Write-Up: Non-Projector HIDs for Firebird/Trans Am
12-01-2008, 10:01 PM
#1
Write-Up: Non-Projector HIDs for Firebird/Trans Am Alright, before I start, there is A LOT of controversial matter as far as HIDs in the factory reflector housings go. We all know of this, so don't bring the fights and rants into here please, this is merely to bring the information to everyone. I get a load of PM's asking how I did my lights, so i'm doing this somewhat of a "write up." Bare with me here, I put the lights in during the summer and I'll try to give as much info as possible.
Here's my system:
MATERIALS
Well, your going to need an HID system of course!
*EDIT 3/24/2011 - Well, there's been a lot of controversy over DDM Tuning. To avoid all the mess, backorders, etc.. just get your HID's from this guy on ebay.
Now before I continue, this is where your going to be getting the HID kits for your Fog lights (880 bulb kit) and low beams.
But before I continue, you have two choices here for the low beams.
The headlights in Firebird models are SEALED BEAM units. This means, your "bulb" is the WHOLE headlight. You can either:
1. Gut out your factory sealed beam and later seal the HID bulb into it by using sealant
2. (This is what I did) go to EuroLights (http://eurolamps.com/eurolamps/sealedbeams.htm) And get one of those sealed beam conversion kits. (CHECK EDIT BELOW!!!)Email them and tell them your car model and they'll tell you which kit to buy.
This kit has an opening in the back so you can put in your own headlight, which in this case, is your HID system.
*EDIT: May 14, 2009* On the EUROLIGHTS SITE, when ordering your sealed beam housings, you will need Parts number 4703 for your lowbeams. The high beams number is 4701 in case you'd like to upgrade the bulbs in your highs. However, HIDs are not recommended in high beams because HIDs do not like to be flashed.*EDIT*
*EDIT: 12/25/09* Thanks to Slvr00Bird, he has brought to my attention another set of sealed beam conversion housings. http://www.rallylights.com/detail.aspx?ID=392 Thanks man!
*EDIT: 12/20/2010* Here we have ANOTHER option for your housings. So far these are the best. They are DOT approved and they look & perform so much better than the eurolights housings. They also come with a pigtail, so you don't have to splice ANYTHING!
http://www.lmctruck.com/icatalog/cd/full.aspx?Page=63
Right below the picture on the right, OUTER: Part number: 36-0302
During checkout they ask you to put what car you're putting these in. To avoid any order problems I put an '89 Blazer.. same size headlight housing.
NOW KEEP IN MIND: Depending on which housings you get, depends on WHAT KIND OF BULB/HID KIT you will need.
Eurolights = H7
LMC Truck Housings = 9006
Lets continue,
Before you get to buying your HID system, you need to understand Kelvin temperature, or the color of your lights.
Here's a kelvin color scale.
You'll see different choices for temp./color, like "5000K,8000K, etc"
For best lighting and Performance, 5000K/6000K (bright white) is your best option.
Selecting your FOG LIGHTS
On that ebay page I sent you to, scroll down to the drop down menu. For your fog lights, your going to select the 880 kit. I think in the dropdown it's listed as "880,881,889 (All 800 series)." Add that to your cart. Your fog lights will be completely plug and play, anyone can install these without any problems.
Selecting your LOW BEAMS
These will take a little more time, but here we g.
Same drop down menu, select "H7" kit, then select your temperature, yada yada.
*Time passes by, your HIDs arrive*
Woop, woop.
Alright, so now your HIDs are in your hands, what to do now.
INSTALLATION
The fog lights are going to be the easiest to install. From what I remember correctly, the instructions are crap that come with these, so just use common sense, but i'll help from as much as I remember.
