- Joined
- 14 April 2002
- Messages
- 2,273
Last week after work I was determined to get rid of my ugly Halogen headlights and come into the light of HID. I had never had a HID car, didn't really know what it meant, just saw that some people were claiming their car was faster with it and had $550 bucks burning a hole in my pocket.
Seriously - I hated driving at night with the "pop ups" and halogen. They just were screaming "last generation Miata" from a distance. I wasn't comfortable going with full non pop up replacements - although Gerry's one off looks pretty darn cool - so HID was a good move. Knowing Chris for a bunch of years and listening to everyone else brag about them told me I was getting quality, ease of installation, and would be safe for my car and me.
Bottom line - this kit is a winner. The installation was straight forward (I do have some improvements I will list) and if you take your time you will have a professional installation.
Here are my tips you may or may not want to do to save time and increase the quality of the installation:
Tip 1: Removing the painted light covers: The light covers have screws covered by body colored snap in screw covers. These babies are in there very good and you will need something VERY small and VERY sharp to get them out. Also when they do come out they will pop out and go flying so do not do this next to your grass or next to somewhere you wont be able to find them. I used a razor knife to pry up the plastic just enough to get a fingernail under it and then pulled it back to "let if fly"! The next problem that I encountered that wasn't really covered in the instructions was removing the entire "bucket" off the light assembly. My right one did not want to come straight out. The left one was very stiff but doable. I found that if you pivot the back of the case straight up and down you can then work the bottom out between the headlights and the gasket on the body. It is REALLY tight and takes a fair amount of pulling.
Tip 2: Keep everything together left and right.
Tip 3: Different order of installation. In Chris's instructions he has you install the light, then the collector, then the ballast. I found it was a lot easier to 1) remove the light 2) install the new bulb, connector, etc 3) With the light off the car drill the hole for the collector 4) install/Velcro the ballast 5) run the wires 6) setup the connector 7) wire tie things off 8) test the movement of the bucket 9) install and plug in the lights
Tip 4: Make a copy of the manual as the pictures are on different page then the instructions and it can be difficult going back and forth and keeping everything straight.
Tip 5: A ten penny nail works great for unclipping the wire from the white harness.
Tip 6: Chris recommends marking the white plug +/- but I found they were already marked with a green dot so it wasn't necessary to mark them.
Tip 7: I decided to route the wires to the ballast a little differently. The picture shows the wire is routed above the bottom of the light bucket - basically between the light housing and the bucket. I found the stamping to be sharper on that side and didn't like the pressure between the housing and the wires. I was able to close the housing and there is plenty of room to wire tie the wires to the underside of the housing going forward (still use the wire tie and hole Chris recommends to do it).
Tip 8: Make sure you leave the wire tie between the ballast and the lights a little loose and leave enough slack for the wires to give and take a little. If you don't it will just "pull" the ballast off the Velcro.
Tip 9: You will want to really clean the buckets and the lights before putting them all together. If you are like me - you will find a pound of Zymol stuck in there and will want to clean it all off and put a light coat of wax on everything.
Tip 10: It is easy to forget when the battery is plugged in so be extra careful as it is obvious but not explicit in the instructions. Since you do one side at a time you basically test and unplug then install and test again. I was tired after work and I forgot a couple of times.
Tip 11: You may decide to more permanently mount the ballast. I am just "ok" with the Velcro and would prefer knowing they wont move around on me at the track when I have the lights up during the rain or something. I may re-do them and find a better way to mount them - even though I imagine they are fine with just the Velcro.
I did it in about 3 hours from start to finish but I took my time, had constant interruptions from the kids, and had no familiarity with these parts.
Thank you Chris - this is an awesome kit and the quality is outstanding!
------------------
Nick M
91' Red/Black with Many Mods
99' Honda Odyssey with Many Kids
Seriously - I hated driving at night with the "pop ups" and halogen. They just were screaming "last generation Miata" from a distance. I wasn't comfortable going with full non pop up replacements - although Gerry's one off looks pretty darn cool - so HID was a good move. Knowing Chris for a bunch of years and listening to everyone else brag about them told me I was getting quality, ease of installation, and would be safe for my car and me.
Bottom line - this kit is a winner. The installation was straight forward (I do have some improvements I will list) and if you take your time you will have a professional installation.
Here are my tips you may or may not want to do to save time and increase the quality of the installation:
Tip 1: Removing the painted light covers: The light covers have screws covered by body colored snap in screw covers. These babies are in there very good and you will need something VERY small and VERY sharp to get them out. Also when they do come out they will pop out and go flying so do not do this next to your grass or next to somewhere you wont be able to find them. I used a razor knife to pry up the plastic just enough to get a fingernail under it and then pulled it back to "let if fly"! The next problem that I encountered that wasn't really covered in the instructions was removing the entire "bucket" off the light assembly. My right one did not want to come straight out. The left one was very stiff but doable. I found that if you pivot the back of the case straight up and down you can then work the bottom out between the headlights and the gasket on the body. It is REALLY tight and takes a fair amount of pulling.
Tip 2: Keep everything together left and right.
Tip 3: Different order of installation. In Chris's instructions he has you install the light, then the collector, then the ballast. I found it was a lot easier to 1) remove the light 2) install the new bulb, connector, etc 3) With the light off the car drill the hole for the collector 4) install/Velcro the ballast 5) run the wires 6) setup the connector 7) wire tie things off 8) test the movement of the bucket 9) install and plug in the lights
Tip 4: Make a copy of the manual as the pictures are on different page then the instructions and it can be difficult going back and forth and keeping everything straight.
Tip 5: A ten penny nail works great for unclipping the wire from the white harness.
Tip 6: Chris recommends marking the white plug +/- but I found they were already marked with a green dot so it wasn't necessary to mark them.
Tip 7: I decided to route the wires to the ballast a little differently. The picture shows the wire is routed above the bottom of the light bucket - basically between the light housing and the bucket. I found the stamping to be sharper on that side and didn't like the pressure between the housing and the wires. I was able to close the housing and there is plenty of room to wire tie the wires to the underside of the housing going forward (still use the wire tie and hole Chris recommends to do it).
Tip 8: Make sure you leave the wire tie between the ballast and the lights a little loose and leave enough slack for the wires to give and take a little. If you don't it will just "pull" the ballast off the Velcro.
Tip 9: You will want to really clean the buckets and the lights before putting them all together. If you are like me - you will find a pound of Zymol stuck in there and will want to clean it all off and put a light coat of wax on everything.
Tip 10: It is easy to forget when the battery is plugged in so be extra careful as it is obvious but not explicit in the instructions. Since you do one side at a time you basically test and unplug then install and test again. I was tired after work and I forgot a couple of times.
Tip 11: You may decide to more permanently mount the ballast. I am just "ok" with the Velcro and would prefer knowing they wont move around on me at the track when I have the lights up during the rain or something. I may re-do them and find a better way to mount them - even though I imagine they are fine with just the Velcro.
I did it in about 3 hours from start to finish but I took my time, had constant interruptions from the kids, and had no familiarity with these parts.
Thank you Chris - this is an awesome kit and the quality is outstanding!
------------------
Nick M
91' Red/Black with Many Mods
99' Honda Odyssey with Many Kids
