Hooked up HID kit that i got from Xenondepot and...
04-26-08, 09:57 PM
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Hooked up HID kit that i got from Xenondepot and...
of course the light output is dramatically better and now matches what I have been used to with my other cars for the past 5 years. Amazing that Lexus did not make this AT LEAST an option but we all have beat Lexus up on this many many times.
My kit was a little different then the other posts that were started or I have seen here as I am imagining mine is the newer model or kit. For one I had 2 seperate relays and power sources so both lights would not fail if something happened to one of the relays or power cords, i'm guessing.
I'll say it took me a while to install ONLY because I literally could not find places to mount the ballasts, output boxes, and relays. I did not have extra holes to mount the ballasts and stuff so I had to be creative and actually got a few tips from the Toyota 4 runner boards on where to mount some of the pieces. Each side needs 3 pieces mounted (ballasts, charger our output box and the relay.) and around the driverside gets tight with room due to the battery being behind the headlight on that side. the passenger side is wiiiiiiiiiiide open for mounting and routing wires etc.
My other problem was I am by no means an electrician and the wiring diagrams help dramatically but i wanted to be sure i was connecting things correctly so i took my time and basically common sense told you what was to be connected where.
The problems I had or gripes were these:
1) NO instructions with the kit, if it was not for car forums and members posting and tackling these kits first and posting their installs I'd imagine that the sellers of these kits would be fielding calls, emails or gripes non stop, reason being of course is the kits are not car model specific but more or less headlight specific I'm guessing.
2) I had no screws included in the kit to help mount the ballasts to places inside the engine bay, all i had was the double sided sticky tape and some small zipties which IMO were not long enough so I had to use some larger ones I luckily had in my toolbox.
3) the plugs (male connectors) that were provided that are to plug into the old headlight socket just did not seem to fit very well, i struggled with this for a good bit of my install time as i was trying to see if this was the reason my first hookup did not have the lights power up and sure enough it was it i believe as i took them out of their socket and just straight connected them into the old headlight plug. they worked so i then had to configure a way for the wires to work inside their holder and mate up with the old headlight socket, took a little massaging but i got em to fit, i was cussing at these for a good 45 mintues or so! ughhhhhhhhhh
Those are my only real gripes and overall the final product is awesome and I am sure the wife is gonna love it when she drives it. i drove down the street and back with the wife watching and she said "it doesn't even look like my car" She used to have xenons in her BMW and has always complained as have I that the light output with the stock halogen bulbs just sux in these cars.
THE ONE THING THAT WOULD BE REAL NICE IS IF A NICE CLEAN INSTALL SET OF INSTRUCTIONS WAS INCLUDED WITH EACH MODEL THAT THE KITS ARE SOLD TO OR AT LEAST A NICE LINK TO A PDF FILE OR SOMETHING FOR PEOPLE TO USE AS A REFERENCE, ESPECIALLY JUST FOR MOUNTING SPOTS FOR ALL THE HARDWARE.
I have some cleanup to do on the wiring and stuff tomorrow as I ran out of time and daylight this evening but at least I got em working.
I'll try to take some more pics tomorrow and post em up for those that are intersted but for now here is what my kit looked like.
*** My updated photos of my "clean-up / install" from day 2are in a lower post I added to this thread. I had to get everything sorta "cleaned up or tightened up as far as all the mounting and wiring routing. Hope these help some1 one day. As you can see i cleaned up the passenger side mounting by using the clips on the sidewall of the vehicle near the ground wires. I used the power steering reservior bracket to mount all three pieces (ballast, power output, relay) that came with my kit. I then routed the power cord over to driver side to attach to the battery terminal. When doing this i worked the wires thru a hole in the front part of the vehcile down by the tubing that exits for the rador cooling system I then routed it then back out after using zipties to hold the wire down as it comes along the front of the car right in front of the radiator instead of using the same hole that i used on the passenger side cause i felt it was cleaner and the power wire would not have to bump up or possibly rub against the metal of the car by the front bumper. After routing the wire thru the car to get it to the battery side of the car i attached the power cords around the battery bracket for security and then mounted them to the battery termianl holder after making a small cutout to the plastic protective cap for the positive terminal. The reason for this was simply to have the wires not being touched by the protective cap as well as allowig the cap to seat flush like it had before this install.
