Got HIDs, dawg! (Pix added 1.8.08. 56K=????)

[NeFaRiOuS_SLE]

True thing my friends, I too, fired Rudolph (I know, I know... I need to lower+rims+exhaust+shitload of other things I'm not in a position to buy )...

After almost 2 months with a burnt-out headlight and all sorts of hell, which included:
* Halo's left bulb burnt out + unannounced change in warranty (2 years to 1 yr) = Had to use old Silverstars from 2 years ago.
* Right light of Silverstars burnt out a week later ... Shoulda saved the other Halo bulb.
* Friend promised to sell his old HID kit for $50, but he put it in his girlfriend's dumpy Nissan Stanza for X-mas instead.
* Can't see SH!T in the rain; worst time driving I EVER had; even driving without headlights on a dark canyon road must've beared more visibility.
* Cringing around the cops, especially when all my friends keep reminding me I might get pulled over... Especially worse when most of my friends live in Burbank/Glendale (their police force is STRICT; they'll throw a misdemeanor on anything and everything).

...I finally caved in and bought a Bi-Xenon kit off of eBay... Originally $199, but I brought it down to $120 (semi-long story), 4100K (I know, not blue or gaudy purple but it's the Lumens that count)!

Pics coming soon (as soon as I install it)... Might be cam-phone quality though (good camera broke on my birthday).

Oh, while I have a topic open, is it possible to prevent the OEM alarm from flashing the headlights when the alarm is going off? The panic button is super-sensitive on my remote (triggers at least once a month), and I heard that flashing the HID lights will "significantly decrease" the bulb's lifespan, and literally can't live without some sort of keyless entry.

[Projex0]

well if it trigger the lows to come on you can put a relay harness on it so it'll help to take a the stress off your stock harness when it happends to do come on.

btw i got my harness for like $10

[SleeperSolara]

Nice man.
Can't wait to see the pictures of you're HID.

[NeFaRiOuS_SLE]

well if it trigger the lows to come on you can put a relay harness on it so it'll help to take a the stress off your stock harness when it happends to do come on.

btw i got my harness for like $10

Harness? Like to redirect the signal that triggers the light to somewhere else? Please elaborate; I'm not quite sure I follow.

Nice man.
Can't wait to see the pictures of you're HID.

I sure will... Might not be able to install it until Sunday; been REALLY busy lately, not to mention I want to hide the ballast as much as I can.

[NeFaRiOuS_SLE]

**Edited 01.05.2008**

UPDATE: OK, after postponing and a bunch of trials and tribulations, I just can't wait until the weekend and started on the installation Wednesday night (esp. if I found out the forecast predicted rain... Yes folks it rains in SoCal; I'm shocked too [/sarcasm]).

Bad news? There are some pics that need to be re-taken since I can't see what I was doing (my camera's LCD is broken), so it's either put up with my crude drawing or take the car apart again to re-take the right side ballast mount, but the ground in my neighborhood is still wet from heavy raining last night.

WEDNESDAY: I did a stealth installation, so the igniter and left ballast is under the fuse box and where the intake resonator (AKA big useless jug thanks to my intake) was, and the right ballast is mounted next to the windshield washer tank.

All the wiring, though working in a cramped space + sharp edges = frustrating when you have to make 5+ attempts on everything, not to mention cutting the hell out of your hands.

It was a BITCH to get everything together, especially since the cord was short enough to make everything on the right side was BARELY long enough to connect everything (1/2" shorter and I'd have to almost start over and relocate everything on the left just to have some more workable length); only the left light worked... Thought something was wrong with the mofo.


Crude drawing of where I put the ballast+ignitor.


Under-the-car detail.


HID (left) vs. Silverstar (right).


Against a bush... I know I can do better with the halfway shot and go against a wall, but I was too tired and as you might be able see by the driveway, it was a BITCH to position the car properly.


Just the left light alone was a HUGE improvement... Yes, I had to drive home from work with just that and the fog lights.

THURSDAY: Changed the grounding location = NOW the right one works (finally)! Took me a few guesses before I actually found out that the bolt that I used for grounding was some sort of non-conductive material... When I used a metal bolt, it worked!


Another crude drawing of the right ballast's location.

FRIDAY: Since it was raining like hell and still couldn't see anything, I took it to an underground parking lot to align it... 200% better (both were aimed too high), I can actually see the road perfect but I had no camera. I'd totally revamp the focus to have a sharp cutoff (and I tried it with manually pulling the headlight back and forth and worked), but I was tired after work, and even at the extreme end of the parking lot with no cars for a good 70 yards, the security still bitched at me.


After redoing the ground wire, this is... INSTALLATION COMPLETE!


