Butts In Seats

 

Swapping Older Beetle Sport Seats Into A 06 Beetle TDI

In my quest to build a better Daily Driver New Beetle, I decided to add something to my TDI Beetle, “better” seats.

My Wife has a 02 Beetle Sport Turbo that has some very nice leather Sport Seats, that I wanted for my car.

Sadly my car has the Plain Jane Vinyl Seats, which are in excellent condition, but lacking in comfort and support.

However, my lovely Wife already nixed the idea of robbing the seats out of her car, and swapping mine in for hers.

Rude.

So I started checking FB Marketplace for a set.

After a few false starts, I located someone selling a 01 Sport Beetle with Black Leather Sport seats for cheap. Told him I just wanted the seats, he told me he didn’t care what I wanted, and wanted the whole car gone.

So I bought a running, barely driveable Beetle, just for the seats in it.

Yup. I did that. That was me.

Got the car to my buddy’s shop and proceeded to swap out the seats, when I discovered that VW added a “Passenger Occupancy Detection System” in the 06 up Beetle.

Great.

Seats physically fit in the car, but my Passenger Airbag Warning Light on the center dash blinked constantly, another warning light in the Gauge Cluster, and the Seat Belt dinger wouldn’t shut up until you buckled the Passenger Seatbelt.

At this point I could buy a PODS Emulator from someone online or experiment with resistors installed in the plug to fix it, but I decided, “Hey. Let me overthink this.”

And here we are.

After looking at both Passenger seats, it didn’t look like swapping the PODS sensors, wiring and seat pad would be that hard.

It wasn’t, but there was some modifications and additions required for the Sport Seats to go into my car.

I’ll try to document those details here.

Remove seats from the car. (Duh)

Disconnect the Positive Battery Terminal before you go and start unplugging Airbag connectors. Supposedly the Airbag circuit isn’t “HOT” unless the Ignition is switched on, but why take the chance if you don’t have to?

Removal of the PODS equipment from the 06 Seats wasn’t that hard. There are three studs with nuts installed, holding the PODS Control Box/Bracket and another Plastic Bracket for the various connectors under the car.

The PODS harness connector, Seat Belt Indicator connector, and Side Airbag connector clip to the plastic bracket and can be released from the bracket using a scribe or small flat tip screwdriver to release the plugs from the plastic bracket.

You’ll also need to swap the Seat Belt Buckles between the two seats, as the 06 Seat Belt Buckle has wiring for the PODS integrated with it.

With the Seatbelt Buckle, PODS Module, Brackets and Wiring Harness removed the only thing left is the Pressure Mat under the Passenger Seat Cushion. There are 4 plastic friction pegs holding the Pressure Mat in place after you loosen the seat cover to access the cushion.

So with everything removed from the 06 Seat, go ahead get the older Sport Seat prepped.

It looks like VW didn’t change the wiring for the Side Airbags from the 01 model to 06.

All the connectors for the Airbags are the same and the wiring is pinned out the same in all the connectors, with some possible differences in the wire colors.

To make it short, I didn’t swap Airbags between seats and just plugged everything in like before. I’m not throwing any errors or Fault Codes when scanned with VCDS, so I’m thinking as far as the new Beetles go, it’s Plug and Play if you’re swapping different year New Beetle seats in.

This may not apply if you’re installing seats from a different model VW car. In that case, you might need to rewire the plugs or run a jumper harness.

The Sport Seat bottom pan will need a small section of the pan removed to accommodate the hose and sensor from the pressure mat. There should be a picture that shows the area to be removed in white paint. I cut out the area with a cutoff wheel, cleaned it up with a metal burr tool and dressed the edges with a small file. Hit it with some black spray paint to cover up the bare metal.

White Paint Marks The Spot

Almost Looks Factory

The Sport Seats didn’t have studs to mount the PODS Control Box and the plastic Connector Bracket, so I ground down the heads on 3 bolts with the same thread pitch as the mounting nuts, and installed the Control Box and plastic Connector Bracket in place while the bottom Seat Cushion was accessible. If you want to go the extra mile, you could tack weld the bolts in place or use some JB Weld to hold them in place.

