Kika

Need a little advise from those of you that have installed the aftermarket HID kits. The standard 993 headlight unit connects directly into a plug at the back of the bucket, right in front of the oil cooler.

Did you bypass the factory plug eliminating it or connect the HIDs to the rear of the plug. What will 20,000 Volts do to that plug? I was hoping I could install the HIDs and be able to reverse it later if I wanted to, but it seems like one I install them, there is no turning back.
ideas?
Kika

MarkD

The HID setup only gets power to the ballast from the OE wiring so no problem with melting any wire.
You can always go back if you are careful about how much wire you cut off to make the connections. Not sure why you'd want to though. It's a great upgrade.

The high voltage comes to the new bulb via the new wiring with the kit.
There are a variety of kits out there to do the conversion.

Well worth it, IMHO. Like night... and day

If you buy the Vertex kit: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Porsc...spagenameZWDVW
You don't even have to drill your original back covers.
I'd avoid the wire splicers though... usually these are a weak point but maybe the Vertex are superior quality.

grmnxtc

I did one better.

The "replacement" integrated igniters/ballasts you see on Ebay are about the same size as the Hella ones (a little smaller maybe).

With a little bit of re-wiring and some careful positioning, you can (just!) get the ballast inside the headlamp unit itself. Then there's no extra cables to pull through the fender, and the headlamp unit is removable as is. I can also easily swithc back to the halogen lamp if needed (I carry spares in the trunk)

I'll try and shoot some pictures tonight and post back.

No problems so far with mine.

(BTW... HID's are the way to go regardless of how you mount them. I wouldn't (however) try and feed 20+ kV down the standard wiring).

Mike J

I did another twist. I tapped into the power at the car side of the connector and put in another waterproof connector in-line ; i.e. the lights get their power from the wiring harness. I mounted my ballasts inside the trunk because I did not want to risk them getting wet (inside the fenders). I did not attempt to put them inside the light buckets...I know there are issues with the ballasts running hot so I did not want to temp fate. However it certainly works for others (like Clive) so that is an option too. That solution is ideal since it uses the factory connector and truly is "plug and play" !

Cheers,

Mike

MarkD

Very cool!

grmnxtc

As promised.... pictures.

The basic headlight - duh!



The "back" off...



closeup of ballast squeezed in there.



Ballast partially removed



Ballast removed (blue thing is a splice to tap into the GND line)



Quick replacement of Halogen lamp - just in case one HID dies on the road late at night - just plug-n-play



The HID lamp (rebased H1), ballast and wiring.



Like I said it's tight, but it does fit, and I've not had any problem with it (so far!).

If you look on Ebay and search for "replacement ballast" you'll see a few people selling these (look for the ones like mine above with no labels on them).
HID Bulbs are easy to come by too. (H1 rebased - then choose your color "temp" - mine are 4300K).

Caveman

If you replace one of the bulb connectors from the HID kit with the right one to fit onto the "bullet" plug then you can plug and play without compromising any of the wires. I did this and carry the halogen bulbs as spares for roadside emergencies. If I ever take them out I just have to replace the back flap on the light unit.

Cheers,

David

Garth S

Very tidy!
So, the only wiring is the white supply plug for the ballast patched into the yellow +12v feed and brown GND of the normal low beam harness??

Question on the 'white plug' and the ballast to bulb high tension lead: do you initially buy a HID kit to get these, or are they separately available .... as the ballasts and bulbs are?

Chuck W.

Kika.. If you are interested in doing the basic install come on by and I'll give you a hand. About an hour job.

MarkD

Clive, where were you 2 weeks ago BEFORE I installed mine?!

Great idea.
My only thought: Do the ballasts heat up much? I'd guess not. I'm sure the bulbs are much hotter anyhow.

RallyJon

Looks like a tidy solution, but for safety's sake you should run a thermocouple from a multimeter into the housing, and let the car idle in your driveway with the lights on for 20 min or so to see how hot it gets. It would be a shame to melt the plastic housing, or worse.

Kika

All,

Thanks for the pointers, I will give it a try like the pictures, otherwise, I may take ChuckW up on his offer. This is a great place.

will keep you all posted.

Kika

grmnxtc

OK some answers to some questions/points.

I bought the ballasts, HID's and power input cable all as seperate items. (Ebay is your friend!). Probably could have bought them as a kit from someone, but never really found what I wanted to try all in one place.... hmmm, maybe I should start a "kit" going.....

As to the "heat build up" question...

I really haven't had a problem with heat (you can see the pics and there's no evidence of any heat problems.

My rational is this.

Normal HID ballast installs on high end cars (Merc's BMW's etc) are mounted in the engine bay and this area gets REALLY hot... especially in Socal in all our traffic. So mounting them in the headlight itself isn't so bad as being mounted close to a HUGE heat generator (engine).

Also, nomal Halogen bulbs are 55W and dissipate a LOT of heat as they are not all that efficient.

HID's dissipate 35W and LESS heat, as they are more efficient as they give off more light and use less total energy... so even if the ballast is only 80% efficient that's still only 42W total dissipation (35W HID + 7W inefficiency in the ballast) . Less than a normal Halogen bulb!

The normal wiring in the headlamp shows no signs of heat "ageing" even with all the years of the Halogen bulbs in there,so I guess I'm pretty good. Not noticed or had any problems to date... though I guess the possibility of heat is there, just doesn't seem like a problem to worry about in the scheme of things. The ballasts have little in them (silicon wise), there are mostly big coils and capacitors (all (hopefully!) automotive/industrial grade components (-40 to +85C) operating.

Also, the headlamp rear covers are vented ...

Kika

Clive,

I am taking Clive's route, I ordered replacement ballasts from cartoka.com (buy it now at 49.95) each from ebay, also my friend, mostly for selling stuff, but that is another subject.

Thanks to Clive for his nifty install and willingness to share, pics are worth a 1000 words!!!

Thanks also to Chuck W for offering to help me install them. I opted to not cut the holes in the back, thus I can convert back to "stock", though I doubt I ever will, just nice to know I can put a normal bulb back in, in an emergency.

Now I just need to find a soccer free weekend.....
Kika

Jukelemon

Hi all.

Do you have an ebay supplier that you can recommend WITH specific part numbers e.g. HID rebased bulb?

Thanks