Retrofit of OEM LED Headlights

I found this thread earlier this week while wanting upgrade the halogen headlights in my 2013 US Leaf with HID lights from a 2012 US Leaf. I did not scroll down to see Paulf's response until it was too late (wires cut, excitement and enthusiasm killed). "580EUR" should have been a clue, a heads up that, PERHAPS, connectors and wires are different!!

After comparing schematics and wiring connections, here are the necessary info for the upgrade. I'm not saying (yet) that it can be done. I'm saying here are the bullet points: (I will update my post regardless of a successful upgrade or not)

. The connectors for US Leaf are E26 (L) and E45(R), both for halogen and HID.
. The former has 6 wires, the latter has 8 wires (i.e. 2 missing wires per headlight)
. Two of the missing connections require 10A
. The other two are to the Combination Meter
. Schematics and connections here:



https://imgur.com/a/LbR1MFJ

SO. the question is. Can we purchase these connectors? I suspect the 2 wires are for the in cabin angle adjustment for the LED headlights (which the halogens don't have) so we can hopefully ignore them if we can figure out how to manually set them or connect them externally? (does that go through the computer? or DIRECT to the adjustment switch on the dash?)

I don't want to cut wires so have been wanting to find these connectors so I can wire up an adapter. I already know the lights physically bolt up (already did that then found the different plugs DOLT

if I can get the plugs I can fab up an adapter plus and not have to cut up the original wiring. I have 2 sets of the LED lights and want to put one set in my 2016 leaf.

No, the 2 missing wires per headlight are not for the angle adjustment. They are for the HID module which requires an additional 12V 10A input. Are you not able to see the wiring schematics I've shared? I wanted it to be visible with my post but adding the URL doesn't seem to do it. Please let me know of a better way to share them.

I did the upgrade yesterday and got it to work.


https://imgur.com/a/Pv3g76j


About connectors, luckily I have the harness side connectors. My suggestion is, for anyone buying HID lights, have the salvage yards cut the matching connector and include it in the sale.

I thought Leaf's came with optional LED headlights not HID. Is that not so?

I stand corrected, LED not HID

Can you recap what it took for the upgrade? Is it as simple as finding the donor parts and installing them? Sorry if I missed it but what wiring changes are required?

Sure thing. It would be easier if I showed the difference.

If I don't want to post links to photo hosting sites, how do I post photos in my reply?

GNUD1ZERO said:

Sure thing. It would be easier if I showed the difference.

If I don't want to post links to photo hosting sites, how do I post photos in my reply?

Click to expand...

You have two choices to post images inline in your posts

1. Become a paying MNL member
2. Use the <img> tag in your post to grab an image offsite. The use implementation varies a bit by the where the photo is hosted off-site. I use my own Google cloud 'drive'. It is easy, but I have to edit the URL a bit for the <img> tag to work and I set the image sharing permission to allow access to the public.

I don't want to be a paying MNL and this (minus <text>) doesn't seem to work.
[img <text> https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Tb6qxRPzLDbM_6qc4EdSKH9z6yOaZvY9/view?usp=sharing <text> /img]

I get the same resulting Image when I redirect to Imgur.

E26 (LH, driver side)
Halogen LED

1 O park -> 2 O park
2 G high -> 1 G high
3 B/W gnd -> 4 B/W gnd
4 B/Y gnd -> 8 B/W gnd
5 Y turn -> 3 Y turn
6 L (blue) low -> 6 L (blue) low

LED
5 GR 10A (supply missing wire)
7 LG combination meter (ignore)


E45 (RH, passenger side)
Halogen LED

1 O park -> 2 O park
2 Y high -> 1 Y high
3 B/Y gnd -> 4 B/Y gnd
4 B/W gnd -> 8 B/Y gnd
5 G turn -> 3 G turn
6 P low -> 6 P low

LED
5 BR 10A (supply missing wire)
7 R combination meter (ignore)

Thanks, very helpful.

GNUD1ZERO said:

E26 (LH, driver side)
Halogen LED

1 O park -> 2 O park
2 G high -> 1 G high
3 B/W gnd -> 4 B/W gnd
4 B/Y gnd -> 8 B/W gnd
5 Y turn -> 3 Y turn
6 L (blue) low -> 6 L (blue) low

LED
5 GR 10A (supply missing wire)
7 LG combination meter (ignore)


E45 (RH, passenger side)
Halogen LED

1 O park -> 2 O park
2 Y high -> 1 Y high
3 B/Y gnd -> 4 B/Y gnd
4 B/W gnd -> 8 B/Y gnd
5 G turn -> 3 G turn
6 P low -> 6 P low

LED
5 BR 10A (supply missing wire)
7 R combination meter (ignore)

Click to expand...

By accident I found that the 10A feed is not needed. The lights worked fine without this being connected

But I connected them up to the brown wire that goes to the high beam light adjustment motor, just to be safe

I also found the wire colour for LH turn signal was green, not yellow

Car is a JDM 2015 Model S

Hi All,

I'm trying to disconnect the wire harness from the headlight assembly. I think there's a tab below the connector but can't figure out if I need to press up or pull down. Any help appreciated!

