DIY First Ever 2014 Coupe Mini H1 Retrofit DIY

ripply

Well-Known Member
207
379
Not Completed*** I also have to edit information to make things prettier.

Thanks six_speed_demon, and all my other buddies from 8th for guiding me through some things..

I've been searching and hoping to find a soul who had retrofitted his 2014 Coupe headlights, but realized nobody had done it. So I decided to bite the bullet and retrofit my 1 month old cars headlights :giggle:

Here is a DIY for all the other 2014 coupe owners

1.Remove the bumper:
Just undo the 4 clips at the top, two screws on the side, the two 10mm bolt on the underside and the 8 or 9 further back clips. Go from the side and pull the bumper out.
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2 Remove the Headlights
Headlights are held in by 3 10mm screws. One is on top, one on the side, and one on the bottom which you will need an extension for.

3. Prepare to Bake
Remove the rubber seals, bulbs, and all but ONE screw from the back. The only one you should keep is the hex screw. I ended up keeping the hex screw and the one next to the turn signal and ended up breaking the side-to-side adjustment. Tape off the holes

4. Bake and open
Preheat the oven to 230 degrees. Toss the headlight for 12 minutes each. After you take them out begin prying them open. Start from the edge
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5. Prep for paint
I decided against taking the reflector bowl out. I simply put plastic bag around and taped the areas that I didn't want to paint
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6. Trim the low beam opening
This is where things begin to differ from the previous DIY's on the forums. Since the coupe uses h11 sockets, the socket is smaller and projector cannot fit inside. Simply take a file and begin trimming the hole until it is big enough for the projector to go into. This is a big bummer because once it's done you can't go back to using the stock headlights.
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6. Paint (optional)
Use high heat black paint to paint the low beam housing. I used 1200 degrees Rust-Oleum grill paint. I used 3 coats and let the lights sit as is overnight to make sure the paint is fully adhered. Light sanding before the paint wouldn't hurt anything but is optional
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7. Inserting the projector
Your projector came with 2 rubber washers and 2 plates, use the Smaller of the two. But first we have to modify the plate to fit on the backside. Take the plate and begin trimming around the edges. I used a pair of steel cutters to cut around the outside. Pictures you will see the normal(right) and how I've started trimming it (left). Test fit periodically that the entire plate can go in. If you trim only a little portion the plate can go in but will sit under an angle. We don't want that. We want the entire thing to sit inside. Think of it as a washer. After it's done you can fasten the projector. Now is a good time to mount the mini Gatling gun shroud. I however am going with different shrouds so I skipped it. Put the Little rubber washer on the projector and insert the projector through the hole. On the back put the modified adaptor plate and then finger tighten the lock nut.
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7. Mount the headlight on the car and adjust the pattern
Try to get nice and even horizontal lines. Don't worry if one headlight is higher than the other. Than can be adjust later. Just make sure the lines are perfectly horizontal. Once the line is horizontal, take off the headlight and tighten the lock nut completely. Rule of thumb is about 80% of your strength. It doesn't have to be super tight, just make sure it's snug in there.
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Stay put there is still more. I ordered the e46 extended shrouds but usps did not deliver them on Friday or today so I will have to wait until Monday to finish this. But here is how the car looks with the mini Gatling gun shroud. I just slid it on the projector because I was curious how it looked
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Finally got my e46 extended shrouds. Sort of :/. I only received one extended and one normal. Have to wait extra until I receive one more.
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Since the shroud is way too big for this housing, you will need to do a lot of trimming to make it fit. Here is a comparison and a rough idea of where to trim
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Note* the entire bottom flat side has to be cut
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Test fitted
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I don't have pictures of the process, but mix some jb kwik and rub it on the centric ring. Place the centric ring in the shroud and allow for the weld to dry. Next, mix more jb kwik and spread it on the black part of the projector and slide the shroud on. Give it some time to dry.

Wipe the headlights and lenses real good, you want to make sure there is no dust or debris. Once they are sealed it's a done deal.

When everything is nice and clean, take a heat gun and begin heating the edges of the headlights to soften up the glue. Take the lens and place it on top and begin pushing the two together. You will have to keep reheating the edges to soften the glue some more.

Finished product
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Install all screws, bulbs and rubber seals back on. I chose go with a hella yellow hb3 bulb for the high beam and DRL
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Mount the headlight back on the car
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I will post the completed front end once the second shroud arrives and I finish off the headlight

Finally it's finished
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Sucks to hear they won't fit in the h11 hole without modifying it. How close is it to fitting?
 
I'll be updating the second post. I received the shrouds but not trouble free lol. I received one e46 extended and one e46 normal shrouds. I was able to finish one headlight. The result is amazing.

