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Project: Headlight Downgrading from LED housing to Halogen [14 to 6 pin]

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1.2K views 4 replies 2 participants last post by  SlyCoopers  
#1 · (Edited)
Foreword:
I feel like every modern mazda forum has one of these threads by some madlad who decides to go in reverse from 'fancier' oem headlights to a basic downgrade to halogen housing/wiring. If youre asking yourself why would anyone do this, the answer is simple, we dont want to be robbed by mazda. The 'oem LED' headlights which is the trend for ALL newer cars now for every manufacturer have one crutch that people dont notice until its too late; you cannot replace the bulbs. This means when a light dies out and it WILL EVENTUALLY you have to buy a brand new one from mazda which sells for about a grand.. Buying the oem led lights used is never a good idea because scalpers will sell you them for 400-600 a side and it could die tomorrow leaving you to buy a whole new set all over again. This project was started out of necessity and quite frankly being a cheap *** diy-er who doesnt want to keep spending thousands on oem headlights. Just like the right to repair, it should be our choice not a forced decision that a manufacturer makes 'on our behalf' to sell more units for profit.

SO with that being said lets get down to the nitty gritty.

Thankfully our mazdas started off with a basic halogen variant headlight housing so thankfully that makes it easier since we dont need to seek aftermarket alternatives and with many newer cars you are out of luck entirely. (looking at you specifically hyundai with the weird decepticon bug eye leds in the newer models grilles).

Jumping back to a previous PSA post here

I posted 2 pictures of the connectors I discovered when I foolishly used to believe it was going to be a simple swap out whenever my led died.

The LED units come with a 14 pin connector and a bunch of more wiring for other stuff specifically the drls and other sensors and the 'auto leveling' features etc.

The halogen units come with a simple 2 wire plug and REPLACABLE BULB for the corner light, low beam and hi beam.

After taking the bumper off slightly due to my rally light bar blocking my reach I started poking around to remove the passenger headlight harness.
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The picture above is the 'back view' of the headlight connector that runs up to the housing itself. You need to use a pair of needle nose pliers to pinch that bottom tab on the back while you pull the other end from the front. It is incredibly difficult to do with your fingers since you probably never removed there lights before and theyre borderline frozen in place.


Once that was off I poked around with a volt meter when lights where on during drl/lo/hi etc and this lovely quick diagram is what I ended up with: NOTE this diagram is from looking at the actual plug from the front, not like how wiring diagrams show you the form behind, this is actually what you would see when you look at it and the pins in front of you with the wire loom in the back side.

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For most people the picture above is all you will need really. I used the top right of the oem harness (that goes to the car not to the oem led housing) as a ground and ran tests for all 3 stages of the lighting process.

The top half is the connections on my replacement tyc halogen housing lights. It might not be the same as the oem halogens but as long as you can identify which is the power and ground for the corner/low/and hi beam lights you should be all set.


FOR THE CORNER/PARKING LIGHTS
POWER:Use the 3rd/bottom row , 2nd column connector to get power for the corners. These could be for drls or whatever but it was the only terminal that fed 12v while the rest were either 0 or 0.5

GROUND: top right pin

RESULT: The corner light turns on when you toggle the first stage of the light controls on the steering wheel stem. Pic rel for halogen vs led
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Excuse the dirty led housing since Its still covered in snow/road grime.

FOR THE LOW BEAMS see bottom left of diagram
POWER: use the pin on the 2nd row, 1st column. In the diagram it shows the corner terminal is still reading volts also which is intended functionality

GROUND: top right yet again

RESULT: Corner lights should be on as well as the low beam on the halogen. Matches functionality on the led.
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cont. next post due to image uploading issues
 

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#2 ·
FOR THE HIGH BEAMS (see diagram bottom right)

POWER:use the 1st column, 3rd row connector aka the bottom left. Since highbeam is the last step of the light toggle all 3 lights should be active and giving a reading when you turn the highbeams on

GROUND: top right again because we are neanderthals who use the same ground wire during testing for a triple light load

RESULT: all 3 lights should be on corner/ lowbeam and highbeam when the highbeam is triggered. Halogen left /oem led right pic
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THE BIG ISSUE LEFT*

So as with all good things, there is some bad. The bad here is these oem leds come with extra sensors and bs. The primary issue is there will be a flashing bulb icon at all times on your dash board once anything is modified (or if anything happens to one of the oem leds in general).
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The ONLY reason why I call this an issue is idk what will happen for the US fellow drivers who need to do that bi-annual or however frequent 'emissions testing', or other countries with their gov mandated 'inspections'. Technically nothing has been altered or is a safety risk but again it depends on how the machine goes to accept this during the test. Is it annoying? Very especially since it is flashing and not just a solid light. Ive seen others say they cleared it with a obd tool but that makes me worried as to how a obd tool can even do that since its mainly used for clearing check engine lights which this is not, or the alternative is this will show up on a cel reading test and cause test failure which is what has me worried. Im still goood for another year and a half so ill probably report back then to how good or bad i do with this on.

Ill try to do some more research on this to see what others have done in other forums or if we can somehow trick the unit by transplanting the circuitboards of the led units on the side and wire it into this if only for just turning the light off but who knows whatll happen tbh lol.


Bonus pic: me failing to make a harness and crimping terminals like an animal
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#3 · (Edited)
Also worth noting that the halogens actually suck but can be replaced with hids or led bulbs. So the main reason for this is to have the replacable bulb option not the cough-another-grand-to-your-dealer oem leds

I also swear i have a normal 5 finger hand yet somehow always end up catching ai looking hand gestures lol
 
#5 ·
Semi related update:
I spoke to the guy who does my emissions test and he clarified that the warning bulb would not be an issue (at least i regards for the state of ct but should apply elsewhere as well). They focus primarily on cel and any tampering of the emissions system or any critical safety issues such as airbag light which would result in an auto fail. Thankfully this seems to be a external unrelated system similar to how you can pass emissions inspections with a TPMS light on as well which is should alleviate some concerns as to whether this kind of "mod downgrade" is allowed for the sake of the bi annual inspections.đź‘Ť
 
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