pp000830

Dear Rennlisters,
Recently I updated my existing low beam bulbs with a 6000 degree Kelvin HID Xenon kit. It seems that most of the aftermarket kits are very similar. To do a minimally invasive job you will need a kit with the “slim” or smaller ballast. The install is relatively easy as all the components will fit in the lamp housing unit. The wires that come with the kits are designed for general installation and so are too long and need to be bundled in the housing. The install does not look too neat inside the housing but it worked in my case just fine. In my case, the electrical wire terminals leading to the existing bulb could be used to connect the HID system. No cutting or splicing. The inner diameter of the bulb socket needed to be reamed out very slightly for the new bulb to fit - moto- tool, however, I would trial fit the bulbs from the kit you purchase as you most likely will not need to do this. This reaming is slight and will allow for the stock bulbs to fit if you chose to revert back to stock.

Here are the big gotchas on this job.
1) Many times HID bulbs/ballasts are DOA out of the box and so should be tested before you start work.

2) Also, the bulbs may not ignite reliably if there are any grounding leak issues on the bulb or wires. For this reason, when reaming the headlight socket do not have your HEI kit anywhere nearby to avoid having the metal dust contaminate the system. Also be very sure that you have cleaned all the reamed metal dust from the housing as any that gets on the bulb or wires can impact the bulbs ability to ignite.

3) Special care should be used when aiming the headlights after the instill. I used the USA DOT aiming procedure that can be found on several websites. When I did this I found that oncoming cars would flash me thinking my headlights are on hi-beam. Blinding apposing traffic probably cancels out any safety advantage of having brighter daylight color bulbs. I lowered the aim of my headlights slightly below the DOT specification and other drivers stopped flashing me.

I hear all sorts of discussions about needing a larger fuse for the 35W HID bulbs because the system is hard on the existing power relays/switches during initial loading to ignite the bulbs. I did not choose to address this issue in my install because in my experience switch/relay wear comes from the spark as the result of the transition to open (off) not transition to on. In other words, a switch can withstand a lot more load on close than open. When the lights are turned off the bulbs are lit and warm so the load is reduced and the demands on the contacts are lower.

As always any actions on your part influenced by my experience or comments above are at your own risk!

Best regards,
Andy

Kika

HIDs draw less current than the standard 55w bulbs, so they should NOT need a larger fuse.

I did install an inline fuse to my ballasts, in the event that the ballast shorted out to protect the wiring system. I used a 7Amp fuse for each ballast.

VMXWinn

I just placed an order for a Xentec Kit on ebay so my question is this, since these are universal kits and the wiring is a little to long can you cut the interconnect wires from the ballast and splice them?

nile13

Xentec wiring, ballast and igniters fit finee in my headlight housings. i did my install two days ago. No need to shorten anything.

I did cut teh spade plugs off as i did inline connectors. A very simple install, 10 minutes per side or less, including taking the headlights out and putting them back in.

travanx

When I bought hella ballasts the wires say do not cut. I wouldn't mess around splicing these wires. The only people I ever high beamed when I had not true HID's on my RSX were SUV's. And for some reason I didn't really care about high beaming them.

No idea why this would happen using the 993 projectors though.

mr_bock

I think I have the Highbeam Hella ballast and I did some cutting to make them fit in the housing. I also shortened the wires by carefuly taking the connector apart and fitting the wire to the contact and reassemble. This was well over a year ago and I did not take pictures... sorry

kjr914

Cutting and shortening the 12V wires is not any issue.

DO NOT cut and try to splice the wires from the ballast to the lights. This is very high voltage (10,000 to 25,000V) and your standard black electrical tape splicing won't cut it, since the insulation of the electrical tape isn't rated for those voltages.


My ballasts are mounted in the trunk and have sufficient wire to the lights to be able to remove the headlights easily.

civerson4

I also installed the Xentec kit last weekend. Very easy. I shortened the wires that connect 12v to the balast, but did not touch the wires from the balast to the bulb. This kit (H1 bulb) did not require any cutting or modification to the light housing--the new bulb just "clipped" into the slot where the original bulb sat in the light fixture. The balasts easily fit in the headlight housing. The instructions I found on rennlist were perfect.

nile13

One note. The Xentec kit I've received has rubber insulation around the bulb's base. This made it a little more difficult to use the stock spring clip to hold the bulb in place. Not impossible, just had to fiddle a little with needle nose pliers to get it in.

civerson4

Agreed. But it did work--and the stock clip seems to hold the bulb firmly. And no drill/file/dremel work required. Plus the kit was <$80 shipped. Great DIY upgrade.

IamSMC

Where's the pics?

pp000830

Nope - the wires are made to avoid electrical leakages.

nile13

The install pics are fairly standard and there's a bunch of them floating around here already.

The intermediate result looks something like this:

grwoolf

Can someone recommend a source for the Xentec kit? Also, I was looking through old posts and several people were recommending a kit from Tao's lighting store on Ebay with good results. Anyone know the difference between these kits? I'd prefer a kit that fits without reaming the bulb socket. Thanks.

nile13

Xentec is from eBay, seller is xenonwholesale88 (no affiliation).