Putting HID headlights in S15 projectors.

[The Inflicted]

I just installed some HID lights in my S15 converted S14, and I figured I'd show everyone what's required to do it. I'd read that this was impossible to do without having the HID-specific light housings but it's very possible fit a kit to the standard halogen housings if you do some slight modification.

First the kit I used. I'm an incurable eBay cheapskate and I bought the cheapest kit I could find- the super slim Xentec kit. The S15's bulb size is H1 and I'm after more of a factory look for my car (and I don't relish the idea of getting pulled over) so I went with the 5000k bulbs. I think it came to around $80 with shipping.



It's a very nice kit. The bulbs come encased in protective threaded plastic protectors and all the connections very easy to use insulated snap connectors. The ballasts were so small it was a breeze to bolt them to the front of the radiator support. I had to go to ACE to find a set of screws that fit (they're some odd metric size) since the kit only came with double-sided tape and zipties for this job.



Threading all the wiring around was a little harder but still not a pain. I was actually able to do all the re-wiring without removing the headlights by jacking the car up and working from below. The hardest part was feeding the wires for the new HID headlight through the little hole at the bottom of the sealed beam housing. This would have been a lot easier had I removed the lights.I had to do one small modification to the wiring to get the kit to fit though- the adapter the kit came with to connect to stock headlight wires to the ballast's input cables was the wrong size, so I used a dremel to grind down the spades on the kit until they connected with the headlight female fittings, then taped over them. I bet the kit's wiring adapter would have worked if I had the factory connections, but since my headlights didn't come with any wires the wiring is all custom and nonstandard.

It was the bulbs themselves that gave me the biggest problems. This is where I ran into the problems I had read about on the internet. HID bulbs are apparently slightly thicker at the base than stock H1 bulbs, and the Nissan headlight housing doesn't leave enough room for the bakelite plastic base of the lights to fit into the housing properly. I tried to force it at first and the bulbs didn't fit in flush. They went in most of the way, but it felt like I was going in at an angle and I was afraid the bulb was about to break. The wire retainer would barely close to keep them secure in the housing, and when I tested them the light pattern was all over the place. You can see in this picture how it's not really in there right.The problem was fixed by removing some of the plastic base so that it would clear the housing. I wrapped the bulb in some thin foam to protect it from the dremel and my fingers, tapped over that, then VERY carefully used a dremel emory wheel to grind away some of the base around the areas that it was contacting the housing. You can see in this picture how it fits much more naturally in the light. As far as I can tell, this cured the focusing problem right away.Before:



After:







So in conclusion, you CAN put HID lights in "normal" S15 projectors, the cheap eBay Xentec kits do work (at least mine's been working for about 2 weeks).Also, I agonized for a long time over whether to go with 5000k or 6000k lights, as I was worried that the 5000k might be too yellow or too dim- turns out I was right to go with 5000k; any brighter or bluer than this would have been truly obnoxious.
Modified by The Inflicted at 12:10 AM 8/30/2008

[veebee]

sup tennessee buddy

looks nice, too. more pics of the whole car

[Kckouki]

TNFORTHEMOTHER****INGWINNUKKA !

Looks ballin, should have gon with pink, but im biased. lol.

[r3v_v3ng3]

as far as what other people says. you can put hid's on every headlights as long as they offer the bulb in hid. the halogen lamp light pattern just scatter while the projector is more focus.

[xckid]

got any night time shots

[ag240]

xckid, i guess you're a night owl too, i went to post and saw this:fkn ownd my two posts.

[xckid]

hahah ya you should have seen the gen chat lol

It was 5 am here when i woke up...I need to do something and dont have a gf to pump so im pumping nico

[nightsauce]

hahah ya you should have seen the gen chat lol

It was 5 am here when i woke up...I need to do something and dont have a gf to pump so im pumping nico

+1 for pumping nico

[veebee]

hahah ya you should have seen the gen chat lol

It was 5 am here when i woke up...I need to do something and dont have a gf to pump so im pumping nico

+2 for using the word pump, haven't heard that in years

[RCG_Savage]

Night shot showing the cut off?

[The Inflicted]

Here's another night time picture.There's no good place around here to get a picture of the cutoff ( I don't have a garage) but here's a shot of the output.I haven't re-aimed the beams since I fixed the fitment problem.

