Morimoto HID from The Retrofit Source install/review

Forum for Infiniti M35 and M45, and Nissan Fuga owners.
TDot
Posts: 1156
Joined: Mon Oct 03, 2011 12:59 pm
Car: 2008 M35X, Lakeshore Slate/Tan
Location: NY

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I I bought the Morimoto 3Five Elite 5K HID kit from the same place everyone recommends, The Retrofit Source. Their service is pretty good, they are professional, courteous, and patient. They knew what they were talking about and pretty prompt and friendly. I do recommend them along with everyone else.

The lights are real bright, night and day compared to the oem fogs...but I guess that's to be expected. The white is pure no hint of blue at all, and match each other perfectly, very nice. The ballasts seem well constructed. I've never seen any other ballasts so I don't have anything specific to compare to, but I have no worries of them breaking down. Even though I did the wrong thing and just swapped out the lights instead of retrofitting the housing, the difference and light is still remarkable...at least better...in what I can see now. I plan to retrofit the reflectors to projectors when I get a chance for a better beam like the low beams.

Everything is plug and play with the connectors. A clear click sound when the connectors are locked securely.

The only thing the kit lacked was a nut and bolt for the harness. It came with everything needed to mount for the ballasts though, nothing to stress as long as you have tie wraps. The other thing that was a little bothersome to me was the end where the wire goes into the connectors are pretty much open, seemingly begging for corrosion. I'm going to seal them up with silicone when I drop the car in two weeks.

If you are like most people, and me, and aren't afraid of doing things your own way the way you might believe is easier, you may decide to forego using the wire harness and connect the ballasts directly to the feed from the car. Don't. I did it that way, and although the light comes on, it will flicker a few times on start up. Once I did it with the harness, it sometimes flickers once and then on, which I think is normal....let me know if not.

I grabbed the body panel removal pics from: hid-upgrade-to-6k-low-beam-fog-t471788.html#p5332897
In case his photobucket account disappears. Credit to him for them.

Plastic clips are in the wheel well, and screws are under the front portion of the fender. Remove them all to remove the front portion of the wheel well protector for access.
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First I extended the ground wire by about two feet (I think 1.5ft is long enough). The existing wire is 16 gauge, I extended it with a 14 gauge. Cut the ring off the existing ground wire, peel back the sheath and solder the extension to it. Once cooled, wrap electric tape around it, then pull the sheath over everything and wrap the end of the sheath. The existing wire is really too short for this car...personally I think for any car.
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Mounting everything was pretty easy, especially on the passengers side. Access is easy on the drivers side, a little difficult on the passengers because of the washer fluid jug. If you have Sasquatch hands you may need to remove the washer fluid jug.

On the passengers side, the ballast can be mounted directly on the wiper fluid screw, and the included nut from morimoto fits right on. A perfect spot. Then I tie wrapped the relay right beside it on an existing hole. Wires on the relay need to point down to protect it. I connected the wire feed from the car that was going to the fog to the harness.

I ran the power and ground wire from the harness up to the top of the chassis right above the wheel well. To me there was no suitable place to ground down there unless you wanted to take a chance and drill something and use a self tapping screw. I don't like messing with the engine compartment and prefer a nut and bolt so I opted not to do that. There is a small lip beside the wheel well that I could see both sides that I was going to drill and use a nut and bolt, but my drill died at that point, so I used an existing grounding point which I really didn't want to do because I don't like piling ground wires on top of each other.
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I ran the harness wire to the drivers side across the portion you remove to change the oil right behind the grill. Just remove all the screws on the front right below the bumper and string it along. (Look closely and you can see the wire harness behind the grill)
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The drivers side, I tie wrapped the ballast to the inside of the well. Pretty simple. No great place to mount over here. Extended the ground the same way. Since I wasn't using the wire from the car, I wrapped it up in electric tape and tie wrapped it pointing down.
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Be careful if you use the same grounding point that I used, I broke the head off the screw while tightening it and nearly screwed myself. Luckily there was a point right beside it that I could drill through into the wheel well instead of a cavity. I made a temporary grounding point with two 14 gauge wires, and sanded down the area.
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I'll make it a 10 gauge when I get a chance.

And this is the result.
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Ilya
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Posts: 9792
Joined: Fri Apr 23, 2010 11:20 pm
Car: 2011 M56x but I spend a lot of time on my 2015 Kawasaki Vulcan S. Former owner of a 2007 M35x. Also take care of my wife's 2016 QX60.
Location: Charlotte, NC
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Good work. Glad you like them.

