HID FAQ Guide

[Theblackarrow]

I am planing to do HID to my 2002 Trailblazer in the next 2 months and i need your feedback about my project about the best result that i can get from it

shall i buy Ready projector headlights like these below or it's better to buy a ready made retrofit ones ( As it will be impossible to do it myself) i do prefer to go for the aftermarket ones cause i believe they are little cheaper compared to retrofit and also they come with a combo new Fog lights Kit (which is a great deal) But my concern is are the lenses used in that one as good as the lens used in the retrofit and if not will it affect the quality of the bulbs beam?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/291340350996
http://www.ebay.com/itm/360979862696

and for the Bulbs i like those as they have a high rating in amazon what you guys think and shall i need a CANBUS ballast?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/111366220860?var=410348645611

Or this
http://www.ebay.com/itm/OPT7-AC-35w-Xenon-HID-Kit-Slim-9006-6000K-Blue-Beam-HeadLight-Conversion-Light-/111027373999?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item19d9bf47af&vxp=mtr

 

[Midnyteryder196]

A member here (Aarkon) has a couple projector retrofits done up for sale if you want to go with a quality projector. I'm sure he could package some fog lights for you for too if you want.

Also I personally wouldn't go with opt7 brand. I have a buddy who is has had quite a few issues with the ballasts n the bulbs too. Check out amazon for some kensun brand hids. Or if you want quality, Check out theretrofitsource.com

 

[Mounce]

Aftermarket projectors like that are a crap shoot, they might be good, or they might be bad.

Also, you won't need a CANBUS ballast but you will need to either disable DRL's or do the "cap mod" and make them run at 100%.

 

[Theblackarrow]

A member here (Aarkon) has a couple projector retrofits done up for sale if you want to go with a quality projector. I'm sure he could package some fog lights for you for too if you want.

Also I personally wouldn't go with opt7 brand. I have a buddy who is has had quite a few issues with the ballasts n the bulbs too. Check out amazon for some kensun brand hids. Or if you want quality, Check out theretrofitsource.com

Well i need to check with him about the cost (hope it will be reasonable) because i am sure they will be expensive also the aftermarket really looks awesome despite the quality issues and for the bulbs i will check this brand it also have a very high rating for theretrofitsource.com.com no way i would think about that the HID kit costs only 150$ that is really crazy

Aftermarket projectors like that are a crap shoot, they might be good, or they might be bad.

Also, you won't need a CANBUS ballast but you will need to either disable DRL's or do the "cap mod" and make them run at 100%.

i believe you are right but look at the shapes Wow it's really looking good and i like the cap mod it's much easier i believe the only problem will be getting the resistor i don't think we have a radio shack here in Qatar.

 

[Mounce]

Well i need to check with him about the cost (hope it will be reasonable) because i am sure they will be expensive [emoji3] also the aftermarket really looks awesome despite the quality issues and for the bulbs i will check this brand it also have a very high rating for theretrofitsource.com.com no way i would think about that the HID kit costs only 150$ that is really crazy


i believe you are right but look at the shapes Wow it's really looking good and i like the cap mod it's much easier i believe the only problem will be getting the resistor i don't think we have a radio shack here in Qatar.

I assume you mean capacitor instead of resistor. They're dirt cheap, maybe you can order one online.

Btw, Aarkon sells his retrofits at an outstanding price.

 

[Theblackarrow]

I assume you mean capacitor instead of resistor. They're dirt cheap, maybe you can order one online.

Btw, Aarkon sells his retrofits at an outstanding price.

OK I Contacted Aarkon and he is a nice guy he doesn't mind selling me a pair of his great retrofit projector headlight But he Is stuck with the Shipping costs as he is telling me it will cost maybe double the headlights cost itself and i am waiting for him to figure a way on sending the same with a reasonable shipping price like the eBay seller i really would love to have one of his awesome work

 

[Mounce]

OK I Contacted Aarkon and he is a nice guy he doesn't mind selling me a pair of his great retrofit projector headlight But he Is stuck with the Shipping costs as he is telling me it will cost maybe double the headlights cost itself and i am waiting for him to figure a way on sending the same with a reasonable shipping price like the eBay seller i really would love to have one of his awesome work

Dang! Where you located?