[veebee]

that's very nice. what's under the hood

[The Inflicted]

that's very nice. what's under the hood

Disappointment.

[pflicht]

Disappointment.

Can't be as bad as mine!

Looks good man!

[veebee]

Disappointment.

rofl

well maybe when i get out to knoxKILL me, you, and kc, and whomever else can go on a sweet cruise through whatever is out there i don't know

[98koukile]

So not only do you have Japanese lights that blind people, you now have a hid drop in kit so the light is even less under control... there's a reason the s15 hid lights cost more and its not because they drop in an $80 kit

[The Inflicted]

So not only do you have Japanese lights that blind people, you now have a hid drop in kit so the light is even less under control...

Well if it's any consolation to you, I feel really, really bad about it.

[Hijacker]

Disappointment.

baww! j/k

[veebee]

So not only do you have Japanese lights that blind people, you now have a hid drop in kit so the light is even less under control... there's a reason the s15 hid lights cost more and its not because they drop in an $80 kit

s14s never had the option for an HID kit, but i'm running one (and not a cheap one). i even had them re-aimed afterwards to make sure they were aimed to factory specs. never had a problem or complaint...

[The Inflicted]

As requested, a picture of the cutoff:

[Redevil]

too bad they're right hand drive projectors.

[sci2000tech]

Looks good.

Gotta love H.I.D.'s in s15 projectors

[karism]

Seems to me like it makes a big difference!

Very nice,i like it.

I have to do something about the light output of my Sx.>> People can see me at night,but that doesnt help me seing them,hahaha

[The Inflicted]

I've decided to fix my cutoff issue, but it looks like I'm in for more of a challenge than I thought.Here's the S15's cutoff shield, which aggravatingly is one piece with the projector housing.Does anyone know how to properly convert this to LHD? I assume that I'll have to grind the left and then build up the right.

[The Inflicted]

Success!It took a little longer than I thought, but I was able to give my S14.5 a LHD beam pattern!

First thing you ought to notice from the picture above is that the cutoff shields are shaped in the opposite direction of what they do; because of the reflection it's the LEFT side of the shield that is higher than the right. This has to be reversed.

I started by using duct tape to mark the baseline of the shield, the used a dremel to grind down all the aluminum on the left side that was above the mark. Once it was leveled-out I had flat cutoff which looked like this:\

Then I cut apart a coke can to make a new raised cutoff portion for the right side. This was temporarily attached with more duct tape to get the desired height then permanently riveted into place.

Finally I resprayed the converted shield/housing with high temperature flat black.

Here's a quick and dirty pic of the new safe-for-everybody else pattern. I was really tired so they're not aimed properly yet, but I can already tell by ducking and looking at the lights that this will stop the lights from blinding oncoming traffic.Oh, and I discovered something else while I had the lights apart: You CAN aim S15 headlights side to side- it's just difficult. The cutoff shield/projector housing is held in place by the two aiming screws AND a ball joint which it pivots on. The two knobs move the beam up and down, BUT if you screw them BOTH in or out it will change the beam direction left to right. For example, if you were to turn both of the driver's side knobs one turn clockwise it would move the beam to the left, and vise versa for the passenger side. As you might imagine, this takes forever, so I just got the beams to where they're safe and I'll fine-tune them sometime next week.

[98koukile]

Good to hear, nice job

[The Inflicted]

Little update, my cheap-o eBay kit is on the fritz. I think the passenger-side ballast has gone out.When I have the headlights on, the passenger-side light will go out by itself after about a minute or so. I can get it to come on again by turning the lights off and on or by blipping the high beams, but it's annoying that the kit only lasted 6 months.

Does anyone have any advice, besides, "spend more money next time"?

[sloweighty]

thats a little too much blue for 5000k but looks good

[sloweighty]

another thing.....i never heard of anybody getting in trouble for having after market HIDs but if you guy has heard of anyone getting a ticket for it then please let me know how much they paid for it so i can start saving up

[stutterr]

Get either Murano bulbs and ballast if you wanna keep it Nissan.

Just search for Porsche, BMW, or TSX HID retrofit.

You will be good!

Good job fixing the cut-off, looks sweet. Too bad the cheap ballast blew.