I Need To Clean The Garage Up

Install the Pressure Mat in the Sport Seat bottom pan with the 4 friction pegs, and run the Hose/Wiring for the Mat under the seat. Go ahead and route all your wiring and make any connections you need to.

I was worried I might have to shave the bottom of the Sport Seat cushion because of the Pressure Mat, but everything seems to be working fine in my car.

The Seat Cover reinstalled easily enough with some extra pressure during reinstall and the Sensor Mat seems to be working fine. I imagine someone might need to remove some material on a case by case basis.

After I reinstalled the seat, hooked up the connectors and reconnected the battery, it was time to see if it worked.

My Passenger Airbag Warning stopped blinking like it was having an epileptic fit, and it stopped beeping until you plugged the Passenger Seat Belt in.

Neat. Well that was certainly worth it.

Captain Overachiever Strikes Again!

 I Hate Cars.

Actually this is all my own fault.

I've been working on the 06 TDI Beetle I picked up recently and managed to knock out a lot of work on it.

Timing Belt/Water Pump

Oil Changed

Replaced the Head Unit with a modern Single DIN Android Auto Head Unit (Power Akoustic CP71W)

Repaired The Inner Door Handles (DieselGeek Beetle Brace)

Fancy GTI/GLI Pedal Set

Fixed Both Cooling Fans 

A/C Works Again After Fixing The Fans (Wooh!!)

Polished/Cerakoted Headlights

Along with other things here and there.   Took the car on a couple of trips around town and it runs great.  The car isn't as much fun as my Wife's 02 Beetle Turbo, definitely slower but rides a lot softer.

Who cares about slow when I'm getting 45 mpg, right!

I'm almost ready to start using it to get to work, which was going to require just a few more things before I was comfortable using it for that.

A few years ago the shift linkage on my Wife's Beetle failed on me while I was using it on a shopping run.  Had to get it towed out of the WalMart parking lot to get it home.

Flatbed Ballin'

One of the bushings in the shift linkage disintegrated and basically left the car stuck where it was.  VW designed the shifter and shift cables as a assembly (Because of course, VW 😏), so most people have to get the assembly replaced.  

Being a cheap ass, I bought a Mk4 Bushing Kit from DieselGeek to replace all the problem areas and got them installed to get the car back on the road.  

So if I did it once, you'd think it would be easy to do it again, right?

You would think so, but you'd be wrong.

I Totally Fucked This Thing Up By The Numbers.

Since VW designed the Shifter Box as a sealed unit, getting at the parts with it installed in the car is difficult, but not impossible.  

You can drop the Shifter Box and Cables out from the car, and crack it open to change out the bushings on the workbench.  Which is what I should have done, this time.

With it still installed in the car, you have to use a 1 1/4in hole saw to drill a access hole in the housing to allow you to remove one of the bushings and install a new one.

This is where I "screwed the pooch". 

Since I've done it in the car before, and nothing bad happened I took a rather cavalier attitude towards drilling my access hole on my 06.

"Measure Twice, Cut Once", springs to mind.

Needless to say things did not go well, and it's boogered up but good.  I had to use a carbide burr to open up the hole where it was SUPPOSED to be.  

Behold The Fuckery!!

During the process  of opening up the hole even more, the burr kicked back and ended up breaking off part of the top of the shifter box, making my hack job around ten times worse. Probably structurally compromised.

So, I'm going to get another Shift Box with Cables and do it on the bench to avoid such ham handed fuckery in the future.

The worst part about it is, the majority of the bushings were FINE, aside from one that was easily accessible from the top.  So this whole debacle could have been avoided.  

Perfectly Fine, Besides The Easily Replaceable Bushing

Like I said, Captain Overachiever strikes again and this shitshow was all my fault.

I suck.

Round 2: Beetle TDI

 Seriously?

Yeah, I got another one. It's a 2006 VW Beetle TDI with a 5 Speed.  After my experience with the TDI Beetle I had a few years ago, you'd think I learned my lesson and wouldn't do this to myself again.  But, here we are.  Round 2 it would seem.

Hello!

Why?

 I mostly blame my wife.  (Oh yeah, I got married last year.  True story.)

My wife is most of the way through her Graduate degree and recently started her clinicals.  Since then she's been using the Passat TDI to make the commute into town and I've been driving her Volvo C30 to get to work.

