Installing HID's - Single Beam and Bi Xenon

What the kit comes with:

Single Beam 9007's

2 ballasts + mounting material
2 bulbs
All required wiring harnesses


Bi Xenon 9007's

2 ballasts + mounting material
2 telescoping bulbs
All required wiring harnesses + relay


Before you start:

It is highly recommended that you disable your DRL's and your security flash before installing your HID's. It is not good to flash HID's as it strains your ballasts and can cause them to fail prematurely and will also diminish the life of your bulbs. Also, DRL's will not provide the HID's with sufficient energy and the HID bulbs will constantly flicker. This is obviously not good for the bulbs and can become highly annoying. Lastly, do not turn on HID's without the car running.

Disabling Security headlight flash

1) Pull the "MALL PGM" fuse in the glove box
2) Turn your key to accessory
3) Hit the lock button on your key-fob until there is only 1 chime.
4) Put the key back to off
5) Plug the fuse in.

Disabling DRL's in 97-00 Models

You need to pull the DRL fuse behind the glovebox. It will be marked on the panel, simply pull this fuse and your DRL's and Auto-On headlights will be disabled.

Disabling DRL's in 01-03 Models

For 01-03 you must pull the fuse behind the glovebox the same as 97-00 as well as disconnect a wiring harness and heatsink behind the dash.

Here is a write up from MACGP with pictures on how to disconnect this harness.


What you need to do:


Mounting the ballasts:

Their are many different ways and locations where you can mount the ballasts. I recommend screwing them to your bumper for multiple reasons. Also, you don't need to remove the bumper cover to do this. You can remove the black shroud in between the bumper cover and rad support, this should give you more than enough room to get a drill in there. Start off by removing the headlights and shroud so you have some room to move your hands around. Then position the ballasts however you like but because the wires are only so long, the closer to the headlight the better. Use some self tapping screws and mount the ballast bracket to the bumper. Now take the ballast and slide it into the bracket. Make sure it is snug in the bracket, you don't want this to slide out when turning. This will have to be repeated for the other ballast on the other side.
Another alternative is to use two sided tape to mount the ballasts, this is less time consuming but also less secure.


Wiring:

Single Beam Bulbs

Check your headlight sockets that came with the kit. All too often it will be wired incorrectly, most likely for a 9004 bulb. The socket for a single beam 9007, if wired correctly, should go 'empty, ground, low beam' and should look like this:



If it does not look like this, then you must remove the pins from the socket using a metal pick and re wire accordingly.

The other end of this wiring harness connects directly into your ballast.


Bi Xenon Bulbs

The included wiring harness probobly only has 1 headlight socket. It does not matter whether it connects to the driver or passenger side. The headlight socket here should look very similar to the single beam sockets like pictured above, except it will have a pin in the hi beam spot as well as the ground and low beam pins. This harness will also have 1 power and 2 ground wires; one for each side. These 3 wires will come with crimped on eyelets. The power eyelet I bolted directly to the top of the fuse box under the hood. As for ground, make sure you grind away ALL PAINT, you must have bare metal to get a good ground. You can bolt it to your bumper or to the rad support behind the headlight, whichever you find easiest. After you have grounded them, throw some paint over it and all bare metal so that it does not rust. Also on this harness will be 2 hi-lo trigger wires, 1 for passenger and 1 for driver side lights. These connect directly to the trigger wire on the bulb end. The last 2 plug ends connect directly into the ballasts themselves.




Bulbs: *DO NOT TOUCH THE BULB GLASS!!*
Oils from your finger will diminish it's life. Only handle it by the plastic base.

Single Beam Bulbs

This is very straight forward. The bulb goes into the headlight capsule just like stock and has two plug connections on the end. These two ends connect directly into the corresponding plug ends coming out of the ballast.

Bi Xenon Bulbs

Again, the bulb goes in just like stock however these bulbs will have a hi-lo trigger wire in addition to the 2 plug ends. The 2 plug ends connect to the plug ends on the ballast. The hi-lo trigger end connects to the hi-lo trigger wire on the wiring harness.


That's it - Everything should be connected and working. Keep the bulbs on for atleast 10 minutes for the initial start up.

I will add pictures and diagrams as I take/draw them so that you can also see how everything is connected.

Thanks to 01GTShaner for the pics.

Another good ground spot is just below the fusebox, where the battery ground cable is connected to the chassis. Another benefit to using this ground spot is that you can improve your battery's ground at the same time. From the factory, this ground spot is covered with paint, so it's a very poor ground. Clean it up with a dremel/steel wool/sandpaper/whatever, connect your harness ground, and reconnect the battery cable to the chassis.

Pull the fuse for 99 models.

I thought it made a sound if you did that on 99+ cars?

how about the plug on the drivers side of the dash ??

It may be 97-99 and 00-03 like Austin pointed out, I'm not sure, I'll have to check out BackinBlacks posts.

The plug you're talking about Andrew is for the DRL module and Auto-on's for 99 or 00-03. I don't know the exact procedure off hand - I have to look it up that's why i don't have anything there.

Not on the 99's.

I motion for this to be added to the FAQ once all information is correct and complete.

x2 on greenGT's post.

This is a great write up - a few more pics and of course the diagram will probably finish it up, as well as the fuse questioning we have going on!

Glad my pics helped R.S.!

That's exactly what I was going to say.

Added.

There, information is updated and correct.

Should be adding pictures shortly.

Is the buzzing when HID's are on normal? I cant hear it when car is started but when the car isnt running and their on (dont do it often at all) they kinda buzz a lil bit, its kinda high pitched. They also flicker a bit when first starting when its super cold out..I take it maybe there just not getting enough voltage right away? They've never flickered when on.

Also does anyone know how reliable they are and if i should probably carry an extra set of bulbs around (normal ones) just in case they go out?

...not like too many people look in there anyway! LOL

GOOD WRITE-UP BTW!