Sucks to hear they won't fit in the h11 hole without modifying it. How close is it to fitting?

It's not close at all sadly. You can see in the pictures that I had to pretty much make the entire hole round. The three guiding tabs for the h11 bulb are pretty much level with the bigger outside circle
 
This looks awesome. Good luck!

Thank you! I finally received the correct shroud yesterday and was able to finish off the entire retro today. Currently I'm waiting for the silicone to dry and I'm putting the other headlight on the car
 

Looks wonderful I'm really starting to dig the new coupes :)

Thank you! I'm in love with the redesign of the coupe. I came from an 8thgen and swore I wouldn't buy a 9thgen.. Well after selling my boosted 8th and laying my eyes on the 14 coupes, I immediately went to the dealer.

The front end definitely looks more aggressive than before. I plan on adding the HFP lip and red H emblems to make it even meaner.
 
Thank you! I'm in love with the redesign of the coupe. I came from an 8thgen and swore I wouldn't buy a 9thgen.. Well after selling my boosted 8th and laying my eyes on the 14 coupes, I immediately went to the dealer.

The front end definitely looks more aggressive than before. I plan on adding the HFP lip and red H emblems to make it even meaner.
I think I'm going to buy one for my wife can you tell me what drl lights those are I think I'm going to do a retro fit on my car soon.
 
Looks good. I got a 2014 4r Ex. I got all my stuffs from TRS on Black Friday Sales. I can't wait to do mine next week. Crossing my fingers. BTW what do you mean prying open from the edge? Outer edge (turning signal)? I also noticed you have cut your metal washer are not on center, one side is thicker than the other. Is that ok? I think my car comes with 9005. So my 4dr will be similar too? I 'm putting LED as my DRL at the high beam. Reroute the OEM high beam wire connect to bi-xenon. Any idea where to connect to inside the engine bay to get a +12v only when the engine is running? Hate to run a long wire inside cabin to get that power.
 
I think I'm going to buy one for my wife can you tell me what drl lights those are I think I'm going to do a retro fit on my car soon.

I just bought hella yellow hb3 bulbs from pepboys for $20.

Looks good. I got a 2014 4r Ex. I got all my stuffs from TRS on Black Friday Sales. I can't wait to do mine next week. Crossing my fingers. BTW what do you mean prying open from the edge? Outer edge (turning signal)? I also noticed you have cut your metal washer are not on center, one side is thicker than the other. Is that ok? I think my car comes with 9005. So my 4dr will be similar too? I 'm putting LED as my DRL at the high beam. Reroute the OEM high beam wire connect to bi-xenon. Any idea where to connect to inside the engine bay to get a +12v only when the engine is running? Hate to run a long wire inside cabin to get that power.

If you have a 4dr, don't follow this. The four door headlights haven't changed from the previous models, so look up and follow the other diy.

I only cut the washer to fit and give it more support since I ended up trimming the h11 socket. For the 4dr I believe you don't even have to use the washer since the socket remains untouched.

As far as the solenoid, even with LED you can still use a Y type of connector to trigger the solenoid. I don't have it pictured, but I made a Y type of solenoid using 2 female and 1 male 9006 connectors. The two females connect to the solenoid and bulb, the male connects to the stock harness

Alternatively, if you want to get a power source from under the hood, you can tap into the fuse box or any type of switched source wire
 
Thank you so much for your advices. I have not look at the back of the headlight assembly yet, but soon will find out. I read some post in the past, people either pull the fuse #21 to disable DRL or provide a separate power source for the solenoid. Using the Y type may wear down the solenoid due to there are some small eclectic current sent from DRL.
 
Thank you so much for your advices. I have not look at the back of the headlight assembly yet, but soon will find out. I read some post in the past, people either pull the fuse #21 to disable DRL or provide a separate power source for the solenoid. Using the Y type may wear down the solenoid due to there are some small eclectic current sent from DRL.

Shouldn't be an issue at all. That's why you are supposed to test the solenoid 30/40 times with a 9volt battery. I ran a Y type harness on my 8th for 3 years and the solenoid never failed on me.
 
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Can you just take my monies and send me retros haha they look so good...

Thanks. I gotta borrow my gf's camera and take some high res pictures. These iPhone pictures don't do justice. But here are a couple more pictures. I love the way the shrouds look when light hits them directly. A lot of people think I have halos in :giggle:
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cool, i'm doing s2k's with

BALLASTS::

Potted Denso oem d2s slim ballasts
832TC-450ML Epoxy thermally conductive by MG Chemicals



BULBS::

Osram 66240 D2S SVS
 
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