So for the long runon sentence but after the mounting and install the kit is well worth it and the wife already loves the light output.
Good Luck to those who go thru this mod and just take your time its well worth it when you get finished.
Anyone has any questions just post up or email me and I'll try my best.
Thanks
Dan
My kit was a little different then the other posts that were started or I have seen here as I am imagining mine is the newer model or kit. For one I had 2 seperate relays and power sources so both lights would not fail if something happened to one of the relays or power cords, i'm guessing.
I'll say it took me a while to install ONLY because I literally could not find places to mount the ballasts, output boxes, and relays. I did not have extra holes to mount the ballasts and stuff so I had to be creative and actually got a few tips from the Toyota 4 runner boards on where to mount some of the pieces. Each side needs 3 pieces mounted (ballasts, charger our output box and the relay.) and around the driverside gets tight with room due to the battery being behind the headlight on that side. the passenger side is wiiiiiiiiiiide open for mounting and routing wires etc.
My other problem was I am by no means an electrician and the wiring diagrams help dramatically but i wanted to be sure i was connecting things correctly so i took my time and basically common sense told you what was to be connected where.
The problems I had or gripes were these:
1) NO instructions with the kit, if it was not for car forums and members posting and tackling these kits first and posting their installs I'd imagine that the sellers of these kits would be fielding calls, emails or gripes non stop, reason being of course is the kits are not car model specific but more or less headlight specific I'm guessing.
2) I had no screws included in the kit to help mount the ballasts to places inside the engine bay, all i had was the double sided sticky tape and some small zipties which IMO were not long enough so I had to use some larger ones I luckily had in my toolbox.
3) the plugs (male connectors) that were provided that are to plug into the old headlight socket just did not seem to fit very well, i struggled with this for a good bit of my install time as i was trying to see if this was the reason my first hookup did not have the lights power up and sure enough it was it i believe as i took them out of their socket and just straight connected them into the old headlight plug. they worked so i then had to configure a way for the wires to work inside their holder and mate up with the old headlight socket, took a little massaging but i got em to fit, i was cussing at these for a good 45 mintues or so! ughhhhhhhhhh
Those are my only real gripes and overall the final product is awesome and I am sure the wife is gonna love it when she drives it. i drove down the street and back with the wife watching and she said "it doesn't even look like my car" She used to have xenons in her BMW and has always complained as have I that the light output with the stock halogen bulbs just sux in these cars.
THE ONE THING THAT WOULD BE REAL NICE IS IF A NICE CLEAN INSTALL SET OF INSTRUCTIONS WAS INCLUDED WITH EACH MODEL THAT THE KITS ARE SOLD TO OR AT LEAST A NICE LINK TO A PDF FILE OR SOMETHING FOR PEOPLE TO USE AS A REFERENCE, ESPECIALLY JUST FOR MOUNTING SPOTS FOR ALL THE HARDWARE.
I have some cleanup to do on the wiring and stuff tomorrow as I ran out of time and daylight this evening but at least I got em working.
I'll try to take some more pics tomorrow and post em up for those that are intersted but for now here is what my kit looked like.
*** My updated photos of my "clean-up / install" from day 2are in a lower post I added to this thread. I had to get everything sorta "cleaned up or tightened up as far as all the mounting and wiring routing. Hope these help some1 one day. As you can see i cleaned up the passenger side mounting by using the clips on the sidewall of the vehicle near the ground wires. I used the power steering reservior bracket to mount all three pieces (ballast, power output, relay) that came with my kit. I then routed the power cord over to driver side to attach to the battery terminal. When doing this i worked the wires thru a hole in the front part of the vehcile down by the tubing that exits for the rador cooling system I then routed it then back out after using zipties to hold the wire down as it comes along the front of the car right in front of the radiator instead of using the same hole that i used on the passenger side cause i felt it was cleaner and the power wire would not have to bump up or possibly rub against the metal of the car by the front bumper. After routing the wire thru the car to get it to the battery side of the car i attached the power cords around the battery bracket for security and then mounted them to the battery termianl holder after making a small cutout to the plastic protective cap for the positive terminal. The reason for this was simply to have the wires not being touched by the protective cap as well as allowig the cap to seat flush like it had before this install.