 

[dmanns67]

Dang! Where you located?

Qatar. Trust me it is far from here. Its close to Bahrain and UAE.

 

[Theblackarrow]

Qatar. Trust me it is far from here. Its close to Bahrain and UAE.

So do you think that there is a chance he can find a good shipping rate or it's impossible

 

[Theblackarrow]

OK i had a deal that i couldn't resist so i bought those headlights and they arrived with a crazy shipping rate of only $35 which is compared to the normal shipping rate of $171 so i am planning now to order the HID Kit and i am really confused here as the headlights came with a H1 Bulb Socket not the 9006 like the OEM ones so shall i buy the H1 Kit and will the wire fit at the end to the car factory car Socket or not and also what do you recommend shall i buy another kit for the fog lights as well which is 880 Bulbs and how i will connect all these wires and relay harnesses to the battery LOL can't i use 2 ballasts for the 4 bulbs your help is really appreciated here.

Also these headlights comes with LED side lights that as per the video instructions shall be connected to the low beam socket harness so it can have a constant voltage or some connect it to the Parking signal light in the front (the one orange bulb in the Bottom) so which is the right way and last thing the trailblazer comes with two signal bulbs one in the top corner in the Amber and one in the bottom so what is the best bulb to put there and are both of them shall be orange colors as i believe the one in the amber shall be white to give better results

waiting for your great respond as usual

Here is some pictures for the Headlights as i have sealed them with RTV Black Silicone to protect them from any water leak or moisture as recommended by the manufacturer (Spec D) hope i did a good job here and i was thinking to use a Headlight Lens Sealer spray to give them a coating before installing them to look shining as much as possible and protect them from the sun rays what do you think and what is the best brand for the spray that i shall use and buy?

I Also bought those capacitor for the Cap mod are they the correct ones or not ?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/10-condensateurs-10uF-35V-Nichicon-VX-axial-/280618343163?pt=FR_YO_MaisonJardin_Bricolage_ElectroniqueComposants&hash=item4156281afb

 

[Theblackarrow]

Sorry Last question Guys if i use a relay harness do i still need to do the cap Mod or not ? as i believe they come with a capacitor already

 

[Blckshdw]

Sorry Last question Guys if i use a relay harness do i still need to do the cap Mod or not ? as i believe they come with a capacitor already

Unless specifically stated, relay harnesses do not come with any DRL altering capabilities, so you would need to address them by the capacitor mod, or DRL killer.

 

[Theblackarrow]

Unless specifically stated, relay harnesses do not come with any DRL altering capabilities, so you would need to address them by the capacitor mod, or DRL killer.

thanks man but could you have a look in my previous post and maybe give me your opinion

 

[Sib]

Ok so I am looking at getting some 880 HIDs and don't wanna go the TRS route right now. I need better fogs, but I also need to save my money for some more other mods (i.e. new rims, Aarkon's "special" retrofits, etc). I am thinking about ordering a set of the Xentec HIDs. I am also going to order this cheap relay harness.

Do you guys think this relay harness will be sufficient? Also, I know that TRS HIDs come with an igniter. First, what exactly does that do and is it crucial that I have it? Does it help power the bulbs better?

Thanks!

 

[Mounce]

Relay harness will be fine.

As for the igniter, it's an integral part of every hid system. Every set has them, they can be internal or external like TRS's.

 

[Sib]

I gotcha. So it's safe to assume those xentecs have the igniter internally then since it seems there's not any extra wiring that comes with it as far as an igniter goes.

 

[Sib]

Alright just pulled the string on them. We'll see. It was only like $38 bucks total so they gotta be better than the LEDs shit bulbs I have now.

 

[Mounce]

I gotcha. So it's safe to assume those xentecs have the igniter internally then since it seems there's not any extra wiring that comes with it as far as an igniter goes.

Yeah, that's what I'd assume.

Normally, the "slim" ballasts have the external igniters because that's what allows them to be so "slim."

