[MO in TO]

IT CAN BE DONE EASILY!

Many Murano owners including myself, with the desire to swap out their OEM halogen headlight assemblies have been able to follow on the heels of the pioneers that spent time determining first if it was possible, and second, how to get the high beams to function. FYI - The Murano HID headlights incorporate high quality projectors, which take the light output from the gas filled D2S 4300K Xenon bulbs, and evenly blend and focus its spectrum and project it forward through a controlled aperature. This aperature is actually a solenoid controlled shutter mechanism, that raises the cut-off point of the projected light when the high beam stalk is activated. Much the same as opening your eyelid further, this allows the light to exit at a higher point, resulting in a beam projected further down the road. This conversion is simple and can be done by anyone with a few simple hand tools. Expect the entire process to take 2-4 hours for both headlights depending on your skills.

Thanks goes out to many forum members for their contributions in this conversion, namely in no particular order:

SugarRushMurano
Eric L.
jack (former Canadian MO owner)
jaak
ekaxel
zebelkhan

 

[MO in TO]

Materials List

You will need:

1 - 12 Volt automotive relay, rated at 30 amps. It can have either four or five pins.

2 - 1/4" stud crimp ring terminals 14-16 gauge for battery connection and ground lug

4 - female tongue crimp terminal connectors 14-16 gauge for relay connections. Mkae sure the tongues are wide enough to slide onto the relay terminals.

20 - feet of automtive insulted wire - 14 gauge would be best, all one colour is fine.

1 - small roll of roughly 1/4" plastic wire protector (discretionary).

1 - 15A weather resistant inline fuse with wire pigtails.

 

[MO in TO]

Relay

The relay should look like this, with the numbers 30 , 85, 86, 87 (and possibly 87A) visible on the case:

 

[MO in TO]

Tool List

You will require the following tools:

10mm socket, wrench and extension (the more compact the socket size the easier to reach the bolts)

small flat blade screwdriver, about 3/16" will do (to pop open plastic clips, etc.)

phillips screwdriver - to remove trim under the hood

wire cutters

terminal crimpers (vise grips will do)

soldering iron / paste flux / solder

electrical tape

masking tape - to mark wires, (and protect surface of bumper if you wish)

 

[MO in TO]

HID OEM Headlights

OK, so now you have everything you need, except the headlights. The occasional bargain may be found at a wreckers, but you would be best to track on eBay, and expect to pay roughly US $200 - $300 per headlight assembly in good to excellent condition. This would be complete including the ballast (which fires the bulb), all wiring, and hopefully all bulbs. FYI - Stock bulbs are in the 4300K (Kelvin) temperature spectrum. These emit a slighly bluish, pure white light and have the highest light output. Increasing the temperature will make the headlights apprear more blueish, but at the cost of intensity. Also, keep in mind that some areas of jurisdiction may have laws prohibiting anything higher than stock, so you are best to stick with them for liability reasons. Dealer price on the OEM HID's complete is in excess of $700 each, so you would be best to look elsewhere, unless cost is of little concern. Keep in mind there is also an aftermarket for Halogen assemblies, likley to replace damaged units, so you can recoup some of your investment by selling yours if they are removed cleanly and in good shape. They may sell for anywhere from $75 - $150 at auction.

 

[MO in TO]

Lets Go! - Step 1

Removal of Halogen Headlight Assemblies:

Carefully remove the front chrome grill as per instructions found here with thanks to member Corin.

Next pop out the two upper plastic clips inside the top of each wheel well as shown below. To remove these reuseable clips, simply use your flat tip screwdriver to pry the centre portion out about a 1/4", then gently pull on the entire clip with your thumb and fingers. Much like an expending toggle bolt, these can later be re-used upon reassembly.

 

[MO in TO]

Plastic toggle clips

These are the two upper clips in the wheelwell:

 

[MO in TO]

Step 2

Now that the clips are out, and the grill is removed, pry open the two upper halves of the wheel well plastic liners by hand to expose the back of the headlight. This is how you can access the headlight to change a bulb in the future as well. The plastic is very flexible as long as the temperature is warm, so don't be afraid to flex it.

Next, you will see a 10mm bolt inside the wheel well where the fender meets the bumper skin. Remove this bolt. Doing this will allow you to flex the bumper skin for easier removal of the headlight housing.

 

[MO in TO]

Step 3

Now to remove the headlight...........

You will find four 10mm bolts that need to be taken out. They are located as follows:

1 - on top of the grill rail visible inside the engine compartment (even without any disassembly), this is the easy one.

2 - directly behind where the front grill would be at the outside edges (impossible to reach without removing the grill as explained above

3 - on the top of the fender mount from inside the wheel well

4 - just below bolt # 3 at a different angle, you can feel it with your fingers, it goes from front to back.

Both # 3 and # 4 can be seen in this picture:

 

[MO in TO]

Step 4

Gently remove the headlight assemblies and disconnect the grey coloured main wiring harness connector on each headlight as you do so. You may need to pull the bumper skin out a bit to create the addtional room required to manouver the assemblies out. Take a look at the connector on your new assembly so you understand how it mates. You do not want to break the connector, it does come apart easily.

