Mazda 3 (2004-2009) - DIY Angel Eyes

Mazda 3 (2004-2009)
Production	2004-2009
Platform	Ford C1 platform
Engine(s)	1.4 L MZR I4; 1.5 L MZR I4; 1.6 L MZR I4; 2.0 L MZR I4; 2.3 L MZR I4; 1.6 L MZ-CD I4; 2.0 L MZR-CD I4
Transmission(s)	5-speed automatic; 4-speed automatic; 5-speed manual; 6-speed manual
Length	2004-06 i Sedan: 178.3 in; 2004-06 s Sedan: 4540 mm (178.7 in); 2004-06 Hatchback: 4485 mm (176.6 in); 2007-09 i Sedan: 177.4 in; 2007-09 s Sedan: 177.6 in; 2007-present Hatchback: 176.8
Width	1755 mm (69.1 in)
Height	1465 mm (57.7 in)
Curb weight	1180-1315 kg (2600-2900 lb)

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[edit] Tools Needed

Metric Socket Set
Assorted Screw Drivers
Dremel rotary tool
Rotary cutting blades
Hand Drill or drill press
Assorted drill bit sizes
Electronics Soldering Iron/Pen
Electronics Solder
Wire stripper

[edit] Supplies Needed

Blind Rods(replacement Wands Can be purchased at Home Depot)
Foil Tape
3mm LEDs (5mm are a little on the big side, and w/ the 3mm you can fit 2 or 3 x 3mm leds)
White - 17000mcd at 20 degrees
Blue - 13000mcd at 20 degrees
Silicone sealant
24AWG gauge wire
16AWG gauge wire
Mazda Auto Fuse
Heat Shrink Tubing assorted sizes
Crazy/Super Glue
Clear Nail Polish

[edit] Instructions

[edit] Angel Eye Construction

Gather the two round objects that you are going to use to shape the rings.
Cut the 4 pieces of Hexagon shaped Rod, two pieces for the high beam and two pieces for the low beam. This shows the proper shaped rod to use.

Rod Shape
Preheat the Oven to 300
Spray or spread a little cooking/Olive oil on either a cookie tray with tinfoil on it or a butcher block to prevent the rod from sticking. Place the rod on top and place in oven. The benefit of the butcher block is that it heats slower.
Watch the rod very closely through the oven door. The second it starts to curve or distort its hot enough.
Pull it out of the oven, and immediately place the round object next to the rod but between you and the rod.
Pull the two ends of the rod towards you. While keeping the rod from twisting and keeping the flat side down.

Rod Shape
Let the ring finish cooling and then rinse and wipe the oil from the newly made ring.
Print out the Ring Template. When Printing set "Scale" to "None".

Angel Eyes to Scale CAD
Mark the cut marks on the ring. Using either a dremel with a cutting blade or a hacksaw, cut the ring to correct angular size.

Proper Rod Shape
Next find a very small drill bit to drill the pilot holes in the end of the rod for the LED. Its preferable to use a hand drill or a drill press as the low speed will prevent the plastic from melting.
Next find a bit to match the size of the 3mm LED. Again a hand drill or drill press will work better than the dremel. Test fit the LED to make sure they fit and that the little flange sits close to flush against the end of the ring.

Ring Drilled
The next step is to put the cuts on the back of the ring. Its best to print out the template, glue it to some thin cardboard like a cereal box or bristol board. Then use a box cutter or xacto knife to cut out 10 slits. Use this in conjunction with a marker to mark the cut locations on the ring.

Mazda 3 Rings
Using the marked ring use a suitable dremel blade to cut all the marked locations on the back of the ring. The cuts should be very shallow, and just enough to mark the plastic.....maybe 1mm deep. Use a diamond bit or something similar to get nice small cuts. Only ONE side of the hexagon needs to be cut. When the ring is flipped over it will appear as if its cut on three faces.

