Write-Up: HID Conversion

INSTALLING THE KIT


If you have a stock intake, you will have to remove the airbox to reach the driver's side lamp harness. To do this, undo the metal screw clamp, pull the hose leading from the box to the engine up and point it towards the windshield, take out the small sensor from the box, undo the clips at the bottom of the box towards the center of the car, and remove the box. It may be tough, but you'll get the hang of it. The passenger side light is for the most part unobstructed, so nothing has to be removed. Here are the harnesses, driver side and then passenger side. They are the little blue clips, so look for the blue in the center of the pic:



After airbox removal:



Pass. side, tricky to find:





Once you find and can reach the lamps, undo the harness. There is a clip on the top that you must push up and then pull the connectors apart. Once they are disconnected, turn the actual headlamp 90* towards the center of the car and gently pull them out. Put the stock halogens aside in case you ever have to switch back.

By the way, if you ever have to put halogens back in, you can leave the ballast in place, just disconnect the xenon lamp and store it safely away, undo the connection to the factory harness, then plug the factory harness back into the halogen bulb and put the bulb in the fixture.

I ran into a problem trying to install the lights. The wiring is straightforward and simple, but some of them have a problem with the connection to the factory harness. If your lights do not turn on, this is why! The bit of plastic on the outside that the clip fastens around is on the wrong side. Just flip it over and reconnect it and it should work. Use a 20A fuse for this install if the kit says so. The 20A works as well as the factory 10A with mine, but #1 the kit says to use the 20 and the headlight with the 20A warms up much faster than the one on the 10A.

Here is a video of my car's lights. They are awesome and well worth the time put in. The one on the passenger side is running on a 10A fuse, and the one on the driver side is running on a 20A fuse. Note how the one on the 10A fuse stays blue longer:

Sorry, forgot the tips.

Avoid turning the lights on without the engine running.

Use the fuse that the kit suggests.

Don't touch the ballasts or connections until they've cooled off. 20,000 volts is not fun.

Use common sense basically, and you'll be fine.

One note.

I have been using the original 10A fuse with my HIDs for about a year without any problem. Even if the kit suggests a 20A, stick with the 10A unless you must go higher. That's the safer rought to go.

The wiring of the car is designed to handle about 102 watts and can safely handle some more but a 10A fuse puts you at 120watts till it blows. If you go to a 20A, your talking about 240watts before it blows, in the event of a short circuit. That might be enough to be dangerous.

Under the assumption that our wiring is all the same among our rivieras, the 10A is fine. The running wattage of the HIDs is 35 which is actually less than the stock halogen, at 51. They momentarily draw more power when you switch them on but that draw is capacitated, for the most part, by the ballast.

If you want to be extra safe and do more work, you can install your own high-current wiring kit which is available at probably all auto parts stores with fuses, switch, relay, and everything you need. Downside is you have this extra button you shouldn't really need and more wiring to try to clean up.

cheers

my only advice is; if that box gets hot keep it away from the air box.

can you aim these the same as the stock ones? how much did all this run you? any down sides to this mod besides the lights taking time to heat up? what is the life expectancy on the bulbs?

They are a direct replacement for the stock bulbs, so they are pretty much aimed the same, I'd expect.

The kits go for anywhere between $125 and $140 shipped from Amazon.com. I ordered mine for $117 with $8.49 shipping for a total of $125.49

There is no real downside as long as you keep the colors down; anything over 8000K is sure to garner attention from the police. The lights heat up very quickly, in a matter of maybe 30 seconds.
Should you ever feel like showing off, you can always switch out the bulbs for other color temp. bulbs, as long as they're real, 35W HID bulbs.
When you turn them on, you'll notice the engine rpms drop then come back as the lights need extra energy to start, but then run at 35 watts instead of the stock halogen's 51 watts.

Life expectancy is >2500 hours, much longer than halogen bulbs, since there is no filament.

Here is the kit I purchased:
Link

As I said in the beginning, I did not recieve a XenTec brand kit, but these work the same and included mounting brackets.

These are what I recieved:
Link

MOUNTING AND SECURING THE BALLASTS

I have found a very, very simple way to mount the ballasts without drilling into anything at all! No tape either! All you need is to buy a small 90* bracket with the right size holes in it for the bolts.

First off, this will not work if you have bolts that are larger than 3/8" without having to drill out a hole to a larger diameter. On both sides of the car, one above the in-hood fusebox and one above the stock airbox, there are small, hexagonal, unused holes on the fender panel. Actually, the one on the passenger side is used to hold a hose clip in place. Here's what you do:

PASSENGER'S SIDE:

Undo the clip, but do not pull the wire hose out. Leave it where it is, and just stick the ballast over it. It will hold nice and firmly, like in this pic:



Dad and I decided to turn the bolt the other way around, so it doesn't look half-assed:



And that's just about it. Be careful not to drop the washer or nut, as it's a very tight space to hold everything in.

DRIVER'S SIDE:

For this, the hole is already empty. What we did is put the ballast under the fender panel top, tucked away nice and neatly. You will need a bracket for this. We modified a small 90* bracket to fit the bolts and cut one part off to fit in with the hole on the fender. Just bolt this one on and you're good to go:





And that's that.

I hope this helps anyone in the future considering to do a HID conversion. It can get tricky and tight, and you will definitely get dirty, but in my opinion, it's all worth it in the end. You get a truly unique appearance, and with 6000K bulbs your visibility is greatly improved. Also, since the car is so low, you don't cause any serious glare or light diffusion towards other drivers.