 

[MO in TO]

Step 5

Modify the new HID assemblies so your high beams will work!

You only need to modify ONE side for both high beam shutters to operate. I suggest the drivers side because it is closest to the required battery connection.

The large grey connector on the drivers side HID unit only is to be modified as follows:

Take note that there are two solid red wires on the connector, plus a red wire with a white stripe amongst others. You need to identify the heavier gauge solid red wire that runs to the grey square ballast assembly attached to the headlight.

 

[MO in TO]

Step 6

Ok, here is where I made my mistake. You must splice two wires in here and I used those plastic crimp connectors to make it easy. The problem was, one did not make good contact and as a result, when I operated my high beams, my headlights cut out totally. SugarRushMurano prompted me to recheck all my connections, and voila!

As per the image below, (but DO NOT use plastic splices), without cutting the wires strip about 1/2" of insulation from both the solid red, (identified above), and the red with white stripe, about an inch away from the grey connector they attach to.

Alternatively, you can cut these wires and strip about 3/8" of insulation from each if that is easier for you.

Take two lengths of the wire you bought, about four feet each, (which will be way too much but makes them easier to run up once the unit is installed) and strip the ends and SOLDER one lead to each of the two exposed connector wires. Label the one to the solid red as #30, and the one to the red with white stripe as #85 at both ends of the wire with masking tape or whatever. Clean off your soldered connections, and wrap them each good with electrical tape. Thats it, ready to reinstall the headlights!

 

[MO in TO]

Step 7

Install both headlight assemblies in the reverse order you removed the old ones. You can reassemble the entire front end before going any further, or wait until you are done, it's up to you.

Be sure the two new wires on the drivers side headlight (that were spliced in) are pulled up into the engine compartment as you install the headlight, and make sure the numbers you marked them with are readily visible for you. Don't worry, you can slide some wire protector down over them after if you want to make them tidy.

 

[ekaxel]

I assume that there is more of this to come.
A great piece of work!
I still think that using two separate relays, one for each side is a slightly better solution, although therte is a little more wiring required. Using two relays keeps the two sides on separate fuses, as Nissan originally designed it. With the single relay, a fuse blowing failure on either side can take out both sides.
Keep up the good work!

 

[MO in TO]

Step 8

Find a suitable location to mount the relay where it will be away from lots of heat, and can be protected as best as possible. You also need a good grounding location for your ground wire. I used the two 10mm bolts on the bracket that once held my airbox, and now supports my pop charger air intake. I suspect even with an airbox, this spot would still be good.

 

[MO in TO]

Step 9

Before physically mounting the relay, but after you have decided where to mount it, cut the leads #30 and #85 from the HID assembly to the desired length, crimp female connectors on each, and firmly slide the connectors onto the matching terminals marked on the relay.

Now cut two more lengths of wire to an approriate length to reach your battery and grounding location, crimp a female connector to each, mark one #87, one #86, and attach these to the other two terminals on the relay appropriately numbered. If your relay has a terminal in the centre (five pins instead of four) simply do not use it. (An extra pin will likley be marked either 87 or 87A.)

Using a small permanent marker, it would be wise to mark the wire numbers right on the insulation of the terminal connectors for future reference.

Double check your wire connections are solid, and wrap the relay with electrical tape to keep the weather out.

Mount the relay.

 

[MO in TO]

Step 10, almost done!

First - Cut your ground wire #86 to an appropriate length and crimp a ring terminal connector to it. Attch this lead to a good ground, again I used one of the boilts going to the fender mount for the airbox.

Next - Install an inline fuse rated at 15A on lead #87 close to the relay. You can buy a weather resistant fuse holder with a fuse and a short wire pigtail one each end. Solder these connections and wrap with electrical tape.

On the other end of this wire, crimp a 1/4" ring connector on at an appropriate length for the wire to attach to the positive terminal of the battery as shown. If you cut a small slice in the plastic battery terminal cap, and face the terminal ring connector forward, you can close the cover. This fuse will protect the wiring harness in the event of a short circuit caused by a collision or such.

 

[MO in TO]

Connect the fused lead #87 directly to the battery as indicated. It should look like this:

 

[MO in TO]

You are done!

If you want, wrap the wires with some plastic wire protector, and make it look as professional as possible. Make sure your wires do not touch any hot engine parts.

Power up and test your installation!

There is a small white plastic screw on the back of each headlight assembly that is accessible from inside the engine compartment. This screw can turn about twenty full revolutions and is used for major adjustments. I would highly suggest you take your Murano into the shop to have your headlights professionally aimed. That way you have a work order for your files that states you are in compliance. Since these lights are very powerful, this would prevent any claims against you for blinding oncoming traffic.

Time to celebrate and enjoy the fruit of your labour :7:

 

[Eric L.]

Deleted my post above to clean things up. Excellent writeup MO in TO. Its been stickied.