Unscrew your foglight bulbs from the housing, and "unclip" the bulb from the harness. Your then going to take the large power looking wire going into the ballast of the HIDs. the ballast is the little silver box. To find this harness on the system, it should go into one side of the ballast, and then the bulb should be on the other side. Plug the clip into the other clip that was originally plugged into your fog light bulb. There should then be two yellow plugs, (or maybe another color) that are marked "880." connect those together. That should be it, screw your HID into the foglight housing, and mount your ballasts somewhere. I mounted them on the flat red painted surface above the fog light housings in that tight space. Clean the area with alcohol and use the double sided tape provided. Test them and make sure they work. Don't freak out if they dont, you might have to switch some plugs around.
Now, if I remember correctly, somewhere in those steps above, there may be a wire with two metal prongs on it, that you have to put into your own clip. It's hard to describe, but you'd basically be making a harness. This may all seem difficult right now, but when it's in front of you, everything will make sense.
Low Beams
You may want to manually raise your headlights, so your not killing your battery leaving them up. The manual raise **** is behind the headlights in a little hole with a rubber boot over them. Take off the boot, and raise he headlight fully. Take off your headlight trim piece, the black bezel. use a torx screw to undo your low beam headlight, and pull out the harness/plug from the low beam. KEEP THIS PLUG IN MIND, YOU WILL NEED TO WIRE IT IN LATER. Use the torx screw that you used before, and take the headlight out from it's metal bracket. If you bought a Eurolamp conversion housing, you will need to screw the housing into this bracket just like the factory one was sitting in there. The same principals apply to the low beam ballast as did with the Fog Lights. there's only one other thing you'll need to do. Follow me here..
Remember the plug you plugged into your Fog Light harness? The plug that went into where your old fog light bulb was? Find this same plug on your low beam system. There should be two prongs inside, a power, and a ground.
Remember that plug I told you to keep in mind when you undid your low beam? Find it again. It should have two wires coming out of it, what do you know, a power, and a ground! CUT OFF the harness, leaving you just those two wires. Strip them down with wire strippers, and crimp on a wire connector like these:
After you have them crimped on tight, locate the power plug I told you about for your low beam ballast. connect the two connectors you made, to the prongs in the plug. Make sure you have the power and ground on right, turn on your lights and see if they light up. If not, switch 'em around. Make sure the lights work first before you put everything back together. After you complete one side, take note of which plugs and wires go to what, and do the same on the other side. For the two connections you used your wire connectors for, tape them off completely with electrical tape, you don't want anything getting inside.
Once everything works, screw your low beams back in. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE.. Adjust them DOWN! They do have some glare, so make sure your new lights are hitting the GROUND and not straight ahead. Use those torx screws in the bracket to aim your headlight.
I'm pretty sure I mentioned everything. You may be sitting there, like, "WTF?
," But once you go at it, everything should make sense. There's A LOTTA plugs and wires, so I recommend sitting down with your HID system in your hands and observing everything. If I left anything out, someone please let me know. My comp froze and I had to do this all over again so I might be missing something, but I hope this helps.
Please post something in this thread if you need help, so I don't get a gajillion PM's.
-Brian
Here's my system:
MATERIALS
Well, your going to need an HID system of course!
*EDIT 3/24/2011 - Well, there's been a lot of controversy over DDM Tuning. To avoid all the mess, backorders, etc.. just get your HID's from this guy on ebay.
Now before I continue, this is where your going to be getting the HID kits for your Fog lights (880 bulb kit) and low beams.
But before I continue, you have two choices here for the low beams.
The headlights in Firebird models are SEALED BEAM units. This means, your "bulb" is the WHOLE headlight. You can either:
1. Gut out your factory sealed beam and later seal the HID bulb into it by using sealant
2. (This is what I did) go to EuroLights (http://eurolamps.com/eurolamps/sealedbeams.htm) And get one of those sealed beam conversion kits. (CHECK EDIT BELOW!!!)Email them and tell them your car model and they'll tell you which kit to buy.
This kit has an opening in the back so you can put in your own headlight, which in this case, is your HID system.
