[axipher]

So I've ordered the following housings form Amazon along with some Mini H1 6.0 projectors with mini graphite shrouds and xBaLED 80 mm White rings to put inside the shrouds

Depo 317-1131P-US2 Honda Accord Headlight Unit with Black Bezel

Here is the initial wiring diagram for anyone interested. But basically the harness I made provides the following:
- Combines the Accessory and Parking Light signals in to one PK/ACC signal
- The PK/ACC signal powers the LED fog lights and the LED angel eyes so that they come on with the car in RUN/START or when I lock/unlock the car
- Maintains DRL operation of the 9005 bulbs as long as I don't remove the fuse under the dash, I also have a separate switch do do this
- Seperates the DRL signal from the solenoid so it doesn't wear out the solenoid
- Allows the stock high beam to trigger the solenoid only when the low beam is engaged, this allow for quad high-beam
- Uses a low beam signal to trigger a relay harness providing full voltage to the HID's direct from the battery which also has a new second direct fused line from the alternator

Here's the small PDF download and the large PNG to follow it. I'll take picture of the harness tonight before I fit it in the car and trim it down to only the size it needs.
http://store.axihub.ca/images/extra/Stella_Schem_S1-Model.pdf

 

[axipher]

Zack over at TRS was nice enough to send me some pictures of the xBaLED's installed in the mini graphite shrouds. They wil actually be up closer to the top but need a little bit of internal trimming to the shrouds first then just a little clear high heat epoxy.

I'm also thinking of doing passive demon eyes by just painting the front of the cutoff shield red and also painting the back of it matte black to prevent and extra glare.

 

[axipher]

Here's the first pictures from the projector retrofit. One of the projectors has a weird cutoff though so I'll need to get that fixed before I seal the light up once I get the housings in.

I'm actually worried that the halo rings might be too bright at night for other drivers but won't really know till they are installed. If that's the case then I'll just use the relay off the low beam output to also disable the LED rings.


Installing the xBaLED halo/angel rings:

Bright halo rings:

Projector Cutoff's:

 

[Mike W]

Be very careful when trying to aim your projectors vertically with the adjustment screw on those aftermarket headlights. Many of us tried using aftermarket housing only to realize the adjustment mechanism in them are nowhere close to being as durable as the OEM housing's mechanism, thus us using OEM housing to do retrofits.

 

[axipher]

Be very careful when trying to aim your projectors vertically with the adjustment screw on those aftermarket headlights. Many of us tried using aftermarket housing only to realize the adjustment mechanism in them are nowhere close to being as durable as the OEM housing's mechanism, thus us using OEM housing to do retrofits.

My OEM outer plastic is in horrible condition even after doing a restore since I'm pretty sure the previous owner tried a restore kit and didn't seal them properly from UV damage. I also went with those Depo headlights since they are OE style with the black bezel.

Has anyone had issues specifically with Depo brand OE style housings? I'm hoping that like my OEM housings, I'll ever have to adjust the vertical height once.

 

[RickBlaine]

Man, that looks like the thing Ironman put into his chest! (sorry for the hijack)

 

[axipher]

Man, that looks like the thing Ironman put into his chest! (sorry for the hijack)

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought that haha. I'm still thinking it might be a little too bright for night time though.

 

[Mike W]

My OEM outer plastic is in horrible condition even after doing a restore since I'm pretty sure the previous owner tried a restore kit and didn't seal them properly from UV damage. I also went with those Depo headlights since they are OE style with the black bezel.

Has anyone had issues specifically with Depo brand OE style housings? I'm hoping that like my OEM housings, I'll ever have to adjust the vertical height once.

Check out this thread I did summing up how I restored my headlights properly. Those restore kits aren't worth a crap if you don't actually seal the headlight back up:

http://www.driveaccord.net/forums/showthread.php?t=127458

I did mine, my sister's '03 Accord, my buddy's '04 Accord and my dad's '02 F250...all of which turned out great and are holding up great.

And yes, people have had issues with all brands of aftermarket "eBay/Amazon" headlights because they're not built as robustly as the OEM units in terms of the hardware. And you better believe that you WILL have to adjust them vertically by a good bit after you get the MH1 projectors in there. That's why it's so much better to use OEM housings because they can hold up to adjusting the vertical aim high enough to get the projectors properly aimed.

When I tried to adjust the aftermarket black-housed light just like you have, they wouldn't adjust high enough before starting to strip out.

Hope you have better luck though, but just giving you a warning.