Which isn't really a problem because I like driving it, but I'm worried about hitting a deer or some other critter on my way home from literally the middle of a Kansas cornfield at o' dark thirty. I was told she wouldn't be upset if something happened to it, but I know she really likes it and would in fact, be very upset if I brought it home with a deer shaped dent in it..  

So, I figured maybe another car might be in order.

I wanted a TDI Wagon, like a Jetta/Golf Sportwagen or an Audi Wagon, but I was shot down by my wife.

"Absolutely not.  Station Wagons are hideous." 

"What about a diesel Bug", I shot back.

"Okay, that's fine." (Wait, what?)

So, I picked up another Bug from a coworker of mine.  Same color, and interior as the Oil Leaking 2005 I had before, and it's even straight piped like my old one.

So, we're off to a good start here. 😶

It's got a tick over 152K miles.  Pretty low for a TDI.  It's got a BEW "Pump Duse" engine, which means no CP4 HPFP shenanigans like on the newer Common Rail TDIs.  It runs and drives like it's supposed to and is a  solid 10 footer.

What's Wrong With It?

Typical Mk4 things.

The interior of the New Beetles is quite honestly a plastic, creaky mess.  There are a few things that are loose or missing, that need replacement or repair.

Broken Door Handles, Loose Glove Box, Missing D/S "Oh Shit" Handle and Non Existent Headliner will need to be addressed.

PO couldn't confirm if he knew definitively if the Timing Belt/Water Pump had been replaced, so that's first on the list.

Shift Linkage feels a little loose, so a DieselGeek Mk4 Shifter Bushing Kit will go on along with a fresh Oil/Filter Change to appropriate VW Spec Oil to try and mitigate the notorious Cam Wear the BEW engines are known for.

The Defrost was non existent on the drive home, so I suspect the HVAC Blend Doors are missing their foam, so I ordered a Blend Door Plug Kit off of Ebay to take care of that.  The Dash needs to come out to access the Blend Dorrs, so I can take car of the loose interior panels as well.  Or induce new creaks and noise, putting it back together, but trying to stay positive here.

Plans?

Reliability.

I want to get it tuned, and delete the immobilizer at the same time.  Clean out/Replace the Intake Manifold.

I picked up some 2 Piece BBS Wheels from a Wolfsburg Jetta, that I'm going to refurbish with polished lips for it.  Definitely plan on cleaning up the Exterior, Interior and other things as time allows.

Removed the Panasonic Head Unit for a Single DIN Power Akoustic Android Auto Head Unit. So, it'll get dragged kicking and screaming into this part of the 21st Century.

Maybe Smyth UTE Kit for it?  I dunno.  The idea of small diesel powered trucklet does have a certain appeal to me.

I'm just glad that I have an older TDI again, with a 5 Speed like the car gods intended. 

  

Old TDI. Better TDI

 Care And Feeding Of Your 2.0 CR TDI, or "The Only Good TDI Is An Old TDI.

*Long Rant/Read.  I Said What I Said*

I've owned my 13 Passat TDI with the CKRA 2.0 CR TDI enginefor around 3 or so years now.

 It's a nice comfy mid sized sedan that gets excellent fuel economy.  Perfect for my daily work commute, and road trips.

  I got it after a 2.5 year dalliance with a 15 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid, that was a replacement for my 05 Golf TDI that someone hit head on one night.

So if it gets great fuel economy,  and is a great road trip and commuter car, why am I finally thinking after 3 years, I might have made a mistake?

Because, Volkswagen.   That's why.

Hear me out.   I've had a few TDIs before this one.  

A 96 and 97 Passat TDI both with 5 speeds.  These were my first VWs and got me into TDIs. 

I also had the 05 Golf TDI that unfortunately had a Tiptronic Automatic,  but was a car that I absolutely loved.  Hell, it even saved my life in the accident that took it out.

Aside from the fuel economy, and the ability to tinker with and modify these cars, they were reliable and very long lived.

The 96 and 97 Passats had over 275K on them and probably another 250K or more if they were taken care of.   The Golf had 250K on it when it was taken out by that dumbass kid, and was still running strong until then.

