[SpudRacer]

I received my stuff from AAC a couple days ago, just in time for my 10 day vacation to work on my SRTs. Below is a detailed How-To for installing Halos and includes removal of the front clip.

This first photo is before starting work. The second photo shows what the LED halos look like from AAC.

To remove the front clip, start up top. You'll see 6 pop-up plastic trim pieces with a small groove on each side. Just install a screwdriver into each groove and pop them up, then pull them out. Once you get these out (3ea per side), then just grab the trim pieces and gently pull them up, they pop right off.

Once you get the trim pieces off up top, look to the sides up top, you should find a nut on each side that needs to be removed. Loosen them with a 10mm socket, but do NOT remove them, they will be the last hardware you take off so your front clip doesn't fall onto the floor.

Next you're going to have to get under the car. I suppose you could do it without jacking the car, but having it up in the air sure makes it easier. Look at the belly pan, there are 5 small hex screws that secure it to the pan under the engine. There is also one small hex screw at each side of the belly pan. Once you get all these removed, there are two larger hex bolts that need to come off to get the belly pan off. Once you get these two bolts out, there are also three pop fasteners underneath that need to come off. I used a pair of dikes and grasped them under the head, then popped them down and off. Lastly, there are three more pop fasteners where the front brake ducts enter the wheel wells. Pop these off. Once all this is done, the belly pan should be able to be pulled off.

Next you have to start working in the wheelwells. Some have done it with the wheel on, but since I had the front end up in the air, I pulled the front wheels off to make this easier. There are several plastic rivets (5-6 on each side) that need to be pulled. The easy way to get these off, is to just use a pair of dikes on the backside and snip the ends off. Once you get the inner fenderwell disconnected from the front clip, lift up on the fenderwell and you'll see a hidden hex bolt that needs to come out (one on each side). It is also 10mm. Then lie on your back and look up under the front end and follow the flange of the front clip where it attaches to the front fender. You should find a stud that has a 10mm nut on it. This also needs to come off. The two photos below show the location of the hidden hex bolt, and the stud attached to the front clip.

You're getting close to getting the clip off now. Next, disconnect the side marker lights at each side, and disconnect the fog light electrical connectors. The harness for these lights drops down on the passenger side, then weaves across the front clip to the driver's side. Gentle pull this harness out to the passenger side. I put it on top of the engine pan, then temp installed the two large screws to hold the front lip up in place. You should be able to figure that out.

Lastly, you need to tap with your fist on the inside of the front clip (from under the car) just below and anterior to that hidden bolt that you took out of the wheelwell. Tap outwards on it and the front clip pops off the guides. Do this on both sides, and you should be able to swing the front clip upwards slightly because everything at this point should be disconnected.

Before you remove the clip, find a nice safe place to set it down. Once you get it off is NOT the time to decide where to put it. It weighs only about 35 pounds. Support it, and then remove those two nuts you loosened up. Pull forwards on the clip and it should pull off. Set it aside.


The car should then look like this.

Next remove the two bottom screws that hold on the headlight housing, and loosen the top screw, but do not remove it. If you look at the back of the headlight housing near the front fender, you'll see a metal stud that goes into the plastic fitting. There is a ball on the end of that metal stud that pops into that plastic clip. You should be able to just pull the headlight off, but I couldnt' get mine loose and had to use a large screwdriver to pry the ball out on both sides. Then remove the loosened screw and the headligths are off.

The car will look like this, and you are done with the disassembling.

IMPORTANT!! Before you cut the housing in half, use a ball-point pen or an awl to make a scratch on the large black lip that attaches to the clear lens at the four plastic webs or supports. These marking will be crucial to ensure you get the two halves properly lined up when you go to glue them back together. There are two on one side, and one on each end.

Next use a dremel fiber cutting wheel (use a new one so you have adequate depth), and cut the housing apart JUST AFT of the large black flange. See the photos below.

