I'm going to order a 3000k HID kit soon. The Nokya yellow bulbs are nice and yellow, but not bright enough. Now it's just an issue of how to mount the ballasts.

 

Buy the slim ballasts - there's plenty of room in there to mount them inside the area or even directly to the plastic hatch cover.

 

Ordered today from VVME.com (ordered from them a lot in the past and never had a problem). Got slim digital ballasts and 3000k h8 bulbs.

Did you code out the H8 bulbs? I don't think 35w ballasts will throw a code. Of course I can code it out if needed.

I also ordered some new 194 bulbs to try in the parking light spot above the fog. If the fit, I think they'll be neat.

 

You need to code the fogs for 35w HID as the left won't fire without coding. It will do the flicker voltage thing which is terrible for a HID ballast.

 

Ahh good advice!

 

Thank you again Theta. I coded out the bulb check for the fog lights today. I'll receive the kit next week and I'll be able to just plug it in and go, instead of coding it then.

I also ordered some interesting R5 CREE bulbs to replace the 15 SMD bulbs I have in the parking light housing. There's a good chance they won't fit, but if they do I'm interested to see the light they put out.

 

You're quite welcome. Good choice on the R5 CREEs - very bright for a wedge. I run them as reverse lights in my R52 and they light up the night.

The only limitation you'll have is the opening in the housing. I slightly bored mine out to fit my larger SMD bulbs. If you're very careful, you can do the same (we're talking a tenth of a mm) and fit the larger-bodied bulb inside.

 

My thoughts also. If I have to do a little boring on the opening, I will probably want to take the housing off to do it proper. According to the specs, the bulb is 11mm.

I had some XPE Cree bulbs in that housing, but with a frosted lens. They were bright but not what I was looking for. I moved those to the scuttles and they are perfect there.

Did you remove the housing to bore?

 

Nope, didn't remove it. You'd need to yank the bumper for that - not that bad, but still...

I actually used a Dremel tan medium grit grinder bit and slowly rounded it (with my fingers) until it fit the slightly-larger bulb I was using.

 

I was afraid of that. I with it was designed to remove without all that work.

You say fingers, you didn't use the Dremel, just the bit itself.

I assume you removed the wheel. I was able to change bulbs without, but doing anymore the wheel will need to come off.

 

Installed the new LEDs today. They do not require any modification to the housing, they fit. They do not light the housing, but instead project light in front of the vehicle. How much is TBD and I will give it a look tonight when it's dark to see how much they throw, if it's noticeable.

Compared the the XPE Cree bulbs I had in those housings they are again a very intense point of bright light. However, they have a projector lens, which throws light in a cone forward instead of the slightly frosted lens which spread light a bit.

Compared to the 15 SMD tower bulb, there is much less filling the housing due to the length and projector lens. The 15 SMD bulb is not as bright despite it using the reflector in the housing more. I expect the R5 Cree bulb will be more visible/brighter in front of the vehicle, if not throwing visible flood light into the road.

 

Installed the HID kit today. They worked fine until the engine was started, then they started to pulse quickly and went out. No bulb out warning, probably because I coded it out, but no HiDs. Not sure why they are pulsing. Almost like the bulb check is still happening. I can try it again later (I reinstalled my Nokya yellows), but wanted to get some feedback from the forum.

 

If they're pulsing and you are 100% sure you've coded them out, you need to use capacitors.

 

I am going to check the coding again, but unless I disabled the wrong thing, the coding is right.

 

When the car is off, you're working with the 12.5v (give or take) battery voltage. When the car is started, it cuts the power to the ballasts briefly to check for bulb out and sends a PWM signal (not a constant power source - think sine wave).

By placing a capacitor in-line (a lot of people call them "error Correctors", etc), you are allowing that PWM signal to be smoothed into the (roughly) 12v needed to both fire the ballasts and keep them active.

When the ballasts sense low-voltage condition, they simply sever the connection. You should have no problem turning on the car, waiting 5-10 seconds, then turning the fogs on. Should fire right up.

 

So despite the coding, do you think I will still need capacitors? I tried turning them on and off while the car was running. They worked for a few seconds, then started flickering, then out. Sounds just like you said.

 

It really depends on the type of ballasts, the tolerance of them, etc. I would certainly try the capacitors in this case.

Remember, this is no the 'resistor trick' of solving the bulb-out warning by adding resistance to the line. This adds capacitance which allows for the small energy pulses to be smoothed into a usable 12v supply.

 

Got it, worth a shot. Only thing is the limited amount of space in the driver side bumper behind the fog light housing. Physically gotta have room for another small box.

 

This is true - it should be able to fit in there.

If you're electrically-inclined, you can add an actual capacitor (4700uf 16v) to the hot lead on the cable that goes between the factory harness and the ballast.

If you do this, DO NOT put the capacitor between the ballast and light, or you'll have quite the light show.

 

Ordered a cap on eBay just now. To clarify it should go between the car's connector and the ballast, correct? Your last comment confused me a bit and I want to make sure.

I'll tell you, with the motor off, those things were BRIGHT! It should throw a bunch more light than the stock H8 bulbs, or even the Nokya aftermarket bulbs in there.

 

Okay, just drew this up for you:



Yep - they've very bright and a lot of usable light. Good cutoff, too, as to not blind other drivers.

 

Cool, and thanks for the schematic. The eBay cap I bought does this, but is a box with a male and female H8 dongle. Goes between the factory plug and the ballast.

I think wiring the cap might be a better way to go, as it wouldn't take up as much room. Plus, the ballast I have has a small lead coming from it I can wire into.

 

Ordered some 4700uf 16v caps. Going to solder it inline. There won't be enough room on the driver side unless I do this.

 

Installed my kit with the eBay capacitor harness. Works like a charm. Only thing was the harness was 9006 instead of H8. I was able to bend the leads and modify the plug and make it work. Of course the polarity was an issue also, but I matched the positive of the car to the positive of the harness. It works, and no flickering/issues, so I think I got everything right.

These things are BRIGHT!

 

Wonderful - great to hear it worked out for you!