My 13 Passat TDI? 🥸

 It doesn't exactly inspire me with its longevity. 

VW seems to have engineered a lot of "gotchas" into this generation of TDI that not only make it harder for a home mechanic to service, but actually seems intended to disable the car and force an owner to have a dealership or shop fix it.

Luckily,  I have more than a few tools, some experience messing around with cars and a VCDS Scan Tool that have enabled me to try and keep up with the BS that VW has engineered the car with.  

 

Even so, the fickle finger of fuckery has gotten me a few times, so I just wanted to do a write up to help a new 2.0 CR TDI Owner deal with stuff that will come up.

This applies specifically to the 7th Gen Passat TDI with the CKRA engine, but can be useful for other 2.0 CR TDI cars.

1.  The Dieselgate "Fix"- certain cars were modified with additional hardware and software after VW got caught cheating during emissions testing. Naughty, naughty.

These "fixes" actually decreased fuel economy,  made the cars less reliable and decreased HP and Torque.

In the case of the Passat with the CKRA it also introduced a particular "bug" that threw an error for Low DEF Level (with a full tank) and started a 200 Mile No Start Countdown. 

VW has no idea why this happens only to Passats with the CKRA and can't clear the code.  

A work around is to use your VCDS Scan Tool to reset the "No Start Countdown" every 200 miles. 

The only  supposed "fix" for this error was to change out the DEF Level Sensor/Heater in the DEF Tank and it would "possibly" clear the code.  

However this wasn't guaranteed to work and involved dropping the DEF Tank, installing a $300-600 part and seeing if it fixed it. 

 I asked a local tech, what he would do if that didn't work.  "Delete it", he said.

So do what you will with this information. 😏

2.  40K DSG Service - unfortunately the majority of 12-14 Passat TDIs are equipped with a DSG transmission.   To this day I wish I'd waited for a manual TDI car, but I did what I did and now I have to live with it.

The DSG Transmission requires a filter and fluid change every 40K miles,  which wouldn't be a big deal if it was just a drain and refill.

The factory procedure to service the DSG Transmission requires the vehicle on a level surface, special tools, a factory scan tool (VCDS), monitoring transmission fluid tempd and other assorted nonsense. 

Or you can do it like I do, put the car up on a lift.  Drain the fluid into a measuring pitcher, new filter and top back off with an additional .5 qts of whatever you drained out.

The hard (annoying) part is getting time on a lift and making sure no drained oil is spilled and measured accurately. 

3.  Fuel Injectors- Injectors started making a "nailing" noise when starting the engine cold that eventually went away as the engine warmed up.  The noise was more obnoxious in cold weather. 

Drove it like that for awhile until it threw a CEL, and started running really rough. Limped it home, and scanned with VCDS.  Yup.  Bad injector. 

Sourced 4 new injectors ($600) and new torque to yield injector hold down bolts.

Install wasn't hard, but I had to use VCDS to "code" each injector serial number to the ECU for proper operation.  🙄

 Again,  having VCDS saved me from a dealership visit for something that should have been a simple remove and replace operation. 

4.  CP4 HPFP- The CKRA uses a CP4 High Pressure Fuel Pump instead of the more robust CP3 pump found in older CR Diesel engines.  The CP4 has a tendency to fail internally,  which contaminates the ENTIRE fuel system.  Expect to pay $3500 plus to unf**k your car if this happens. 😳

Companies offer CP3 Conversion kits, which can cost up to $2K or so.  Conversion kit, rebuilt/used pump and the timing belt needs to be removed and reinstalled for the conversion. 

Whitbred Performance offers a CP4 Disaster Prevention Kit which isolates any debris from a grenaded CP4 Pump to the pump itself and a inline 3 micron filter.  Kit runs just under $200.

5. Dual Mass Flywheel-  the DSG Transmission is actually an Automatically shifted manual transmission that's equipped with a Dual Mass Flywheel that eventually will wear out and start making a very pronounced knocking noise at idle.  

If left operating like that for a long time, it can eventually damage the transmission. 

Unlike a manual transmission,  you can't convert a DSG Transmission to a Single Mass Flywheel. So you get to buy a new ticking time bomb DMF( around $500)  and have it installed (another $500 if your luvky) and wait for it to shit itself again.

