What Did You Do With Your Kizashi Today?

[FrankoLaMoya]

Your post is quite interesting Bryan! I personally decided to paint my upper and lower grill again this past weekend...and took some pictures. It's look pretty good in person as it is between chrome and grey, but almost shiny like the chrome accents on the car. Oh and I also found a mourning dove in one of our flower baskets on our front porch...with 2 eggs in the nest exactly like last year. Kind of cool! I had 2 baby birds for a week last year before they all left.

PS I did add a few ''cosmetic'' mods in the past 4 years including chrome strips on the mirror, blacked out the rear lights and side marker lights, word Kaiju, chrome strip in the back + word sport, chrome strips surrounding the fog lights, blank wheel center caps, painted the little ''grey'' area close to the mirror and door in black, painted upper and lower grill in a grey/chrome finish...definitely not BIG mods lol, but I get a lot of compliment on a weekly basis and I do not want to mess up my extended warranty.

[fyrbry25]

Really nice car, you must have the SLS? with all the accents and such. I love the tint and the respectable mods that you have done, very classy looking.

[FrankoLaMoya]

Thanks Bryan. It is a 2012 Sport model (Canadian version of the SLS).

[Speed_Racer]

Discovered that I have another burnt headlight. This will be my fourth new bulb in 4 yrs/25k miles, which is frustrating in that I've never had to change any headlights on the other cars or motorcycles I've owned (3 cars, 2 motorcycles).

[DesRado]

Discovered that I have another burnt headlight. This will be my fourth new bulb in 4 yrs/25k miles, which is frustrating in that I've never had to change any headlights on the other cars or motorcycles I've owned (3 cars, 2 motorcycles).

If you haven't replaced them yet, I may suggest switching to HIDs. I bought these off Amazon. The only thing you need to do is drill a hole in each of the bulb housings. They are bright! Have not had any issues since install. I had 3 bulbs blow in 1.5 years.

Edit: I might add I works night shift, so 75% of my driving is in the dark with headlights on.

[KuroNekko]

If you haven't replaced them yet, I may suggest switching to HIDs.

I think the forum regulars all know my position on HIDs by now, but yes, I totally agree and especially for the Kizashi given the difficulty of replacing the bulbs in this car. It also doesn't help that replacing the bulbs often requires the bumpers and headlights to come off. Given the Kizashi has projector lens for the low beams, it really is ideal for HID bulbs. I've only had one HID bulb fail (a cheap one from the previous owner) since I've owned the car from August of 2012. I find HIDs to simply be more reliable, longer-lasting, and the output is a huge improvement. The only place I like keeping the halogens is the DRLs/high beams but those too have been upgraded to high performance halogens for maximum output. The difference in visibility from these upgrades is unbelievable until you experience it.

[Speed_Racer]

If you haven't replaced them yet, I may suggest switching to HIDs. I bought these off Amazon. The only thing you need to do is drill a hole in each of the bulb housings. They are bright! Have not had any issues since install. I had 3 bulbs blow in 1.5 years.

Edit: I might add I works night shift, so 75% of my driving is in the dark with headlights on.

Thanks for the tip! I've put this in my Amazon wish list - next time I burn a bulb I'll swap them out for HIDs.

[NiteRider]

Discovered that I have another burnt headlight. This will be my fourth new bulb in 4 yrs/25k miles, which is frustrating in that I've never had to change any headlights on the other cars or motorcycles I've owned (3 cars, 2 motorcycles).

If you haven't replaced them yet, I may suggest switching to HIDs. I bought these off Amazon. The only thing you need to do is drill a hole in each of the bulb housings. They are bright! Have not had any issues since install. I had 3 bulbs blow in 1.5 years.

Edit: I might add I works night shift, so 75% of my driving is in the dark with headlights on.

Do you need a harness with those?

[golftango]

Changed my rear pads and rotors last night, what a job.

I expected an easy task (like most brake jobs) but the rears were no walk in a park. First, the caliper bracket bolts are tucked away tightly behind the hub. There is not much room due to the independent suspension control arms and hardware. Thus an extension bar is necessary which reduces your leverage. And those bolts are sung. I suggest a swivel ratchet, something I didn't have. Better yet, an impact drill with an extension and swivel will be your best friend. I'm investing in both now.

Secondly the top caliper bolt is restricted by the brake line fitting. Again a swivel ratchet or open ended wrench is needed here. When I got to the other side, I didn't even remove the caliper from the caliper bracket. I just removed the entire caliper and worked the new pads into the caliper bracket.

Once the caliper is off, you can opt to disconnect the parking brake cable. I didn't which really limits how far you can move/position the caliper to install the new hardware. And the piston has to be retracted with a tool which I had a tool set to do. You could use a wide screwdriver or blade to back it down.

Finally the rotors did not knock off for me with a few wacks with a mallet. I found two threaded holes on the rotor hat for a bolt to be used to pop the rotor off. I'm sure replacing the rotors was overkill, I just happen to replace them while I'm there.

In the end I'm glad I did it. My rear pads were shot at 32K.

Edit: I see there is a topic here which was discussed awhile back. Good reference material here:

http://www.kizashiclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2268

[KuroNekko]

Discovered that I have another burnt headlight. This will be my fourth new bulb in 4 yrs/25k miles, which is frustrating in that I've never had to change any headlights on the other cars or motorcycles I've owned (3 cars, 2 motorcycles).

If you haven't replaced them yet, I may suggest switching to HIDs. I bought these off Amazon. The only thing you need to do is drill a hole in each of the bulb housings. They are bright! Have not had any issues since install. I had 3 bulbs blow in 1.5 years.

Edit: I might add I works night shift, so 75% of my driving is in the dark with headlights on.

Do you need a harness with those?

You don't and the Kensun kit doesn't come with one, but it may be beneficial. Standard kits are only powered by the OE headlight harnesses (the part that connects to the halogen bulb) so sometimes the voltage isn't stable enough which causes the HID bulbs to flicker. Harnesses and capacitors stabilize the voltage and current to the HID system.
I have a different HID kit which came with the harness. Even then, I noticed flickering when the car was idling (I think shortly after installing my dash camera). I then installed in-line capacitors which made the flickering go away. I think this is the optimal set-up (HID kit + harness + capacitors) for an HID conversion but it's not all necessary. My previous Mazda3 had a standard HID kit which worked fine without with a harness or capacitors. My Kizashi just proved to be more finicky so it benefits from the additional hardware.