HID Tutorial with pics

[williamk10]

Since I haven't seen one made, here goes.

H4 8000K HID kit



Phillips bulbs


I'll start with the driver side first.

Old bulb in


New bulb in


Cables connected to see if everything works


The best double side tape in the world


There is an obvious good mounting area for the ballast as seen below


Cables tied down and tucked away neatly


8000K HID on the left, Phillips bulb on the right


Passenger side ballast installation

Remove the fuse holder bracket with a socket wrench to make some space


Test fitting the ballast underneath the strut mount. It is a tight fit, but it is the best I could find


Everything installed, zip tied and put back in place


After results





I'll need to adjust the beam angle down to not blind everyone on the road at night. There really is nothing more annoying than a light brighter than the sun concentrated at you when it is pitch black everywhere else

I'll have pics once the lights have been adjusted. If it is still blinding, off they go...or projectors here I come



Modified by williamk10 at 12:24 AM 6/2/2009

[Codelicious]

Good write up. :D
I'm considering getting HID's but I want to install fog lights prior.

[tata12001]

Congratulations
And Waiting Your tutorial for adjusting the angle of the beam,coz I need it so much , and I've posted a thread before and did not get an answer.
And please post pix in the adjusting tutorial for the best beam angle and for the adjusting screw! coz I do not know where is it exactly.

[Atx_Versa]

Simple, yet effective.

Thanks for taking the time to post that!

[reyes1212]

There are two ways to adjust it, but end up using the same little white twisting thing that is located on the headlight facing the the back of the car. Just turn them while the lights are on and there you go. Adjust till happy. I should have thought of putting my ballasts there. I might re-adjust mine to be the same as here. Simple enough to find problems faster, etc.

Congratulations
And Waiting Your tutorial for adjusting the angle of the beam,coz I need it so much , and I've posted a thread before and did not get an answer.
And please post pix in the adjusting tutorial for the best beam angle and for the adjusting screw! coz I do not know where is it exactly.

[williamk10]

I found the white knob on the back of the headlights. Adjusting the beam angle is quite easy. However, you must have a allen wrench as it'll hurt if you try and use your fingers. A few turns counter clockwise and thats all your should need. Pictures are below:

Original beam angle with tape on the wall to mark new angle


White knob behind headlamp with allen wrench in it


Before height


After adjusting driver side


After adjusting passenger side


View from in the car


I parked the car in the dark and walked halfa block back. With the angle now, it no longer shines into eye level. It is bright, but won't be a nuisance to other drivers on the road.

[feloniousmonk]

I parked the car in the dark and walked halfa block back. With the angle now, it no longer shines into eye level. It is bright, but won't be a nuisance to other drivers on the road.

Gotta give you credit for even thinking of it, good effort. Unfortunately, while it may be OK on level ground, with bumps in the road and hills to crest... you're still going to be blinding people. There is just no way to avoid the hot spots you get from retrofits. This is why OEM systems have self-leveling and HID specific optics with very well defined cut-offs. The blue hue is also a magnet for Jonny Law. A 4300k system would be a little more low key (allowing you better odds in getting away with the brightness) since it's closer to Halogen in color. Proper HID capsules really should not be tinted like that. That's a no-no. Not a negative dig on what you did. It is what it is. I'd consider trying different bulbs.

Oh and somewhat unrelated, someone said in a different thread that HID's run cooler and poses no threat in melting plastics. That information is entirely incorrect. HID's draw 35w of power, that doesn't mean it's cooler in terms of heat as a halogen bulb that draws 55w. There is a electrical arc in the capsule for crying out loud. That's a lot of energy! Energy produces heat. In a halogen bulb, it's just a very thin filament heated up to glow. Much less energy than an arc. If you held a lit HID capsule with your bare fingers, it's probably hot enough to burn your flesh right off the bones.

[tata12001]

Thanks Soooooooooooooooooooooooooo much Williamk

[superskunk]

10mm socket will adjust them too....

[superskunk]

so you didnt buy a set with glare shields? my light pattern looks way different from yours.....

[fazer55t]

Can't you just get xenon lights so you don't need to put a conversion kit in your car?

Or am I way off?

[Shad0wXCalibur]

I still don't agree with HIDs in halogen reflectors but it's whatever you wanna do. My idea for better lighting is to use higher performance halogen bulbs and use relays to give them power straight from the battery instead of through all the thin factory wires that drop voltage.

