GwynnieMae

I appreciate the offer, but I guess I'm still not fully understanding why and where I should use female ends. The ground wire is female. I need male ends. Marc had a good idea by deforming the stock ground to accept a smaller male bullet.

Unless... You are saying I should put female bullet ends on the HID ground wire and connect it to the casting on the housing, not the stock ground wire. There by leaving the original ground wire not connected to anything. Was this what you meant?

Kika

I had to go back and recall how I installed mine. I guess my earlier thinking was wrong. I basically followed this installation by grmxtc: https://rennlist.com/forums/993-foru...rket-hids.html
See post 6

With only one exception, I put an inline fuse on the + side before the ballast. I like grmnxtc's install as it allows reversion back to standard bulb in an emergency.

The key is to splice the ground with the blue splice connector, that way you don't alter the male bullet connection.

BTW I have extra splice connectors, so let me know if you need some.

GwynnieMae

Ah I see now. Back when I originally did this mod, I used splice connectors too. They're easy to use, but eventually the ground wire insulation at the splice melted. The headlights would sometimes work. I ditched the splicers, repaired the melted wires and went for a more direct connection(spade into female bullet). This has worked great for a long time. However, being a snobby perfectionist, I don't like that connection I made.

I have this idea to use spade connectors to make an inline quick disconnect in the original ground wire. It's hard to explain this in writing. I think I'll post some pictures when I get a chance to do it.

Kika

I agree with the spade connector idea to maintain the capability to easily connect and disconnect. I think the way to go is to create an adaptor harness of some sort.

Sorry to lead you astray with my poor memory.

I do have an assortment of spare electrical connectors and such that I keep in a box, so if you need something, let me know.

More importantly though, I am concerned with the melting of the ground wire insulation. Nothing should get that hot to melt the insulation. Only the bulbs themselves should reach those temps. It seems to me that there is something else wrong.

GwynnieMae

I'm no electrical engineer, so all I can do is guess. Mine didn't catastrophically melt in one moment. Rather, little bits of the insulation melted slowly into the wiring making a poor connection with the splice. It stumped me for the longest time why my headlights wouldn't always turn on. The only possibilities are either heat from surrounding sources or resistance in the wiring heating the insulation enough to melt. I'm going with the latter of those two. My installation was exactly like the one in the post you just recommended.

TRM

Another with more pictures...TRM's

pp000830

I like it!

mgianzero

Beau,

I agree with Kika (we many times agree, but he pays me in wine to do so!) regarding the hot ground wire. A hot ground wire usually means you have a poor connection, and/or a short somewhere. The HID bulbs do get hot, but not as hot as the older Halogen type. The ballast can get warm, but not what I would call hot to cause a "melting of insulation" around your ground.

I'm also not a big fan of using splice connectors for this purpose. My philosophy is ... if you're wanting to do a mod but leave stock wiring in place for COMPLETE reversal that don't use splice connectors like the type we have here. They leave a defect in the insulation which I'm not a big fan of. I know it's a ground we're talking about which shouldn't be too critical, but I'm a purist and "Ferry don't like that" is the way I see it.

If you're still stumped, stop by my home again and we'll look at it. I've got a bench with a whole bunch of headlight stuff on it since I'm just finishing my latest project with the new slim ballasts. You know where I live and I've got a lot of beer!


Someone asked what type of bulb I used as a hi-beam that matched my 5000k HID's and I remembered when I stopped by the local auto-parts store. I believe it's a common Sylvania Silverstar type bulb like this one:

3healey

I put in a DDM slim ballast kit a couple of years ago. Very nice kit, and their customer service is pretty good. I had one ballast fail (I think they called it a "voltage lock-out"). When I emailed them, they said that if I had followed their recommendation to use a relay harness to deliver voltage directly from the battery, I would not have had this problem. They agreed to replace the failed ballast at no charge, even though my failure was not covered under the warranty. I ordered and installed a relay harness and have enjoyed HID low beams ever since.

GwynnieMae

This thread got me motivated enough to go through with my idea. I just finished and I'll post pictures tomorrow.

coreseller

Thanks mgianzero, I'm the one who asked. I too will be going forward with these mods thanks to this thread and Joe's (magdaddy) advice.

mgianzero

Glad I could help explain it or at least motivate you to do a mod on your car. Please call me Marc.

Ed Hughes

I went with Carnewal's kit when I did mine. He also provided the matching marker lightstoo. IMO, there were too many negative reports on DDM kits, so I went for Gert's, still under $100, iirc.

cmat

Another nice option is the T-Light package that Tore Bergvill offers. It is specifically designed for our cars. All connectors match and the ballasts are mounted on brackets that attach to existing studs in the headlight housing. This makes for a tidy installation that is easily reversed. LED lamps in a matching color are also provided for the running lights.

I recently installed the system in my car car and am very happy with the result. At the same time I also switched to the improved clips for holding the lamps in place (Porsche # 000 043 204 28). This change is worthwhile whether or not you go to HID as the lamps are held much more securely.

GwynnieMae

Here's what I did yesterday. The first picture is how my setup was until recently. The HID spade shoved into the stock ground plug. My harness was already hacked up, so hacking it up further wasn't going to bother me any more. Earlier I kept referring to using spade connectors. I meant to say "flat terminals". Semantics. Anyway, I wouldn't recommend this to anyone that Doesn't want to cut the original harness. I think the pictures explain it all. The ground to the car is the male terminal. The HID and remaining stock ground are female terminals. This gives me the ability to seamlessly switch between HID and stock setups incase I need to.