Manaray

Ok folks, it finally arrived...it actually only took 2 days to get here from England...pretty impressed with UPS right now...

Anyways, here's the photos of what's included. Tonight, I will be snapping photos of the STOCK lights so we'll have a base for comparison. I will then do the install tommorow during the day (and take install photos) and then post up photos of the HID lights in action tommorow night.

Manaray

Here's what's inside the box...



Here's the Ballasts...






Some double stick tape on the bottom...

Manaray

Here's the harness...(the four pieces on top are pieces of heat shrink tubing...it's to go over the light connectors...)



The relay...



The fuse "box" and fuse (25)....

Manaray

Here's the lamps....





Here's the base of the lamps...

Manaray

I will also scan and post the instructions as soon as I get an "ok" from AutoLamps...I have closed this thread because I want to keep it "clean" with only posts from this install for now...

Please hold off on questions until after I get this installed...I will then open the thread back up so that people can post questions/comments...thanks!

Manaray

For the "color flicker" and 4100K vs. 6000K issues, please read the following thread...

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...threadid=48108

NOW IF YOU GUYS ARE READY TO ORDER (OR WHEN YOU'RE READY TO ORDER):

Here's what you need to do. READ IT CAREFULLY!

First off, go to the site...

http://www.autolamps-online.com/products/9006kit.htm

...and the bottom of the page, add "1" to your shopping basket then click on VIEW CURRENT SELECTION...it will take you to the order for page.

From there, you should see (towards the bottom) the following...

9006 Xenon HID Headlamp conversion kit [1 ] $499.00

If you want the 6000K kit, change the "1" to "0" in that box and put "1" in the box just below that...it looks like...

9006 6000K Xenon HID Headlamp conversion kit [0 ] $579.00

Then go ahead and click on Review order and purchase online button...it will then take you to the order information form. Fill out your information and whatnot, then click on Confirm Order and you should be good to go...

VERY IMPORTANT
You will be getting an order confirmation number via email along with a form that you need to print out and sign and fax back to AutoLamps-Online (it's a liability form, nothing major). Once you get the Order Confirmation number, you will need to email that to me at gs430@mac.com. Also include your ClubLexus Screen Name in the email!

If you don't do this, you will NOT get the discount. What will happen is that your card will be charged the FULL amount ($499 or $579 depending on which kit you got). Once I get your email, I will check your paid membership status and if you are a paid member, I will email AutoLamps-Online and give them your order number along with my confirmation of your PAID MEMBERSHIP status. You will then receive a CREDIT of $49 (for the 4100K kit) or $39 (for the 6000K kit).

See, membership does have it's privledges. Just on this deal alone, you've already gained back your membership fee....

Manaray

Ok folks, I finally got to install the HID kit…all I can say is DAMN! What a difference! The scary thing is that I already have HID (in my GS430) and I was still amazed by how bright they are! Anyways, I took some installation photos and some before/after photos. Here is the LONG list of tools you’ll need…

1) 10mm open end wrench or a long neck socket for the battery terminals.

Ok, there it is…NOW PLEASE NOTE, I forgot to set my “White Balance” on my camera so the COLOR of the lights aren’t exactly correct. My stock halogens look kinda orange in the photos and the HID doesn’t quite look at white as it is real life.

I did take one last photos of the HID shining down a dark street and this time, I let the camera do all the adjustments automatically. The last photo is more like “real life” than the comparison photos…however, the comparison photos still show how much brighter and whiter the HID setup is next to the Halogen…

And for those of you who think some simple bulb swaps will look “just as bright” as real HIDs….DON’T KID YOURSELF!…after the install, my buddy came by with his 2002 Chevy Yukon Denali which has halogen projector beams. He has Sylvania SilverStars in his SUV. While the COLOR of the SilverStars is pretty damn close (I was impressed), the BRIGHTNESS isn’t even in the same galaxy. We parked the cars side by side on a dark street, he had his lights on and I had my HIDs off…when I turned on my HIDs, you couldn’t even SEE his lights. It looked as if he turned his lights off. HUGE difference.

I will be taking some more photos down the down the line of my SC400 with HIDs next to a SC300 with Koitos. This will be a good test as the Koitos are some of the best “white” halogens I’ve seen. That test will be apples to apples in regards to the cars and headlight housings.

Manaray

Now onto the install!

Here’s a photo of the driver’s side ballast location. I decided to put it next to the battery. It is actually stuck (with the included double sided tape) to the “shell” around the battery. It’s not attached directly to the battery itself. In this picture below, #1 is the ballast, #2 is the connectors to the actual HID bulb, and #3 is the OEM socket that goes into the stock halogen 9006 bulb…this is what controls the ballast turning on/off (and of course, the ballast controls the HID bulb.)


Now let me explain something about the harness. Take a look below. Item #4 is the relay, #5 is the shrink wrap that goes over #2 in the photo above, #7 is the plug that connects to the ballast, #6 is your power (pos/neg) connectors…now onto #8…#8 is the plug that goes into the OEM socket (#3 in the photo above). There is only one wire that’s actually making any connection. It’s the pos/red wire. This connector MUST line up with the pos/red connector in your OEM socket (#3 in the photo above). Simple enough, however, this plug (#8) is wired BACKWARDS (at least when compared to my SC’s OEM plug). You can just flip the plug around and still plug it in, however, the retention clip won’t hold because the retention “bump” is on the opposite side on the plug (#8).