6. Plastic Oil Filter Housing- CKRA and other CR TDI engines use a plastic oil filter housing that's water cooled and bolted to the block. 

For some reason, there's an isolated passage in the filter housing that ALWAYS seems to fail. If you look at the picture, there are 4 passages.  3 of them have a gasket, while a lone passage has a single gasket.  Hmm.🤔

When the lip on the ISOLATED water passage fails, blows out the gasket and allows all your coolant to dump and renders your car undriveable. 

But "luckily" the other gasket protects the other passages from that nasty coolant leak so there's no oil/coolant contamination.   Lucky,  huh?😌

It gets better though.  The oil filter housing is bolted to the block and buried under the Air/Water Intercooler, which has a ton if coolant hoses running to it.  

You gotta drop the Intercooler, drain the Radiator,  disconnect a bunch of hoses and pull the Radiator Fan and Air Filter for clearance.   Then you can remove the Oil Filter Housing. 

Enough of a hassle for the typical owner to say "Fu**it!" and shell out the $1500-2K to get it fixed at the dealership with the SAME damn part.

Do yourself a favor.   Buy an aftermarket Aluminum Oil Filter Housing if you do it yourself.   And don't forget the Torque To Yield Bolts for the OFH.

7. Oil Pump Hex Drive Shaft- evidently the oil pump is driven by a hex shaft that eventually rounds off at around 120k miles or so.  There's a replacement part that is "supposed" to not round off.  We'll see I guess.   I ordered one and it should be here next Tuesday.   $16, requires the oil pan to be dropped.   Not sure if the timing belt is affected.

When the shaft rounds off the engine loses pressure and is supposed to shut itself off. Leaving you stranded wherever you are.  

But hey!  I'm sure the DEALERSHIP will be happy to fix it for you.

Fu**king Volkswagen.🥸

Raider Rebirth....Revival? I Don't Know

This is mostly to keep track of and serve has a kind of online notepad for the "build" of the Raider into something more fun than "just my truck'.  Don't know if I'll actually follow through, but we'll see.

So,  I've had my Raider since 2006. 

  It's the vehicle I've owned the longest in my fleet, and at around 294K miles, it's still running,  working and doing truck stuff.

However,  I can tell it's getting tired.  And with all I've put this thing through over the years, I'm surprised it's still moving under its own power. 

Which leaves me with a problem.   I know it's getting tired, so do I dump some money in it or replace it with something else?

If it looked like a typical 294K mile truck,  I'd probably sell it and find something else.  However,  after 18 years with the stupid thing...I'm attached to it.

It's a mid sized truck with a V8, and was built in low enough numbers that it's not common to see a lot of these in the wild.   Which pushes a lot of my buttons. 

  Plus, aside from general wear and tear, it still looks pretty good.  No rust, huge dents or serious exterior issues. 

It just needs a little love.  So, I'm thinking I'm going to dump some money into the old girl...eventually.  

I can't throw any serious money or make big moved for about another two years, so this is mostly me thinking out loud.

I never really thought about modifying it before now, because I always needed it to do truck stuff, and didn't want to take away from the functionality of the truck.

 Well, opinions change over the years, so let's get nuts.

When the Raider was first released, Mitsubishi sponsored a 3.7l DuroCross 4WD to run in the stock class of the Baja 1000 race.  

The truck is now belongs to the Boost Rodeo guys who have a channel on YouTube. 

I loved that truck, and always wanted something along those lines.  Lifted, aftermarket wheels, roll bar, tire rack, lights and a custom tubular off road bumper.  It was my computer wallpaper for a long time, and it's still a favorite. 

So, I think  I'd like to build something similar with the Raider, along with generally fixing up the truck and put a little pep in it's step again. 

My truck is a 2WD model, so more of a pre-runner type truck, and not a fully caged and prepped race truck.

So here's a general list/plan to deal with fixing any mechanical issues and eventual modifications.

