Member Since: 27 Dec 2013
Location: Kent
Posts: 951
HOW TO: MY15 Lookalike Disco 3 Headlight Modification Guide
Firstly I would like to state that this is a guide to show you how I did the modification and that any legality issues and any injuries or damages caused by you while you are doing the work is at your own risk.
I am writing this guide so that others can do this modification on a budget, Please don't take my word as gospel, and you may even find better and faster ways of doing some of the mods that I have done, of which I am more than happy for people to share there alternative methods in this thread.
Firstly I had to buy:
60cm x 2 DRL White/Amber Strips which are around £30 online from UK sellers, but for the EXACT same ones at the same quality you can get them for under £10 a pair from HK sellers, but you will have to wait up a month to receive them.
DRL Relay, Under £3 online.
1 x Pair of resistors which are under £10 from Advanced Factors. (I bought mine elsewhere).
1 x Tin of grey primer spray paint. I used Hycote, the only brand I trust.
2 x Tins of black gloss spray paint, I used Hycote.
4 x 3 Pin water tight connectors. I bought my connectors for under £6 and had to substitute with 2 pin connectors as I got impatient.
1 x Pack of pink/red crimp heat shrink connectors. The heat shrink on these have heat activated adhesive which make the connection sealed. I bought a pack of 50 for under £6
No more than 6 meters of 2 core 17amp 12v Red and Black wire.
1 x pack of cable ties. I bought a pack of 100 for under 70p from Toolstation.
1 x pack of sanding pads. I bought a pack of 5 from poundland.
2 x packs of paint prep wipes. I bought these at £1.50 per pack from Halfords.
1 x pack of 3mm screws. I bought these from Toolstation for under £4
Back sealant which was under £5 from toolstation
Tools you will need are:
Heat Gun
Torx Screw Drivers
Philips Screw Drivers
Drill
2.5mm and 3mm Drill bits
Mask for your mouth
Eyegoggles for safety
Sealant gun
Dog house to hide in when your other half finds out what you have done and smells that the house stinks of paint
Stage 1.
I removed all the torx screws from the rear of the lights, took all the bulbs out and removed the bulb holders.
There is 4 sneaky little screws on the casing on the rear of the lights, you need to remove these.
I then placed the headlight on its face, face down and evenly heated up the light all round where seal is until I could feel that it was hot. Please use more common sense than I did, I burnt myself on at least 12 occasions doing this entire mod. DO NOT LIFT THE TABS until they are hot, and then I heated up the seal again. I put my fingers in one of the holes where the bulb covers go and pushed the clear plastic bits on the side of the main beam that stick out forwards, The seal is a pain in the bum and between pushing the lens forwards I had to heat up the seal, and eventually it will give out and separate. Make sure that none of the bulb holders are connected to the fascia inside as well before you separate the lens.
AND DO NOT TOUCH and try not to get the sealant on you while it is hot as it really really hurts although others in your household may find it amusing
You in my opinion should then place the backs of the lights into a bag or cover them up so that dust doesn't get in them while you are doing this.
You will then want to undo all the screws in the lens itself which will allow the plastic internal fascia to come out and separate into 3 pieces.
This will now enable you to DE-TANGO the lights if you want to. The orange bit is fiddly to get off and needs a bit of force but does come off.
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Stage 2.
I used the sanding blocks, (I got through 4 of them) and sanded all the plastic inserts to give a key and to remove some of the chrome coating.
I then rinsed them with plain water and dried them off using the heat gun, and also wiped them over with the paint prep wipes.
I put them on my garden table outside and left them for 20 minutes to dry. Although the temperature was very low. So I used the heat gun briefly to warm the lights up themselves. A warm surface is better at accepting and holding coats of primer and paint.
Then I gave the inserts 3 coats of primer. I left a 30 minute gap between each coat of primer.
And then brought them in and left them over night to harden. Plus at this point I had run out of lights and time.
Stage 3.
I wiped the components down with paint prep wipes again and left them outside for about 15 minutes and then I gave a total of 6 coats of black gloss paint. Again I left 30 minutes mimimum between each coat. I gave so many coats as there were small patches like where there are lots of grooves that I was struggling to get the paint cans angled at to coat properly at first. I also had an accident where I left the fascias outside too long and the paint hadn't dried enough before the damp and cold kicked in ruining one coat. But I am explaining how to do it a better and the correct DIY way.
