LowUFO

I have just installed a set of Philips HID lights in my base 350z, an need to upgrade the stock headlight fuse with a 20 amp fuse. I have spent many hours installing this, and everything was working OK. Now It's night time, and am trying to leave myfriends hose, and the headlights won't turn on. The instructions say to replace the stock fuse with a larger one. I CAN'T FIND THE CORRECT FUSE TO REPLACE. None of the fuses were listed as headlight or, anything even close. Please help me find the correct fuse.

TIA

Ian

ares

iTrader: (2)

lookin for it now, give me a sec.

ares

iTrader: (2)

damn man, there are fuse boxes EVERYWHERE!. and I dont have a clue which one its in. it should be in the car manual, which I kinda misplaced, but it doesnt seem to be in the shop manual. it gives all the detailed crap about the fuses, but doesnt just give like a list of whats what...

sorry.

LowUFO

The manual only shows where the two fuse boxes are. One by the battery, and one by the drivers feet. Are there more places where fuses are located? I can't seem to find anything that even remotely looks like a headlight fuse.

Thanks,

Ian

ares

iTrader: (2)

what are you expecting it to look like? should look like all the tohers, except 20 watt. pull em all, look for one thats fried.

REDZED

How did you blow the fuse ??? - the HID kits are 32 or 35 Watts whereas the standard H7's are 55 Watt - ie the kit draws LESS power not more ( the HID's are more efficient ).

The lighing fuses should be in the IPDM ( nissan speak for Inteligent Power Distribution Module ) behind/beside the battery.

But the fuse blow should not have happened.....

LowUFO

The Philips kit I have draws a lot of power on startup. The stock fuse can't handle the initial load, and there for can't create the initial arc of electricity. I ended up pulling the Philips kit, and replacing it with a Panasonic kit. It requires less power at startup. I just replaced the 6000k bulbs with that kit for the 4300k bulbs I bought for the Philips kit. Everything is working great now. Thanks for all of your help.

Ian

REDZED

Thats certainly a trap - but still a mystery, Halogen bulbs also draw a huge startup spike ( 5+ times running is not unusual ).

I have 6000K lamps in at the moment - whats the change like ( color / brightness ) when you substitute 4300k bulbs ?

Have also noticed that with minor changes in the construction of the HID's the pattern can be a bit off. Mine had a nasty spike right at the edge of the pattern that could easily dazzle oncomming drivers - so a quick check with a headlight alligner is a good idea ( a little movement of the lamp base solved it ). The check took less than five minutes, but adjusting the suckers ( wheel off, liner out etc.) is a *****.

LowUFO

The 4300k bulbs are more super white, and less purple. I can definately see better with the 4300k then with the 6000k bulbs. The 4300k produce more lumins (at least that's what I was told)

Ian

dchi_t

iTrader: (1)

hey guy, when u were installing ur hids on ur base model, how did u plug in ur ballast cable onto the hids bulb? did u leave the big gray circle thing off? i need help cuz i just installed mine yesterday and i cant find anywhere to slide the ballast cable through and at the same time put the big gray thing back on..plz help..thx

LowUFO

I drilled a 7/8th inch hole in the circle cap, and used the rubber gromit that came with the kit.

Ian

johnsZ

Here is a bunch of information on color and temperature (how the bulbs are rated). The color temperature for bulbs is the apparent temperature of the bulb emission- which depends on the filament metal composition, the filament temperature (the current times the filament resistance at the operating temperature) and and the gas(es) in the bulb.

The color temperature of light refers to the temperature to which one would have to heat a "black body" source to produce light of similar spectral characteristics. Low color temperature implies warmer (more yellow/red) light while high color temperature implies a colder (more blue) light.

Daylight has a rather low color temperature near dawn, and a higher one during the day. Therefore it can be useful to install an electrical lighting system that can supply cooler light to supplement daylight when needed, and fill in with warmer light at night. This also correlates with human feelings towards the warm colors of light coming from candles or an open fireplace at night.

Standard unit for color temperature is Kelvin (k).

(The kelvin unit is the basis of all temperature measurement, starting with 0 k at the absolute zero temperature. The "size" of one kelvin is the same as that of one degree Celsius, and is defined as the fraction 1/273.16 of the thermodynamic temperature of the triple point of water, which positions 0° Celsius at 273.16 k.)

Some typical color temperatures are:

1500 k Candlelight

2680 k 40 W incandescent lamp

3000 k 200 W incandescent lamp

3200 k Sunrise/sunset

3400 k Tungsten lamp

3400 k 1 hour from dusk/dawn

5000-4500 k Xenon lamp/light arc

5500 k Sunny daylight around noon

5500-5600 k Electronic photo flash

6500-7500 k Overcast sky

9000-12000 k Blue sky

old_s13

iTrader: (1)

HID/Xenon headlamps draw much more current than halogen bulbs at startup, its crucial you have the upgraded wiring capable of handling the higher-amp fuse. If you dont follow this precaution, there is a very good chance your wiring will heat up and catch fire. Dont risk your Z to a set of poorly installed headlamps.

- Mike

REDZED

This is a thermal issue - whilst there has been much discussion about start up currents, they do not last for more than a couple of minutes ( even at worst case ) and so the chance of the wiring buring out is very small. The actual running currents are less than standard and so this also presents no problems.

I have tested my BELL system and several BOSCH systems and the startup currents are around 10A for the first 10 seconds, quickly dropping to normal running current - perhaps other systems have poorer current regulation on startup causing these problems, many of the comments seem to be about PHILLIPS systems which are quite cheap and perhaps have cut some corners ???

old_s13

iTrader: (1)

The massive draw in current happens within the first 10-15 seconds of initial startup, from there on, the amp draw becomes relatively low. If both ballasts are wired on one wiring harness, then they should use a 25A fuse.. as long as they are using appropriately sized wiring. If the right size wires are used, there wont BE a thermal issue -- there wont be an issue at all. And this my friends, is how fires are prevented.

RedZed, I think its safe to say that most name-brand ballasts are pretty much all high quality: Matsushita, Philips, etc. Any ballast used in OEM-applications is usually pretty good quality.

Now retrofits on the other hand are ALL toss-ups, because the ballasts themselves are all more or less quality, its the bulbs that are not consistent.

If you are going to go HID, use the OEM low-beam to power up the relay with the wiring harness included with your HID ahem retrofit kit. If you do that, you wont have to touch fuses or worry about a thing -- as long as the harness provided with the kit is quality. This is just the beginning of why HID kits in general are illegal, and why the NHTSA is doing something about it. Each headlamp is different, there is no such thing really as an "H1" kit or an "H4" kit, as each headlamp is unique and has differences... there are just too many variables to have "kits."

Buyer beware.

REDZED

Its a bit difficult to explain how a single design of incandescent lamp can work in all these different reflectors and not HID's.
Perhaps the issue is lack of quality in the HID conversion socket.
I carefully checked the optical centre of my HIDs and they were OK fore and aft but not great side to side. A quick machining of the base brought it back to spec.