GE HID Installation

[reako]

Originally Posted by Fusiform

It ended up being that I had a bad ground on my one light. Fixed that and everything is great except, when I have the lights on 75% of my radio stations are static. Anyone else experience this?

Nice job fixing that issue! Interesting about your radio static.....I don't experience this.

[strmslvrfit]

actually i do experience this too, the static isnt too bad tho. i dont really listen to the radio tho

[reako]

I suppose it's possible the electrical current and/or ballast circuitry may be interfering? However, it may be more likely that you still have a grounding issue...if they're still not properly grounded it may intensify the amount of electrical interference. (maybe an electrical engineer of some kind could chime in?) Did you try wrapping them in aluminum foil? ( Joke!!)

[05trdxa]

I have had 2 sets of HIDs in my car (headlights and fogs) for well over 2 years now and never had any bad radio reception from it. However I know others that have. The ballast will mess with your radio if they are too close to some electrical components. Try moving your ballast away from other electrical components in the engine bay. The ballasts emit some RF and can mess with your reception. I think mobilehid.com or mccullough's hid site has lot better info on this. But I can assure you that by simply moving your ballast to a more remote location will fix your problem.

And BTW, those that hate on HIDs in halogen housings are making a much bigger stink of things than needed. While it is true that they aren't designed to work with each other, and HIDs work better in a housing designed for them with projectors, HID still work 100x better than halogen bulbs. My cutoff isn't perfectly crisp like the one picture on page 2, but it's not much worse at all. I even lined up next to a car with OEM HIDs and projector housings in front of a giant flat wall and they looked VERY close. I have 1 little blip on either side that goes a little high, but it's not bad at all, amybe 2 inches at about 40 feet away). I have them aligned correctly (not pointed down) and have NEVER had issues with blinding other drivers. I have not once been flashed by oncoming traffic in well over 2 years (19,000 miles) of driving. I even asked a couple cops at our local substation if they would see them as a problem and they all agreed No. They ARE illegal, but the cops all thought I just had my high beams on and not my low beams. No-one has ever given me crap about them and all agree they really like how they light up the road and want me to install a set in their car as it lights up everything MUCH better than halogens, even in a halogen housing. Some people just don't think HIDs work in halogen housings and thats fine if they wanna think that. But I will tell you from having them for over 2 years and comparing them to projector hosuings I will never go back, ever. They are well worth the cost and effort, even without projector housings.

[Sooner97]

"They ARE illegal, but the cops all thought I just had my high beams on and not my low beams"

Do you realize how stupid this statement is? Have you ever driven down a two lane highway and come around a curve and had your eyes blinded by the oncoming car with his high beams on? It's NOT ok for people to be driving around with their high beams on all the time or to retrofit your headlights that will blind other drivers. Just because you haven't been flashed doesn't mean you're not distracting other drivers. You and your HIDs are just an accident waiting to happen.

[05trdxa]

Originally Posted by Sooner97

"They ARE illegal, but the cops all thought I just had my high beams on and not my low beams"

Do you realize how stupid this statement is? Have you ever driven down a two lane highway and come around a curve and had your eyes blinded by the oncoming car with his high beams on? It's NOT ok for people to be driving around with their high beams on all the time or to retrofit your headlights that will blind other drivers. Just because you haven't been flashed doesn't mean you're not distracting other drivers. You and your HIDs are just an accident waiting to happen.

Nope, your wrong. I'm not blinding others with my HIDs. Trust me, I've purposly driven behind my friends vehicles and towards them at night with them on and they said they aren't blinding at all. I did before/after tests to make sure I had them aligned right for safe driving. They said they are alot brighter than my old bulbs, but not anything that would make them temporarily blinded. I ran lots of tests to make sure they wouldn't be a problem, and they aren't. I haven't caused any crashes yet and never gotten any complaints. Just becuase you don't like HIDs doesn't mean they aren't safe. Someone, that's you, needs to go out and actually USE them instead of listening to what others SAY online. If you did you would know that if installed and aligned properly they don't blind others on the road. But go ahead and continue preaching something you know nothing about.

[Sooner97]

I do know what I'm talking about, the Fit is my daily driver and I have an Infiniti G35 that comes standard with Xenon projectors. My friend has a Scion that he retrofitted with HIDs and even though he pointed it down pretty far, that thing blinds me whenever he drives towards me. The light disperses unevenly when the light housing is not built to have an HID bulb in them. If you wanna look cool, at least retrofit them with TSX projectors.