*EDIT: May 14, 2009* On the EUROLIGHTS SITE, when ordering your sealed beam housings, you will need Parts number 4703 for your lowbeams. The high beams number is 4701 in case you'd like to upgrade the bulbs in your highs. However, HIDs are not recommended in high beams because HIDs do not like to be flashed.*EDIT*
*EDIT: 12/25/09* Thanks to Slvr00Bird, he has brought to my attention another set of sealed beam conversion housings. http://www.rallylights.com/detail.aspx?ID=392 Thanks man!
*EDIT: 12/20/2010* Here we have ANOTHER option for your housings. So far these are the best. They are DOT approved and they look & perform so much better than the eurolights housings. They also come with a pigtail, so you don't have to splice ANYTHING!
http://www.lmctruck.com/icatalog/cd/full.aspx?Page=63
Right below the picture on the right, OUTER: Part number: 36-0302
During checkout they ask you to put what car you're putting these in. To avoid any order problems I put an '89 Blazer.. same size headlight housing.
NOW KEEP IN MIND: Depending on which housings you get, depends on WHAT KIND OF BULB/HID KIT you will need.
Eurolights = H7
LMC Truck Housings = 9006
Lets continue,
Before you get to buying your HID system, you need to understand Kelvin temperature, or the color of your lights.
Here's a kelvin color scale.
You'll see different choices for temp./color, like "5000K,8000K, etc"
For best lighting and Performance, 5000K/6000K (bright white) is your best option.
Selecting your FOG LIGHTS
On that ebay page I sent you to, scroll down to the drop down menu. For your fog lights, your going to select the 880 kit. I think in the dropdown it's listed as "880,881,889 (All 800 series)." Add that to your cart. Your fog lights will be completely plug and play, anyone can install these without any problems.
Selecting your LOW BEAMS
These will take a little more time, but here we g.
Same drop down menu, select "H7" kit, then select your temperature, yada yada.
*Time passes by, your HIDs arrive*
Woop, woop.
Alright, so now your HIDs are in your hands, what to do now.
INSTALLATION
The fog lights are going to be the easiest to install. From what I remember correctly, the instructions are crap that come with these, so just use common sense, but i'll help from as much as I remember.
Unscrew your foglight bulbs from the housing, and "unclip" the bulb from the harness. Your then going to take the large power looking wire going into the ballast of the HIDs. the ballast is the little silver box. To find this harness on the system, it should go into one side of the ballast, and then the bulb should be on the other side. Plug the clip into the other clip that was originally plugged into your fog light bulb. There should then be two yellow plugs, (or maybe another color) that are marked "880." connect those together. That should be it, screw your HID into the foglight housing, and mount your ballasts somewhere. I mounted them on the flat red painted surface above the fog light housings in that tight space. Clean the area with alcohol and use the double sided tape provided. Test them and make sure they work. Don't freak out if they dont, you might have to switch some plugs around.
Now, if I remember correctly, somewhere in those steps above, there may be a wire with two metal prongs on it, that you have to put into your own clip. It's hard to describe, but you'd basically be making a harness. This may all seem difficult right now, but when it's in front of you, everything will make sense.
Low Beams
You may want to manually raise your headlights, so your not killing your battery leaving them up. The manual raise **** is behind the headlights in a little hole with a rubber boot over them. Take off the boot, and raise he headlight fully. Take off your headlight trim piece, the black bezel. use a torx screw to undo your low beam headlight, and pull out the harness/plug from the low beam. KEEP THIS PLUG IN MIND, YOU WILL NEED TO WIRE IT IN LATER. Use the torx screw that you used before, and take the headlight out from it's metal bracket. If you bought a Eurolamp conversion housing, you will need to screw the housing into this bracket just like the factory one was sitting in there. The same principals apply to the low beam ballast as did with the Fog Lights. there's only one other thing you'll need to do. Follow me here..
Remember the plug you plugged into your Fog Light harness? The plug that went into where your old fog light bulb was? Find this same plug on your low beam system. There should be two prongs inside, a power, and a ground.