Diamond Bit

Ring Drilled Cut
Now that the ring is complete, put some nail polish in the holes where the LEDs go. Then insert the LEDs. Insert the LEDs in such a way to allow for easy wiring. If using two series LEDs makes sure the positive lead of one is next to the negative lead of the other. The nail polish will act like a glue to some degree and allows a clear medium for the light to pass through.

LEDs Mounted

Two LEDs

Three LEDs

Three LED Ring
Solder the leds together, then solder on the wires.
Mark the wires with a permanent marker for later so that the positive leads can be determined from the ground wire.
Once the solder has cooled, take silicone and coat the solder joints to prevent shorting and to prevent the foil tape from shorting them out.
Cut a small strip of foil tape about 3/4" wide. Put half of it on the ring to prevent light from coming out of the sides of the ring and put the other half over the wiring. Press the foil tape nicely on the rings and twist it around the wires to prevent light from escaping from the back.

Small Rings

Large and Small Rings

All Rings

[edit] Angel Eye Installation

Remove the 11 8mm (or phillips) screws on the bottom of the bumper.
Remove the two big phillips screws by the hood latch
Remove the two big plastic with rubber bumpers (use a small flat head to pop up the collar, then pull the entire thing out)
Take off the two plastic phillips clips holding the mud shield back in the wheel well towards the front. (per side)
Pull back the shield alittle and you'll see another 8mm screw by the bumper seam, take it off. (per side)
Bumper is now free but still hanging in place. By the hood latch will be two big hooks that clip onto the sub frame. After you slightly pull these up the bumper is now in your hands.
Remove the wiring for fog lights if applicable. And all other wiring. Set bumper aside.
Disconnect the wiring from both of the headlight assemblies
Remove the screws/bolts holding the headlight assemblies in place.

Head Light Removal

Head Light Removal

Head Light Removal

Head Light Removal
On the bottom of the headlight assembly is a large plastic 'frame'. One phillips holds it on, then there are pressure clips on either side.
Remove the bulbs from the headlight assembly.
Remove the rubber seal from the low beam portion of the headlight assembly.
Pre-heat the oven to 200.
Put the headlight assembly on a cookie tray and place in the oven for 15minutes. Start at the outside edge of the assembly closest to the highbeam and start by pulling on the lense and prying the clips at the same time. This is where it helps to have two people.

Bake and Peel
Remove the phillips screws holding the middle piece to the outside clear part.

Separate Lens From Chrome
Check the fit of the rings and determine their location.
Run the wires through the piece by running the wires for the small ring through the holes in the chrome. Run the wires for the large ring up and between the front chrome ring and the chrome bowl.
Scratch the chrome surface so that the crazy/super glue has something to adhere to. The scratches should be located exactly in the position where the foil tape on the ring is located. Getting glue on the back of the ring will negatively affect the look of the ring. Use the glue sparingly.

Glue Ring to Chrome

Glue Ring to Chrome

Glue Ring to Chrome

Glue Ring to Chrome
Let glue dry for at least 1 hour or cure overnight. As a caution note that crazy glue can be a little more brittle. So a clear silicone can also work effectively but take note that most silicones take up to 24hrs to fully cure.

Glue Ring to Chrome
Using a wood workers tack cloth gently pick up any dust and particles from the inside of the headlight assembly.
Put the chrome piece with the rings into the Front half of the headlight assembly, and secure the two phillips screws.
Carefully guiding all the wires through the Low beam hole as indicated by the big red circle.(ignore the other wires in the picture)

Wires

Wires
Make sure to test the Rings before baking the two halves and putting them together.

Rings Turned On
Pre-heat the oven to 200.
Place the two halves back into the oven for 10minutes on the cookie sheet.
Place the pointy end of the lense into the back half of the housing first. Then work the lense back into all the clips. Alternately if using a heat gun, work the heat gun around the two halves to warm the glue. Use some wood clamps to provide pressure to the two halves and to help seal the two halves together.
Once the two halves are together, use the silicone to seal the two halves of the headlight assembly.
Prior to putting the bumper back on, solder the resistor that was calculated on the end of each appropriate wire. To calculate the resistor needed:
For example, each white LED used in my angel eyes have a max voltage rating of 3.8V(often refered to as Forward Voltage or Vf) and draw 25mA of current(this should be indicated in the datasheed or on the LED package). So to calculate the resistor I need to use so that the LED doesn't fail, we use:

