How to HID retrofit 97-99 OEM headlights

How to HID retrofit Mitsubishi Eclipse 97-99 OEM headlights. 8/30/2011
Created by: Detail

Preface:
This is by all means not a COMPLETE instruction on how to perform and HID retrofit. These are the parts, tools, and steps I used. These were based upon prior research and figuring it out as I went. I am not responsible for anything you do. Nor am I responsible for legality of these headlights in your area. Be smart, don’t hurt/burn/shock/smash yourself. Feel free to share this all you want. Just give me the credit I deserve for showing you how. 

Why retrofit?
Every one of us drives at night. Many of us upgrade to FMIC’s and lose our fog lights. Or worse, we never had them. The stock OEM Stanley headlights are actually pretty good. However, many of us still need more light on the ground. I tried everything I could to achieve this goal. I bought a pair of super white 9006 bulbs. Next I “upgraded” to an aftermarket HID kit. These are rebased 9006 HIDs. Unfortunately our stock headlights cannot manage that light at all. The beam pattern is terrible and although brighter, the actual usable light is probably less and I was surely blinding the hell out of oncoming traffic. I needed a better solution.

Parts Used:
1 pair of stock or aftermarket OEM 97-99 Mitsubishi Headlights
1 pair of TRS Morimoto Mini H1 Projectors
Bi-xenon: Morimoto Mini H1 4.1 - HID Projectors from The Retrofit Source Inc

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1 pair of TRS E46-R (Extended) projector shrouds

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E46-R (Extended) - Projector Shrouds from The Retrofit Source Inc
1 pair of HID balasts (if you have an existing 9006 kit they will still work)
1 pair of 4300/5000k HID H1 bulbs

If you have completely stock headlights you can buy everything you need as a kit:

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Tools:
Heat gun
Plastic prying tools
Hobby blade
Flat head screw driver
Phillips screw driver
Small pair of wire cutters
Small pair of needle nose pliers.
Wire Strippers
Assorted sockets and extensions to get the actual headlights off the car
Some sort of rig/bench to hold the headlight still
Battery/jump box to power the headlights
Soldering gun, solder, heat shrink
Spare 9006 headlight harness (you can buy from the “help” section at auto parts stores)
Blue painters tape

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Operation:
I will explain how I performed this action on one headlight. Expect to spend between 10-40 hours on the first one. Don’t let that turn you off. The hardest part by far is to get the lens off the headlight and get it mounted on a jig. After that, it’s really not that bad. The first light took me probably 15 hours, in 2 hour increments while I watched TV. The second light took about 45 minute’s total.
Step 1: Get the lens off.
Prep the light by removing everything off it. Pull all the caps off the light. Pull the bulbs out.

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Remove the 4 clips holding the lens on by prying gently with a flat head (be careful, they fly).

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Lastly, unscrew the wiring harness on the bottom of the light with a Phillips screw driver.
Now get the lens off. Some people have suggested an oven. I tried this method with a spare light. My oven sucks. Fail. So I went to harbor freight and bought a heat gun for $15. This worked much better.
Starting at the turn signal, slowly wave the heat gun back and forth around the perimeter of the lens. As it starts to heat (keep the gun moving!) Slide a plastic pry tool in and start to push the lens apart. Keep going with this process. It is VERY IMPORTANT YOU TAKE YOUR TIME. If any of the sticky glue starts to stretch you can use the blade to cut it back. Try to leave as much of it on the light as possible. Eventually you’ll be able to pry the lens off with your hand. CLEARLY, it’s going to be hot. Set it aside, grab the other light, rinse and repeat.

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Now you need to figure out how to mount your light somewhere. You need it to be stable, and repeatable. It doesn’t matter how you actually do it, so long as you can repeat it over and over. Do not lay it on the ground or balance it on a table. Bolt it to something. I used a spare table that my son didn’t use anymore. I drilled a hole in it just like the core support has. I then bolted the light to it with that actual bolt from the car. I used pen marks to trace and make sure I knew exactly where it was on the Jig. Additionally I took a small piece of spare wood and shimmed the bottom bolt holding the headlight on. This made the jig bolt flat to the headlight.

