Finally How to do Single LED Audi lights in the Headlights

All things Altima Coupe.
DReed86
Posts: 1065
Joined: Mon Dec 01, 2008 1:36 pm
Car: Altima Coupe 2008 SE 3.5 White CVT
Location: Chantilly/Centreville, Va

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Whats up everyone since this is the #1 questions I get asked I figured I would post something on how to do it!!! Since I get tired of writing the same thing lol :chuckle:
First off you have a couple options as to the size of the LEDs I would recommend a 7.5mm led or something close if they make it as my 5mms that I started with are much to small and the 10mm look good but they make it very challenging to fit into the silver/chrome separator piece.

What you will need....
18 (5mm) LEDS per headlight so 36 total
15 (10mm) LEDS per headlight so 30 total
30 or 36 resistors
electrical tape
14 or 16 gage wire (Go with different colors so you ca tell the difference when wiring)
Fuse holder
30 amp fuse
rocker switch
Wire strippers
wire cutters
drill/dremel (dremel prefered)
solder
soldering gun
superglue
black caulk
I think thats everything.....
There are a few things that people should be aware of. When you have individual LEDs you have to drill holes for each led and drill them at an angle that they all point in the same direction. This may not sound very hard, but it is extremely hard!!! On top of that it's a lot of soldering. Led do not come wired for 12v use you have to add a resister to each of the positive wires. I bought Ozniums Single Leds they are good but not great.
First things first you will attach a resister to each positive led wire.
Image
Then you will have to solder the red and black wires to the positive and negative wires. Image
Image
Of course after you solder the led to the resistor and the resistor to the wires you will want to wrap them in electrical tape. I generally group my wires together in bundles of 5 since I have 15 leds in each headlight. Image

Once you have your group 3 groups of 5 you will attach one single wire for the positive and the negative and have all 3 of those wires meet. This will make it eazier for you to solder and wrap the wires since there ill only be 3 instead of 15....
Once you have the 3 wires all connected you will make one wire for the positive and one for the negative I would cut this wire at 18-24 inches because this will go through the back of the headlights an you will eventually wire this up to something so you want to give yourself some room to work once the headlights are on the car. It should look like this. Image


You will need to remove the bumper to get to the headlights... here is how.
http://www.nicoclub.com/archives/altima ... moval.html
After that you will need to open the headlights so you can drill and install the headlights..... here is how.
http://www.nicoclub.com/archives/altima ... ights.html
PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT IT WILL TAKE 1-2 HOURS TO OPEN THE FIRST HEADLIGHT. Also Grey Coupe had some really god ideas specifically the towel around the headlights :bigthumb: post5697089.html?hilit=headlights#p5697089

After all of the wiring is done you will need to drill the chrome piece.... unfortunately there is no easy way to do this... Just size it up make some marks with a sharpie and start drilling..... Don worry it will look sick once your done I messed it up a couple time... trust me know one looks that closely :biggrin: Image
once the drilling is done you will want to put the lights in individually and glue them so that the led is facing one direction no all spread out like mine was when I first did it. (also make sure you touch the wires to the battery so that you correct any lights that are out before you glue them in)
Once this is done you should have a headlight that looks pretty sexy :naughty: :naughty: Image
Now we have the source of power...... I chose the battery vs just hookin them up to the fogs or parking lights... However both of those arevry good options and would be easily don by splicing an soldering the right wire.

But like I said mine is hooked to the battery, which is slightly more complicated.
On the rocker switch you will have 3 prongs, one is power which will run directly to the battery's positive(dont forget you will need to install a fuse hold and fuse at some point in this line) Image
The other is the ground/negative this will split and run from the switch to both the negative of the LEDs and the negative of the battery.
The last one will go directly to the positive of the led.
Image
There is a way to do it going on the drivers side and there is one on the passenger side, I only know how to do the passenger side which is the harder way to do it unfortunately. It requires taking out the glove box and looking up in te top there is a white circle thing with a clear tube running to it. If you pull this white circle out it will open a whole in the firewall. From there you will have to move to the engine bay and drill a whole in the top of left hand corner. You will also have to run a coat hanger with wire attached to it down the the whole you just drilled. Here is how opekone_1988 http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=htt ... nAehp4mSAw
Its up to you where you put the rocker switch there are some designated places on the left hand side of the steering wheel.
Once you have the wires hooked up at the rocker switch IN THE RIGHT ORDER... It should tell you which is which so make sure you do it in the right order. Please make sure you add a fuse holder and fuse so you dont start a fire in your car like other members on here... lol
Let me know if you have any question!!! I can always help :) Please email me at [email protected] that generally gets the fastest response


