Official HID Thread! (How to, Install, FAQ troubleshoot, Info, Everything HIDs)

[chargerondavins]

YOU FOUND IT! ONE STOP HID'S! Everything included here!

Q&A FAQ, Installation tips & pics, Color temperatures, Basic information, Pictures, and more.

(I spend most of my time at ChargerForums, but spend time in the chat here and hang out with my LXREJX sometimes!)
For the last couple years, I've been selling/installing HID's in various cars, and I've been assisting people on this forum with their HID's for 3 years or so. Back in the days a couple years ago when 80% these forums were against HID's and gave me crap, I had them, and I've had HID's since they cost $600 a set off ebay. I've installed them in 10 of my personal vehicles, (usually heads AND fogs) and also 20+ of my friends vehicles, and sold/assisted in several others. I figure I may have some knowledge to share with the rest of you.

I see HID threads polluting the forums every day, a simple forum search should yield this page so we can discontinue this. Feel free to refer others here for information.

I use VVME HID kits. I would like to point out, that 90% of all HID kits are THE SAME. Some companies slap a different sticker on the ballast, provide a different box, or make minute changes to the kits, but there's really only 2 HID kits out there: German and Japanese. Japanese are cheapest, German are slightly higher quality. Mculough (sp) was where I got my german kit for one of my explorers back in the day. Great kit but way too much money IMO. (www.vvme.com) (www.vvme.com/pricelist.htm) (see below Q&A for some instruction on ordering from them)

HID INSTALLATION: Here is an excellent walk-through with pictures provided by DynoXG
http://www.chargerforums.com/forums/...d.php?t=72978&

*Note* MAKE SURE YOU ELECTRICAL TAPE OR SEAL EVERY CONNECTION THAT ISN'T RUBBERIZED, OR YOU WILL LOSE RELAYS AND PARTS WILL MESS UP!

*Note* read everything in the basics so you properly understand how these systems work, and can accurately diagnose problems. Also see FAQ at the end.

- Coopers_Dad has informed me that I forgot to mention that the airbox must be removed to accurately remove the bulbs. Thanks for the info!

- To install HID fog lights, you can remove the wheels, or turn the wheel, and remove the black liner (pop pins, sometimes people replace them with screws). Hardest part about installing fog lights is dropping the wires from the battery (assuming you have an HID wiring harness to protect your electrical system and prevent draw that creates flickering later).

- To adjust headlights (If your headlights are mis-adjusted even 1/100th, you will see it with HID''s.) There is a torx screw located on the top of the headlights. Turn this to adjust the beams up/down. I believe there is also one for side/side (leave it alone) This one is harder to find anyway if I remember right.

- To adjust foglights: There is a torx screw located on the FRONT of the fog light assembly. VERY EASY. Turn it to adjust. Pull up to a garage door (IF YOUR DRIVEWAY is 100% FLAT) or eye ball it. Pull onto a FLAT road, and get down at eye level far away and see when the beams mostly impact your eyes *Warning may cause cataracts* (jk)

HID Basics:

Bulb Specifications:
Headlights: 9006
Brights: 9005
Fogs: 9145 or H10 (same thing)

- HID stands for High Intensity Discharge.

- HID wannabe bulbs don't last more than 2 months generally and are a tinted halogen bulb, with more power.. I could see LESS with these bulbs than with standard halogens) (NOKYA, Streetglow, etc.) Although silverstars last quite awhile, they are just barely more white and bright than halogen, and cost almost as much as an HID kit anyway.

- HID or High Intensity Discharge uses an electrical charge to ignite Xenon gas contained in a sealed bulb. HID bulbs do not have filaments. The HID bulb is filled with a mixture of gasses including Xenon. When the HID bulb is ignited, an arc is created between the two electrodes, creating more light.

- HID light is more "usable" than stock lights, yellow lights are said to be less "usable" than HID due to the color temperatures.

- HID's are said to last 5x as long as halogens, I don't believe this. While I have HID's 5 years old in my old explorer, I think this is a freak of nature. I would assume HID's last about 2-3x as long as standard halogens.

- HID lights put out 2-4 times more light than standard halogen bulbs. (Dependent on the color temperature, we will get in to that later)

- The "cutoff" procuded by some vehicles that come stock with HID's are caused by Projectors. Projectors "project" the light on to the road, with a specific cutoff, making all of the light usable. The HID kits themselves do not have this affect.

- If you want this effect for your car, you have 3 options:
1) Custom fab projectors from another vehicle in to your light housing
2) Buy custom HID housings off ebay with projectors (also have halo's)
*Note* These tend to be low-quality and many have had problems.
3) Buy stock headlights (newer chargers have them stock as an option)

- The higher the kelvin rating (k) the lower the light output, but the brighter the bulb.