Next you have to disassemble the front lens assembly. This will take a total of 10 screws to disassemble each lens. The next photo shows the lens disassembled. The first two pieces you take off come off effortlessly. The third piece (the inner most piece) is wedged in there pretty good and takes some pulling and work to get out. It's hard to get out because when it was put in during assembly the thick black lip wasn't there. Takte your time starting by pulling up on the thinner side (the bottom if you imagine it installed on the car).

Continued further down in the thread...

 

[buckwheat]

Very Nice write up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[addicted to pcp]

Great write up man, Should help alot of people.

 

[Wishe]

Great thanks

 

[skialfs]

nice write up, do you have any photos of actually placing the Halos in the fixture? How did you mount the Halo in position. Do you have a photo of what you get from the vendor? Thanks!

 

[SpudRacer]

Continued from above...

The halos get attached to the front of the chrome faces. You'll have to drill a small hole to run the wires through. I drilled two 1/8" holes side by side, then drilled out the holes to make one oval hole. This allowed the LED halo ring to sit as best as possible. The first photo shows where the LED rings get attached with the supplied double sided tape. The second and third photos shows the holes drilled for the wires.

TheAAC LED ring diameters are NOT an exact match to the factory headlight parts. AAC could have done better with the fitment here. The LED halo for the fog was the worse of the two. The first photo shows how poorly the fog halo fits. The second photo shows what a little nerve wracking stretching/bending of the ring can do to improve fitment. The third shows how much better the LED ring fits after its been stretched out a bit. Though not perfect, it is much better. I stretched that ring till there was a good 6" gap between the ends, no joke. I stretched it very slowly, a little at a time. I now regret how I put the other one together yesterday. I stretched it a little, and then pushed it into place using the VERY THIN double sided tape to hold it in place. It is under a small amount of tension, if the tape doesn't hold, one side is going to pop loose and I'll have to do this all over again. It looks fine this AM, so I'm not going to tear the housing apart again, I'll take a chance it holds. Word to the wise, stretch them out a little if they don't fit until you're happy. I kept waiting to hear a crack, but it just kept stretching open.

Once you get the halos installed, clean everything, then clean it again, then again. Nothing is more frustrating than gluing your housings together only to find a fleck of black plastic on the inside of your lens.

Before you consider gluing the halves together, you need to cut the two wires, and connect them together so you have only one pair of wires exiting the housing at the rear. Below is a photo of how I routed the wires inside the housing, and when they came out of the back of the housing in the place I felt was best protected from the elements. I will put a dab of silicone at that exit site before reinstallation.

This is one of the headlights glued back together. I used an epoxy made specifically for plastics. Once it set overnight, I'm going to cover over it with windshield sealant. For the record, these housings are NOT sealed. Each housing has two rubber vent hoses with a foam filter inside them.

This is the final product, lit up from a motorcycle battery.

One more piece of friendly advise. When you go to reinstall the inner fenderwells, I do NOT recommend purchasing new plastic rivets at the dealership (stealership). Find out how much they cost and you'll know why I say that. Besides, doesn't it make better sense to use the same type of push/pull plastic trim retainers as you see up top at the trim pieces over the radiator? That way if you have to tear it apart again down the road, you aren't cutting off and reinstalling those rivets over again. Check out the price of those push/pull retainers at the dealer ($5 apiece)!!! Fortunately, I found a cheap source for them at only $8-9 for a box of 25ea. How does THAT sound??
http://www.clipsandfasteners.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=A20458


Thanks for reading, if this helps you out, let me know. At the www.SRT10forum.com web site, I have tons of How-To: articles, and enjoy doing them as long as I know they're helping people out. Drop me a PM if you have any questions!

 

[skialfs]

Continued from above...

The halos get attached to the front of the chrome faces. You'll have to drill a small hole to run the wires through. I drilled two 1/8" holes side by side, then drilled out the holes to make one oval hole. This allowed the LED halo ring to sit as best as possible. The first photo shows where the LED rings get attached with the supplied double sided tape. The second and third photos shows the holes drilled for the wires.