 

[axipher]

Check out this thread I did summing up how I restored my headlights properly. Those restore kits aren't worth a crap if you don't actually seal the headlight back up:

http://www.driveaccord.net/forums/showthread.php?t=127458

I did mine, my sister's '03 Accord, my buddy's '04 Accord and my dad's '02 F250...all of which turned out great and are holding up great.

And yes, people have had issues with all brands of aftermarket "eBay/Amazon" headlights because they're not built as robustly as the OEM units in terms of the hardware. And you better believe that you WILL have to adjust them vertically by a good bit after you get the MH1 projectors in there. That's why it's so much better to use OEM housings because they can hold up to adjusting the vertical aim high enough to get the projectors properly aimed.

When I tried to adjust the aftermarket black-housed light just like you have, they wouldn't adjust high enough before starting to strip out.

Hope you have better luck though, but just giving you a warning.

Thanks for the feedback Mike, I'll check out your thread. I've read on issues of not being able to adjust high enough so I plan to take my OEM housing out and mount that on the desk beside the projector ones and adjust the height while on my bench to avoid stripping them after their already installed.

If it requires a massive adjustment vertically, then I'll probably end up modifying one of the extra mounting brackets and silicone brackets included in the kit to offset the projector first.

 

[Juan102009]

Be very careful when trying to aim your projectors vertically with the adjustment screw on those aftermarket headlights. Many of us tried using aftermarket housing only to realize the adjustment mechanism in them are nowhere close to being as durable as the OEM housing's mechanism, thus us using OEM housing to do retrofits.

+1 on this Mike unfortunately I learned the hard way, now one of my headlights is a bit low the screw got stripped and I can't adjust it no more :dunno:
Can't afford to buy a new set so I have to deal with it.

 

[Mike W]

Thanks for the feedback Mike, I'll check out your thread. I've read on issues of not being able to adjust high enough so I plan to take my OEM housing out and mount that on the desk beside the projector ones and adjust the height while on my bench to avoid stripping them after their already installed.

If it requires a massive adjustment vertically, then I'll probably end up modifying one of the extra mounting brackets and silicone brackets included in the kit to offset the projector first.

One more option you can consider is just opening up both sets of headlights (OEM and aftermarket) and pulling the reflector bowls out of each. Then put in the aftermarket black house pieces into your original OEM housing (the piece with the adjustment mechanism on it) and you have the best of both worlds.

That is actually what I did: stock housing, stock reflector bowls, aftermarket black bezel and trim pieces. Just be really careful and gentle when trying to separate the ball and socket joint that hold the bowl to the housing. They'l come loose, just apply slow and even/easy pressure until the "pop" out one by one.

 

[axipher]

One more option you can consider is just opening up both sets of headlights (OEM and aftermarket) and pulling the reflector bowls out of each. Then put in the aftermarket black house pieces into your original OEM housing (the piece with the adjustment mechanism on it) and you have the best of both worlds.

That is actually what I did: stock housing, stock reflector bowls, aftermarket black bezel and trim pieces. Just be really careful and gentle when trying to separate the ball and socket joint that hold the bowl to the housing. They'l come loose, just apply slow and even/easy pressure until the "pop" out one by one.

I'll keep that in mind. I was planning on just perfecting the aftermarket ones so I can leave my OEM ones on all winter while I tweak and perfect the aftermarket ones.

I'm thinking that I should be able to leave the reflector bowls alone though since I don't plan to paint them.

 

[Ryan_W]

Despite what you may hear about aftermarket housings - the Depo ones, at least for the 7gen Accord, are quite decent. I've used them for a few years and have had no issues with fading, breaking, or beam pattern.

In fact, I just recently replaced my housings with another set, identical to the one that you just bought.

The vertical adjustment shouldn't be an issue, unless you really move it very, very high. The reason this is is the OEM housing uses a ball and socket joint which allows the reflector bowl to pivot, and the Depo one does not. Like I said though (and I have retrofitted with Depos and adjusted the beams up to where they need to be), there should be more than enough strength in there to make the adjustment.

Hope you enjoy your retrofit.

 

[axipher]

Despite what you may hear about aftermarket housings - the Depo ones, at least for the 7gen Accord, are quite decent. I've used them for a few years and have had no issues with fading, breaking, or beam pattern.

In fact, I just recently replaced my housings with another set, identical to the one that you just bought.

The vertical adjustment shouldn't be an issue, unless you really move it very, very high. The reason this is is the OEM housing uses a ball and socket joint which allows the reflector bowl to pivot, and the Depo one does not. Like I said though (and I have retrofitted with Depos and adjusted the beams up to where they need to be), there should be more than enough strength in there to make the adjustment.

Hope you enjoy your retrofit.

