So even though I myself was one of the first to post about these headlights, and had placed an early order, until now I did not have the time to do the install.
But that changed over the reent Golden Week holiday.
First order of business was to move my cars around so I had the garage space free to work on the GT-R.
Step 1 - move the Skyline Nismo out from its parking spot underneath the GT-R.
Initially, I thought this would be enough. But then reading my own old posts on headlight removal, realized I would have to pull the car out and jack it up, in order to remove the front wheels and thus get access to the fender liners. Yep, the headlights have one bolt on the side that requires either bumper removal - ideally - or some tricky access via the inside of the fenders.
But before I lowered the car, I went ahead and removed the
3 part Silk Road front diffuser. And as you can see, this car is no garage queen. Check out all the scrapes and bits of plastic coming off. Time for some repairs soon I think!
Step 2 - I then lowered the GT-R, and then opened up the hood to do a visual inspection of the headlights and surroundings, to make sure I would have all the tools I need ready to go. (socket wrenches, screwdrivers, etc. Not rocket science but helps to have it all lined up ready).
Given that I needed more space in the garage to jack up the GT-R, this meant Step 3, I would have to move the
Lexus into a nearby parking lot.
Despite my recent troubles with the original PPF application to the Skyline, all is well that ends well - the car looks fantastic and is an absolute blast to drive now!
And of course, I had to take one last picture of the car with the original Xenon headlights in action! Gonna miss the blue discharge warmup!
Not sure if this is due to heat but you can see some cloudiness in the lens cover. Maybe I should invest in a lens cover replacement kit?
Relatively big box from Veleno...
That contains one box for each headlight within.
Inside each box, lots of styrofoam padding. No scratches or problems that I can find...
With the Skyline now parked outside, I went ahead and moved the GT-R into place, jacked it up, removed the right front wheel, then started to remove parts to get access to the right headlamp.
Hello, nice looking carbon fiber intercooler piping...
Lined up next to each other, the OEM on right and the VELENO on the left.
Here is another annoying issue. The hoses for the HKS oil cooler. There HAS to be a better way to route them, they are so ugly.
First challenge of the day. Why two sets of harness adaptors?
You can see the double cuts are on the left for the grey, and right for the black ones.
So it turns out, that at least for my kohki/series 3, the supplied black connector connects to the OEM harness. The supplied connector then has separate leads to the high beam and low beam on the LED bulb side.
Took a bit of a firm push, but then "click" into place!
Oh and this piece of masking tape - I guess they just wanted to make sure the inside of the parking light space didn't get dirty or something.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
And now for the left side. This one is a complate pain, becuase the HKS oil cooler sits right under the headlight, meaning access to the side bolt is blocked by the oil cooler. This necessitates the need to partially uncliip the front bumper cover, being very careful not to apply too much pressure. Then use a screwdriver to quickly remove the bolt - a socket is too big, but luckily the bolt has the Philips screwedriver cross on the head...
And if that wasn't enought, I realized once I removed the headlight, or tried to, that again because of the oil cooler, the ignitor box and its bracket had been relocated into a spot right on the core support.
Lots of patience and some really thing spanners and socket wrenches were required to get the box off...
Finally.
But then it was again another plug and play, and then bolt the new headlight back into place. Front bumper trick included in reverse.
With nighttime coming quickly, I did not have presence of mind to try out the lights by taking the car out for a spin, but a quick check on the neightbor's house across the street revelaed these LEDs are unbelievably bright, like spotlights. Sorry no photos but will take some next time!