[05trdxa]

I'm not gonna argue anymore about this. You have a mindset about them and so do I. It's kind of like arguing about what wheel size is best. Some say 17's and nothing else, I say small lightweight 15's are where it's at.
I do know mine don't blind people and the cops in my area have no problem with them, maybe cops in your area do or your friend doesn't have them aligned properly, I don't know what your situation is but mine don't bother anyone. Yes projectors give a better beam, but HIDs in halogen housings are still better than halogen bulbs if installed and aimed correctly as far as lighting goes. I don't do it for looks, I don't mod my car just to have people think it looks cool, I do it for functionality and better visibility at night. I can see all the deer now along side the road instead of when it's too late. Same thing goes for all my other mods, I do them for a better driving experience, I'm not interested in anyone thinking it "looks cool".

[daniel123588]

Something like this would be better BUT it Definately involves more time and also running into a few problems as well.


This isnt nowhere near complete. still requires bolting on to car to make sure the beams are perfectly horizontal along with painting of the main reflector bowl as well.

[1FiTpINOY]

wooo!!! Daniel that retro is seckz!!! Definite plus rep from me for doing the right thing. Thanks for being considerate to other drivers and especially being safe with your driving.

Funcion + Form = FTW

[Sooner97]

Those look awesome. Congrats on a nice job and for doing it the RIGHT way instead of going the cheap, ghetto way.

[vinvtec]

Has anyone honestly ever been pulled over for "illegal lights" ???

IMO cops could care less about what lights you're running and who your blinding (at least in SoCal). Every other truck, lifted or otherwise, import, even domestics are running HIDs from yellow 2500k to ridiculous 12000k purple! I've never met a person who's been hassled over their HIDs, and most of those I've met do not have them installed in projectors and even have multiple sets!

I live 2 blocks from an LAPD station, drive toward and behind squad cars daily and have never had them look twice at my lights.

yes, the lifted silverado with HID headlights and fogs thats tailgating you is really annoying, but I guess out here we're just used to it.

[Sooner97]

They won't pull you over specifically because of your lights, but it makes you stick out like a sore thumb. Imagine for a sec that you're the officer sitting in your car on the side of the road looking for speeders. Which car would you notice first coming over a hill, a car with normal HID with focused lights or one where the light is dispersed everywhere? Believe me, cops will FIND a reason to pull you over if they want and you don't want to give them any more reasons then necessary.

[mike2100]

And I see a ton of people driving on the highway talking on their cell phones, not getting pulled over. But they are still endangering themselves and everyone around them. Just because you don't get pulled over by a cop doesn't make what you're doing OK, or not stupid.

[skytanker2003]

I understand people are gonna hate, but I promised these HID pics. It's on an incline cuz there's no driveways around here NOT on an incline, but the pics are of ~10 feet, ~20 feet, and ~30 feet away. I'm not on a sideways slant...the left headlight IS lower and DOES cut off at the top, only not as sharp as the projectors do. I'm not going to argue with anyone, but I know I can see the left headlight is lower than the right one. The left one's center is approx. 3 feet off the ground at 30 feet, so I can't imagine how high it looks at 50-100 feet. That's all I'm gonna say...I promised to post my pics so I did, but I'll take any CONSTRUCTIVE criticizm (i.e. any way to make them better, besides ripping them out and putting projectors on, of course). Thanks!

[mike2100]

Unfortunately the only thing you can do to improve the beam pattern is change the design of the reflecting portion of the system. So either redesign the headlight housing (hard) or install projectors (easier).

[kingofpicklez]

hey not to zombie bump this thread, but im having trouble getting my hid's to turn on right now, and im wondering where did the ppl who installed HIDS ground their grounding wires, right now mine is grounded to where the negative battery cable is being grounded to.

[meevo]

where can you get projectors?

[reako]

Originally Posted by kingofpicklez

hey not to zombie bump this thread, but im having trouble getting my hid's to turn on right now, and im wondering where did the ppl who installed HIDS ground their grounding wires, right now mine is grounded to where the negative battery cable is being grounded to.

I connected the ground cable directly to the negative battery post as shown below. However, your ground point is probably not the cause of your issue. You most likely have a polarity issue. Try reversing the connector inserted into the ballast.

[reako]

Originally Posted by meevo

where can you get projectors?

Here's a great resource regarding projectors, compliments qbmurderer13:

Everything you need to know about Retrofitting