Maintenance:

Rebuilt 4.7l Engine

Replacement Catback Exhaust 

Power Steering Rack

Front Struts

Coilover Rear Load Shocks

Rear End Rebuild/Replacement 

Mods:

3 in Body Lift 

Chase Rack/Light Bar

Front Light Bar/Prerunner Bumper

Oil Pressure/Transmission Temp Gauge/Water Temp Gauge

New Wheel/Tire Combo (33's) 285/75/16  Will work with 16x8 Wheels

Driving Lights

Stand-alone Transmission Cooler

Aftermarket Seats

Android Head Unit 

This is just a basic list so far and a general idea of how I want to proceed. Subject to change. 

The 3rd Gen Dakota/Raider doesn't really have suspension lift options other than shock spacers for the front and blocks or "add a leafs" for the rear.

A body lift seems like a real hassle to do, but it would retain the original suspension geometry without the additional wear that shock spacers would put on the front end to get more lift. 

Still undecided on the best way to clear for bigger tires.

Anyway,  that's my plan on spending money and time on yet another automotive money pit.

Has anyone done a body lift on a truck?  I imagine relocating certain components is probably a real pain, and I'm wondering how it's handled.  Radiator,  Steering Shaft, Brake Lines etc.

 Down The Rabbit Hole

I haven't logged into this thing in awhile, for..."reasons".

"So Where You Been Numbnuts?"

Finally moved out of my apartment and bought a house in 2019 or so. I've been getting used to being a homeowner and all the assorted BS that goes with it.  

A nice big yard with plenty of trees seemed like a nice idea at the time, but then I discovered the mowing it and keeping it up was a giant PITA.  Luckily it's outside the city limits, no HOA or covenants to deal with.  As long as I don't get too crazy, I can keep a few extra automotive projects on hand.

After getting the Stealth, a lot of cars have darkened my garage and driveway.  To Include:

95 Eagle Summit Wagon 

94 Plymouth Colt Wagon (Clown Car)

87 Mitsubishi Mighty Max 2WD 

08 Volvo C30 Hatch 

92 Dodge Stealth R/T TT (Parts Car, Dog Chew Toy)

87 Dodge Ram 50 4x4 ("Just" had a Blown Headgasket.  Lies)

13 VW Passat TDI* (Sonata Replacement)

04 BMW 325CI Convertible (Never Again..BMW Hot Garbage)

05 VW Beetle TDI 5 Speed (Leaky POS, Got Screwed)

87 Chrysler Conquest TSi (Silver, Rusty Parts Car For The Ram 50)

89 Chrysler Conquest TSi ( Wanted a Conquest Project. Got This Rusty POS)

88 Chrysler Conquest TSi (Maroon Project Car)*  

89 Chrysler Conquest TSi (Blurple Parts Car)

The ones in bold and asterisked are all former Daily Drivers, Flip Cars, Failed Flips or Parts Cars.

Oh, and I also got a dog.  Or rather, the dog got me.  She's a amazing dog and I'm glad she found me and my GF.

So yeah, a lot of things going on since 2018.

"What About COVID?"

Oh yeah.  I got screwed by that too.

Just like a lot of people all over the world.  Got laid off for a few months, got called back and started working again.  Worried about money the whole time, especially after buying my first house.  Business hasn't returned to Pre-"Pandemic" levels, and it's still a source of worry.  Decisions were made by the powers that be and I'm not sure if they were the right ones or not.  Moving on now...

"New Lineup, Then?"

Yeah..  Sold my 93 Talon TSi/AWD (Trogdor) off because I just wanted to concentrate on the Stealth.

Of course I had bought a few interesting shitboxes to play with the (Colt/Summit Wagons), the Mighty Max and a 4x4 Ram 50 that "just needs a new head". 

Bought a rebuilt head for the Ram 50, and discovered it had no compression and needed a new bottom end.  Figures.

My buddy in Houston had a complete 87 Conquest that he was selling as a parts car.  Went down, picked it up and after pulling the motor out of the Conquest for the Ram 50, I decided I really wanted a good StarQuest as a project car.

So this led to me falling down the Starion/Conquest "Rabbit Hole" big time.  Bought a 89 running and driving Conquest from a buddy in Texas that turned out to be a giant, rolling Tetanus Shot.

Further inspection revealed it was far too rusty to save, so I started parting it out to recoup some money after my buddy refunded me some money for the car.

Asked around and another buddy let me know about one his boss had been holding onto for the last 10 years or so behind his garage.

