOTE: Do not to let the High Volt Wire rest on the neck or any part of the internal glass portion of the headlamp assembly. This area gets very hot and you run the risk of melting the High Volt Wire insulation which is very dangerous and could damage the car, lamp and ballast and even lead to a fire. So pay close attention while you are taking up the slack of the excess wire and position the high volt wires in such a way that they do not rest on the neck.
- Hook up the connectors to the bulb wires. Autolamps has installed the ballast wire connectors at the factory. The + ballast connector is marked with red marker or a + sign, so you know the difference in polarity. The polarity of the bulb wires is important and must be matched to the ballast. You must pay careful attention to which connector you crimp to which wire! Again, soldering the joints to assure proper connections is optional. Only if you feel that your crimping of the connectors is poor or you lack the proper crimping tool. Of course it is highly recommended that you obtain the proper crimping tool.
- There are male and female connectors. Match them up first.
- Slide a piece of supplied HTAT over the wire.
- Then crimp the gold connector on.
- Once this is complete you can slide on the matched plastic covering to the proper gold connector and snap it into place.
- Next slide the HTAT over the plastic covering and heat shrink it with the heat gun.
8. Installing gold connector on high voltage wire |
9. Placing plastic cover on gold connector |
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10. Heat shrinking over plastic tubing |
11. Connecting to ballast |
- Congratulations, the most difficult portion of the process is complete! Now you can replace the weather caps. On the HID side you can position the white Halogen plastic connector so that the weather cap will fit. Take it slow there is plenty of room. I opted to take my plastic connector housing off and tape up the silver pins for possible later use.
- Put the headlamp assembly aside for now and go to the car.
- Hook up the wire harnesses supplied with the kit. We can hook up both sides at this point We need to first hook up the yellow wire (this wire turns the relay on, and this relay supplies power to the ballast). First route this yellow wire into headlamp area. There is a factory hole that is left open on the top inside center of the headlamp area. Refer to pic showing finger pointing to hole location. Run this Yellow wire through this hole to get to the headlamp main wire harness connector.
12. Pointing to hole location to pass Yellow wire through |
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- This Yellow wire is to be hooked up to the low beam red/ with yellow-stripped wire circuit. You will hook the supplied wire harness Yellow wire to the red/ with yellow-striped Acura wire at the female or car portion side of the headlamp connector. Use the supplied tap splice connector to do this. Put some dielectric grease in the tap connector first to help prevent corrosion since it is in an environmentally exposed area of the car. It would also be a good idea to put some HTAT high quality heat-shrink tubing on the wire first so you can use it to help seal the tap connector later.
Side Note: The reason for the wire harness is because your factory light switch was not designed for the larger Initial Current Drain to Strike or Light the HID bulbs. I use the words Initial Current Drain because the HID require more amperage to light themselves. But after the warm up, the HIDS actually are more efficient than the stock halogens and use less energy. You must use this connector so that you do not do damage to your existing lighting circuitry
13. Showing the Yellow wire from the Supplied Wire harness |
14. Installing tap splice connector on the Red/Yellow wire |
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15. Crimping the tap splice connector |
16. Finished product of tap splice |
- Hook up the harnesss red and black supply wires to the battery.
- TEST! Place the headlamp assembly in its proper position in the car (unbolted) and connect the wire harness. Hook up the power supply to the ballast. Hook up the ballast high volt connector to the bulb connectors but first slide a piece of HTAT in-between the high volt connectors for later shrinking. Go in the car and turn on the headlights! If all goes as plan you should have one HID bulb on and one Halogen on.
- If the HID does not light up check all your wire connections. Make sure all the wires polarities are correct, i.e.: ballast to bulb, power to ballast, and check the tap splice connector, did you install it correctly? Do you have 12 volts at the yellow wire to supply the relay, is the relay (clicking) switching?
- Once it is working, heat shrink the high volt connectors together to insulate and weather proof them. Also seal the tap connector with some RTV silicone and once that is dry, use the heat gun to heat-shrink the HTAT tubing over the silicone-covered connector to really seal it well.
- Mount the ballast. Simply laying the ballast right above the headlamp area does this. There is a perfect spot on each side. Do not peel off the covering of the one sided tape on the under side of the ballast to permanently mount the ballast until all systems are Go! Refer to the pic bellow. You can see the mounting position for the ballast. Note the High Volt Wire faces the outside of the car. This is done on both sides. You can also see how the High volt wire runs around the Hood grommet along The Fender edge. Once the ballasts are attached with the adhesive, it would be a good idea to wire-tie them in place (big wire-ties are included with the kit for this purpose) or at least inspect the bond from the adhesive tape on a regular basis I used a nylon wire tie to a self-adhesive Cable tie mount to secure the wire.
17. Top side view of finished ballast mounting |
18. Top front view of finished ballast mounting |
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- Put some electrical tape over the pins on the left-over OEM wiring and apply heat-shrink over it to seal it. These are only dealing with 12 volts so it will be fine to leave it in there as long it is insulated well. Now let me stress the connector is not to be cut off! You must use a jewel tiny flat head or a pin extractor tool to release the pins in the connector. This way you can hook up the halogens in the future if need be or for selling purposes.
- Once all the connections are made do another re-light test. If all is well and the HID turns on then it is time to put the Headlamp cover in place: Again carefully lift up on the headlamp assembly from the front and slide the headlamp cover front edge under the assembly. Lean the cover forward and rest it on the bumper, be careful and do not scratch it. Then put the four 10mm bolt in to secure the headlamp assembly. Now position the cover and then reassemble it. You may have to adjust the cover. Do this by closing the hood and looking at the lines and height. Compare to the side that is still untouched for reference.
- With the car on a level surface facing a wall, turn the lights on and use the light pattern against a wall to aim the light as you are putting the light back in using the un-touched side as a reference. It's easier than trying to get it aimed later without any reference points.
- Finally, make sure no wires get crimped in the up-down action of the headlights.
- Congratulations, youre halfway done! Now do the other side.
19. HID lights on road at night |
20. Final shot of installed HID lights |
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