DON’T PANIC. It’s an easy fix. I was pre-warned about this condition by AutoLamps because some other manufacturer’s plugs are wired that way (maybe European manufacturers like Mercedes/BMW/etc.) All you need to do is to get a very small screwdriver (like a “jeweler’s” type deal) and just use that to free the lugs inside the plug (#8) and then just flip them around. Very easy to do! I didn’t have a “jeweler’s” flat head screwdriver handy so I used a plastic fork. I bent three of the four points and used the one left standing as my “jeweler’s” flat head…whatever , it worked!

There are little “clips” inside the plug that holds the lugs in place…just wedge the screwdriver in there and push the clip away from the lugs…then you can pull out the lug a little bit…then do the same for the other lug…then it should just slide out with no force. Just make sure than when plug #8 into your OEM socket (#3), that the red matches the red…now don’t worry, if you don’t it right, your car will NOT blow up. All that will happen is that your HID won’t go on. The ballast uses the pos/red signal from your OEM socket to turn on/off…that’s all….anyways, check out my fabulously ghetto illustration below…



Now in the image below, I found another location for the ballast. Now I’m not sure if the engine heat will affect it, I will have to ask AutoLamps about that one. I also don’t know how hot the ballast gets…maybe the ballast shouldn’t be attached to anything plastic? Dunno. I have only run the HID’s for 10 minutes max so far and the ballast only got warm…don’t know if extended use will make it any hotter. I just sent AutoLamps an email about this and I asked them for the optimal install location for an SC…

Manaray

Now onto the passenger side install…this time, I found a nice location behind the stock airbox…now since I plan on putting in a air intake, this location is only temporary for me…

In the photo below, item #1 is the on/off plug (#8 in the photo of the driver side), #2 are the connectors that attach to the HID lamp, #3 is the relay, #4 is the fuse holder, #5 is the ballast…



Now since this install is just "preliminary", I haven't shown any photos of the battery terminals...I will post photos later about how I doing those. I am going for a "factory" look...I have an idea, I'll just have to test it tommorow or the day after (I just remembered that I have to get my Tein FLEX coilovers installed tommorow on my GS!)

Manaray

Ok, now let’s get to the “moment of truth”...now remember, I didn't have my digicam's EXPOSURE set correctly so these photos are MUCH dimmer than in real life! Just keep that in mind. More than the "actual" light in these images, look at how much MORE the HID's illuminate...

This image is of my stock 9006 halogens on a dark street...


Now here’s the same shot but with the HID’s installed…


This is the two images side by side…



Here’s a shot looking at the front of the car after the initial test install…


Here’s two separate shots I PhotoChopped into one side by side…



This photo is down the dark street with one side HID, the other side, stock 9006 halogen. Guess which is which…:

Manaray

And now, onto the controversial “cut off line” issue…this is more a function of the lamps’s housing/lens then the bulbs themselves. Since the stock 9006 halogens have a cut off line in the SC’s projector headlights, I expected the same from the HID…sure enough, with the HID upgrade, the cut off line is still there…

Here’s the stock 9006 halogens…


Here’s the HID version…notice the extra light...


Here are those two images side by side…check out the light output and color difference…

Manaray

Now the “odd” thing…after the HID upgrade, I noticed a couple of “anomalies”…right in front of the bumper, there are two light “wedgies”…they might be there with the stock halogens also but I never noticed them…no big deal though as you can’t see them from inside the car…





It kinda looks "evil" (say it like Dr. Evil would say it...)

Manaray

Ok, an finally, a slightly blurry (all those years of crack I did prevents me from holding digital cameras steady…or something…) of a “color corrected” image. This is closer to “real life” than the images above since the camera was set to “auto” rather than my jackass manual settings…

Manaray

In conclusion, this is one upgrade I would DEFINITELY DO! I can’t even IMAGINE going back to halogens…like I said when I bought my GS430, after having HID’s, you just can’t go back…

I will post some “finalized” install pictures tomorrow or the next day (I might be going zip tie crazy) since right now everything is just kinda shoved in there (it’s hard to work on a car at night…in the dark…with a dying flash light!) Total time for install (if I wasn’t documenting and photographing the installation) is about 20 to 30 minutes. Once you’ve done it one time, I’d say you can do it 10 minutes. The most time consuming thing was finding the locations for the ballasts and figuring out exactly how I wanted the wires arranged!

On a technical skill level between 0 (where changing the air filter is a challenge) and 10 (Clint), I would say this is a skill level 2-3…If you’ve ever swapped out a set of bulbs and ever used a 10mm wrench, then you can do this install. Just be VERY CAREFUL will the actual insertion (uh…huh huh…I said “insertion”) of the HID bulb into the head light housing…don’t rub it against anything, don’t force it in, don’t suck on it, etc., etc…just treat it like it was super sensitive nuclear device…

If you have any questions, please post it here…also, please READ this thread THROUGHLY so questions aren’t asked that already have answers…capisce?

hoops_24

Well i'm sold. The first couple of pics left a little to be desired. The beam pattern didn't blow my skirt up But the last picture makes it appear to be worth the 5 bills.

Thanks for all the info!!