The plan:
Wait for sun to set; go to a local grocery store; aim car at large brick wall; align headlights; go home.

The reality:
Went to the store. Open hood. Adjust left/right top screws. Can't quite see/reach the bottom screw (height) - take off airbox snorkus. Try and adjust - drop screwdriver into (hot) engine bay (at night, mind you, and without the foresight of having a flashlight.) Retrieve screwdriver. Give up on screwdriver. Place screwdriver off to side. Remove STi front grill. Drop plastic fastener into engine bay. Give up on plastic fastener. Un-bolt light. Pull out light. Adjust light with ratchet. Replace light. Check beam pattern. Repeat last four steps 9 times. Use leveler switch in car to check functionality. Audible "pop". Inspect light. Shake light. [rattles]. Curse. Install light with 1 bolt. Throw snorkus & grill in back seat. Shut hood. Go to start car... battery dead. (Didn't want to adjust lights with extra heat from the car being on.) Walk to bar. Meet friends. Drink. Ask for jumpstart. Buy drinks. More drinks. Repeat. Close bar. Get "ride" to car - this guy should not be driving! Scold friend. Get assistance from roommate and drive friend home. Watch friend pee on his own passenger door. Think twice about calling "shotgun" in the future. Limp home. Continue drinking 'till the wee hours.

Today. Make coffee. Drink coffee. Look at car. Curse. Open hood. Retrieve screwdriver from engine bay from last night. Slap forehead. Curse (head hurts from hangover.) Pre-heat oven......

So, anyway... I over adjusted. When the leveler motor took over, it backed the ball joint out of its socket. Then of course the socket has to leave its spot and rattle around inside. Dammit.

Now, one of my lights that set me back a grand has been popped open twice by an incompetent (me) and returned to active duty. Anyone with any fear of the headlight mod - rest assured... its very do-able. I'll have to say, second time around, opening with the added silicone was an extra pain in the butt.

So, all is well. Granted, I haven't seen them at night yet. On the bright side, I was able to fix one high-beam that was out. I thought it was a bad bulb... nope... my bad wiring skilz. If I have any more issues with these lights I'm going back to stock... or buying EDMs.
:rolleyes:

That bites. Hope you find no more demons after dark tonight.

lol.. I droped a few things down the engine bay too when I was clearing my headlight. =) haha.

the most funny story Ive read on these boards in a while :)

that's exactly why i got EDM's. I don't trust myself with doing little technical BS, so i just buy it all set up. cuz i am a lazy mofo it also pushed me to spend the extra $. hope you get your stuff straight.

All is well... they're a little higher than I want them, but that's no biggie. I can set the leveler switch to "1" and drive around without too much guilt, but "0" is just for open roads. Of course I've still got my OEM turbo-back in the trunk, so maybe it's set perfect.

Yeah, EDMs would have been better... damn Euro is so high, JDM HIDs run the same as regular EDM projectors... its hard to not be tempted.

Next up, convert the right-hand drive JDM Trunk-monkey to left-hand drive... he keeps getting out and going to the passenger door instead of the driver door. Sigh.

Does anyone have a link of intall instructions?

its all on scooby mods. If you have any specific questions, ask me... I've done it myself.

haha..that is a funny story.unfortunately most of my stories are like that as well. just need to find the humor in it all ;

that is so true when you're dealing with custom headlight setups!

Yep, and I thought the exhaust would be hard.

Good storytelling! I enjoyed the read :D

Hey boner,
Got any tips for me? I'm about to do the right to left hand JDM conversion.
Great story too.
Todd

Tips... hmm...
First off... get the leveling switch/motor setup. Something I never thought of while doing this mod, and something that other people haven't thought of as well... The STi has a different suspension. If you swap the WRX's suspension out for the v7 STi setup, your front lowers more then your rear... over an inch in the front & less than 3/4 of an inch in the rear... ergo, your lights point down more. I believe that without the lowering motor, even if you DON'T do the mod, your lights will be too high. Doing the mask grinding mod does increase the available height of the lights as well. Before you know it, you'll be trying to point the damn things to the ground popping them out of their sockets every time. Right now I have the things maxed out at their lowest possible setting, and I still have the leveling motor set at '1' and feel guilty. The highest possible setting being '0' and the lowest being '3' out of four total positions.

So, tips... while you have the things busted open, learn which direction adjusts the lights which way. Make a note. Write it on some paper. Before you reassemble them, max them out to their lowest possible point. That way, when you're adjusting them, you know you can only go up. It will save you the hassle of breaking them open yet another time.

Other than that, follow Stanton's info on scoobymods to the letter. Buy a couple of crappy, small, flat blade screwdrivers that you know you will ruin by covering them in sealer tar. Have a disposable knife/scissors handy for the tar strings. Grind carefully. Be anal-retentive. Don't over-grind. Any mistake on grinding will be blown up super life-sized infront of you for the rest of your car's life. Keep the flats FLAT. And the curves SMOOTH. Use high-heat, flat paint. Cure the high-heat paint as best you can, because your oven prob doesn't get hot enough. Double and triple check your connections before you think you screwed up... I thought I blew out a high beam, but I just pulled out the plug during the install.

Of course, last, but not least... make a harness or use someone's pre-fab harnesses... that way, when you really screw up, you can just plug the old lights back in.

Good luck... feel free to send some PMs with any other questions.

Thanks for the help. One other question, I'm ready to get a leveling harness. When I plug the harness in and attach the switch do the motors preset to adjust automatically to the switch setting? What I mean is that say I have the levelers already adjusted to the lowest setting manually in the headlights. Then I attach the switch and harnes with the switch set to the highest level (this example is just hypothetical). Will the motors automatically raise the lights? Or will they stay where they are and if I turn the switch to a lower setting the lights will then move lower and probably pop out of the socket?
Todd

That's a good question, but the answer isn't that straight forward. The motors are like "servos", and will rotate/locate to match the position of the switch. If the motors were last used in the lowest position, then they will either not move, or move only "up" depending on the switch position.

The manual adjustment leaves the motor in its position, and allows "slip" to the new position. The motor will still perform its up/down adjustment from the new position. So, your concern over adjusting the lamp all the way down, but then having the motor go down further and mess things up, is a valid one. Boner's is a good suggestion, just make sure the motor is in its lowest position before starting the mod.