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Remember, repeatability is what you need! Here you see my little table sitting on a coffee table. I needed the extra height off the ground and something flat to lay my jump box on. See how I used the glass to line the little table back up? My table is sitting about 8-12 ft from the wall in front of it.

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Aim the stock bulbs and measure:
Now, stick a stock bulb into the headlight low beam. Make sure you use a regular 9006 bulb. No HID re-based stuff allowed.

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Take the spare 9006 harness and plug it on the light. Connect that to the leads on your 12v power source.

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Using the blue painters tape; mark the light output of the stock bulb on the wall.

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Here is another look from the other light. Just to give you an idea of what we are doing here.

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Now that we know where the headlight was aiming, let’s put a projector in it. Leave the light on your jig. Remove the stock headlight bulb. Remove the reflector with a Phillips screw driver. It will come out of the front of the headlight. Oh, and you can remove that OEM headlight clip and two Phillips screws as well.

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Here is how it looks from the front once you remove it.

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Now get the projector on there! Take the projector apart. Remove the 3 Phillips screws and the locking clip and ring if they are still attached to the projector.
The order from front of light to back is:

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Projector, rubber, headlight, locking ring, screws, locking clip.

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When installing the projector, start with the high beam solenoid wires through the bottom part of where the reflector shield used to be. No need to cut anything, it will fit. Then push the projector on. On the backside of the headlight install the ring to the threaded part of the projector and tighten. Don’t kill it, just tighten it pretty tight.

Aim the projector:
Install the h1 HID bulb. Connect it to the HID wiring harness. Plug the ballast into the spare 9006 harness you were using, and connect it to the battery terminals. Be careful, they spark a little. Now, work fast. The light is hot, and you don’t want to touch a hot lens. Rotate the lens from the from of the light like you would turn on a Mag-light flashlight. Get it flat with your tape line. Then using the headlights stock adjusters, play with the beam to get it as close to where the stock light was aimed. (Note all the extra light below where the stock beam was before.)

 

[Detail]

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Not bad! Yes, it’s over a quarter inch. I really don’t care.

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Tighten the projector as tight as you can to the headlight. The trick here is once the bulb and wires and everything are hooked up, you can’t really get the pliers in there to tighten it up any more. BUT, you’ll probably need to be able to rotate the projector left and right to insure a flat cut off. So, there is a little time spent here, aiming and then pulling the wires off to tighten it up.

Install the shroud:
At this point you are done with the “retrofit”. Take the light off the jig. You could throw the lens back on and call it a day. I chose to install the E46-R extended shrouds to cover up the sides of the projector. This is mostly aesthetic. It probably does take some of the scattered light and hide it. I didn’t take too many pictures of this process. Here is what I can tell you. It’s about time, and slow trimming. I had a friend hold the shroud while I sanded the bottom of it slightly with a belt sander. Then we’d slide it on the modded headlight and see how it fit. Eventually (30 minutes of sand, test fit, repeat) we got it. I didn’t tape it. I didn’t glue it. I just slide it on tight. That’s your call.

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Now, you need to get the lens back on. The black trim part of the 97-99 lens touched the headlight projector slightly. I grinded this piece off with a Dremel tool.

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Finish up the light:
Now you have both lights done. You have projectors installed. You have shrouds trimmed and mounted. And you’ve trimmed the black piece of the lens to fit. At this point I HIGHLY suggest you remount the light to the jig. Reattach the power and make sure it is still at the cut off line. If now, adjust the headlight to make it there. Make a final tighten of the projector to the headlight. Tighten it as hard as you can. Again, I didn’t glue or use any type of thread lock. I’ve read that some people do. I didn’t.
Take this opportunity to clean the inside of your lens and the black piece as well. I unscrewed the two Phillips screws you see above and cleaned the lens with glass cleaner. Then I used an all in one wax to polish the plastic. Once it’s clean, don’t touch it. It finger prints like crazy. Additionally, if you wish to remove the yellow reflector from the OEM headlight you can at this time. I did not and thus I won’t go into detail on it. But really, look at it, if you got this far, you can handle that if you so desire.
Here is my final test fit before I installed the lens back. The lens is just pushed on.