Once all the coats of paint was on, I brought the lights indoors, I put them in the bath room and put the heater on and left them over night. I then moved them into the lounge for 2 more days to allow to harden fully.
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Stage 3.
The horrible fiddly stuff.
Throw the screws that come with clips in the bin. They round off the second a screwdriver looks at them. Don't bin the clips though.
You need to slowly and carefully make the drilled holes bigger in all the clips. You should receive 10 clips. Only 8 survived on mine so I used 4 per head light.
You need to use the 3mm drill bit or up to 3.5mm drill bit to make sure that the counter sunk screws are out of the way enough when fitted. Drill holes in the clips with this drill bit.
Then you need to work out where the clips need to go. Here is a picture of where I fitted mine.
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This only shows 3 out of 3 clips. Make sure the end with the wire is exactly where I show it to be in my pictures.
The 4th clip will be determined by you where the strip lands. Lazy way of doing it without measuring lol
Where each of these clips go, you need to drill a 2.5mm hole ready for the screws to go it. This is because the screws round off easily otherwise and you risk cracking the fascia without pre drilling the holes IMO.
You can now HAND screw the clips on. The heads are slightly too big for the inner bits of the clips at the top, so screw really slowly until you hear what sound like a crack but usually is just the screw head passing past without causing any damage. And the tighten the clips up as per picture. Although I would recommend that you angle the upper clip on the main beam hole a bit straighter towards the bottom than I did.
You will need to remove the clear end plastic bit that hasn't got the wires coming out of it as it will stop the lights all going back together later on.
There will be a lot of swearing most likely involved in this bit where you have to manipulate the lights in to the clips. This will be self explanatory and self evident when you see the light strips.
You now need to put the bits you have paint back together, screwing them together out of the lens. And make sure you tuck the wire as and where pictured before you screw it all together.
The put the plastic fascia you have just built back into the headlight lens which I would recommend that you clean before re assembling.
You should now have this:
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You will need to manipulate and adjust the strip to fit how it is pictured in mine and the lens itself is forcing the round shape around the main beam hole.
Stage 4.
You will have noticed that the DRL lights came with wires that had there own plugs and separated with open ends.
You will want to unplug the wires at this stage.
The unplugged half that is no longer attached to the DRL's needs to be fitted in to the main parts of the lights.
I drilled a 3.5mm hole just under the lights main plug, be very careful! I drilled from the outside.
I fed 2 of the 3 wires from the inside out and the 3rd wire was attached to the indicator positive line.
There is a Black wire (Earth), Red wire (Positive) for DRL White light and Yellow wire which is (Positive) for the indicator function.
I used heat shrink connectors and connected the yellow DRL wire to the Blue indicator wire.
(You will need to fit a resistor at this stage too. I have not done this yet but will add instructions once I have).
The reason for feeding the other 2 wire out of the hole instead of into the hole is because there is a little relay that is built into the wires that come on the DRL which cancels out the White light while the indicator is flashing. And I wanted it sealed inside the headlight.
Then put sealant around the hole where the 2 wires are coming out.
I also ran an additional wire INTO the hole which goes to the 3 pin plug that needs to be connected to the red wire of the side light bulbs. The reason will become apparent in the next stage.
You can now reconnect the DRL to the rest of its own wiring inside the light and put the light back together properly. Follow reverse instructions for taking them apart.
I then fitted the plugs to the wiring on the outside of the lights.
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Stage 5.
You need to use the wire extension lead you bought and 2 lengths from the battery box area to the where the light is on the drivers side and the same again for the passenger side.
You now need the DRL relay you bought. I heat shrink connected the Positive and Negative together to the drl which is the same colours Black and Red. Connecting both sides to the 1 relay, and then fitted the other half of the water tight plugs to the other end. If you bought triple connector plugs you will see that you have a wire spare. You need to wire the white lead from the DRL relay to this wire through the extension leads that I made you fit.
You can now connect the red lead to the positive terminal of the car battery and the negative I connected to the earth bolt in front of the battery box that is bolted to the inner wing.