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SHIFT_COUPE
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Nice writeup man! If there were custom titles to give out anymore, I'd give you one :gotme Lookin good, and keep up the good work :bigthumb:

DReed86
Posts: 1065
Joined: Mon Dec 01, 2008 1:36 pm
Car: Altima Coupe 2008 SE 3.5 White CVT
Location: Chantilly/Centreville, Va

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SHIFT_COUPE wrote:Nice writeup man! If there were custom titles to give out anymore, I'd give you one :gotme Lookin good, and keep up the good work :bigthumb:
Thanks Bro thats means a lot!!!!

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masterbeatty
Posts: 202
Joined: Wed Feb 04, 2009 7:15 am
Car: 2008 nissan altima coupe 2.5s-Sold
2011 MB 370Z 6MT
Location: New england

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What size resistors did u use and where did u get them? radio shack didnt have any to drop it to 6 volts but they had those same size LED's though. Nice write up though dude. Pics of the finished product though please.

DReed86
Posts: 1065
Joined: Mon Dec 01, 2008 1:36 pm
Car: Altima Coupe 2008 SE 3.5 White CVT
Location: Chantilly/Centreville, Va

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I got all of my stuff from Oznium and walmart. Wires, electrical tape rocker switch at walmart, resistor and LEDs are from OZ they only had one type of resistor. I can add a few more pics:-)

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Infantry1327
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Joined: Fri May 30, 2008 10:29 pm
Car: 08' Nissan Altima Coupe SE

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Great write up. I am planning on doing mine within the next few weeks. But I am going to use 5mm led's. Easier to drill, be less visible when lights off, fit more leds, brighter. Yes I said brighter. Led supply has a 5mm 15deg 27,000mcd white led. I am currently using these led's in a marine aquarium to grow coral. They are supper bright.

http://ledsupply.com/l1-1-w5th15-1.php

they also have a resistor calculator
http://ledsupply.com/reca.php

vessdabest
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Car: 08 Nissan Altima Coupe
Location: santa clara, ca
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the LED did u buy them by strip?? how many LED's in one strip???

DReed86
Posts: 1065
Joined: Mon Dec 01, 2008 1:36 pm
Car: Altima Coupe 2008 SE 3.5 White CVT
Location: Chantilly/Centreville, Va

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No these are not strips... they are individaul leds...... But you could use a 12" strip if you want.

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GrayCoupe
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Car: Altima Coupe 3.5
Location: SoCal

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DReed86 wrote:Also Grey Coupe had some really god ideas specifically the towel around the headlights :bigthumb: post5697089.html?hilit=headlights#p5697089
Thanks David... Great writeup by the way. it looks single LEDs are a huge PITA, did you use any of the small mounting/reflectors for each led?

I'm still waiting/wishing for a 4 LED cluster strip so I can redo my headlights, they look nice right now, but I want them brighter!

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rjdmmfl1
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Joined: Tue Sep 25, 2007 8:52 pm
Car: 2008 Altima Coupe, Radiant Silver, 3.5SE, Premium Package, VDC

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DREED, great write up bro... we need to get together for drinks sometime soon brother!

DReed86
Posts: 1065
Joined: Mon Dec 01, 2008 1:36 pm
Car: Altima Coupe 2008 SE 3.5 White CVT
Location: Chantilly/Centreville, Va

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rjdmmfl1 wrote:DREED, great write up bro... we need to get together for drinks sometime soon brother!
Thanks Doc, Def man we need to make it happen... Let me know when your free right now my only day off is som sundays Im work 6-7 days a week toget into realestate right now.. so life is rough. but well get chill soon :cheers:


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