It had been stored on a concrete pad the whole time and was supposed to be a rust free Texas car.  

Sure.  Just like the Gold one rotting in my backyard now.

88 Chrysler Conquest TSi 5 Speed in Durban Maroon.   Durban Maroon was a one year only color available only on the Chrysler Conquest in the U.S. Market.  So, kind of a rare car. 

It actually wound up being a fairly decent car that had just been sitting for awhile. "Ran When Parked".

 Interior was kind of blasted from the sun, but no big deal.  The gold car had a decent interior to swap into the one.

Picked it up, brought it home and proceeded to spend the next few months cleaning it up, sorting it out and finally getting it started for the first time in over 10 years.  Interior was swapped out for a black dash and other parts cars and it now runs and drives.

So that's where it's at now.   It runs and drives and now, I'm just trying to get it to look better.

Between this and the Stealth, I think I've got plenty to work on and document in this blog.

Infor mation on the Starion/Conquest cars is very hard to find and a lot of past information resources have either been lost or deleted.

I plan to restore this car as best as I can and will probably wind up swapping a 4G6X motor into it, as the G54B just doesn't have the aftermarket support that the 4G6X series does.

So, hopefully this means there will be more posts and information on this and future cars.

Alpha, Mike, Foxtrot.....

Let There Be Light

"Maybe If I Tape A Couple Of Flashlights To The Hood..."

To be quite honest, the headlights on the Stealth kind of suck.

Language, Spock!

Like may cars from the early 90's, the Stealth has "Pop Up" Headlights, which while cool in a Retro sort of way, means that it uses "Sealed Beam Headlights".

Sealed Beam Headlights consist of a  single or dual lighting element and a parabolic aluminized reflector in a integrated glass housing.  For over 40 years these assemblies were mandatory for any vehicle sold in the United States.  They worked, but the light output was pretty terrible.

In the mid 80's Automobile manufacturers were no longer required to use these assemblies, but some did into the 90'as for whatever reason.

Mitsubishi was one of those companies, and the Stealth/3000GT didn't get fixed headlights until the 1994 model year.

Original Headlights In The Garage

But, I Like Pop Ups?

So do I, but I also would like to be able to see at night.

After having replaced the headlights in my now, DEAD VW Golf TDI with a set of aftermarket projector headlights, I've gotten spoiled.

I COULD SEE EVERYTHING AT NIGHT with those headlights. 

•  Rabid Skunks doing donuts in the middle of the road.  
• Armadillos psyching themselves up to try and cross the road.
• Stupid Deer thinking about running in the middle of the road.
• Possum, Cougars, Foxes and whatever other animals that haunt Kansas Country roads at night getting ready to do something extraordinarily stupid.

*Really didn't help me against a Hyundai Sonata with a sleepy driver behind the wheel, but that's neither here, nor there.*

There were upgrades available for cars with Sealed Beam Headlights, just not a lot of good ones, unfortunately.

What Are Our Options, Then?

• Sealed Beam Upgrades
• Aftermarket Projector Housings
• LED Upgrade Housing
• H4 Housing Conversion

Sealed Beam Upgrade

Sylvania sells a "Silverstar" H4666 Headlight Assembly that's supposed to be brighter than a standard Halogen Sealed Beam unit.  This would be the easiest to install as it basically just replaces the standard headlight with one of these.  Unfortunately while brighter, you still have the diffuse light inherent with the sealed beam design.  These wouldn't be an upgrade, rather serving as a Band Aid for a oozing wound.

Aftermarket Projector Housings

These seem like the best of both worlds.  A modern projector housing enclosed in a housing shaped like a sealed beam housing.  Unfortunately due to the dimensions of the sealed beam housing, the projector isn't really able to be properly installed in the housing, resulting in output that isn't as good as it should be.  Add to that, that pretty much all of these housings are only available from Taiwan or China, made me very dubious about their quality.  I've bought fog lights and other lighting off E-Bay for past project cars, and I've learned to be very skeptical of anything that seems to be too good to be true.  The projector housings also looked to need a slightly deeper opening than the conventional headlight housing.  Another concern, due to the pop up headlights used on the car. 

