HOW TO: Parkers Headlights License Plate Lights HID

[RollaRollin]

My car blew a headlight the other day, and I went into Autobarn and tried to get another one

They tried to charge me $20 fricken dollars for a bulb, and I told em to get stuffed.

I went on eBay and started looking at Halogen Bulbs and a few other nifty lights

And ordered a pair of 5000K 'HID' Halogen Bulbs, and a few T10 Wedge Bulbs for parkers and license plate lights

So after driving around with one headlight for a week or so my packages arrived from China and I thought I'd do an install guide to help everyone out (:

These lights in Autobarn will run you upwards of $60 if not more, which is an absolute joke.

When your looking on eBay AU for these items, get em shipped from China and just go for the cheapest ones you can with free postage. Don't buy model specific ones! Most of those are $15+ and are the exact same as the 2 dollar ones. Bit of common sense and searching and you will get em probably cheaper

I will refer to the bulbs as HID Bulbs, but in reality the T10 bulbs are simply LED's and the headlight bulbs (H7) are simply higher color temperature Halogen Bulbs, these are not HID bulbs that I am installing, if you want to install HID bulbs, you need a HID kit ($80, eBay)

What you will need (ZZE Corolla)

2 x H7 HID Halogen Bulbs 500K - $2.60 delivered

10 x T10 HID Parker lightd - $2.40 delivered

Ordinary Butter Knife

$5 delivered, heck you'd probably saved yourself at least $50 on what SCA or Autobarn would tried to take you for

Were going to start at the rear with the license plate lights,

You will need the T10 Wedge bulbs for this and they look like this

Pop your trunk, well in my case the hatch

You will see little panels that need removing, just put your butter knife in a pop em off, easy as.

Here is where you can reach through and remove your license plate lights

The license plate light, simply reach in and turn it counter clockwise and it will pop right out

Pull out the old bulb, and put in the new T10 Wedge Bulbs

The T10 Wedge Bulbs will only work one way and are a bit fiddly, so if it doesn't work one way, try it the other way and it will go from this

To this

A much cleaner look

Now all you have to do is simply reinstall the light and the light housing, twist and lock into place, now onto the other side

The left hand side is a b*tch to say the least, it has hardly enough room and I was fiddling with it for almost an hour trying to get it into place. Out of aggression, I pulled the back plastic panel and magically it came off! All that was securing it were little plastic grommets, trust me, pull this piece off, its still damn hard to do with it off, it is near impossible to do it with the back panel on, save yourself sometime and pull it off, it all clicks back together again.

The simple plastic grommet screw things that hold it together

Edited April 21, 2011 by RollaRollin

[RollaRollin]

I know its a bit hard to see but if you look closely you can see the light and the holder, simply twist and it will come out

Replace the light, click it back into place and simply reattach the back panel,

You can use the butter knife to simple push a few little clips back into place and it should all just click back together

Heres what it looks like at day time

And at night time (:

[RollaRollin]

Now its time for the fronts

Pop your hood and grab the H7 "HID" Halogen Globes, be careful not to touch the bulb, it can ruin them and reduce their lifespan.

Remove the rubber grommet surrounding your low beams and simply pull off the connector, then unclip the light

Take out your Halogens and put in your new 'HID' bulbs, again being careful not to touch the bulb itself

Halogen

HID

Now do the same for the other side, test that both sides are working and put it all back together

Now for the parkers

Grab your T10 Wedge Bulbs

The parkers are a little bit tricky to get to, grab a hold of them and turn them, they will simply pull out after that, much the same as the license plate lights.

Take the old bulb out and replace with your new 'HID' Bulb

Halogen

HID

Put the parkers back in place, twist and lock them in and your ready to roll.

Heres a comparison shot, Halogen v HID

Guys, these HID Halogen bulbs do look good, and for $5 I'm certainly not complaining, but seriously guys, if you want HID's go and buy them! These bulbs cannot replicate HID quality, and as such are inferior compared to a full HID install

Remember these are still Halogen Bulbs, they are just a different temperature of light,

The only reason I installed these was because

i) I'm on my P's and would probably loose my license for HID's

ii) They were $5

A HID kit will run you tops $80 and while you do run the risk of getting a fine

(after market HID units are illegal, well in NSW anyway) they do look a lot nicer and are much brighter and ultimately are a higher quality product.

But hey I had some fun and for the mean time, these lights will do (:

Anyone looking to get a HID look on the cheap, than these are your lights

But if your looking for high quality lights and have a bit of money to spend, just go with the HID's you will be much happier in the long run (:

Hope I help a few people out with this write up

Cheers

Edited April 21, 2011 by RollaRollin

[CME-LFT]

Ebay FTW!!!!

Boughts headlights off ebay before, last ages, well worth $5! :D

[the-converter]

Nice works.

I have done the same upgrade for my corolla not long ago plus the side repeater lights.

I have to say the hardest part for me is the license plate lights.

My next upgrade should be JDM style tail lights.

[69.NIX]

Great stuff......White lights on any car look classy.

My only slight concern is the rego plate lights......do they actually light the plate? I would make sure they do....otherwise the rozers might be on your case

/my 2 cents

[the-converter]

I used the high power white LED bulbs and it brighter than the original bulbs and look very classy as you said.

Great stuff......White lights on any car look classy.

My only slight concern is the rego plate lights......do they actually light the plate? I would make sure they do....otherwise the rozers might be on your case

/my 2 cents