So for the long runon sentence but after the mounting and install the kit is well worth it and the wife already loves the light output.
Good Luck to those who go thru this mod and just take your time its well worth it when you get finished.
Anyone has any questions just post up or email me and I'll try my best.
Thanks
Dan
Last edited by K-Bud; 04-27-08 at 05:43 PM. Reason: wanted to add more photos after final install today
04-27-08, 07:05 AM
#3
K-Bud, I just did the install of both the headlights and fog lights. It took a good 6 hours. No wiring diagram was a surprise. It took me a moment to orient myself in all the wires - what goes where. I think the worst part was to work out where to put all the pieces under the hood. I also think that working out where to put TWO kits takes more time as you have to be careful with the use of space - especially on the driver's side. You have to take into account that these are generic kits, so the length of the wires are not adjusted specifically to our application. That makes it a bit of the pain, as you have to wrap them up and tie them to something. I was going to shorten some of them (low voltage side), but after 6 hours under the hood I just said s€r3w it, and tied them to the existing harness. The sockets for the H11 bulb connectors (those are the ones K-Bud is referring to ??) did require a bit of adjustment to make them fit properly, but once adjusted they worked fine. I guess the tight fit is required to make them water resistant. I'm very happy with the result, but it does take a lot of planning and it takes much longer than 1 hour (as has been posted before) to get the kits installed.
04-27-08, 09:04 AM
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I got the 6500 kit and they really do not have any purplish tint to them more of a crisp white light with a shade of blue, pretty darn close if not a match to my BMW and my Navigators light output.
Thx
Thx
04-27-08, 09:07 AM
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gsobol, thats exactly my thoughts, i was so concerned to just get them working yesterday as i was running out of daylight its why i now have to go back and do a cleanup of all the extra wiring and power cords running from one side to the other.
The kit is nice but for us non electricians it does take a few moments to make sure you are connecting things correctly.
Like you stated the hardest part is/was finding a place to mount everything especially on the driverside due to the battery needing to fit back in after your done with the install and stuff.
The kit is nice but for us non electricians it does take a few moments to make sure you are connecting things correctly.
Like you stated the hardest part is/was finding a place to mount everything especially on the driverside due to the battery needing to fit back in after your done with the install and stuff.
04-27-08, 07:16 PM
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of course the light output is dramatically better and now matches what I have been used to with my other cars for the past 5 years. Amazing that Lexus did not make this AT LEAST an option but we all have beat Lexus up on this many many times.
My kit was a little different then the other posts that were started or I have seen here as I am imagining mine is the newer model or kit. For one I had 2 seperate relays and power sources so both lights would not fail if something happened to one of the relays or power cords, i'm guessing.
I'll say it took me a while to install ONLY because I literally could not find places to mount the ballasts, output boxes, and relays. I did not have extra holes to mount the ballasts and stuff so I had to be creative and actually got a few tips from the Toyota 4 runner boards on where to mount some of the pieces. Each side needs 3 pieces mounted (ballasts, charger our output box and the relay.) and around the driverside gets tight with room due to the battery being behind the headlight on that side. the passenger side is wiiiiiiiiiiide open for mounting and routing wires etc.
My other problem was I am by no means an electrician and the wiring diagrams help dramatically but i wanted to be sure i was connecting things correctly so i took my time and basically common sense told you what was to be connected where.