LED Upgrade Housing

These were also only available from Taiwan or China, and were priced way too low to be of any kind of good quality.  I was also concerned about the output and light pattern.  I didn't want to blind anyone in the the oncoming lane, and I hated the way that they looked with multiple single LED bulbs.

H4 Upgrade Housings

This seemed to be the best bet, as I've had past experience with this option.  I had a 90 Eagle Talon TSi/AWD that I bought with this upgrade already performed.  They were older 4X6 Hella Headlights that the previous owner kludged into the car.  They worked fine for the 7+ years that I owned the car.

Doing some research I found a set of H4 Upgrade housings for the Stealth, also made by Hella. Model # HL2110A with Manufacturer's Part#: 1AB 008.888-101 008888101. 

Hella is a German company that provides OEM lights and aftermarket lights for a variety of manufacturers, so I wasn't concerned about quality.  These headlights featured a clear glass lens, and advertised a very sharp and distinct cutoff for the low beam lights.  A definite advantage over the Sealed Beam Unit, but probably not as good as a properly set up Projector Housing.

Everything is a trade off, it seems.

After confirming a few measurements with my OEM Headlights, I returned a different set that my GF had bought for my birthday (Thanks Weezie!) and used the credit to place an order from Amazon for a set of the HL2110A Headlights, a set of H4666 to H4 Wiring Adapters and a pair of Silverstar Ultra 9003 Halogen Bulbs.  

"Drop In Replacement"

Yeah, Right... 

I received everything a few days later, but had to wait for a weekend to work on it.  I started by removing the original headlights, the covers and plastic trim to expose everything.

  I had to remove the headlight buckets in order to modify them, but I used White Out to try and match mark the adjustment screws so that the headlights wouldn't be COMPLETELY out of whack when they were reinstalled.

Skeletal

It wasn't exactly a drop in replacement unfortunately.  As noted before, there were some modifications that needed to be made in order to use them in the car.

Clearance, Clarence..

The new Headlights had a slightly extended circular area in the center of the headlight, resulting in a slightly thicker overall dimension than the original headlight.  

The new headlight also had a mounting boss for a Non Operative European Spec "City Light", that really couldn't be ground down to clear the headlight bucket.  Grinding it would have opened up the rear of the Headlight Housing and destroyed the reflector for the light.

The only real option was to enlarge one opening on the bucket  to clear the extension and also notch it to clear the "City Light" boss in the rear of the headlight.

I used a Dremel tool with a metal grinding bit to enlarge the opening for the extended area of the headlight.  I drilled a hole in the area of the Headlight Bucket for the "City Light" boss and then used the Dremel tool and grinding bit to shape the hole to accommodate the projection on the back of the light.

"Modified"

 Surprisingly, it all fit pretty well after grinding, filing and checking the fir of everything numerous times.  

If It Fits, It Ships

Test Fitting The Assembly

After confirming fitment, I went head and dressed all the cut edges with a file and spray painted all exposed metal with spray paint.

Electron Flow

My original plan was to use wiring adapters from the OEM H4666 wiring to the H4/9003 Bulbs in the back of the headlights.  After some thought, and opening and closing the lights a few times, I went ahead and made the decision to solder the H4 connectors in place of  using an adapter harness.

The original H4666 connectors were cut off and the H4 Connector wires were soldered in place, heat shrunk and wrapped in electrical tape after consulting this wiring diagram to confirm everything was hooked up correctly.

Red Goes To Red...Black Goes To..

After getting everything wired, protected and routed, everything was reinstalled and I hit the lights to check operation.

Success!!   I checked the High and Low Beam Function and also opened and closed the lights a few times to make sure none of my new wiring was going to get caught in the Pop Up mechanism.  

I went ahead and reinstalled the Headlight Trim and Headlight Covers.  

A few days later, I dropped the car off at a friend's shop to have a 4 Wheel Alignment done and to have the headlights adjusted.  A Headlight Adjustment wasn't something they usually did, but they got it in the ballpark.  

I haven't had a chance to test it out yet, since we seem to be rolling into the "Crappy Weather" time of year here in Kansas, so the car has been hiding in the garage for right now.

When it clears up one night, I will definitely get out there and check it out.

Alpha, Mike, Foxtrot.....