Oracle Halo Install Tips

[agkelly73]

Hello all. Below are some tips I passed to fellow forum member Invadermoose for installing halos. I know Justin has posted vids for the install but figured this wouldn't hurt either. Invader really appreciated the help so just figured I'd share with other members.


Removing the front clip: This can be a pain unless you have someone else holding the wheel well housing back. There are also more bolts than AAC demonstrates…at least on mine there were. There were more in the wheel well than they show in their video. There were 4 x 10mm bolts in the wheel well and a torx bolt by the signal lamp for each side. My wife helped hold the wheel well housing back when I was putting the bumper back on and that made it sooooo much easier. The clip is very light but just have someone else ready to disconnect the socket on the passenger side of the bumper. There isn’t one on the driver’s side as this one supplies power to both. It just happens to plug in on the passenger side. You won’t be able to move the bumper very far with it still plugged in so just be advised of that. After disconnecting just place it in a safe place. LOL, I took mine and placed it in my spare bedroom of the house.

Baking: I was very nervous about this part but yes bake them for 20 mins. I had to bump my temp up a little though, think I went up to like 250 or so. Some folks said they went as high as 275. I did that as well on a reheat for 10 mins but not for 20. If at all possible, get another person to assist you. Have them hold the headlight with oven mitts while you use the screwdriver around the housing. Make sure you have some good leather gloves yourself or some that will resist the heat enough because you will be grabbing as well. I was baking mine all day trying to work this alone and it was a pain. Once I had some assistance from my wife holding them, I was able to get in and separate the lens and housing a lot easier. Once I got them separated, I reheated the black housing so I could bend the edges back into shape. Hard to describe it hear but you will see in person, but I used a pair of needle nose pliers to help bend it back into shape.

Headlight Separation: Don't give up!! LOL. I was about to that point when my wife started helping. Also, you just need to keep going around the entire housing. Once I was able to get my screwdriver inside the housing/lens I thought I was good. Nope. You need to get inside in several spots and then keep working it. The seals on these things are really good so it does take some work (worked up a sweat on mine literally). It will cool to the point where you can’t get much progress fairly fast. Say within a few mins so you will most likely have to reheat. When I would reheat I’d only do it for about 10-15 mins instead of the full 20. I wasn’t sure about reheating them for 20 mins again after coming right out of the oven. Be aware you will probably hear some cracking and popping like I did. Basically this was the screwdriver making its mark on the edges of the lens etc. Some small chips and small cracks on the edges with mine but was still ok and nothing that caused me to be alarmed.

Foglight Separation (if you are doing them): AAC uses a bandsaw to separate the foglight lens from the housing. I didn’t have one but I did have a dremel. So I used a cutting disc or two to do cut the lens off. There is a thin line where the lens is glued to the housing and I used that as my guide to cut along. Two things with this method though. The dremel will melt a little of the plastic as it cuts, secondly plastic pieces will be flying up in your face so wear some shop glasses or something. After they are apart just use a sanding bit on the dremel to sand the edges down.

Halo Install: Make sure you have some good clear epoxy. I had to use epoxy with the foglights for sure as the housing isn’t designed for them already. If you are installing halos on a non-RS it will be the same for the headlights I’m sure. However you may want to contact AAC to find out their procedure. The vids they show are for the RS, at least the ones I saw. They didn’t show any vids for the foglights but in talking with them at Camaro Fest, that is what they said to do. On the fogs I made sure where the wires were soldered to the lights were at the top of the housing. There is already a small vent hole in the foglight housing that was perfect for the wires to go out. On the headlights, just like in one of their vids, just drill a small hole out the bottom and run the wires out. I didn’t seal mine as this acts as a natural vent hole in addition to the one that is already on the housing. The just usually have patch like sticker over them.

Sealing housings: For sealing the headlight housings, make sure you get normal size tube of OUTDOOR silicon sealant from your hardware store, Home Depot etc. I bought a smaller tube at an auto store and that wasn’t enough. Ran out very fast. AAC recommended black on the headlights and clear on the fogs. They were out of black so I ended up using clear on the headlight as well. Doesn’t matter though, it still does the job and you can’t see any of it at all once you get the bumper back on anyway. As far as laying it on thick…that’s what I did. I made a bead large enough to fill up the edge of the housing where the lens fits back in. Then placed the lens on and secured it with vice grips. Make sure you have enough vice grips though. I used 6 small pairs to make sure it was good, one on each corner and the other two in the middle on the top and bottom of the housing. The first one sat overnight before I removed the grips. Just make sure as you remove them you don’t see the lens separate. I removed them one at a time and had the housing at eye level so I could see if it separated at all. Depending on what type of silicon sealant you use though, you may be able to pull them off after about 5 or 6 hours. My second housing sat from about 11am until around 5pm and no issues with separation. As for the fogs, I had the lenses back on that first night with the halos installed and used clear silicon on them. Keep in mind with these though that you can’t use a huge amount or it will seep through into the housing and you will be able to see it when you look at it. I only have ONE spot on mine where a small amount went to the inside. Other than that, you can’t tell they were messed with at all. 

Wiring: As I said, I had to wire mine into a control unit for the color changes and then wire the controller into the power source. For your case, if you aren’t wiring to an independent switch you are installing, I’d say wire into the headlights. You can probably just splice into them. I spliced my control unit into the factory halo wires so both my headlight and foglight halos come on with the factory switch/auto lights. Just be aware though, not sure what colors the hot and ground will be so you may have to use a multimeter unless you already know which is which.

Hope this helps. I took my time doing this and started in the late afternoon one day. By late afternoon the third day (basically 48 hours later) everything was back in the car. That first night I had the foglights back together and ready to go. Again, I had trouble getting the housings apart working alone. If it wasn’t for that, it probably would have been around 24 hours later and I would have been all finished.

[Winslow]

Bump so people realize this is good info

[kpwalls06]

Very good info. I just got my Halo's and am getting ready for the install. This should help tremendously.

[Kreature]

Ive done the colorshift halo install, and i agree these tips do help quite a bit.

[kpwalls06]

Hey agkelly73, would it be possible for you to tell me how you wired yours in, or show some pics? I've got the red and white's, and I've got a good idea of where I'm going with it. I'm gonna try and run the white's off the original halo source, and the red's from the remote box I got from AAC. Any help you could give would be greatly appreciated!!

[Quickstir]

Some very helpful tips here

[Kulo]

Thank You !!!!

I was at my wits end, and ready to pack up these headlights , ship them to the source , have them turn um sideways and shove it up ....... We'll you get the point.....

First one took two hours to separate, the second 5 mins after reading this.

Turning up the temp on my stove to 240 degrees did the job, and using a medium size screwdriver instead of a large made a difference.

Realizing you have to get the screwdriver under the glass also helps.

Thanks again

[DWALEX]

I'm gonna install my halos the next week, is good to know what to expect, and how to fix it

Thanks

[ricky_ZL1]

bumpy bump