As promised, here's the write up for the Touring LED headlamp conversion, MDX horn conversion, and I'll also do my version of the clear sidemarkers.
But first and foremost, I'll have to credit Jeff from Hardtopguy.com as he help make the harness for the headlights and the horn conversion. He worked with me to get this going, and provided all the info I needed to make it work. Super responsive, and helpful guy. Pretty much couldn't have done it w/o his help.
For the headlamps and harnesses: http://hardtopguy.com/store/2016-2017-civic-headlamp-upgrade.html
For the wiring only: http://hardtopguy.com/store/2016-2017-cvic-led-headlamp-mod-wiring-only-.html
Alright, on to the DIY of changing out the headlights and such. First you have to remove the front bumper, just be careful not to brake the clips under the headlights when pulling the bumper off, rest is pretty straightforward.
As for actually removing the headlamps, you'll need a socket wrench with an extended bar thingy, because one screw is way back in the inside. There's 4 screws total holding up the headlight and two more that you'll have to remove the plastic beam from the headlight itself from.
At this point, I would highly recommend to just take off one side first, and finish installing that side with the new LED headlamps so then you can see how it was put back together on the other side. But here's basically what the harness looks like from Jeff:
So it's essentially all plug and play, super easy to do. Before screwing back the headlights, I highly recommend to hook the DRL LED back up first, because reaching into there and trying to plug it in after mounting the headlights is a PITA, not so much the drivers side, but the passenger side sucked.
And that's pretty much it, just do your cable management as how you see fit. Although I recommend to not have the resistor for the turn signals dangling around and touching any plastics or anything because it can get pretty hot.
On to the horns! So I didn't know before hand that the MDX horns were grounded thru the mounting bracket, so it made finding a mounting area a bit difficult...finding a good place to mount these actually took me alot of trial and error. Anyway, this was my setup at first:
Basically mounting it to the beam, which would have worked great if the fog light housing wasn't in the way. Oh, and Jeff made that wiring harness (yellow and red) in order to convert the signal horn setup to a dual horn setup for the MDX horns. Basically just tap into the positive stock wire, and plug and play, but you have to make sure you have a good place to ground the horns. As you can see I ran another wire thru the beam to the other side. Since I had fog lights, the housing got in the way, so after much messing around trying to find a good space, I ended up mounting it to where the stock horn used to be, but running a ground wire to the beam with the ring terminals. Since they made the car symmetrical, I had a mounting hole for the driverside too. Worked out great.
And there you have it!
As for the clear side markers, I definitely had to trim the two little numbs off, but also slightly trim the other ones in order to make it fit in the housing.
Pretty easy peasy, especially with the headlight out, you can have really good access to the side marker area.
As for the foglights, I'm running Osram Fog breakers, really happy with the results.
There you have it! Again, wouldn't be possible with Jeff's help from hardtopguy.com. As for my impression on the headlights themselves? I have yet to drive with them yet, but from what I see is that it doesn't have that nice cut off line at the top as say the MDX LED headlights do, and yes, I can see what people and the IIHS was talking about regarding the "excessive glare." I probably need to adjust them a bit too. I think projector LEDs are superior to these reflector LED headlights, but then again, it's comparing apples to oranges. Would you get away with just switching out the bulb to an LED bulb on the projector headlights? Probably, but I personally don't want to deal with stuff like if the LED bulb dies or whatnot, and the brightness may not be adequate.
Yes, the wiring harness is custom made. The LED headlamps have different plugs than halogen ones (as expected). Hardtopguy sells genuine OEM headlamps. From what I understand, he works at a Honda dealership, so he has access to the parts and such to make a custom harness, hence you can't order this custom harness anywhere. And with the harness it's just easy plug and play. Not sure if your dealer will install something like that for you. You probably have to be buddies with the service advisor and techs for them to do something like that for you.whats puzzling me is this, the wiring harness needed for the full LED housing..
They are custom made to make the leds fit?
And the led housings hardtopguy sells are OEM Honda's when I look at his website, is that correct?
So, with the correct wiring you can fairly easy upgrade your Halogen setup to full LED?
I could easily go to my Honda dealer and ask them to install the upgrade?
The LED housing is available for order seperately, but the needed wiring harnass too?
Is it also a plug and play part from Honda? but I cant find any info online other than the harness from hardtopguy...
I also found this plug and play kit, opinions?
http://oemassive.com/type-r-led-style-fits-16-18-honda-civic-lx-ex-si-full-led-headlights-lamps/
Indeed, your comments are exactly my concerns tooYes, the wiring harness is custom made. The LED headlamps have different plugs than halogen ones (as expected). Hardtopguy sells genuine OEM headlamps. From what I understand, he works at a Honda dealership, so he has access to the parts and such to make a custom harness, hence you can't order this custom harness anywhere. And with the harness it's just easy plug and play. Not sure if your dealer will install something like that for you. You probably have to be buddies with the service advisor and techs for them to do something like that for you.
The other knock-off OEM headlamps, from what I've read from others that had similar are that they look good, but the light output is crap. But it is like half the price to so...it's your call.
Best of luck to you. It's really not that hard to do it yourself. Just taking off the bumper is the most "difficult" part I'd say. But if you haven't ever tried working on your car before, yeah, it may seem a bit daunting.Indeed, your comments are exactly my concerns too
We just had the car, so I wouldn't see the tech guy as my buddy yet...but we had a 'click' so to say on pick up day when he gave explanation about the tech and function before we drove off...
He could clearly notice we were Honda guys and car minded in general and he spoke about his private collection etc..
That said, he has a manager above him and I dont think he'd like to see plug and play wiring for installing led lights during warranty period, wich also cuts in labor time I assume
But I will ask the tech guy one of these days whats possible...
Would be no problem to tackle it since I see myself as a DIY kinda guyBest of luck to you. It's really not that hard to do it yourself. Just taking off the bumper is the most "difficult" part I'd say. But if you haven't ever tried working on your car before, yeah, it may seem a bit daunting.
I'm sure there's some slack with the connections that you can reach in and unplug the connectors before the bumper comes completely off.Would be no problem to tackle it since I see myself as a DIY kinda guy
However, studying all youtube videos, they are all North Am. spec cars.
And our Euro spec cars come equiped with 2 extra options on the front bumber as standard (besides base models):
- parking sensors
- headlight washer sprays
Dunno how these connects are connected, so dunno how much play there is, how to detach em etc.
Hate to start removing the bumper to find out Its to difficult to disconnect those accessories once I reached that point.
I always wanna see ahead before starting such a removal