As for retrofitting the fogs, don't waste your time. They aren't that important, lol...unless you wanna be a balla...in which case rock on! Hah.

Larz
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Posts: 3054
Joined: Thu Feb 21, 2013 8:55 pm
Car: 2019 Q70-L RWD
Location: Ft Lauderdale, Florida
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Brilliant DIY mate.

Being from a country where real fog lights are used more days than not, the idea of white fog lights seems ... erm... silly. However, in the states, seems peeps use their fogs as if they were extra headlamps for some reason. Can't work out why because those lamps are focused for short distance along the ground and are useless for lighting any significant distance in front of your car, but to each his own I say.
However, when you actually DO have to drive in foggy inclement weather, you will increase distortion in your path instead of cutting through it ... not to mention the reflection off the roadway interfering with oncoming drivers visibility. Fog lamps should be at or near 3000k for maximum fog cutting.

.... exits his portable soap-box and goes about his evening ......

cruzad3r
Posts: 1340
Joined: Fri Mar 05, 2010 6:34 pm
Car: 2006 M35x fully loaded
Location: CT

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good stuffs. pix don't do this upgrade enough justice. it's amazing in person.

TDot
Posts: 1156
Joined: Mon Oct 03, 2011 12:59 pm
Car: 2008 M35X, Lakeshore Slate/Tan
Location: NY

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One year later one went out. I dont know if its the ballast or bulb yet, I havent had time to get down there and look, but I will say either way for either item to go out in one year is definately not a good look. Here's the worst part, I BARELY USED THEM! On average I would drive with them once a month, if that, for at most 30 (because I keep the fogs off and have to make a contious decision to turn them on and I RARELY do that). And then test them out (turn them on to check and then off) another maybe 25 times within the year. In all I doubt these things have even seen 350hrs of use. And now they are two months out of warranty smh. What a waste.

kmiles
Posts: 317
Joined: Sun Mar 27, 2011 2:59 pm
Car: 2015 Q70 3.7 AWD - Hermosa Blue
Sold - 2007 M35x

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I put mine in about the same time. In the first few months I went through 2 bad ballasts, but the replacements have been great and I use mine all the time. They had batch of bad ballasts or poor quality, but they backed their product and were good to work with.

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Ilya
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Posts: 9792
Joined: Fri Apr 23, 2010 11:20 pm
Car: 2011 M56x but I spend a lot of time on my 2015 Kawasaki Vulcan S. Former owner of a 2007 M35x. Also take care of my wife's 2016 QX60.
Location: Charlotte, NC
Contact:

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Water snuck into one of the connections more than likely. I've had this happen on mine as well. These things need to stay pretty much bone dry.

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BizAsUz
Posts: 27
Joined: Fri Oct 31, 2014 10:45 am
Car: 07 M35x (Off White)
Location: New Jerz 908

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I had the same issue with one of my fogs not working that I just installed not too long ago... I have 3k fogs which I run with my headlights... (I dont know I just like the way they look with my 6k headlights)
anyway....about a month or two after I had them installed my drivers side fog went out... I hadn't had the time to take it back to the place that did them or to check them myself (fast forward 5 months)...until about a week or so ago.. I decided to do it myself. once I finally got my hand behind the wheel liner I took ALL the connectors apart and reconnected them making sure they were tight.... tested and BOOM my fog is now back in business....
guess it all worked out....

TDot
Posts: 1156
Joined: Mon Oct 03, 2011 12:59 pm
Car: 2008 M35X, Lakeshore Slate/Tan
Location: NY

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Turns out they are a 5 year warranty...impressive. So they sent me a new one, and were willing to give me a second one at a good discount to match since the new one us different. You dont even have to send the old one back, just destroy it, take a pic and email. I'm happy, all is good. Now I know it's a five year warranty I'm going to wear them out lol.

BlackCat81
Posts: 422
Joined: Mon Sep 21, 2015 4:09 am
Car: 2006 M35x
2003 Lexus GX470
Location: Mesa, AZ

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While I've never used their kits, their website was pretty instrumental with helping me tackle my 2012 M37x projector, bulb, ballast, and wiring install in my old 98 4Runner. It took me roughly 20hrs to get it to my liking, but had a lot of help from info from their site.
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I have a cheap set of HID's I bought from DDM tuning probably 5 years ago. They've been in 3 different cars and never gave me a single issue.


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