Feel free to ask me any questions you may have.

i told you that u would like the 6000K

The flicker is gone now, but here is what they look like in the end. Avoid switching from brights to regulars rapidly, where the regulars turn off. Flashing your brights is okay, but the sudden great draws of energy will weaken your ballasts. That's why the Riv bonges at me when I go back into the car.

By the way, if your Riviera has the Light Adriatic Blue Metallic paint, the 6000K HID lights match perfectly!

I've used 3000, 5000, 8000, 10000, 12000, and 30000 on a few cars and none of them have disappointed. You really can't go wrong.

So now we got at least two members finally putting Mark VIII LSC lights to shame

I hope you don't mean the big neon brakelight! That thing looks nice, and it's why I like the new MKX, or MKZ, or whatever. The Lincoln version of the Ford EDGE.


Gimme that beer!

Alright, today I encountered my first problem. As my mom drove down with the lights on to pick me up from driver's ed, I saw that my passenger side lamp was out. I checked the wiring, and everything was fine. Fuses; fine. I called up the guys who sold it to me, not the manufacturer, and told them what was wrong. They looked in the records, saw that I only had it for a week, and helped me do some troubleshooting.

They told me to switch the bulbs to the other side. If the one that was out stayed out and the one that was working stayed on, it's a problem with the bulb, but if the one that was out came on and the one that was on went out, it's a problem with the ballast. Turned out it was the ballast on the passenger side that was faulty. I checked this by putting the factory halogen light straight into the harness, and that worked just fine, so I called them back and they helped me out.

They're sending a replacement ballast FOR FREE. I AM RECOMMENDING THIS GUY TO ANYONE WHO WANTS TO BUY HID KITS ONLINE!!! If you see a seller named "myfavoritesite" then absolutely buy from them! They have the lowest prices, lowest shipping(standard), and some of the best customer service I've seen online!

Great write up! How long would you say it took you total?
I plan on doing this eventually.

Thanks Anthony! Installation, between testing, installing, and mounting everything it will take you maybe an hour or so. Probably less if you have an idea of what to do, which you will thanks to this, but do be careful. This isn't something you rush, because if you break the bulb trying to mash it in, that's all your fault.

IBx1 wrote:

Thanks Anthony! Installation, between testing, installing, and mounting everything it will take you maybe an hour or so. Probably less if you have an idea of what to do, which you will thanks to this, but do be careful. This isn't something you rush, because if you break the bulb trying to mash it in, that's all your fault.

what if ii have HUGE hands.......... its hard not breakin stuff

Do we have pics of final install & lights on??

Natesriv wrote:

Do we have pics of final install & lights on??

Look harder. It's on the 1st page.

did you have to modify the hid bulb itself to get it to fit int he stock location?

o and do you have to turn your lights on and off manually or do you still use the automatic switch?

No bulb modification, and I'd be careful about the auto switch. The other day it was having problems while on the 20A fuses, but if I run the 10A fuses everything works just fine and normal. You can if you want, but they take more power away from the engine's starter motor, so keep them off until the engine's running, especially on a 12 year old car which may have some trouble turning over. I keep the 20's in my glovebox just in case.

what brands to you guys recommend to buy and what brands to stay away from?

links would be very helpful

'96reese wrote:

what brands to you guys recommend to buy and what brands to stay away from?

links would be very helpful

Unfortunately that's a tricky question to answer since half the time you don't know what you're getting. Generally something with a real name on it is ok. ie: XENTEC but If I'm not mistaken, Iian was telling me he was showed a XENTEC and recieved a generic? I've bought about 6 HID kits to date from 3 different vendors, as well as aftermarket replacement HID lamps from more vendors (all on ebay) and have not had any issues, myself. If on ebay, get one with a warranty. A lot of them have a year or more. If you aren't comfortable with ebay, I think ZZP or one of them sell HID kits as well, for a reasonable price but make sure you tell them you need it for a 9006 because I'd imagine they'll expect the usual 9007 for a GP.

http://www.zzperformance.com/grand_prix/products1.php?id=617&catid=101

There's a link to ZZP's kit. They only offer 6000k. That's what Iian has so have a look at his to see if that's what you want.

so i was on ebay looking at some hid kits and i came across this one for pretty cheap......i hope no one else bids on it cause i want to win this really bad. but here's the link check it out tell me what you guys think. is it a good deal or am i wasting my money? Link

Reese, I haven't heard of BlingLights, although I haven't heard of any HID companies other than XenTec, but if the guy says they work fine then they work fine. Ask the seller if there was any flickering or color difference, because that's what you have to look out for. A little flicker is ok on startup, but nohting more than 5 seconds. That means a bad ballast. Speaking of which, make sure to ask if there's a factory warranty, just in case.

do you think there is a way to put a third light in the headlamp housing, to come on as Daytime Running Lights?


Then you could wire the DRLs separately from HID high beams. Check the wiring diagram - looks pretty straightforward. Have to put a relay on the HID high beams so that they can only come on if the computer commands the headlights on. The 'flash to pass' feature could, I think, be wired to flick the standard bulbs.

So you could have high beam HIDs and tungsten halogen third lamps.

If we knew what the duty cycle was for the HID high beams (if you have to dip them for oncoming traffic, how long before restart) we could put a delay circuit in there to manage them so that switching them on/off does not couse early burn-out.

On some other (european) cars this is managed simply by using a motor to tilt the headlamps down.

Comments?
Albertj