 

[dmanns67]

Ok so I am looking at getting some 880 HIDs and don't wanna go the TRS route right now. I need better fogs, but I also need to save my money for some more other mods (i.e. new rims, Aarkon's "special" retrofits, etc). I am thinking about ordering a set of the Xentec HIDs. I am also going to order this cheap relay harness.

Do you guys think this relay harness will be sufficient? Also, I know that TRS HIDs come with an igniter. First, what exactly does that do and is it crucial that I have it? Does it help power the bulbs better?

Thanks!

Any wire harness is better than no wire harness. TRS sells wire harnesses separately for $30. Unless your LEDs are what DFWWIZ is selling, they are basically for looks. KD made the same mistake.

Like Mounce said, all ballasts have an igniter. My personal preference is to be internal. My wife's Kensun kit has external igniters. Only difference is her ballasts are smaller.

For fogs, I picked up a set of Depo brand OE fogs from Amazon for around $52. I have tried many brands, but I end up replacing them after a couple years. Whatever brand you go with, pick up some Permatex RTV black and run a bead around the edge of the lens and over top of the gortex patch to prevent water and moisture getting into the housing. Moisture kills the chrome finish and discolors the lens.

 

[Sib]

Any wire harness is better than no wire harness. TRS sells wire harnesses separately for $30. Unless your LEDs are what DFWWIZ is selling, they are basically for looks. KD made the same mistake.

I bought a set of cheap led fogs just so they would match my new low beam HIDs better. I knew they were going to be shit for output. I was thinking about TRS's relay harness but just decided to get a cheap one for now. Hopefully I'm not shooting myself in the foot so we'll see.

Like Mounce said, all ballasts have an igniter. My personal preference is to be internal. My wife's Kensun kit has external igniters. Only difference is her ballasts are smaller.

Would the wife appreciate you talking about her ballasts like that. I'm sure all wives would hope their husbands thought their ballasts were big.

For fogs, I picked up a set of Depo brand OE fogs from Amazon for around $52. I have tried many brands, but I end up replacing them after a couple years. Whatever brand you go with, pick up some Permatex RTV black and run a bead around the edge of the lens and over top of the gortex patch to prevent water and moisture getting into the housing. Moisture kills the chrome finish and discolors the lens.

I'm gonna try the permatex on my oem ones just to make sure no moisture can get in. Fog light retro will be another thing to save up for down the road.


BTW, how close are your fogs to being completed?

 

[dmanns67]

BTW, how close are your fogs to being completed?

Probably 75%. I still need to modify the fog light recess on the bumper, fit test, alignment check, cut shrouds to fit projector, then seal these bad boys up.

I also still need to do the wiring for the solenoid for hi beam on the projectors.

 

[Sib]

Ok so my HID fogs came in with the relay harness and I was trying to install them today, but could not for the life of me figure out a good ground. The "o" ring that came on the relay harness is rather small and the wire is rather short too (I know, I know...that's what she said).

Was hoping someone had a picture of where they grounded their wires.

Worst case scenario, I think I might just cut the ground, solder another wire to make it longer and then throw on a larger "o" ring.

Hoping there's a better solution before I do that tho.

 

[Blckshdw]

I used the fender grounds. My original cheap Ebay harnesses were also too short, so I extended them. I used spade connectors instead of ring terminals, so I only had to back the bolt out, and not remove it completely. I've also used the fender grounds for LED eyebrows, demon eyes, and under hood lighting at any given time. So it's much easier to add remove connections, if I only need a couple of turns of a ratchet.

 

[Sib]

I used the fender grounds. My original cheap Ebay harnesses were also too short, so I extended them. I used spade connectors instead of ring terminals, so I only had to back the bolt out, and not remove it completely. I've also used the fender grounds for LED eyebrows, demon eyes, and under hood lighting at any given time. So it's much easier to add remove connections, if I only need a couple of turns of a ratchet.

Good input on the spade connectors. That sounds like the easiest for sure. Thanks!