If you plug the lights in now, you can test it all works. You have to start the engine to activate the DRLS.
Turn the sidelights on to make sure that the DRL dims or in some cases the DRL relays will turn them off.
If all working well take the lights off and route the extension leads properly. If you have FBH's be very carefull where you route the wire and cable tie them on the leads to other looms which is what I did leading back to the battery box.
I wedged the little DRL relay into the battery box along with some of the excess wire and shut the battery box cover.
Fitted the lights and the grill etc...
And you should end up with this or similar:
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If I have missed anything, let me know and I will edit this asap.
Good luck.
I was out of the dog house after my other half saw the end result
Some people may not be happy with the brightness of the indicators, if you aren't, I recommend going online or contacting advanced factors and get an AMBER LED indicator bulb in addition to the strip DRL light.
I did not re fit the side light bulbs for this as I have the dimmed DRL lights as the replacements.
13th Mar 2016 5:37 pm
James W
Member Since: 27 Mar 2008
Location: Wirral, UK
Posts: 3067
Credit where it's due, that's pretty smart and unique. Nice job. D4 XS, gone, much loved, never forgotten
2018 FFRR SDV8 Autobiography - Gone to someone with less sense and more time to enjoy it
2016 Toyota Hilux Invincible - Liberating experience
13th Mar 2016 5:55 pm
DG Site Moderator
Member Since: 12 Dec 2005
Location: The Gaff
Posts: 50934
Good effort 8)21 year LR veteran > D2 GS 2003 > D3 S 2006 > D3 HSE 2009 > D4 HSE 2013 > D4 HSE 2015 > D5 HSE 2018 > DS HSE R-Dynamic P300e 2021
13th Mar 2016 6:01 pm
Hairy Dan
Member Since: 19 Jan 2011
Location: Co. Durham
Posts: 12319
Great job, they look great Cheers Ian
--------------------
Club N.E.R.D.S
Kielder 4x4 Safari
Discoless
13th Mar 2016 6:57 pm
tayaste
Member Since: 15 May 2013
Location: Chester
Posts: 7633
I bet SWMBO won't be too happy when she sees what you've done to her patio table.
13th Mar 2016 7:09 pm
disco-nut
Member Since: 27 Dec 2013
Location: Kent
Posts: 951
Thanks. The patio table is mine to destroy lol. The dogs chewed one of the legs a couple of years ago making it wobble, so I kept it for these sorts of jobs lol
13th Mar 2016 11:52 pm
Moo D3 Decade
Member Since: 13 Aug 2010
Location: Wiltshire
Posts: 13871
Good effort. Much better than I thought. I'm sure you're pleased. New Defender L663 110 SE (known as Noddy!)
Sold Volvo XC90 R-Design (known as Basil)
Sold - D4 HSE (Known as Gerty)
No longer the Old Buses original owner
231,000 miles and counting
05 S manual owned from March 2005
D4 Face lifted
Still original injectors and turbo
V8 Front brakes
BAS Remap, Allisport Intercooler and deCat
EGRs blanked
T-Max split charge
Hanibal Expeedition rack
Prospeed ladder
Duratrac tyres
IID BT
BAS FBH control
14th Mar 2016 1:59 am
disco-nut
Member Since: 27 Dec 2013
Location: Kent
Posts: 951
Yeah, I love them still. Every time I look at my car, I smile, and it gets a lot of attention when I am out and about. However, I have had my first fault with this install. The DRL relay occasionally plays up, so sometimes the DRL's don't auto light up like they are supposed to. But I have a few spare relays and plan to replace the faulty one next week. Although could be the wires being to close to the FBH heater causing an issue, which I have bought heat resistant silver tape to wrap the wires in to help protect them.
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27th Mar 2016 3:01 am
Ruper
Member Since: 28 Jun 2019
Location: Virginia
Posts: 318
Great Look
Great Job and thanks for the write up. Over here (US) not many headlight mods that I see, so these or a variant of your design will look brilliant over here. Won't be quite the same as our DOT laws are a little different but this looks great.2005 Land Rover D3, 4.4L V8, Maya Gold Metallic
1966 Scout 800, 196 cu.in.
1975 Scout II, 392 cu.in.
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