R = (Car Voltage - LED Forward Voltage) / LED current draw = (12V - 3.8V) / .025A = 328ohms

The car will often run higher than 12V so the LEDs are being over driven a little. If you can't find an exact resistor, just move up to the next closest resistor, which should be a couple ohms higher.
Slide a small piece of heatshrink over the solder joint of the resistor and wire.
Use a Heat gun or lighter to shrink the heat shrink into place.
Put the bottom piece of the headlight assembly back on, insert the bulbs, and put the low beam rubber seal back on.
Bolt the headlight assembly back onto the car.
Reverse the process above to put the bumper back on.
Plug the headlight assembly cables back onto the headlights.

[edit] Wiring Installation

Refer to the following schematics for wiring ideas: Icecubetray's Dual LED/color w/ switch Schematic:

Ckong1's Single color LED w/o switch Schematic:

[edit] Switch Installation

Driver's Side

Remove the side trim, first by getting rid of the fastener, and then pulling the whole plate out (if you want, you can remove the scuff plate right next to it first, just pull on it)

Remove Kick Cover
Pull the whole mechanism towards the back of the car and it should unclip, drop down and out. You may need to put a flat head behind it towards the front of the car and pry as you pull it. Make sure to put the flat head between the screw and the mechanism.

Unscrew Hood latch
Remove the screw behind the lever.

Screw Behind the Lever
You'll need to pull the whole lower panel off. I did this by starting on the right side, just grab it on the bottom and pull, there are just a lot of tabs holding it on.

Pull Dash
After you get the right side off, pull on the left side. The whole lower panel should detach.

Pull Dash
Once the Panel is off remove the connectors. The Blue and grey connector can be remove from the back side of the panel. The OBD pulls out the back but requires using a flathead screwdriver to pry the tabs from the front of the panel.

Panel Off

Remove Harnesses
Once the Panel is removed, the spare switch slot can be removed. Push the tabs and slide the spare slot out of the front of the panel.

Panel Off

Panel Off
Remove blank switch cap by prying the tabs with a screwdriver.

Blank Switch Cap

Blank Switch Cap
Place the switch over the blank switch cap and pencil the switch location.

Blank Switch Cap
Use a dremel and file to relieve a spot for the switch.

Switch Cut Out
Put the switch into the blank. Use a little glue if necessary. Use the dremel to relieve the back half in order for the switch plate to be able to clip in.

Switch Plate
Prepare the cable for the switch by cutting 3 pieces of 16AWG a length of 12 to 15 feet. I used two red pieces and 1 black. I placed 6 feet of cable expando cover over the wire to cover the wire that goes from the switch to the fuse box in the engine compartment. Straighten a clothes hanger and bend the tip over the wire with a pair of pliers.

Wire
Remove the Battery cover. Take the clothes hanger and push it through the hole in the firewall where the hood release cable passes through. Pull the wire through until the Cable expando comes through.

Battery Cover

Battery

Firewall
Route the wire on and up through the dash and away from the clutch. Tie wrap it with the other wires going to the switch panel. Take the dash panel and place it in the foot-well of the car and seat and pass the wire through the dash panel hole where the switch is to go. Then slide the back part of the switch onto the wire.

Wire and Switch
Solder the wires to the switch. The black to the center and the reds on the outer terminals. Then clip the switch black onto the backing piece.

Solder Wire

Solder Wire
Pull some of the extra wire into the engine compartment. Insert the switch into the dash panel and put the dash panel back onto the dash. Put the screw back into the location where the hood release lever goes. Then put the hood release lever back in. Put the kick panel back into place.

Dash Panel

Dash Panel

Dash Panel
Remove the fuse box cover. Route the wire in the engine compartment to the entrance of the fuse block.

Fuse Box
Remove the 10mm bolt holding the fuse block down and then remove the main harness connector. There is a little black clip holding the blue lever that needs to be pushed aside before pulling up the blue lever.