- Standard HID's run at 35 watts, but they also make 55 watt HID's now (unnecessary in my opinion)

- HID's are illegal. Regardless of how you wire them, even with projectors.
If they didn't come on your vehicle stock, they are illegal.
As of yet, out of the 100's of kits I've installed or sold, one person has been pulled over, but because his ballasts were hidden, the officer could not prove the vehicle didn't come equipped with them stock.
(He was pulled over because he aimed his HID's high in the sky, and they were WAY off of adjustment, and he was speeding).

- Contrary to popular belief, not all cars that have HID's STOCK have projectors. Navigators, Aviators, Early acura models with HID's (2002), and the first volkswagon's with HID's did not have projectors STOCK.

- However, some of these vehicles added "reflectors" (The small chrome piece inside your headlight housing that you plug your bulb in to). They reflect the light back on the housing, and then it projects on to the road (A bit less scattered).
Here is a headlight equipped with a reflector:
(the reflector is the chrome "spherical" object in the center of the housing.

- LX models (for noobs that's Chargers, Magnums, 300s) and Ly platform models have a system called HAL that monitors many things on our vehicles. For HID's, the problem is created because stock bulbs use 55 watts of power. HID's run at 35 watts, so HAL can shut off the HID's, turn them on, over and over (the INFAMOUS FLICKER) we see without proper installation.

- PROPER HID INSTALLATION IN AN LX OR LY MODEL VEHICLE REQUIRE A SPECIAL CAPACITOR WIRED IN TO AN HID WIRING HARNESS TO WORK AT ALL/LONG TERM (Depends on car).

- The capacitor needed is a 470µF 35V capacitor. (Again, see installation tutorial for installing this to your wiring harness http://www.chargerforums.com/forums/...d.php?t=72978&)

- Since HID's use WAY more than 55 watts to initially fire up, wiring your HID's WITHOUT a HID wiring harness could cause ELECTRICAL PROBLEMS. Many people (including myself on other vehicles other than my lx's) have used HID's without HID wiring harnesses with good luck, but others have caused fires or fried their electrical system, and many other issues.

- Another symptom of not wiring HID's properly with the needed wiring harness and capacitor: The lights will work fine for 1-3 months, then one day one of them just cuts out. Somtimes it flickers randomly then gets worse, then stops working.. other times it just stops working when the car is running, etc. (Common with HIDgate kits "anti-flicker" harness, and sometimes if you don't use a harness at all it will do this too)
I get several pm's every day of people here complaining about HIDgate's "anti-flicker" harness. I've used mine from xenonpimp (same thing you can do yourself using the capacitor above, as xenonpimp no longer sells the harnesses) for 3 years in my charger with no problems except a relay that went bad (I didn't water-tight it with electrical tape, my own fault).

- For clarification, what you need if you have the infamous flicker is the capacitor shown above, and an HID wiring harness. (ebay sells them) You can buy 9006 wiring harness for HID's, or regular (with prongs you insert in to your stock plug, don't forget to electrical tape or seal the connection with this plug or it will corrode and stop working.)

- If you have LOUD STEREOS (typically 1000 watts or more) or lots of draw on your alternator from electronics, you would need a wiring harness anyway. Some do this only for their headlights, and not for their foglights (as you don't need the capacitor to run the fogs, Hal doesn't monitor them) When the bass hits your lights will FLICKER

- If you don't have a loud stereo, and don't plan to get one, you can risk the electrical problems mentioned previously and skip the HID wiring harness for the fog lights.

Color Temperatures: (keep in mind he more kelvins (K) the lower the light output, but the more color added)

3000K (bright yellow)


4500 & 4300K (stock color, a tad more "true white")


6000K (purplish/whitish) Companies will tell you this is pure white it isn't.
Here is an accurate picture of my durango's 6000K HID's, (pictures rarely accurately depict the true colors of the HID's, this one is accurate)


8000K (blue, I call it ricer blue because this is the color the HID wannabe "xenon bulbs" are mimicking (but we all know those bulbs suck)
These are actually 6000k, but because of the picture they look 8000k. The fogs look and are 6000k/12000k
(all are 6000k except the white explorer has 8000K headlights)

10000K (blue/purple) 10000k REALLY seem to vary from brand to brand, I suspect a lot of that is the manufacturer sending the wrong colors, or being out of one and marking it a different color. Each of my kits has had more than one color temp bulb in it, just to test out. I've seen 10000k that look like 6000k, and 8000k that look like 12000k.

(when I was a 10000k guy, Charger and X have 10000K) (accurate pic of what they look like just about.. maybe 10% more blue)

12000K (Purple) Oddly, these bulbs look a lot like 6000k often times, only dimmer. 6000k has LESS purple, but it's still there. Very strange how this works. 12000k is more exotic and noticed than 6000k though.


15000K (DEEP purple/violet)


30000K (usually confused with 15000K) Seem to be maybe if anything deeper purple)

They also make pink and green HID bulbs (Please don't use these, talk about hurrying the illegal HID "bust" process along!)