PB

belanger said:

Hi All,

I'm trying to disconnect the wire harness from the headlight assembly. I think there's a tab below the connector but can't figure out if I need to press up or pull down. Any help appreciated!

PB

Click to expand...

Don't know if you figured it out yet but the connector plugs are a pita! There is a small tab in the middle bottom of the plug that you press up on. Press up on the tab while at the same time pull gently on the wires to remove the plug from the headlight housing. Takes a bit of force to separate the plugs

I too am going to try retrofitting the OEM LED headlights to my Halogen equipped 2015 Leaf. NOT plug n play! grrrrrrrrrrr Got the OEM LED lights on OfferUP.

Right now, I just want to test the lights to see if they work. Maybe someone knows what the positives and negatives are of the pins to connect to, tried looking at the diagrams

Would anyone know more info on these OEM LED headlights? Want to confirm what I received...

Bought Left and Right OEM LED headllights from a seller on OfferUP. In the pics, looked pretty good, looked like they came from the same car. The headlights were shipped to me. Got them out, unwrapped them, they weren't what was in the pics. Things I noticed while I was testing to make sure the lights worked as they should.

The Right passenger headlight ballast/decoder is silver, has a 10 pin black plug (only has 9 pins), and the bumper clip was white plastic.

The Left driver headlight ballast/decoder is black, has an 8 pin grey plug, and the bumper clip was black plastic.

The right headlight is marked L sticker? The left headlight is marked M no sticker.

Something else I noticed, seems the driver side left headlight has a motor with a 3 pin connector, the Right side doesn't have this. When I tested the driver side left headlight, the beam was way off was pointing to the left, needing adjustment, don't know if the headlights have vertical as well as horizontal adjustments?

Thanks!

If anyone is reading... Things I did find out so far, dunno if I'm correct but I think I am!

The black LED ballast/decoder with black bumper cover connector with the grey 8 pin connector plug came on 11 to mid 13 models.

The silver LED ballast/decoder with white bumper cover connector with the black 10 (only 9 pins, #10 missing) pin connector plug came on mid 13-17 models.

Tried putting power to the 3 pin motor connector from the older model headlight in different combinations, nothing happened, maybe headlight has to have power for it to function? What it does is that on the dash, has a 3 position switch to lower the beam I believe of just the L driver side headlight. 1 is normal 3 is lowest.

I did manage to see a youtube vid of vertical adjustment, that is done from an 8mm bolt located near the turn signal bulb on the back of the headlight. Turn right to aim beam up, left to aim beam down down. Seems maybe later years discarded the dash electric motor adjustment?

Dunno why the have a sticker with L possibly indicating left on it for the right headlight, maybe they're looking at the car not from the driver's seat lol

Sending the headlights back to seller for the bs misrepresentation of what they were selling per OfferUP 2 day return policy...

Guess I'm on my own here, still looking for some suitable LED headlights from a 13 or 14-17 model! Are there any aftermarket companies making replacement LED headlights? Looked but didn't find any.

In the mean time, bought some H13/9008 Auxito LED bulbs from ebay. Installed them in the incandescent housings, adjusted the beams nicely to not blind, WAY more light now! I would recommend these !00%. They run hot even tho they have an internal fan but then the incandescent bulbs were hot too...

Aftrburnr said:

Don't know if you figured it out yet but the connector plugs are a pita! There is a small tab in the middle bottom of the plug that you press up on. Press up on the tab while at the same time pull gently on the wires to remove the plug from the headlight housing. Takes a bit of force to separate the plugs

Click to expand...

pita +1

I'm about to try this weekend/early next week. Just to make sure, "press up" meaning apply pressure on the tab toward the connector itself? Do you press on the tab using just a finger or use some sort of tool to help?

I need apply a 2k clear coat on my headlights, not quite equipped to do this indoor. My only choice is to remove the headlights from the car, that might make my life easier if I can rotate the headlights a bit after removing all the screws.

[edit] H13/9008 Auxito - I might order a pair of those.. but my headlights low beam are used for DRL. If I camp in the car on L2 to keep climate on, the headlights turns on. I'm now thinking I probably want a way to overwrite that.

Thank you!

Tab is on the bottom middle of the connector. Push up, in towards the center of the connector. I used my fingers, push connector in, pull gently on wires and wiggle. You can try it with the headlights still in the car. Not sure how the Auxito LED lights would work for you, I imagine the same as your incandescents do now. I don't have DRL, they work awesome for me! One thing you could try if you camp in the car, get some big black towels and put a towel over each light? lol

Aftrburnr said:

Tab is on the bottom middle of the connector. Push up, in towards the center of the connector. I used my fingers, push connector in, pull gently on wires and wiggle. You can try it with the headlights still in the car. Not sure how the Auxito LED lights would work for you, I imagine the same as your incandescents do now. I don't have DRL, they work awesome for me! One thing you could try if you camp in the car, get some big black towels and put a towel over each light? lol

Click to expand...

Finally, I was able to take the connector out. I got help from a 90 degree pick to push that tab all the way down, pulling the connector out required hardly no strength. Much less strength than I expected.

Are your LEDs noisy at all due to the fast spinning fan? Haven't ordered yet...