 

[Theblackarrow]

OK well i just installed my New projector headlights and let that be a lesson for all of you guys this kind of headlights is totally a piece of S**t Don't buy it i repeat Don't buy it ( unless you will open them and build your own retrofit they shall look awesome) as you can see below in my pictures they really look cool and nice but from a practical point of view it sucks as the projector aim is really weird and i have 2 crazy circles in the middle which are really annoying me and i need to find a solution for that and what make it worse that in the left side you can see clearly a reflection for the inner HID bulb wire which totally ruins the look and make it worse so my advise is stick to top quality retrofit and stay away from this scam i wish i could have bought one of Aarkon retrofits But what is done is done so i need any suggestion on how to make the alignment cut line better than this any suggestion will be highly appreciated

A few points that i faced and i couldn't find an answer for them

First when i connected the New Kensun HID Kit through a relay harness the car won't start and you can't even hear the engine crank sound and the battery cluster red bulb is on does this anyway related to the relay harness wire end to battery wasn't connect with a ring (the ring where too small to fit the + bolt in the battery ) and i had to connect it as loose bare wire ( i formed the wire to a ring shape and connected it direct to the + bolt in the battery) or not? And why did this happened i hadn't any other choice rather than to connect the kit direct to the car wire harness which i hope it won't fry them one day

second i can see that the ballasts are extremely hot is that a normal thing or not as the summer is coming here soon in Qatar and the temperature will reach 50 C so will they survive ?

Third point and the last i can see that the lights comes on when i open the doors and when it's in under ground parking (DRL i belive) i have done the Cap mode so is there any problem for them to be turned on without engine started and is turning them on and off repeatedly can damage the ballasts

Sorry for my Long post But really i don't want any one to make the same mistake as me

 

[Blckshdw]

OK, first off, that output is terrible. I believe you are the first person to buy and use that set of aftermarket projectors. The first generation has bad output too, but this is way worse. How do the bulbs seat in the back of the projector? I would recommend adjusting the bulb spacing and see if the output improves.

If you can, remove the headlight from the truck, place the bulb inside the projector but do not clamp it in place. Connect the HID ballast, and power it up. After the bulb warms up, and the brightness stabilizes, slowly pull the bulb out of the projector, very little amounts at a time, and watch the output. Hopefully it improves and you lose the shadows of the bulb itself. If this is the case, then you will need to make bulb shims/spacers to push the bulb further back. If this idea doesn't work, I don't see how you can improve them outside of opening those housings and retrofitting a quality projector.

Moving on to your other issues. Do you have a picture of your relay harness? Where did you make your ground connections? If having that hooked up prevents your truck from starting, that leaves 2 problems. Either the relay harness was hooked up incorrectly, or there's a problem with the harness' design.

The ballasts will get warm, but they should not be hot to the touch like they will burn you. If they are, I suspect a grounding issue.

When you say the lights come on when you open the doors, do you mean when you press the unlock button on the key fob? Going into underground parking, and them coming on sounds more like the auto feature, not DRLs. If you did the cap mod, then this is to be expected, although the lights should already be on via DRL in the first place. So you need to confirm if your cap mod is working properly.

 

[Mounce]

Try putting the halogen bulb in that those are supposed to take and see if anything improves. I doubt it'll be a big difference but I doubt those are actually designed for HIDs.

 

[Blckshdw]

I hadn't even considered the fact those might be halogen projectors.

 

[Theblackarrow]

I hadn't even considered the fact those might be halogen projectors.

What !!!!!! you mean to tell me that there are halogen projectors different from the HID ones then i am definitely screwed

 

[Blckshdw]

Yes, the properties of an HID bulb and halogen bulb require very different optics. Mixing and matching will result in poor output compared to what the design calls for. If the bulbs that came with those headlights are halogen, you will have proper output with them. Just not as bright.

 

[Mounce]

What bulb does it take?

And yeah, HID and halogen projectors are different. Sometimes you can get away with running HIDs in a halogen projector and have decent output but sometimes you can't.

 

[dmanns67]

That output I know myself, and many others, have mentioned staying away from the Ebay/Amazon garbage "projector" headlights.

From the description, it says they come with H1 bulbs, but HIDs can be used.