Green:

Pink:

Now that we touched base there,

here are some Troubleshooting FAQ:

Q: My headlight is twitching, (just one) and then cutting off. Works when car is off, but not when on.
A: (You need the capacitor and HID wiring harness, see above)

Q: My headlight twitches sometimes, or stopped working at all. (on or off)
A: You may have fried a ballast or bulb (these things can happen). Switch the bulb to the other side, if the problem follows the bulb, it's obviously the bulb. If not, it's the ballast. Also could be the relay causing problems, depending on your kit, but that's rare.

Q: I have plugged in my HID kit, and they aren't coming on
A: Most kits are for Japanese cars, 95% domestic cars have their plugs inverted. Reverse the plug to the stock plug. (the plug that goes from the kit to the stock plug that tells your headlights when to turn on/off)

Q: Only one headlight is working
A: One of two things is possible
1) Bad ballast or bad bulb (rare) (see troubleshooting for that above)
2) Some HID kits have two seperate connectors that connect to the stock headlight plug (the one you removed from the back of the headlight), others have one. If your kit has two, one for each side, reverse or plug upside down the plug that goes to the stock plug (again, that you removed from your original bulb). If this doesn't fix your problem, check power/ground (if you have a wiring harness, and you should. See above)

Q: My lights worked fine for a few months, now one or both HID's are acting up.
A: You likely have an HID "capacitor" installed, or no capacitor installed. Sometimes this will work for a few months, and then they will crap out. Someitmes it will damage the ballast/and or bulb, other times a capacitor wired in will fix it. See above write-up or my info on what capacitor to get above.

Q: My foglights don't match my headlights, and they are the same brand and kelvin (color). Why?
A: Different bulbs in different housings can look different. No way to tell. Experiment with other color temperatures, or get over it :D

Q: My headlights don't match, or foglights don't match
A: Sometimes the adjustment of the lights can affect how they look color-wise. Also, if the bulb isn't turned all the way in to position in the housing, this can sometimes cause this problem too.

Q: My HID ballasts make a wierd buzzing sound
A: Some kits do this forever, some do it mostly on initial fire-up. Not sure why, but it doesn't seem to affect them very often. I'd ignore it.

Q: Where do I get my HID's?
A: It is up to you. I personally am not a fan of HIDgate. Some here have good experiences, and many do not (I hear from them several times a day). The problems usually lie in the "capacitor" they provide to stop the flickering our cars create (see above info). I have purchased 80% of my HID's from VVME (www.vvme.com/pricelist) is their wholesale site, for EVERYONE here to use. They're 60 shipped. No, you don't have to order 5 for that price, and if you read the page thoroughly it tells you how to pay/check out. Other places to buy include AAC (forum sponsor), ebay, xenonpimp.com, etc. HIDgate and VVME are the cheapest. I've only had one ballast go bad with VVME's kits, and never a bulb or any other problems for years of use.

Q: Will HID's get too hot and/or yellow my headlight/foglight housings?
A: NO. Hid's are no hotter (or barely if at all) than stock halogens. The yellowing is caused by weathering and salt, years of scratches, etc. This can be "wet sanded" off. Our FOG LIGHTS get yellowish and look horrible regardless of what bulbs are in them, some have blamed this on HID's wrongfully.

Q: Will I kill women, children, and puppies with my HID's like some insane HID haters say?
A: No.

If there is anything I should add to this or that i have forgotten, let me know and I will add it.

Hope this helped some of you!

[chargerondavins]

bump

[Dantra]

Beans to ya, Jason, nice job

[KStryker]

Beans to ya, Jason, nice job

Yeh, Great work bro!! Very Informative, and much respect for taking the time to inform others on it.

[bruno]

Exceptional 'all you ever wanted to know' thread! Hope members can point HID inquiring minds to it! Beans as well!

bruno

[juanitorus]

That's alot of good info!

[LSCto300C]

This is awesome. Hopefully people with HID questions get them all answered right here and never need to start another HID thread again.

[chargerondavins]

This is awesome. Hopefully people with HID questions get them all answered right here and never need to start another HID thread again.

that was the idea :D

Thanks guys, I try. Took forever to take all the knowledge and stockpile it in to one thread!

[mrl859]

So for "stock" looking HID color (like the factory HIDs), use what K?

[KStryker]

This is awesome. Hopefully people with HID questions get them all answered right here and never need to start another HID thread again.

You guys know that's not going to happen

[Coopers_Dad]

great writeup I'm installing my lows and fogs this week if it warms up a bit.

[MOPAR31]

Beans for you bro'.

[LSCto300C]

that was the idea :D

Thanks guys, I try. Took forever to take all the knowledge and stockpile it in to one thread!

Time well spent. This needs to be made into a sticky ASAP!

You guys know that's not going to happen

Yeah, we do... ugh.

[chargerondavins]

So for "stock" looking HID color (like the factory HIDs), use what K?

4300k

Time well spent. This needs to be made into a sticky ASAP!

Yeah, we do... ugh.

thanks! :D

[CHARGERTREV]

So my silverstars are like HIDs?