Fuse Block

Fuse Block
To seperate the two halves of the fuse box, use a flat head screwdriver to pry apart the clips around the side of the box, pulling as you go. The two sides should now be separated.

Fuse Box
Place the wires in the bottom of the fuse box. Take the black wire and push it up through the fuse box through the spot where there is a blank spot for a fuse. Run the Red wires out the other side of the fuse box. Put the two halves of the fuse box together, put back the connector and put back the 10mm bolt.

Fuse Box
Leave lots of black wire in the bottom of the fuse box. Solder the black wire to a 10amp fuse and place in the blank spot.

Solder to Fuse

[edit] Wiring the Assembled Ringed Headlight Assembly

On the First Headlight assembly group all the common wires. Tape all the Ground wires together, Blue LED wires together and White leds together.

Tape Wires
Solder the Ground wires together.

Solder Ground Wires
Next wrap the wire around the resistor for one of the white LED wires.

Resistor
Solder the resistor to the wire.

Solder Resistor
Cut off extra resistor lead.

Resistor Lead
Cut a piece of heat shrink and slide it over the solder joint. Use a lighter or heatgun to shrink the heat shrink.

Heat Shrink
Repeat the process for the remaining white LED wires.

All Resistors
Group all the resistors together, twist the leads together and solder them.

All Rings
Repeat the process if you have blue LEDS and wire. The following picture shows the finished wiring for the headlight assembly.

All Resistors
Repeat the same process for the second headlight. Put all the bulbs back in as well as the rubber covers for the high and low beam. Feed the wires through the center of the low beam cover.
As a nice clean connect/disconnect for the headlight assembly, crimp lugs can be used. Ckong1 shows the crimp lugs he has used to seperate the wiring of the headlight assembly from the chassis wiring.

Crimp Lugs

Crimp Lugs
Locate the Grounding point on the driver's side of the car right in behind where the headlight would go.

Driver's side grounding point
Locate the Grounding point on the passenger's side of the car right in behind where the headlight would go.

Passenger's side grounding point
Take a ring lug and cut an open in it. Crimp a piece of wire onto the lug. Then take the Lug and wire, loosen the ground point and slide the ground wire/Lug under the ground point. Repeat for both sides.

Ring lug

Driver's side grounding point

Passenger's side grounding point
Take a 1 to 1.5ft piece of cable expando and slide it over the two wires coming from the switch. Squeeze it down and tie wrap it to hold it in place, so that way it can cover the splices later. The long wire from the fuse box will go to the passenger side and the spliced wires will go to the driver side. Slide two pieces of heat shrink down the two long wires. Slice some sheeth off the long wires and wrap the new wire around it.

Cable expando
Solder the wires together, cover with Heatshrink, and shrink the heatshrink.

Heat shrink
Add a 4ft long piece of cable expando to the long set of wires that will cross the front of the engine bay.

Cable expando
Tiewrap the wiring starting from the fuse box all the way to the passenger side headlight.

Tiewrap

Tiewrap
Start by cutting a piece of heatshrink and sliding over the ground wire. Twist the ground wire to the ground wires coming out of the headlight. Solder the wires together, slide the heatshrink over and use a lighter or heatgun to shrink the heat shrink.
If you are using multiple colors and a switch determine which of the wires corresponds which switch position. This can be done by setting the switch in the car to the 1 position, using a multimeter in resistance mode and measuring between each wire and the wire at the fuse box.
Take the appropriate wire, and slide a small piece of heatshrink and a large piece onto the wire. Twist the wire to the wire coming out of the heatlight, solder and then cover with the pieces of heatshrink. The following picture shows the finished wiring.

Finished wiring
Repeat the process for the other headlight.
Reconnect all the original headlight wiring.
Put the fuse and wire into the fuse location.
Put the key in the ignition and set it to the run position.
If using the switch verify both colors turn on.
Bolt the headlights back in and put the bumper back on.
Finished product!

DIY Angel Eyes