How To: City Lights

For anybody who has ever wanted city lights!!

I was bored at work one day, and my friend had an extra set of city light sockets lying around, so he was like, hey lets throw these in your car. Half an hour later I had city lights. For those who don't know, city lights are small lights that illuminate the headlight housing in addition to your parking lights, and they look really cool when you're chilling at a meet and nobody else has them. They are intended to be used when chilling in a parking lot without the headlights on. The light produced from the city lights will be overpowered by the headlight bulbs when you are driving so you won't get in trouble for having them.

Disclaimer: You have to drill into your headlights to complete this mod. BE CAREFUL, they're expensive...As with any other kind of headlight mod, there is always the possiblity of condensation buildup, and I am not responsible if you don't seal everything correctly.

This is a DIY in progress, I completed the install yesterday and I do not have pics, so I will do the write up now, and add pics very soon. I hate to be an ass, but if anybody does this, or refers the info, please give me credit, my car is the official gen7 guinie pig when it comes to stuff that hasn't been done before, or is very uncommon among 7th gens.

OK enough of my babbling, you want cool lights not copyright arugments...

This operation takes about an hour to do with tools, and requires a bit of electrical knowledge, so be aware.

First, obtain a set of city light sockets (i'll find out where my buddy got the ones he gave to me) (make sure the ones you get have a rubber seal on them to prevent headlight leakage)

Next, get ahold of about 2ft of decent patch wiring and 4 connectors that look like the pic that will be uploaded soon

Cut the wire into 4 6" sections. Use the connectors and wire to make harnesses for the sockets. Use electrical tape to seal everything up nice once the harnesses are attached to the sockets.

Remove the front bumper. To remove the headlights, you will need to remove 5 10mm bolts. There are two on the front, two on the top, and one towards the back of the headlight where the bumper connects to the rest of the car. After removing these the headlight will come right out.

Remove all the lights, and harnesses. Locate the parking light / directonal harness and bulb. Remove a section of the wire loom to expose the 3 wires inside. Use a digital multi-meter to find the two wires that will provide power to your city lights. You will be looking for voltage when the parking lights come on, and NOT when the directional is turned on. The easy wire is the ground, which will be black, just backprobe the other two wires to find out which one is for the parking light. Tag these wires and do the same for the other side. Using tap connectors, also called "butt connectors", tap these wires and test them so that they light up when the parking lights come on, and NOT when you put on the turn signals.

Here comes the hard part...Look at the back of the headlight and you will see exactly where the city light socket will go, it seems that these headlights were pre-designed to have them, but for some reason they were never put in. The socket holders are sealed shut from the factory, and you must drill these out. Make sure you notch out all four spaces for the socket to lock into. Be VERY careful...you don't want to break the housing by working on it too hard. TAKE YOUR TIME..use a reciprocating air saw if possible to remove the material for the notches, and if you don't have one, a small precision drywall saw should do the trick, and if you don't have one, use a reliable pocket knife. Only work on the notches after you complete the next step.

Use a small drill bit (I'll get the specifics) to drill a pilot hole through the housing and into the reflector. DRILL SLOWLY AND WITH LITTLE PRESSURE. If you force the bit, or drill too fast, you'll make a messy hole into the reflector. Slow and steady will produce a clean entrance to the reflector and no other damage. Using a larger drill bit, enlarge the hole. (Again I will get measurements for you for what bits to use). As a rule of thumb, you're going to want to match the size of the hole you drill into the reflector with the size of the bulb that will be inserted part way through it...too big and it'll look ugly, and too small will not allow enough light to pass through.

Once the hole is drilled, notch out the spaces for the socket to latch onto. Use a blowgun to remove the plastic shavings and dust from the reflector that will be inside the headlight...don't worry it'll all come out just be patient and take your time.

After this is done, insert your city lights, and check for fit and functionality.

Please do not attempt this until all pictures are up, this write up is just to get interest on this mod, and the pics will greatly help your install. Please don't flame me for not having pics up yet. Thanks!! As always, comments are always welcome!!

Courtesy of Skippy