The problems I had or gripes were these:
1) NO instructions with the kit, if it was not for car forums and members posting and tackling these kits first and posting their installs I'd imagine that the sellers of these kits would be fielding calls, emails or gripes non stop, reason being of course is the kits are not car model specific but more or less headlight specific I'm guessing.
2) I had no screws included in the kit to help mount the ballasts to places inside the engine bay, all i had was the double sided sticky tape and some small zipties which IMO were not long enough so I had to use some larger ones I luckily had in my toolbox.
3) the plugs (male connectors) that were provided that are to plug into the old headlight socket just did not seem to fit very well, i struggled with this for a good bit of my install time as i was trying to see if this was the reason my first hookup did not have the lights power up and sure enough it was it i believe as i took them out of their socket and just straight connected them into the old headlight plug. they worked so i then had to configure a way for the wires to work inside their holder and mate up with the old headlight socket, took a little massaging but i got em to fit, i was cussing at these for a good 45 mintues or so! ughhhhhhhhhh
Those are my only real gripes and overall the final product is awesome and I am sure the wife is gonna love it when she drives it. i drove down the street and back with the wife watching and she said "it doesn't even look like my car" She used to have xenons in her BMW and has always complained as have I that the light output with the stock halogen bulbs just sux in these cars.
THE ONE THING THAT WOULD BE REAL NICE IS IF A NICE CLEAN INSTALL SET OF INSTRUCTIONS WAS INCLUDED WITH EACH MODEL THAT THE KITS ARE SOLD TO OR AT LEAST A NICE LINK TO A PDF FILE OR SOMETHING FOR PEOPLE TO USE AS A REFERENCE, ESPECIALLY JUST FOR MOUNTING SPOTS FOR ALL THE HARDWARE.
I have some cleanup to do on the wiring and stuff tomorrow as I ran out of time and daylight this evening but at least I got em working.
I'll try to take some more pics tomorrow and post em up for those that are intersted but for now here is what my kit looked like.
*** My updated photos of my "clean-up / install" from day 2 are here as a link to PHOTOBUCKET showing them in a slideshow. http://s295.photobucket.com/albums/m...t=cd9306d1.pbw
I had to get everything sorta "cleaned up or tightened up as far as all the mounting and wire routing.
Hope these help some1 one day.
As you can see i cleaned up the passenger side mounting and wires by using the clips on the sidewall that held OEM wires in them, these are located on the vehicle near the ground wires. I also used the power steering reservior bracket to mount all three pieces (ballast, power output, relay) that came with my kit. Step 2 was then routing the power cord over to driver side to attach to the battery terminal for power to the lights. When doing this i worked the wires thru a hole in the front part of the vehcile down by the tubing that exits for the radiator cooling system I then routed it back out after using some zipties to hold the wire down as it comes along the front of the car right in front of the radiator. As you can see instead of using the same hole that i used on the passenger side to get the power wire to go around/in front of the radiator I slipped the power wire and fuse thru a tight spot in front of the radiator up by the radiator fill cap, i did this cause i felt it was cleaner and the power wire would not have to bump up or possibly rub against the metal of the car by the front bumper. After routing the wire thru the car to get it to the battery side of the car i attached the power cords around the battery bracket for security and then mounted them to the battery terminal holder only after making a small cutout to the plastic protective cap for the positive battery terminal. The reason for this was simply to have the wires not being touched or rubbed into by the protective cap for the positive battery terminal as well as allowing the cap to fit flush over the positive terminal like it had before this install .
So for the long sentence but after the mounting and install the kit is well worth it and the wife already loves the light output.
Good Luck to those who go thru this mod, just take your time as its well worth it when you get finished.
Anyone has any questions post up or email me and I'll try my best.
p.s. Of course to those who know me I had to include a few shots of the whole engine cleaned up as well, it was filthy in there and so were the engine covers. all cleaned up afterwards.
Thanks
Dan
My kit was a little different then the other posts that were started or I have seen here as I am imagining mine is the newer model or kit. For one I had 2 seperate relays and power sources so both lights would not fail if something happened to one of the relays or power cords, i'm guessing.
