How to install SONAR projectors

Dr. Laplace · 01/21/2007, 05:23 PM

If you are one of those people that -like me- read Mojos's thread about his new projectors and went ahead and bought a pair then probably you also have a lot of questions.

I will try to cover the most important issues when installing these projectors.

The only "tricky" part of this procedure is to hook up the halos. The halo rings are a couple of clear acrylic rings (duh!) that have two LEDs on opposed points of the ring's circunference. The acrylic conducts light as the LEDs are on, creating the halo effect. For them to work, is necessary to wire them into your 3G's front quarter lights (park lights).

Tools required:

10 mm die or wrench.
Cutter, knife or scissors.
Electrical tape.
Soldering iron.

1.- Take the old lights out.

The Headlight assembly is held to the body by three 10mm bolts and a pressure, (truncated conical tip) stud clip at the bottom of the assembly When you unscrew the three bolts you will feel the headlight being held only by the conical clip at the bottom. Pull the headlight until you hear a click from the stud at the bottom. Check to see if the white rectangular mating part attached to the car's body didn't come off and got stucked to the headlight.

2.- Find the conection for the halos.

Before you put on your new headlights, first you must find the connection for the halos. There are several posts on this site that in reference to that. My 2003 GT Premium has two green cables, one with a yellow line and another with a white line. The black cable HAS to be connected to the center black cable of the bumper light wire harness. With that in mind, you can disconect the harness from the bumper light and test locations for the red cable. Turn on your park lights and proceed as shown in the following image:

With this method you can find out with what cable the halos will come on along with the bumper lights. Mark that cable position, turn off the lights and move on to the next step. (In my case, for the passenger's side turned out to be the green cable with a white line on them).

3.- Splice in!

Now you must make the actual connections. What I did was to use a soldering iron to burn off part of the cover of both, the black and green cable from my stock harness so I could wrap the black and red cable from the halos.

Here are the steps:

Remove the electrical tape from the plastic conduit that contains all three cables from your stock bumper light
Remove the isolation from the cables at a point near to the conduit.
Make a "u" bend on the exposed tip of the halo's cables.
"hook up" the U bend to the exposed portion of the stock cable. Black with Black and Red with whatever you found out to function.

Do the cables and connections one at a time! This is what the whole thing looks like:

Now, solder the connection and wrap it using electrical tape:

Finally, wrap that last connection and then wrap all three cables like they were before. Attached to the conduit, that is:

4.- You're almost there!

The new headlight comes with a harness that fits right into the car's stock harness: plug it in. Now all the electrical connections are done.

5.- Put the new headlight to it's final position.

To place the new headlight in you have to get it in in the reverse order you took the stock ones out. Align all three plastic clips with stud holes to the holes in the body of your 3G. REMEMBER THAT THE STUD AT THE BOTTOM HAS TO CLIP IN! If you get the headlight in you must push down on it for the clip at the bottom to engage. When this is done, push the headlight back towards the rear of the car just a bit and see if everything is aligned. Check the bottom where the headlight and the bumper meet. There should be almost no gap in there! If there is a gap of more than 3mm then you are not engaging the clip at the bottom correctly.

6.- Weather strip...

The weather strip on these is not like the stock one. In fact there is a considerable difference in the location of the strip on the L/R headlight. The strip has to sit like this:

There should be little to no space between the clear acrylic and the edge of the strip. If you run your finger on top of bof you should not feel a big "bump".

If you do, simple remove the strip and re-acomodate it. You can also use your finger to push the weather strip from the "inside" to get it to surface properly.

If everything checks, proceed to put the bolts on. Screw the one on the bottom first, then the one on the top and then the middle one. Do not tighten them yet. Use your hand to screw the bottom one first and as soon as you cant turn it easily move on to the top one, and so on. Then use your wrench or whatever you used to tighten them all.

7.- Final check.

The part should look like this:

8.- Repeat for next side.

9.- Beam aim adjust.

Towards the back of the headlight assembly there is a hole where you can put a phillips screw driver and adjust the aiming of the beams. Clockwise turns aim up and viceversa. This image is very much self-explanatory so I'm not going in to too many details.

Final notes: Fog and lights.

It's very likely that you might get condensation inside the headlights. If you want to prevent this (you might have gotten a set with no fog issues, like Mojo did) you can put the headlights on the oven @ 240-260 ºF for 20 minutes to get the glue to give so you can take the acrylic off and then clean the inside of the headlight (both clear and black/chrome housings) with amonia, windex or de-naturalized alcohol. Let dry (in oven) and then use seal-all or clear silicone to re-seal the lights.

I did get the infamous fog. It happened the second I washed the car. I have a theory regarding this, and currently I am experimenting with adding ventilation to the inside of the headlights. I'll let you know how it goes.

Lights:

This set comes with standard H1 bulbs. I don't think they're halogen. I went and bought Hella H1XE-DB bulbs (2.99 USD each) with a blue tint. Here's a comparison between the bulbs that come with the lights and the one I bought. You be the judge:

This pic was taken with the car 3 feet from a wall.

I am getting HID for my car. As soon as I get the kit I'll post instructions on how to install the HID kit with these headlights.

Thanks to Mojo, Iceman and the rest of the gang for their info.

Hope this helps!

