360 HID to LED headlight bulb conversion (2000MY/US)

I did a search and couldn’t find a how-to for this, so figured I’d post one up really quick. Please excuse me if this has been done already.

I addressed the headlight bulbs because I noticed intermittent failure of the passenger-side (US) when switching the lights on. Eventually, it progressed to turning off while driving. After looking up prices on a new ballast (I think other countries call them “control units”) and seeing how HID ballasts have a finite number of ignites so will 100% fail at some point, I decided to see if I could ditch the HID setup altogether. All my research led me to LED bulbs, With the popularity and apparent ease of manufacturing, there seem to be LEDs for anything and everything. Lucky for me, as I was able to find direct-fit bulbs for my car. On the bright side (pun intended) there should be less stress on the electrical system and less heat. I think.

*To save yourself some grief, be sure to get the bulbs with the two terminated wires (see pictures for reference), NOT the version with a plug on the end.

*Never touch any part of the bulb surface. Only the base.

1. Make sure ignition is off and key is removed from the ignition switch. For a bulb change, there is no need to turn off battery power, but feel free to if you like.

2. Starting from the driver-side of the car (LHD), Remove the front wheel, then remove the small panel from the fender liner that is directly behind the headlight housing. It’s held on with two (2), 8mm bolts. Trust me that you will not want the wheel in your way while messing with the wiring.

3. Locate the HID ballast. It will be located towards right side of the area you are working. It will be just a few inches from the high-beam bulb socket. Look for a silver box that is mounted vertically to a bracket. It will be held on by a steel strap and a single phillips screw. Remove the screw and pull out the HID ballast. I’m not sure if this is how it came from factory, but my harness and cable running to the bulb wasn’t mounted/tied down to anything, so I was able to pull the box out through the opening. Outside the fender liner, you should now have the thick, round cable coming from the bulb, the ballast, and a lead that runs back to the main wiring harness. Unplug the harness from the HID ballast at the area shown by the red arrow [see picture]

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4. Follow the round cable from the ballast to locate the rubber cap that covers the low-beam bulb. Pull the rubber cap from the housing assembly. There are small tabs on the cap that you can grab onto to lift/pull from the housing. Slide cap down the power cable or otherwise move it out of the way so you can get to where the round cable is attached the low-beam bulb. Grab the plug (it’s probably red) where it’s attached to the bulb and rotate it counter-clockwise until it comes off. The ballast should now be free from both ends and can be set aside. The rubber cap should still be attached.

5. Cut the smallest end on the outlet of the rubber cap, where it seals to the cable, just enough to pull the bulb plug through. I only cut about ½” or so off and had to struggle a bit to get the plug out, but I wanted it to be as sealed as possible. Set the cap aside for now.

6. To remove the HID bulb, you will need to remove the black plastic lock ring holding it in. Make note of which part of the ring is at the top, to make things easier during reassembly. Grab the black plastic ring and rotate it counter clockwise until it comes loose. It should turn 45 degrees or less. The ring may be somewhat brittle, so take care when removing. Once the ring is off, the HID bulb should fall right out.

7. Taking care not to touch any part of the actual bulb, test fit the LED bulb into the headlight housing. It should fit into place with the wires facing straight down. Either the housings and bulbs have the same tab/pin locations for each side or I just got lucky. I do not believe there is a right and left bulb. The bulb should set into place with a notch in the “ring” (see picture) resting on a small location pin mounted on the housing. It should sit securely in place with very little movement. Mine was plastic but some bulbs may have metal rings. [insert picture]

8. Once fitment orientation is confirmed, you will probably need to remove the ring to fit the plastic lock ring you removed from the headlight housing. Pay attention to the orientation of the ring, as some can be installed 180 degrees off and you will waste time trying to figure out why the bulb no longer fits LOL. For my bulb (with the plastic ring), this was done by rotating the ring on the bulb counter clockwise until it stopped (almost 180 degrees). It then lifted up and off the bulb. Again, be sure you pay attention to which way the ring came off so that you can reinstall, turn clockwise to lock it on, and have it to the original orientation.

9. Place the black lock ring (facing the correct direction!) over the bulb then replace the ring that came off the bulb. The black lock ring should move around freely.

10. To install the LED bulb, hold the bulb (by its base only) in the orientation needed to match the housing and do your best to line up the black lock ring in the orientation it was in when it came off. Hold the bulb onto the headlight housing while moving lock ring around until you feel it drop into place. Turn the black lock ring clockwise to lock the bulb into place. My driver-side bulb had a bit of movement, so I shimmed the plastic lock ring with a few layers of electrical tape.

10. Put LED wires through the rubber boot and snap the boot back onto the headlight housing.

The following steps can be done in any number of ways, but this is how I chose to do it. I didn’t want to do anything to the car that couldn’t be reversed. I found out the tabs at the end of the bulb wires fit snugly into the car’s harness plug so I decided to make those work. I am including instructions using part of a weatherpak connector and without.

With weatherpack:

11. I had to strip some of the loom to have more length on each wire. I then slid on a piece of shrink tubing (1/2”, I believe) to use for later.

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12. Next, I slid large diameter (1”) shrink tubing over the OEM harness plug, then up and out of the way for later.

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13. I then slid the wires through the female side of a weatherpack connector. This was just to keep the wires separated and (hopefully) less likely to pull out of the OEM harness. I plugged the red wire from the bulb to the grey wire (+) of the OEM harness plug and the black wire from the bulb to the black wire (-) of the OEM harness plug. The weatherpak sat snugly against the male end of the OEM harness. [see picture]

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14. Be sure no contact is being made between the wires and any metal then test the headlight to confirm it’s functioning.

15. Next, I slid the 1” shrink tubing over the entire assembly and heated it up. It will not completely seal around the wires, on either end. To fix that, I then took the ½” shrink tubing I left on the bulb side, slid it down, and tucked the end of the 1” underneath. I then heated that portion up, to close off the 1”. I put electrical tape around the end of the ½” tubing then folded over the 1” tubing, on the OEM plug side, and taped it up also. See picture [see pictures]

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Continued in next post:

 

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16. Re-test headlight

No weatherpack:

11. Run two pieces of ½” shrink tubing over the wires coming from the bulb and slide them up and out of the way.

12. Slide a length of 1” shrink tubing over the OEM harness plug, then up and out of the way.

13. Plug the red wire from the bulb to the grey wire (+) of the OEM harness plug and the black wire from the bulb to the black wire (-) of the OEM harness plug.

14. Be sure no contact is being made between the wires and any metal then test the headlight to confirm it’s functioning.

15. Slide the first piece of ½”shrink tubing down and over the bulb wires, where they are connected to the OEM plug. Shrink tubing over wires. This should keep them from moving laterally/touching/etc. [see picture]

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16. Slide the 1” shrink tubing from the OEM plug side over the entire assembly and heat. This should keep wires from pulling out from the OEM plug.

17. On the bulb side, fold over the end of the 1” shrink tubing so that you can slide second piece of ½” shrink tubing down and over it. Shrink the ½” tubing. I used electrical tape over the end of the ½”, just in case.

18. On the OEM plug side, fold over the 1’ shrink tubing and use electrical tape to close it off.

19. Re-test headlight .


Now the bulb is installed, confirmed functioning, and the harness is sealed.

To secure the wiring, I zip tied it to the ballast bracket. My wires will NOT move so I have zero worries of anything coming loose.

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You now no longer need to worry about your ballasts dying and everything is completely reversible, should the need arise.