Against-the-wall shot; like I said I'm still working on the focus.


Long-distance road shot.

[trd628]

Projex0 wrote:
well if it trigger the lows to come on you can put a relay harness on it so it'll help to take a the stress off your stock harness when it happends to do come on.

Can you elaborate? I have the same problem, it actually screwed up my original set of HIDs. I rewired my new set so that I have low beams but no highs. The alarm only turns the headlights on for whichever is selected whether it is the highs or lows. I just leave the highs on so that the lights don't light and it keeps the HIDS fine. I posted a topic on this a year or so ago wih no avail. If someone could help it would be AWESOME.

[Projex0]

ok what i was trying to say was unless you full disable the DRL in the gen 1 headlights your headligths will flash regaurdless when the panic button is pressed, so i just suggested an alternative to maybe saving the life of your ballast from dying out prematurely, because all ballast at initial charge will draw about 80watts(i think it was 80) to turn the bulbs on and warm it.
this bring it to the problem with your stock headlight wiring, you "run the risk" of it melting or frying those because its drawing 80 watts every flash of the headlight in addition shorttening out the bulbs life span.

sorry if i sounded like i knew how to fix the drl with HID

the relay harness provides the ballast direct access to the battery and it will protect ur stock harness because with the kit it only uses one side of the stock plugs to trigger the relay to trigger the ballast.

btw i bought this relay kit from this place make sure you tell them what size bulb ur car uses http://www.xenonlink.com/product_info.p ... cts_id=171

[Somedude]

Nice!
======================


The Solara should have came with HIDs as a standard feature.

[NeFaRiOuS_SLE]

Pics added!

Projex0 wrote:
well if it trigger the lows to come on you can put a relay harness on it so it'll help to take a the stress off your stock harness when it happends to do come on.

Can you elaborate? I have the same problem, it actually screwed up my original set of HIDs. I rewired my new set so that I have low beams but no highs. The alarm only turns the headlights on for whichever is selected whether it is the highs or lows. I just leave the highs on so that the lights don't light and it keeps the HIDS fine. I posted a topic on this a year or so ago wih no avail. If someone could help it would be AWESOME.

Wish things WERE as simple as leaving the highs on for me; mine are bi-xenon, which means I can turn the highs on and it'll move a shield. Anyone else that can impart their wisdom?

[Toy1mzfe]

hows the light look from the left and right headlight.

i was told before not to run a hallogen bulb and hid side at the same time. I heard it ruins the output of it when you finally have both of them on.

just wondering...

anyways. hids have always been a plus and must for cars.

[SleeperSolara]

Very nice man.
Looks like a very good result.
Can't wait to finish my E46 bi-xenon projector retrofit.
But then again like i would need to use my high beams eva. lol.

[NeFaRiOuS_SLE]

hows the light look from the left and right headlight.

i was told before not to run a hallogen bulb and hid side at the same time. I heard it ruins the output of it when you finally have both of them on.

just wondering...

anyways. hids have always been a plus and must for cars.

For both, see the 3 pics starting at the bottom . I had pics looking in front of the car, but they turned out too imbalanced / over-saturated.

The HID+halogen was only in there for about 1 1/2 minutes, or basically just enough for the bulb to warm up and take 2 snapshots; at the time I haven't even began to install the right ballast... Incidentally I assumed there was no problem since i see it on eBay all the time...

...Then I drove the next day in a 9-minute commute from work to home (yes my work is that close) with both lights hooked up but only the left side working since I didn't properly ground the right. Besides I don't think it ruined the output; both of them seem equal to me, but I think you're thinking about what it will be like if I went about 2-3 weeks with one light.

Very nice man.
Looks like a very good result.
Can't wait to finish my E46 bi-xenon projector retrofit.
But then again like i would need to use my high beams eva. lol.

Thanks. But trust me: Driving around this neighborhood, I still need SOMETHING to point out the idiocy of the Asian FOB drivers I get around here. I had a long rant about it somewhere in SG, and I see about 70% of what I ranted about on a daily basis. Most of the time I just use the high beams and my Highway Blasters; don't want to short out the HID bulb by flickering it on and off either.

Ironically, the high beam output kinda sucks, but then again I still need to re-adjust the focus... The good thing about this kit is that it uses little screws on the base instead of sanding it down like I saw in one tutorial here.

[Jakecallun20]

HID kit looks awesome Nef. Good job on the installation.

[NeFaRiOuS_SLE]

Thanks!

[Solorange]

Looks good, I seriously think that black housing lights I bought from ebay suck. They look good but, It really screws with the beam and I cant get my HIDs to throw the beam out nearly as far as yours are. Plus the beam looks somewhat spotty. Im gonna have to see if I can angle them up some more.