Halogen --> HID conversion (56K warning)
 

1 year, 1 month, and 1 day after I purchased my car, my first mod arrives in the mail. I bought the 5000K Brightstar HID conversion for my Base model through importhookup.com and it arrived less than a week later. Before I continue further, I'd like to thank John at ImportHookup for some instructions on the kit installation and Dave (Dave079) with his expertise on this matter; thanks again guys.

Here's what comes in the kit:
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I first jacked the car up off the ground with a hydrolic jack I got from K-Mart for $15. I then removed the wheels, which allowed me to then remove the inner wheel well.

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To remove the inner fender, I removed 3 plastic clips and about 8 screws. Three screws were holding the inner fender liner to the metal fender at the edge. The 5 others were below the front lip of the car.

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To remove the plastic clips. Take a flat head screwdriver and stick it between the plastic corners and gently push the screwdriver under the circular part. You'll be able to pop the clip out with a little movement.

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After you unscrew and unclip everything, you have to push the inner fender to the medial part of the car to make it free. After this, you can just let it ly down on the brake rotor. The white circluar cover is what covers the lighting unit and to remove this, turn it the direction that it says.

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After you find your locations for mounting the ballast and ignitor, clean the area with rubbing alcohol. Apply 3M outdoor double sided tape the the ballast and ignitor. Put them where you like or where I put mine. I put the bulb in first, mounted the ballast, mounted the ignitor, and then hooked all 3 of those up. I then connect the red and black wires to the extension wiring provided in the kit. It's simply a plug and play system, real user friendly.

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I opted not to drill through the plastic covering and run the wires through it because I couldn't find any drill bits. Also, I probably wouldn't haven't wanted to drill anything on my car.

The passenger side has a lot less room to work with so I had to mount the ballast at an angle next to the washer fluid container.

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Finally, the before and after pictures:

Before
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After
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Left HID firing up and Right Halogen
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Left HID after a few minutes and Right Halogen
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Pictures from start up to a few minutes. First one is withing 15 seconds, then 1 minute, and finally 2 minutes:
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Headlight firing up
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Before and After against the garage wall (the wall is beige so the HIDs aren't actually this yellow and the HIDs are re-leveled). Also,the rear wheels are in the gutter so the car is angled higher and not level with the actual driveway. The lights only come up midway up your thigh.
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Before and After in the road.
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Before pictures (blurry, sorry) against a 2001 BMW M5 (will get after pictures whenever I have the chance).
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As far as the install time goes, it took me a couple hours because I decided to not find all the tools I needed at one time. If I hadn't taken pictures, it would've shaved off a little more time. This is do-able if you've taken off the fender-lining before in under 45 minutes.

I haven't really had a chance to drive on the roads yet with the lights, but I think they are far better. You'll need to re-adjust the light level to make them shine further. Once again, I'd like the thank Dave because it would've taken me a lot longer to decide on a kit let alone know what I'm doing in the install.

Nice pictorial Al... thanks! Bookmarked ;)

nice! now where's the keys to your M5?

Very nice pictorial. What was the OTD price for the kit?

Thanks Brian, I know you've said your kit needs to be grounded or something along those lines, but that sucks. The place I hosted my pics for free deletes them in about 5 weeks (I think) so I guess people should look at them while they can.

CataZZ, not mine, but rather my friend's dad's. I don't want this turning into something like the 'twins' thread :D. I still want one though in LeMans Blue (I have something with LeMans for some reason :) ).

Hey Al, if you want to put this thread backup, I'll host your pics for this install... you're not going to be able to edit this post (since it's been longer than 10 minutes). LMK if you're interested in doing that. PM me your email if so, and I'll send you the necessary FTP information ;)

Oh, and I can't put my kit on yet b/c the bulbs are going to be too blue... and now I'm in a quandry as I want to obtain the conversion cable for OEM bulb connections... I ordered the cables from Mister Jung over a month ago and no dice. But I didn't get charged for it though. The wait goes on...

Very nice and detailed.

I have this kit on my bike and recommend it.

I was always scared of Taiwanese made kits, but this one is made well and packaged very well and speaks of quality.

However there are some crappy Taiwanese brands such as X-Vision (Evolution sells these).

Very nice write up and pictorial AL! Came out great. This should really help people with this install. Thanks for the compliments too. Glad to help anyone anytime with this. I know you are excited about it. It is still one of my favorite mods that I have done to my car so far. Now time to get on the interstate and see how much light it really puts out.

that's awesome. i cant wait to install this weekend.

how do u adjust the level of the lights?

This little gear pictured is what adjusts it. You can adjust it with the fender liner off or with a 10" phillips screw driver from above. There's a small opening next to the headlight that goes straight down to this adjustment gear (you can barely see it from above). Turning it clockwise adjusts the light up and vise versa.

Wow very nice write up/ pictorial!

I wanted to do the same thing but I was so excited to get my kit I just totally set the digicam aside and said "screw it! I want my lights installed!"

I can almost smell the Brighstar kit like I installed it yesterday. Definitely quality.

And yes I agree that we'd all be lost without pioneers like Dave! :p

You guys are makin me feel special :D

If i get my hands on the HID's that are currently on the Z (except Base of course)... can i just take the ballast from them and use it on the Base Headlights? or are the projectors different?

Reason i ask is because im expecting a set of damaged headlights and my current Base headlights are cleared (meaning no orange strip) so i just wanna know if i can add the ballast to it?

what do u level the lights to? lol ? just make them even?

You're gonna need more than just the ballast... you'll also want to get the ignitors, any additional wiring involved, and the bulbs. Our housings (so I've read) don't have the necessary HID reflectors in the housings, but from all the aftermarket HID guys here it doesn't seem to make too much of a difference.

Even and make sure that they aren't aimed too high... so as to not blind other drivers on the road AND to not get pulled over by the po' ;)

I just increased the level because I felt it was shining on the ground too close to the car. I wanted to see that yield sign down the street from me at night, which is in one of the pictures.

Great Job!!!! NismoKid where did you purchase the kit from and how much was it. Also on the difficulty scale how would you rate this upgrade? Thanks

Those lights are so freaking awesome!!

I ordered it from ImportHookup.com and I'll PM you the price. I think it was definitely worth it as long as you adjust the level of the light so it shines further. The actual installation was very easy and took only a few minutes. The only thing that made it "difficult" was removing the wheels and inner fender, which is what took my time.