TheAAC LED ring diameters are NOT an exact match to the factory headlight parts. AAC could have done better with the fitment here. The LED halo for the fog was the worse of the two. The first photo shows how poorly the fog halo fits. The second photo shows what a little nerve wracking stretching/bending of the ring can do to improve fitment. The third shows how much better the LED ring fits after its been stretched out a bit. Though not perfect, it is much better. I stretched that ring till there was a good 6" gap between the ends, no joke. I stretched it very slowly, a little at a time. I now regret how I put the other one together yesterday. I stretched it a little, and then pushed it into place using the VERY THIN double sided tape to hold it in place. It is under a small amount of tension, if the tape doesn't hold, one side is going to pop loose and I'll have to do this all over again. It looks fine this AM, so I'm not going to tear the housing apart again, I'll take a chance it holds. Word to the wise, stretch them out a little if they don't fit until you're happy. I kept waiting to hear a crack, but it just kept stretching open.


Once you get the halos installed, clean everything, then clean it again, then again. Nothing is more frustrating than gluing your housings together only to find a fleck of black plastic on the inside of your lens.

Before you consider gluing the halves together, you need to cut the two wires, and connect them together so you have only one pair of wires exiting the housing at the rear. Below is a photo of how I routed the wires inside the housing, and when they came out of the back of the housing in the place I felt was best protected from the elements. I will put a dab of silicone at that exit site before reinstallation.

This is one of the headlights glued back together. I used an epoxy made specifically for plastics. Once it set overnight, I'm going to cover over it with windshield sealant. For the record, these housings are NOT sealed. Each housing has two rubber vent hoses with a foam filter inside them.

This is the final product, lit up from a motorcycle battery.

Thanks for reading, if this helps you out, let me know. At the www.SRT10forum.com web site, I have tons of How-To: articles, and enjoy doing them as long as I know they're helping people out. Drop me a PM if you have any questions!

Thanks SpudRacer! Good stuff and it makes a lot more sense to me now. Looks like you did a great job making them fit better. Seems strange they don't have a better piece.

 

[timtattoo]

"One more piece of friendly advise. When you go to reinstall the inner fenderwells, I do NOT recommend purchasing new plastic rivets at the dealership (stealership)."

$4 a pop! total rip ~off!

 

[DrinkCoke]

Just for informational purposes... When AAC install the rings for you, they run the wire through the rubber tube. I don't know if that is easier or what.

 

[SpudRacer]

Yea, good points, seems like running the wires throught he tube would make better sense.

I would suggest NOT pulling out the foam that's inside the tube though to get the wires through, or pull it out and then put it back in once the wires are through the tube. Without that foam, you could get rainwater, road spray inside the headlights... that would be bad.

I started on the fog lights yesterday. They are not as hard, but the cut to get them apart is crucial and requires a careful steady hand. I'll post up some photos of the fog lights tomorrow. You MUST TAKE YOUR TIME WITH THAT CUT and get it straight as an arrow...

 

[SpudRacer]

The switch isn't wired in yet, I start on the interior tomorrow, but here's the halos, and some LED strips behind the grill as well... All the wires are now inside the car.

 

[skialfs]

awesome...

 

[SpudRacer]

For those interested, I need to post that I finally received those fasteners in the link above. While they are an EXACT replica of the factory push/pull fasteners in the wheelwells, they do NOT work to replace the plastic (nylon) rivets at the outer edge of the liner where it attached to the fender. The outer sleeve DOES fit into the hole, but you are going through the liner, then the small spoiler trim piece, then the metal fender... this is just too thick, so when you try to advance the center plunger, it simply won't go in because the outer sleeve cannot expand. I'm going to order a couple boxes of different size plastic blind rivets, and I'll see which one works best, then post. They also sell a special rivet gun for plastic rivets, but I'll give my metal rivet gun a try first.


One more thing, I added a couple LED strips to illuminate the LOWER grill opening as well, looks much better.