01/21/2007, 05:23 PM	#1 (permalink)
Dr. Laplace V8 Killer Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Guadalajara, Jalisco. Mexico. Vehicle: 2008 Altima Coupe 3.5SE Posts: 990	How to install SONAR projectors If you are one of those people that -like me- read Mojos's thread about his new projectors and went ahead and bought a pair then probably you also have a lot of questions. I will try to cover the most important issues when installing these projectors. The only "tricky" part of this procedure is to hook up the halos. The halo rings are a couple of clear acrylic rings (duh!) that have two LEDs on opposed points of the ring's circunference. The acrylic conducts light as the LEDs are on, creating the halo effect. For them to work, is necessary to wire them into your 3G's front quarter lights (park lights). Tools required: 10 mm die or wrench. Cutter, knife or scissors. Electrical tape. Soldering iron. 1.- Take the old lights out. The Headlight assembly is held to the body by three 10mm bolts and a pressure, (truncated conical tip) stud clip at the bottom of the assembly When you unscrew the three bolts you will feel the headlight being held only by the conical clip at the bottom. Pull the headlight until you hear a click from the stud at the bottom. Check to see if the white rectangular mating part attached to the car's body didn't come off and got stucked to the headlight. 2.- Find the conection for the halos. Before you put on your new headlights, first you must find the connection for the halos. There are several posts on this site that in reference to that. My 2003 GT Premium has two green cables, one with a yellow line and another with a white line. The black cable HAS to be connected to the center black cable of the bumper light wire harness. With that in mind, you can disconect the harness from the bumper light and test locations for the red cable. Turn on your park lights and proceed as shown in the following image: With this method you can find out with what cable the halos will come on along with the bumper lights. Mark that cable position, turn off the lights and move on to the next step. (In my case, for the passenger's side turned out to be the green cable with a white line on them). 3.- Splice in! Now you must make the actual connections. What I did was to use a soldering iron to burn off part of the cover of both, the black and green cable from my stock harness so I could wrap the black and red cable from the halos. Here are the steps: Remove the electrical tape from the plastic conduit that contains all three cables from your stock bumper light Remove the isolation from the cables at a point near to the conduit. Make a "u" bend on the exposed tip of the halo's cables. "hook up" the U bend to the exposed portion of the stock cable. Black with Black and Red with whatever you found out to function. Do the cables and connections one at a time! This is what the whole thing looks like: Now, solder the connection and wrap it using electrical tape: Finally, wrap that last connection and then wrap all three cables like they were before. Attached to the conduit, that is: 4.- You're almost there! The new headlight comes with a harness that fits right into the car's stock harness: plug it in. Now all the electrical connections are done. 5.- Put the new headlight to it's final position. To place the new headlight in you have to get it in in the reverse order you took the stock ones out. Align all three plastic clips with stud holes to the holes in the body of your 3G. REMEMBER THAT THE STUD AT THE BOTTOM HAS TO CLIP IN! If you get the headlight in you must push down on it for the clip at the bottom to engage. When this is done, push the headlight back towards the rear of the car just a bit and see if everything is aligned. Check the bottom where the headlight and the bumper meet. There should be almost no gap in there! If there is a gap of more than 3mm then you are not engaging the clip at the bottom correctly. 6.- Weather strip... The weather strip on these is not like the stock one. In fact there is a considerable difference in the location of the strip on the L/R headlight. The strip has to sit like this: There should be little to no space between the clear acrylic and the edge of the strip. If you run your finger on top of bof you should not feel a big "bump". If you do, simple remove the strip and re-acomodate it. You can also use your finger to push the weather strip from the "inside" to get it to surface properly. If everything checks, proceed to put the bolts on. Screw the one on the bottom first, then the one on the top and then the middle one. Do not tighten them yet. Use your hand to screw the bottom one first and as soon as you cant turn it easily move on to the top one, and so on. Then use your wrench or whatever you used to tighten them all. 7.- Final check. The part should look like this: 8.- Repeat for next side. 9.- Beam aim adjust. Towards the back of the headlight assembly there is a hole where you can put a phillips screw driver and adjust the aiming of the beams. Clockwise turns aim up and viceversa. This image is very much self-explanatory so I'm not going in to too many details. Final notes: Fog and lights. It's very likely that you might get condensation inside the headlights. If you want to prevent this (you might have gotten a set with no fog issues, like Mojo did) you can put the headlights on the oven @ 240-260 ºF for 20 minutes to get the glue to give so you can take the acrylic off and then clean the inside of the headlight (both clear and black/chrome housings) with amonia, windex or de-naturalized alcohol. Let dry (in oven) and then use seal-all or clear silicone to re-seal the lights. I did get the infamous fog. It happened the second I washed the car. I have a theory regarding this, and currently I am experimenting with adding ventilation to the inside of the headlights. I'll let you know how it goes. Lights: This set comes with standard H1 bulbs. I don't think they're halogen. I went and bought Hella H1XE-DB bulbs (2.99 USD each) with a blue tint. Here's a comparison between the bulbs that come with the lights and the one I bought. You be the judge: This pic was taken with the car 3 feet from a wall. I am getting HID for my car. As soon as I get the kit I'll post instructions on how to install the HID kit with these headlights. Thanks to Mojo, Iceman and the rest of the gang for their info. Hope this helps! Last edited by Dr. Laplace; 01/21/2007 at 05:30 PM.