Thanks for the feedback Ryan.

Also I talked with [email protected] and he gave me some good tips for fixing the one off cutoff line. It ended up being that the main shield was sticking out where the cutoff shield comes up and rests against. So after very slowly pulling the main shield back in small increments, the cutoff is back to straight with a nice blue flicker near the step and just a tiny bit of yellow on the lower cutoff line.

 

[axipher]

Slowly making progress with these. The plan is to have them done by the end of the weekend:

 

[axipher]

Okay, big update time, the projectors are installed after a few small issues along the way, nothing a little extra JB Weld didn't solve.

First off the Depo headlights I received were built in the 2nd quarter of this year so using a heat gun, I had the headlights apart in less then 10 minutes each and opted to reuse the existing sealant instead of the new butyl tape I got from TRS.

I didn't get as many pictures as I wanted to mostly because I was working on by buddies bike with him as payment for him helping me with my retrofit and use of his garage.

Without further ado though, here are the pictures I did take and the finished product. I know the cutoffs aren't aligned perfectly level, but they are better then stock halogen, don't blind anyone, and have a amazing purple flicker on road signs and reflectors on guard rails.

Old OEM housing

Old Halogen 9012 output

New Housing

Projector installed, no lens installed

Sealing up new headlights and comparing to old

Up-close night shot

Daytime shots of installed headlights

I'll updatge the schematic tomorrow at work to show how I wired up the following switches, but basically the two small toggle switches control:
- LED Fog + Halo rings
- Interior footwell and extra dash lighting

The Selector switch under the dash beside the OBDII connector is a 3-position selector and allow me to switch between MH1 Highs, Halogen Highs, or both when I use the regular highbeam switch. This allows for a 100% OEM integrated solution with absolutely no modifications to the factory wiring.

Here are the cutoff pictures:

Passenger side cutoff

Driver Side cutoff

MH1 Low beams

MH1 High beams

Halogen High beams (Hella Optilux 3000k Halogen 55 W 9005)

Quad High beams

 

[Mike W]

Doesn't look too bad overall, the important thing is that you're happy with them (which it sounds like you are). Could use a little rotational alignment and the high beam patterns (halogen) are a little funky, but nothing unexpected when using non-OEM housings and reflector bowls.

Nice work, and if you're like me, you'll be leaving that selector switch on the quad high beam setting. I LOVE my quad highs, especially on those late night interstate trips. So nice to see deer on the side of the road at over 1/4 mile away.

 

[axipher]

Doesn't look too bad overall, the important thing is that you're happy with them (which is sounds like you are). Could use a little rotational alignment and the high beam patterns (halogen) are a little funky, but nothing unexpected when using non-OEM housings and reflector bowls.

Nice work, and if you're like me, you'll be leaving that selector switch on the quad high beam setting. I LOVE my quad highs, especially on those late night interstate strips. So nice to see deer on the side of the road at over 1/4 mile away.

Thanks Mike, the quad high beam comes in really handy, but yellow halogen highs are a huge help in foggy conditions or on dusty roads. I actually noticed that even on my stock OEM housings, the passenger high beam was out of whack that, if anyone can post pictures of the stock OEM high beams with low beams fuses pulled removed that would be great. For me it could be simply that the one high beam bulb itself had the filament slightly out of place internally.

As for the rotation, it was a mix of a dodgy cutoff shield and mounting issues. The shield I received was giving some insane yellow curved cutoff and the only way to get the cutoff color and sharpness to match the driver side was to change the curvature of the shield and yielded a low and high step cutoff that weren't parallel so I opted to line up the driver and passenger lower step cutoff parallel. Also the passenger side nut got stuck about an 1/8" from the bowl and then wouldn't come off so I had to set the rotation on the car and reach up and JB Weld the shaft nut to the housing from underneath while still installed on the car which then removed any chance for rotating it later without removing the JB Weld. This could also slightly contribute to the high beam alignment.

This was my first retrofit using a OEM style housing though. All my previous jobs were done with after market eBay projector housings and just swapped in MH1's using an adapter plate.

 

[marceloleon]

I like this tablet setup. It looks very familiar lol

The retro looks great man. Good work. Ill see if i can get you those shots of the OEM high beams after all my exams this week.

 

[axipher]

I like this tablet setup. It looks very familiar lol

The retro looks great man. Good work. Ill see if i can get you those shots of the OEM high beams after all my exams this week.

Thanks man, and yeah, the setup works. I just haven't had a chance to pull out the factory deck completely and remove the front face and all buttons so I can make a custom mount and hide the wire connecting the tablet.