Headlights Conversion to 2015 LED Headlights with Manual ON/OFF for Lightning Bolt

This d-i-y is for GT-R owners who want to install the 2015 GT-R headlights that use LEDs for both low and high beams! and have the nice unique lightning bolt pattern for parking lights, or for what could be used as DRLs (abet weak ones!)

Lightning Bolt LED turned into a DRL without Parking Lights ON.

I have been running the new 2015 LED headlight for over a week now and have driven my GT-R through unlit country roads and the illumination is much better than older lights in many aspects. I had also previously upgraded the HID bulbs so I can safely say my comparison is not due to older HID bulbs. This upgrade is well worth the money first for the better illumination intensity, then the illumination pattern is more more comprehensive and wider, better color temperature, and finally the time to full power-up is much quicker then HID. The lightning bolt is just the icing on the cake :)

Thus the instructions in this post also go into modifying the lightning bolt LED power source to have it on whenever desired with no relation to headlights.

DIY - How to Change the Battery in the GT-R

I am actually pretty surprised that my battery "lasted" almost 5 years. It finally could not hold a charge for a start after a week of sitting with no load. The polar vortices that brought days of -10F temperature may have helped finally killed the battery.

In retrospect, after installing the new battery, I came to realized that original battery had been at below ~70% capability for most of its life beyond probably 1 year. Let me explain. Even after a full overnight trickle charge the OEM battery would start the GT-R just fine, but the starting would be somewhat sluggish, almost as though the starter was not sufficient to crank the engine over. This behavior, to me became normal over time, but it was not until the new battery was installed that I realized how snappy the GT-R startup can actually be. So to those on stock GT-R battery, I urge you do a simple voltmeter test.

Topping off new battery.

I did not want to spend $50-60 to get a battery testing kit, considering that a new battery would be double that at about $100-120. I am not a battery expert, but I do have an EE background. So, I did some battery reading and found that low temperature does affect charge, but not as much as say when overall charge capacity is reduced. A healthy battery can survive at -50F (the freezing point of that concentration of sulphuric acid). As the battery charge holding capacity reduces, the freezing point increases very quickly!