Cheap Ebay HID install
04-12-13, 07:47 PM
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Cheap Ebay HID install
I've seen the cheap Ebay HID kits for a while and finally decided to give them a try. For only $35 I figured why not? I've always used well known HID manufacures in all my other cars but with this car I'm not looking to dump a ton of money into it but wanted something better than stock. I have to say that for the price I'm sold. There are some drawbacks that I have seen with them but nothing enough to spend the extra $100. First thing, the car is a 92 SC400. The kit was a 9005 Xentec with 6000 K bulbs.
The coloring on the bulbs I would say are about 1000K off. After driving with them for a month they did lighten up a bit. I wanted just a little blue but these are very blue. I have 6000K in my wifes S14 and they are a bit whiter which is what I was going for but these will work.
The install cant get any easier, plug and play. The only downside I found with the wiring was that there was very little of it. The pig tails were short so unless you want to cut and solder your own wiring to lengthen them it will limit where you can install the ballasts. I originally wanted to install the balasts in front of the radiator as I have seen people do in the past for a clean install. Because the pigtails are so short I had to mount them within about 6" of the bulbs themselves, I was still able to find some mounting locations as you can see.
The only problem I have had with them is that the ballasts seem to be very sensitive to start up. HID's require a large amount of voltage to get them lit so you need to make sure you have all 12 volts to the ballasts while they are warming up. They do tend to flicker a bit more while they are warming up compared to my higher dollar kit. A couple times I have had the lights on first before starting the car, then when I started my car the starter drew too much voltage which shut down the balasts causing the light to shut off. You have to wait something like 30 seconds for the balast to reset before you turn the lights back on or they won't fire again. Not a real big issue, I have seen this problem with higher dollar kits and as far as I know it may not be the kit, I may have more resistance in my headlight circuits causing the problem. I will be adding a dedicated ground in the near future to see if this will remedy the problem. I measured the ground wiith my DVOM and didn't see what I wanted to so that could very well be the problem. It is a 20 year old car with other Known electrical issues so I can't condemn the light kit. I just turn the lights on after I start the car from now on and do not have a problem anymore.
All in all I am very happy with the kit for the price, I bought another set to put on my mother in law's car but wanted to wait to see if they were going to last on my car before putting her lighting in jeapardy. I'll let you know if the other kit performs as well or better.
I also in stalled LED parking lamps because I did not like the amber color of the stock ones with the HID color, it just looks better now. I have some wierd pet peeves. I'm sure if I head the newer headlamps with the better projectors the line would be better on the lights but I'm happy for now, better than what was in there.
Install time was about 10 minutes only because I had to dig through my junk pile and find a bracket to mounth one ballast in front of the battery. The other I installed on the cold air tube behind the passenger headlight.
The coloring on the bulbs I would say are about 1000K off. After driving with them for a month they did lighten up a bit. I wanted just a little blue but these are very blue. I have 6000K in my wifes S14 and they are a bit whiter which is what I was going for but these will work.
The install cant get any easier, plug and play. The only downside I found with the wiring was that there was very little of it. The pig tails were short so unless you want to cut and solder your own wiring to lengthen them it will limit where you can install the ballasts. I originally wanted to install the balasts in front of the radiator as I have seen people do in the past for a clean install. Because the pigtails are so short I had to mount them within about 6" of the bulbs themselves, I was still able to find some mounting locations as you can see.
The only problem I have had with them is that the ballasts seem to be very sensitive to start up. HID's require a large amount of voltage to get them lit so you need to make sure you have all 12 volts to the ballasts while they are warming up. They do tend to flicker a bit more while they are warming up compared to my higher dollar kit. A couple times I have had the lights on first before starting the car, then when I started my car the starter drew too much voltage which shut down the balasts causing the light to shut off. You have to wait something like 30 seconds for the balast to reset before you turn the lights back on or they won't fire again. Not a real big issue, I have seen this problem with higher dollar kits and as far as I know it may not be the kit, I may have more resistance in my headlight circuits causing the problem. I will be adding a dedicated ground in the near future to see if this will remedy the problem. I measured the ground wiith my DVOM and didn't see what I wanted to so that could very well be the problem. It is a 20 year old car with other Known electrical issues so I can't condemn the light kit. I just turn the lights on after I start the car from now on and do not have a problem anymore.
All in all I am very happy with the kit for the price, I bought another set to put on my mother in law's car but wanted to wait to see if they were going to last on my car before putting her lighting in jeapardy. I'll let you know if the other kit performs as well or better.
I also in stalled LED parking lamps because I did not like the amber color of the stock ones with the HID color, it just looks better now. I have some wierd pet peeves. I'm sure if I head the newer headlamps with the better projectors the line would be better on the lights but I'm happy for now, better than what was in there.
Install time was about 10 minutes only because I had to dig through my junk pile and find a bracket to mounth one ballast in front of the battery. The other I installed on the cold air tube behind the passenger headlight.
04-12-13, 07:52 PM
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The before an after pictures were taken at the same time of day two days apart. Can't see much difference besides color in those pictures but I can tell you that I drive a 2 lane road to and from work with no street lights and these are a life saver when you can't use your brights. These are much better over stock when it comes to the distance.
These were the 35 watt kit, forgot to mention that above.
These were the 35 watt kit, forgot to mention that above.
06-10-13, 08:09 PM
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06-10-13, 08:11 PM
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08-06-13, 01:51 PM
#8
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I bought the same ones for my wifes new Camry, and man what a difference. She liked them so much, she wanted the high beams as well. So guess what, she got them too. LOL
08-07-13, 08:24 PM
#9
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I have used XenTec a number of times, on my civic, and both of my rams. I have never had a problem except for a burned out ballast in this truck (it got REALLY wet). And they were prompt on replacing it for free.
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