[superskunk]

the only reason i upgraded to HID was cuz my silverstars burnt out and i didnt want to replace them.... so i will see how long the HID bulbs will last.... hopefully a couple of years

[Shad0wXCalibur]

HID bulbs should last an extremely long time compared to halogens unless you got crappy quality stuff.

[superskunk]

well thats just the thing... i have a lifetime warranty on the ballast, so all i really have to worry about it replacing bulbs, and i dont see these ones going out anytime soon....

[SpeedyV09]

I own a H4-3 Bi-xenon kit with the glare shield and my cut off looks a lot different would the glare shield change it?

On the road when my HID's are on at night I notice that they seem to cross or the light pattern does on the ground, anyway to adjust this? (I know projectors but no)

Lastly when you adjusted your HID's roughly how far were you from the wall?

Thank You

[daffyack]

you didnt need to plug any relay or harness to battery? I was looking through YouTube on how to install HID. Their way looks way more complicated than your post. Yours seems like just plug in and thats it. Is your HID Hi/Lo? Would it be different procedure if my HID is hi/lo?

Thank you

[Promise Land]

Am I able to pick up a set of 5000k HID bulbs from over here (in Japan) and just install them to my Versa? They have a huge selection available over here.

[GapRunr]

Find any H4-3 Bi-Xenon with metal shields over a portion of the bulb area and you should be good to go, and if they are made in Japan they may be of a better quality than the ones made in China, or maybe not.

[GapRunr]

Oh and somewhat unrelated, someone said in a different thread that HID's run cooler and poses no threat in melting plastics. That information is entirely incorrect. HID's draw 35w of power, that doesn't mean it's cooler in terms of heat as a halogen bulb that draws 55w. There is a electrical arc in the capsule for crying out loud. That's a lot of energy! Energy produces heat. In a halogen bulb, it's just a very thin filament heated up to glow. Much less energy than an arc. If you held a lit HID capsule with your bare fingers, it's probably hot enough to burn your flesh right off the bones.

You say that energy produces heat. Can you explain how consuming 55 watts of energy with a halogen bulb produces less heat than consuming only 35 watts of energy with an HID bulb? The 35 watt HID produces far more light than the 55 watt halogen. If it can convert less energy into both more light AND more heat, we could solve the energy crisis!

HID's generate less heat than halogen bulbs. A halogen bulb will also burn "your flesh right off the bones". In the field of indoor gardening, for orchids, herbs, and even illegal growers for pot, there is an ongoing issue with the excess heat created by the halogen grow bulbs. As a result, more and more of these growers are turning to HID light sources, as they have a much higher luminous efficacy since a greater proportion of their radiation is in visible light as opposed to heat.

Here's something to think about. A standard halogen bulb consists of a sealed glass tube with a short tungsten filament inside the tube. The tube is usually filled with argon and/or other inert gases. When current is applied the tungsten burns yet remains a solid, and you get heat and light as the byproducts of the current being applied. HID lights on the other hand produce light by applying a higher voltage to ignite an arc of xenon gas between two tungsten tips. The tungsten tips are the source of the current igniting the gas, yet the tungsten tips themselves do not burn or glow. This is because the xenon gas burns at a lower temperature than tungsten.

I work in the motorcycle industry, and a lot of motorcycles have plastic headlamp lenses instead of glass. Converting to HID is a non issue for heat, whereas putting in a higher wattage halogen bulb will almost certainly melt plastic reflectors and housings.

__________________
GapRunr

[NODES]

Am I able to pick up a set of 5000k HID bulbs from over here (in Japan) and just install them to my Versa? They have a huge selection available over here.

hardest part for me was to install the actual bulbs into our stock headlight housing what a pain the a$$ that was, I was swearing left and right for hours.

[hostkiller]

Sticky please!!!

[x4sper]

im installing some of these right now just got the bulbs in without hitting them on anything.. phew lol now how do i get the big rubber bushing thing around all the cables and connecters? i was thinking cut it but doesn't look like you did so whats the secret?

[ME18VERSA]

just force them out with out ripping the wire thats what i had to do ive had mine in since i bought the car in august and have never had any problems with the popo lol and ive got the 10000k the super blue ones and sorry to any one coming the other direction lol

[anthony870]

thanks for this tutorial. I will be putting hids in my '09 versa in the next couple weeks. this should help out a lot. glad i found this.

I first looked in the tech articles and then the nissanversa.org tutorial pages and found nothing. any chances of getting this tutorial in those section for easy access. I know it is stickied but for others like me it would be easier to find if it was in those sections.