 

[Theblackarrow]

What bulb does it take?

And yeah, HID and halogen projectors are different. Sometimes you can get away with running HIDs in a halogen projector and have decent output but sometimes you can't.

it Takes H1 Bulbs and according to you guys i really suspect that these are not meant for a HID and in both scenarios this means a terrible output and makes me even more angry and upset now LOL

 

[Mounce]

There are h1 projectors made for HIDs but even the cheap ones on Ebay are far superior to the output from those.

 

[dmanns67]

There are h1 projectors made for HIDs but even the cheap ones on Ebay are far superior to the output from those.

Pretty sure they are halogen projectors due to the fact in the description it says, "May use H1 HIDs with product."

Majority of them said the headlights came with a H1 bulb. If not, just pick up a pair of Osram or Hella H1 halogen bulbs. Usually around $25 for the pair if not less.

 

[Theblackarrow]

OK, first off, that output is terrible. I believe you are the first person to buy and use that set of aftermarket projectors. The first generation has bad output too, but this is way worse. How do the bulbs seat in the back of the projector? I would recommend adjusting the bulb spacing and see if the output improves.

If you can, remove the headlight from the truck, place the bulb inside the projector but do not clamp it in place. Connect the HID ballast, and power it up. After the bulb warms up, and the brightness stabilizes, slowly pull the bulb out of the projector, very little amounts at a time, and watch the output. Hopefully it improves and you lose the shadows of the bulb itself. If this is the case, then you will need to make bulb shims/spacers to push the bulb further back. If this idea doesn't work, I don't see how you can improve them outside of opening those housings and retrofitting a quality projector.

Moving on to your other issues. Do you have a picture of your relay harness? Where did you make your ground connections? If having that hooked up prevents your truck from starting, that leaves 2 problems. Either the relay harness was hooked up incorrectly, or there's a problem with the harness' design.

The ballasts will get warm, but they should not be hot to the touch like they will burn you. If they are, I suspect a grounding issue.

When you say the lights come on when you open the doors, do you mean when you press the unlock button on the key fob? Going into underground parking, and them coming on sounds more like the auto feature, not DRLs. If you did the cap mod, then this is to be expected, although the lights should already be on via DRL in the first place. So you need to confirm if your cap mod is working properly.

Well i will try to go to a good shop that can help me on the bulb thing and lets see regaridng the Harness i used the bolts in the Picture below circled in red

And ya i mean exactly what you are saying when i press the unlock buttons from the Fob the lights comes on as usual so is it okay also with the HID ?

Thank you very much for your help and support

 

[dmanns67]

Well i will try to go to a good shop that can help me on the bulb thing and lets see regaridng the Harness i used the bolts in the Picture below circled in red

And ya i mean exactly what you are saying when i press the unlock buttons from the Fob the lights comes on as usual so is it okay also with the HID ?

Thank you very much for your help and support

As long as you have the cap mod, should not be a big deal.

 

[Blckshdw]

Those locations are not good for grounds. Especially if you did not grind the paint off the metal beneath the plastic so the ground terminals made good contact with bare metal. (even worse if you put the grounds on top of the plastic and bolted them down)

Run the ground points back to the fender grounds. One is located on the wall near the positive battery terminal, the other one is on the wall between the air filter cover and coolant overflow tank.

Edit: We've determined your projectors are meant for halogen bulbs, so you can disregard the steps I mentioned for bulb adjustments.

 

[Theblackarrow]

Edit: We've determined your projectors are meant for halogen bulbs, so you can disregard the steps I mentioned for bulb adjustments.

 

[Mounce]

Have you tried halogen bulbs yet? [emoji14]opcorn:

Walk up in Walmart or a parts store and pick up the cheapest h1 bulbs they have.

If it's better you can either stick with those bulbs or upgrade to better ones if you see it fit.


-now that I look at it again, the output isn't terrible with the HIDs, but it's definitely sub par to what you could make on your own.

Also, while looking at it again, I realized those hideous shadows under the cutoff are actually the ends of the HID bulbs! Yeah, definitely not meant for HIDs.