I'll say it took me a while to install ONLY because I literally could not find places to mount the ballasts, output boxes, and relays. I did not have extra holes to mount the ballasts and stuff so I had to be creative and actually got a few tips from the Toyota 4 runner boards on where to mount some of the pieces. Each side needs 3 pieces mounted (ballasts, charger our output box and the relay.) and around the driverside gets tight with room due to the battery being behind the headlight on that side. the passenger side is wiiiiiiiiiiide open for mounting and routing wires etc.
My other problem was I am by no means an electrician and the wiring diagrams help dramatically but i wanted to be sure i was connecting things correctly so i took my time and basically common sense told you what was to be connected where.
The problems I had or gripes were these:
1) NO instructions with the kit, if it was not for car forums and members posting and tackling these kits first and posting their installs I'd imagine that the sellers of these kits would be fielding calls, emails or gripes non stop, reason being of course is the kits are not car model specific but more or less headlight specific I'm guessing.
2) I had no screws included in the kit to help mount the ballasts to places inside the engine bay, all i had was the double sided sticky tape and some small zipties which IMO were not long enough so I had to use some larger ones I luckily had in my toolbox.
3) the plugs (male connectors) that were provided that are to plug into the old headlight socket just did not seem to fit very well, i struggled with this for a good bit of my install time as i was trying to see if this was the reason my first hookup did not have the lights power up and sure enough it was it i believe as i took them out of their socket and just straight connected them into the old headlight plug. they worked so i then had to configure a way for the wires to work inside their holder and mate up with the old headlight socket, took a little massaging but i got em to fit, i was cussing at these for a good 45 mintues or so! ughhhhhhhhhh
Those are my only real gripes and overall the final product is awesome and I am sure the wife is gonna love it when she drives it. i drove down the street and back with the wife watching and she said "it doesn't even look like my car" She used to have xenons in her BMW and has always complained as have I that the light output with the stock halogen bulbs just sux in these cars.
THE ONE THING THAT WOULD BE REAL NICE IS IF A NICE CLEAN INSTALL SET OF INSTRUCTIONS WAS INCLUDED WITH EACH MODEL THAT THE KITS ARE SOLD TO OR AT LEAST A NICE LINK TO A PDF FILE OR SOMETHING FOR PEOPLE TO USE AS A REFERENCE, ESPECIALLY JUST FOR MOUNTING SPOTS FOR ALL THE HARDWARE.
I have some cleanup to do on the wiring and stuff tomorrow as I ran out of time and daylight this evening but at least I got em working.
I'll try to take some more pics tomorrow and post em up for those that are intersted but for now here is what my kit looked like.
*** My updated photos of my "clean-up / install" from day 2 are here as a link to PHOTOBUCKET showing them in a slideshow. http://s295.photobucket.com/albums/m...t=cd9306d1.pbw
I had to get everything sorta "cleaned up or tightened up as far as all the mounting and wire routing.
Hope these help some1 one day.
As you can see i cleaned up the passenger side mounting and wires by using the clips on the sidewall that held OEM wires in them, these are located on the vehicle near the ground wires. I also used the power steering reservior bracket to mount all three pieces (ballast, power output, relay) that came with my kit. Step 2 was then routing the power cord over to driver side to attach to the battery terminal for power to the lights. When doing this i worked the wires thru a hole in the front part of the vehcile down by the tubing that exits for the radiator cooling system I then routed it back out after using some zipties to hold the wire down as it comes along the front of the car right in front of the radiator. As you can see instead of using the same hole that i used on the passenger side to get the power wire to go around/in front of the radiator I slipped the power wire and fuse thru a tight spot in front of the radiator up by the radiator fill cap, i did this cause i felt it was cleaner and the power wire would not have to bump up or possibly rub against the metal of the car by the front bumper. After routing the wire thru the car to get it to the battery side of the car i attached the power cords around the battery bracket for security and then mounted them to the battery terminal holder only after making a small cutout to the plastic protective cap for the positive battery terminal. The reason for this was simply to have the wires not being touched or rubbed into by the protective cap for the positive battery terminal as well as allowing the cap to fit flush over the positive terminal like it had before this install .