Remember that plug I told you to keep in mind when you undid your low beam? Find it again. It should have two wires coming out of it, what do you know, a power, and a ground! CUT OFF the harness, leaving you just those two wires. Strip them down with wire strippers, and crimp on a wire connector like these:
After you have them crimped on tight, locate the power plug I told you about for your low beam ballast. connect the two connectors you made, to the prongs in the plug. Make sure you have the power and ground on right, turn on your lights and see if they light up. If not, switch 'em around. Make sure the lights work first before you put everything back together. After you complete one side, take note of which plugs and wires go to what, and do the same on the other side. For the two connections you used your wire connectors for, tape them off completely with electrical tape, you don't want anything getting inside.
Once everything works, screw your low beams back in. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE.. Adjust them DOWN! They do have some glare, so make sure your new lights are hitting the GROUND and not straight ahead. Use those torx screws in the bracket to aim your headlight.
I'm pretty sure I mentioned everything. You may be sitting there, like, "WTF?
," But once you go at it, everything should make sense. There's A LOTTA plugs and wires, so I recommend sitting down with your HID system in your hands and observing everything. If I left anything out, someone please let me know. My comp froze and I had to do this all over again so I might be missing something, but I hope this helps.Please post something in this thread if you need help, so I don't get a gajillion PM's.
-Brian
Last edited by 98 WS6; 09-27-2011 at 05:20 PM.
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12-02-2008, 09:45 AM
#8
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I have one question for you.... I see that everyone replaces the low beams so that you are always blinding the **** out of others at night... I don't want to start a flame war over how you did it or why you did it...
But I would like to know,
Why not replace your high beams since your lows are now brighter than your highs?
And would this kit work in the highs? I dont really see why it wouldnt.
I'm really tempted to do this with my TA but I will definitely be replacing the high's since the bright blue lights of death are a pet peeve of mine.
But I would like to know,
Why not replace your high beams since your lows are now brighter than your highs?
And would this kit work in the highs? I dont really see why it wouldnt.
I'm really tempted to do this with my TA but I will definitely be replacing the high's since the bright blue lights of death are a pet peeve of mine.
Last edited by Deceptikon; 12-02-2008 at 10:11 AM. Reason: the lulz
12-02-2008, 10:45 AM
#9
I have one question for you.... I see that everyone replaces the low beams so that you are always blinding the **** out of others at night... I don't want to start a flame war over how you did it or why you did it...
But I would like to know,
Why not replace your high beams since your lows are now brighter than your highs?
And would this kit work in the highs? I dont really see why it wouldnt.
I'm really tempted to do this with my TA but I will definitely be replacing the high's since the bright blue lights of death are a pet peeve of mine.
But I would like to know,
Why not replace your high beams since your lows are now brighter than your highs?
And would this kit work in the highs? I dont really see why it wouldnt.
I'm really tempted to do this with my TA but I will definitely be replacing the high's since the bright blue lights of death are a pet peeve of mine.
12-02-2008, 10:49 AM
#10
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the point of HIDs is you don't need highs.
our cars have separate housings for low and high, and our lights are back with a cover over them, and they are low. this isnt a big sedan with em. shouldn't blind people if adjusted, like he said. besides a lotus..
our cars have separate housings for low and high, and our lights are back with a cover over them, and they are low. this isnt a big sedan with em. shouldn't blind people if adjusted, like he said. besides a lotus..
12-02-2008, 02:00 PM
#11
You can get several types of kits from the one page. On the dropdown menu, select 880 for the fog lights, and then add to cart. Then go back to the same page, dropdown menu, and select H7 for the lows. Then follow the instructions on how to install the low beams.
And yeah it really isn't a good idea to get high beams. The ballasts of HID systems need to "warm up." If you just constantly flash the highs without them being warm, 1. Without the lights warmed up it won't even be bright, 2. You could probably damage something in the long run. Just position your low beam housing downwards, and you'll be fine. My lights spread across the road in front of me, not up in trees and crap, lol.
