Installed Suvlights Heavy Duty Headlight Wire Harness
 

This is for the sedan with one 9003/H4 bulb per headlight. The harness appears to utilize 14 ga. wire with a fusible link and contains 4 crimped-on ring terminals, 2 large ones to be connected to the + battery terminal and 2 smaller ones to be connected to ground. The harness also contains a fusible link, a wired-in dual relay socket and a plug with 3 contacts matching a 9003 bulb as well as 2 headlight bulb sockets that will replace the factory sockets. Two heavy duty relays are also separately included. No instructions were included. The harness is available from www.suvlights.com and the cost was US $43 including shipping. The installation was simple but you can download general instructions from the FAQ section of the website.

The first thing I did was to apply heatsinks to the 4 ring terminals and solder them. This makes for a stronger connection than crimping alone and coating the wire strands with solder reduces the possibility of corrosion. After connecting the 2 large ring terminals to the + batt. terminal (which I was able to do by feeding them one at a time through the terminal cover), the relay socket has to be mounted near the left headlight. Conveniently, I found an unused threaded hole in the left inner fenderwell and I happened to have a bolt lying around that fit it. I believe it is an M6 x 1.0 bolt. The bolt I used was about 25 mm long as I had to space out the relay socket with a couple of nuts and flat washers to get the necessary clearance.

The next step is to unplug the factory socket from the left headlight bulb and then attach the mating harness plug to that. This step connects the entire factory lighting system to the harness. Then the harness bulb socket closest to the left headlight is attached to the left headlight bulb. I then ran the harness branch to the right headlight across the valve cover (zip tied to the cable already running there), unplugged the factory socket and attached the second harness bulb socket to the right headlight. The factory socket just hangs there now and is not used. I connected each ground wire from the new harness bulb sockets to two of the bolts that hold the radiator upper mounting brackets as they were conveniently close.

Before plugging in the relays, the instructions call for applying contact grease to the relay terminals to prevent corrosion. At PEP boys, I found Permatex Dielectric Tune-Up Grease which according to Permatex, "Protects electrical connections, ignition parts, and wiring from moisture, salt, dirt and corrosion". The reason I bring this up is that dielectric means something that is a non-condutor or insulator yet supposedly this product does the job without any ill effects. In any case I used it on the relay terminals and on the harness plug terminals before plugging in and everything seems fine. This completes the installation.

With the harness in place, the factory wiring system serves only to energize the relay coils which draw very little current. The heavy headlight bulb current is drawn directly from the battery through the large gauge harness wire and the relay contacts. This insures that the bulbs get full voltage and current at all times and maintain their maximum brightness. As I have noticed that my headlights are brighter now, I consider this to be a worthwhile modification that was easy to do and relatively inexpensive.

02 DX Millenium Red
MP3 Strut Tower Bar kit
Kartboy Shifter Bushings
Suvlights Heavy Duty Wiring Harness
AEM Short Ram intake (sometimes)

Have you used it at night yet? Do the headlights dim less ? (when you turn on the A/c, for example). If you can get some pictures too. :)

Reply to Chastan
 

Yes, I have driven the car at night and the lights seem to be brighter. When I turn the A/C on, the lights don't seem to dim, or if they do, it's not really noticeable from behind the wheel. Sorry, I can't provide any pictures as I don't have a digital camera.

03 DX Millenium Red
MP3 Strut Tower Bar kit
Kartboy Shifter Bushings
Suvlights Heavy Duty Headlight Wire Harness
AEM Short Ram intake (sometimes)

Cool! :cool: No worries about the pics. :)