So for the long sentence but after the mounting and install the kit is well worth it and the wife already loves the light output.
Good Luck to those who go thru this mod, just take your time as its well worth it when you get finished.
Anyone has any questions post up or email me and I'll try my best.
p.s. Of course to those who know me I had to include a few shots of the whole engine cleaned up as well, it was filthy in there and so were the engine covers. all cleaned up afterwards.
Thanks
Dan
******Here the other pics I took today after finishing the job, its a slideshow on PHOTOBUCKET.*****
http://s295.photobucket.com/albums/m...t=cd9306d1.pbw
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04-28-08, 05:16 AM
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I have the 5000K from Steve @ XenonDepot.com - I have not been flashed once and the lights look awesome. The low beams are a nice crisp white and the fogs have a bit of bluer tint due to the lens. Overall, the new lights light up the reflectors on the road, the signs, etc. and look so cool while I am driving. If I can make one recommendation, pick up the 5000K for the fogs too! They are so bright!
As for "where to put the ballasts"? I took a bracket (similar to the following - http://www.dstuning.com/images/Hardware1.jpg) and attached it to the left fender/behind the passenger side headlamp and attached the ballasts to them.
As for "where to put the ballasts"? I took a bracket (similar to the following - http://www.dstuning.com/images/Hardware1.jpg) and attached it to the left fender/behind the passenger side headlamp and attached the ballasts to them.
04-28-08, 05:22 AM
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I think if your going to get "flashed" its not due to the color of the light but more the height of the car or the height of the beam output. if flashing lights were to become common place i would say just adjust the lights to throw a beam lower then they currrently are. 4k, 5k 0r 6.5k is not going to determine if your going to be a nuisance to other drivers IMO, it would be the height of the beam your throwing not the color of the light.
04-28-08, 05:24 AM
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Jasoncanes what did you do for attaching the driverside pieces? the passenger side IMO is easy to configure its the driverside due to the lack of room and battery that was or is the most difficult to situate.
what did you do for the driverside?
thx
what did you do for the driverside?
thx
04-28-08, 05:49 AM
#11
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In regards to the height, our headlights are great and cut off right at the top of the trunk line on passenger vehicles. I have never seen anyone adjusting their mirror when I am at a stoplight and my girlfriend (who has been driving in front of me) said that they are bright, but not blinding or even hit her rear view mirror.
As for the drivers side kits, I have the fog light ballast installed between the battery and the headlight on the frame. The ballast for the lowbeams is actually all the way up near the windshield on the drivers side fender. I took the plastic cover off that side and installed it there. I can send pictures this week if you want.
As for the drivers side kits, I have the fog light ballast installed between the battery and the headlight on the frame. The ballast for the lowbeams is actually all the way up near the windshield on the drivers side fender. I took the plastic cover off that side and installed it there. I can send pictures this week if you want.
04-29-08, 10:44 AM
#13
Hi Dan,
Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a detailed review. I am sorry to hear that you experienced some difficulty with the H11 connector. It is a tight fit however want to make sure that the connection is as water tight as possible.
I left you a message this morning just in case you didnt get my email.
Steve
Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a detailed review. I am sorry to hear that you experienced some difficulty with the H11 connector. It is a tight fit however want to make sure that the connection is as water tight as possible.
I left you a message this morning just in case you didnt get my email.
Steve
04-30-08, 11:59 AM
#14
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the state of MA recommends that on a level surface, 25 feet from a wall the cut off of your Low Beam headlights should be roughly 24-26 inches off the ground, and that is the rule I follow for all the cars in my family, with or without HID
04-30-08, 09:31 PM
#15
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Steve just amazing. I had the GX out this evening and I gotta say its really a whole different experience driving now with the xenons FINALLY in a GX.
Just wanted to share my satisfaction.
Thanks
Just wanted to share my satisfaction.
Thanks