12-02-2008, 05:49 PM
#12
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Since the high beams are used sparingly and typically for the quick flash, HIDs don't like to be cycled that quickly which can hurt the life of the lamps. This is the reason many cars with HIDs from the factory have either a halogen high beam supplementing the low, or a actuated shield to create the high beam spread.
I dont think I will change my low beams to HID until there is a proper way to do so. I've seen plenty of guys rig projectors off of another car and do all kinds of crazy things with projector housings. I want a bolt in kit that will work, always work, and properly work. HIDs NEED projector housings. However, IMO. the foglights are too low to matter.
12-02-2008, 06:55 PM
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And thats how I feel about it... IF you dont drive with your highs on all the time WHY do you need lows that are BRIGHTER than your HIGH BEAMS!
If someone hasnt dimmed theirs mine come on and stay on till I pass them. There is no courtesy flick with me. And thats the reason I want HID highs instead of lows. I want your eyes to bleed if you are too inattentive to remember to dim your lights, or drive a vehicle that blinds people with its lows.
And as for the not blinding people unless its a sedan, I've yet to come past any HID equipped vehicle that didnt leave me blinded.
If someone hasnt dimmed theirs mine come on and stay on till I pass them. There is no courtesy flick with me. And thats the reason I want HID highs instead of lows. I want your eyes to bleed if you are too inattentive to remember to dim your lights, or drive a vehicle that blinds people with its lows.
And as for the not blinding people unless its a sedan, I've yet to come past any HID equipped vehicle that didnt leave me blinded.
12-02-2008, 08:25 PM
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And thats how I feel about it... IF you dont drive with your highs on all the time WHY do you need lows that are BRIGHTER than your HIGH BEAMS!
If someone hasnt dimmed theirs mine come on and stay on till I pass them. There is no courtesy flick with me. And thats the reason I want HID highs instead of lows. I want your eyes to bleed if you are too inattentive to remember to dim your lights, or drive a vehicle that blinds people with its lows.
And as for the not blinding people unless its a sedan, I've yet to come past any HID equipped vehicle that didnt leave me blinded.
If someone hasnt dimmed theirs mine come on and stay on till I pass them. There is no courtesy flick with me. And thats the reason I want HID highs instead of lows. I want your eyes to bleed if you are too inattentive to remember to dim your lights, or drive a vehicle that blinds people with its lows.
And as for the not blinding people unless its a sedan, I've yet to come past any HID equipped vehicle that didnt leave me blinded.
I have hids on my jetta and no one has complained or brighted me yet
12-02-2008, 09:18 PM
#17
To be honest.. I know there's a alot of mumbo jumbo about them "not being in a projector housing so their going to be uncontrollably birght" kinda deal. Lemme say, that in the past few weeks, I have been BLINDED by the projector HIDs in several Acura's, Lexus's, BMW's, and all cars like that. Those damn things show no mercy either!
But yes, a fully bolt in projector kit would be nice, but probably is never going to happen.
But yes, a fully bolt in projector kit would be nice, but probably is never going to happen.
12-03-2008, 07:50 AM
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usually when people cant see very far they put on their highs to see more. projector HIDs are designed to see farther and clearer. most people that get em, don't ever use the highs, except for reading street signs or the rare things you want to see that are high.
12-03-2008, 06:27 PM
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To be honest.. I know there's a alot of mumbo jumbo about them "not being in a projector housing so their going to be uncontrollably birght" kinda deal. Lemme say, that in the past few weeks, I have been BLINDED by the projector HIDs in several Acura's, Lexus's, BMW's, and all cars like that. Those damn things show no mercy either!
But yes, a fully bolt in projector kit would be nice, but probably is never going to happen.
But yes, a fully bolt in projector kit would be nice, but probably is never going to happen.