I am having some issues with the quality control of AAC's parts that I think you all should be aware of.
1. One of the six 15" flexible purple LED strips didn't work, but they PROMPTLY shipped me a new one straight away which I received yesterday and it works fantastically.
2. Of the three LED touch switches I ordered, one of them doesn't illuminate inside when it is activated. The other two work fine. They have PROMPTLY shipped out another one of those as well, though I fear it won't arrive until Monday after my vacation to get this work done has already ended.
3. Just last night I finally installed the "Multifunction Remote" box. Initially it worked fine... for about 2 minutes, then it quit. Now it won't do anything at all. I removed and reconnected all the wiring, I checked the battery voltage of the tiny remote (12.2V), but still nothing. The littel LED light on the remote illuminates when any button is pushed. This AM I was able to get the system to start strobing the lights after multiple button pushes, but then I couldn't get the darn things to turn off. Even after disconnecting the power wire, as soon as I hooked it back up, they started flashing again. I haven't heard back from them yet regarding this new problem, but I suspect another remote kit will be shipped out on Monday. I mounted this box, and the switches on the knee panel rigth next to the brake release lever. Will post photos once I get the third switch and install it. I will say that the back of these switches have 5 tiny little spades sticking out for the wiring. The best way to wire them is to solder wires directly to the spades, then crimp in connectors to these wires so the switches can later be removed if necessary. Having a small electrical connector that attached to the back of these little touch switches would be pretty handy.

Summing up this installation, I would say it is VERY time consuming work, and agree it is not for the faint of heart. It's not difficult work, just very time consuming. If you don't have the time, I suggest having it done for you.

 

[DrinkCoke]

So if I understand correctly you are using a multifunction remote that is wireless?

 

[charginscott]

Be sure and seal up the hole where the wires exit the headlights.

What windshield sealant are you using and what epoxy?

The multifunction remote has a memory built into it and that is why it keeps going to flashing mode after you put power back on it.

 

[SpudRacer]

So if I understand correctly you are using a multifunction remote that is wireless?

Yes, using the multifunction remote.

I got the windshield sealant at Advanced Auto Parts, can't remember the brand, but I'll try to look tomorrow.

I was talking to a Highway Patrol officer last night during my ER shift, and talked him into going outside to look at the halos to tell be if I'll be breaking the law driving with them on. He pulled some book out of his car and we went over it together. According to NC law, you cannot have BLUE lights even installed on your car, and you cannot have any forward-facing red lights on your car. That was about it for colored lights on a vehicle. Then he looked at the halos. He informed me that at the maximum brightness setting, there are some cops that he knows, that would claim the light is blue, not purple and write me a ticket. He suggested not driving with them on. If I get a ticket, I'd have to go to court, and have the judge come out to the car and decide for himself whether the lights are blue or purple.

They sure look purple to me...

 

[DrinkCoke]

I installed the multifunction on the radiator frame so no wires had to be run through the firewall. I used a sealant around all the edges to keep any possible water out. I also found that if you have the homelink buttons (garage door opener) on your roof console, you can program them to turn your halos on and off. Actually you can program each of the 3 buttons to do 3 different functions.

 

[addicted to pcp]

I installed the multifunction on the radiator frame so no wires had to be run through the firewall. I used a sealant around all the edges to keep any possible water out. I also found that if you have the homelink buttons (garage door opener) on your roof console, you can program them to turn your halos on and off. Actually you can program each of the 3 buttons to do 3 different functions.

Hey can u please tell me how to make the halos work off the home link buttons. I have no garage, and no other use for them. I have the multifunction box hooked up. Thats all no other switchs for the halos, Thanx drinks coke.

 

[DrinkCoke]

You will need the remote that came with the multifunction box. Follow the instructions in your manual for programming your garage door opener. Each button on the roof console can be programmed to one button on your multifunction remote. Mine are programmed to to turn them on and off. One button on the console will turn them on and off. So it's possible to program the console button to have them strobe or pulse or whatever you want for the other two buttons on the console. I hope this makes sense.

 

[TheFastCat]

Hm. I don't think I have the ability to do this all myself. I don't even have a garage.
How would I find a capable shop to do the installation? Or should I have a shop remove the lights and send them to AAC for install? The turn around on that might be a couple of weeks right.

input?