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Reattach the lens:
Start at the high beam side of the light. Heat the lens and base with the heat gun. Do it while slowly pushing the lens back into the headlight housing. Eventually the black goo gets hot and will move around. Some people choose to use all new glue. Again, not a bad call, but I didn’t. You will also need to pop the 4 clips back onto the light to hold the lens while you do this. Do so by taking the clip at the lens side, and then pushing it over the back of the headlight bucket. It should snap into place. Work your way to the outside of the lens by the reflector.
And now you have a light that’s all back together. Here are mine vs my aftermarket OEM headlights I used to run.

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That took you a few hours to achieve. Hopefully less than it took me as you have a guide! Now go back and do the other light. Bet it takes less than an hour.

Wiring:
You are almost done. All you need to do now is wire up the lights so that they will work in the car as it came. Essentially you are tapping the solenoid wires to the high beam wiring harness inside the headlight. I lucked out and took my headlights to work. Put them on a work bench that had a REALLY nice soldering iron/hot air gun to work with. Take your time, use head shrink where possible. Match colors on wires. It’s not rocket science.

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I chose to wire my headlights directly through the H1 bulbs rubber seal. That way I could pull the wire tight and seal it against my headlight cap. I also took a drill and bored out the headlight cap a little so I could get the HID clips through.

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Like this.

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Lastly, install a stock 9005 high beam bulb in the stock location and plug the stock (blue above) harness into it. When you hit the high beams, you’ll still have 4 bulbs working, just like factory.
Reinstall the lights:
Hey you took them off; you can get them back on. I mounted my HID ballasts with zip ties underneath the stock headlight position on the driver’s side. On the passenger side, the ballast is sitting underneath my filter.

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Not Bad.

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TEST THE LIGHTS BEFORE YOU PUT THE BUMPER COVER BACK ON! I cannot stress this enough. They work? Good, now put the bumper cover back on. They don’t? Well, check your wiring! I’d also like to say that I am not running any upgraded harness. I’m not using a different relay. My HID’s are plugged into the factory system and I have NEVER had any issues. You may choose to use an aftermarket relay kit. That is your call.

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Here is what it looks like on the wall, excuse the mess. Low beam.

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High beam. (4 bulbs on: 2 HID with the shields out of the way, 2 stock 9005)

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At this point, go out and DRIVE. It’s disgusting how much better you can see. In fact, go out late on the highway. Hopefully you have 6 lanes wide to play with like I do in Atlanta. Get in the middle lane. Bet you can see every lane to the left and right. It’s AWESOME. Then go to the left lane, look at your beam on the wall to the left of you. See how the beam is straight even at distance? You did a good job. You may choose to or raise your beams height using the factory adjustment knobs as you see fit. I didn’t go to crazy lengths to get my height at an oncoming driver friendly point. I basically pulled up next to a stock height Acura TL and matched where their beam hit. Also, you can tell my driver’s side low beam is slightly rotated to the left (high in the middle of the car). This is not a result of a bad aim. This is not a bad projector. This is a result of my car being in an accident and the front end not being perfectly straight. I double checked with TRS after my retrofit to make sure the projectors weren’t left and right specific and they confirmed that they are not. Feel free to look into other Morimoto Mini modifications that are out there. I didn’t do any of them.

Last steps:
Protect your investment. Perhaps you are like me and you bought another set of lights to do this on because you only have one car and still need to drive at night. Perhaps the lenses on those are trashed. I’ll do another write up on how to make your lights go from this:

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To this:

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Final notes:
It’s almost been a 8 months since I completed this modification. I have not been high beamed once. In fact in traffic, you’ll notice you now look like a MUCH more expensive car coming at people. At traffic lights, you will not see your headlights in the back of the guy's head in front of you. If you are behind someone and you high beam them, they will get the heck out of your way in a heartbeat. The only negative thing I’ve had happen since the modification is that the black plastic piece inside the headlight has started to peel just a little bit. I don't think I really care about that part. Occasionally I have a light fog up just a little bit. But turning the light on and driving tends to fix that. It only happens if I spray the headlight directly with my pressure washer. I hope this helps you all!

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