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HID's in fog lights

3K views 43 replies 15 participants last post by  mountainstoner 
#1 ·
Has anyone done an HID conversion in the foglights? I have done the HID conv in low beam headlight on my other truck, and I do not want to go that route again (I say why if anyone wants to know).

Just looking to see if anyone has done or has tried to do it.
 
#2 ·
It has been done on other vehicles, although I have never seen it in a GM truck. It can be done, but you have to justify the cost.

And why won't you go with HIDs in your lows again?
 
#4 ·
Me too.

Were the ballast's bad or did you get flashed all the time or was the light output not very good ?

Inquiring minds want to know.
 
#5 ·
I know the light output in Bens truck looks really good to me, and it seems to me 100% better than stock IMO.
 
#6 ·
if you get nuts an go with 12,000k color temp HID's, yes, your light output will be awful. As long as you dont go higher than 5000K you'll be fine. 4300K is best.

Mine are 10 times better than stock...ill never go back.

Ben
 
#7 ·
Hey Ben i have never seen a 4300k kit out, i have only seen the 5000k kits do you know who has a 4300 system out. Also would you be able to see much of a difference between the 4300k and the 5000k systems.
 
#8 ·
You'll have to do some searching around...I cant really say where I got mine because they are not a Vendor here.
 
#17 ·
:eek:fftopic: HUH? Does this mean that talk about other companies is prohibited unless they are a supporting vendor here at the site?
 
#10 ·
#12 · (Edited)
I did the Philips 4300K conversion on my Blazer in 2001. The light output was great, I got flashed in the beginning, but fixed that problem by correcting the sagging rear suspension that ZR2 Blazers are notorious for. After fixing the droopy a$$, I did not consider being flashed a problem with the lights anymore, as they only amplified a slowly detoriating problem with the leaf springs.

Here is a side by side compaision on 2 identical vehicles. I set the camera the same for both shots so as to get a good representation of the difference


The big problem was with turning them on and off all the time, as some of you know this will kill even the best HID's quickly. The worst case was with startup. I park in the garage, so the lights would turn on everytime I left the house, plus to compund it they would turn on and off twice

key position off --> run --> crank --> run
lights off on off on

I let this go for a few months before I noticed it taking a lot longer for the HID's to "fire up". I then bypassed the automatic headlight sensor with a resistor to prevent this from happening, but the damage was done.

I also live in the city, so you have many short trips, and you wind up in garages and tunnels where you may only need you lights on for a few minutes. Having DRL's has eliminated some of this quick on/off time, but not all of it. Plus there are so many street lights here, your headlights are not needed to see where you are going. In fact about once a week you will see somebody driving at night with their parking lights on because they think they have their headlights on.

I still have the HID's in the blazer, but they are tired now. The bulbus (fat) area of the bulb has turned dark in color, and my voltmeter needs to read close to 14V in order for them to fire up correctly. I would be happy if I had them for use only on long trips at nite (I travel interstate at night with a trailer once or twice a month), and just had my regular halogens for around town. This is why I am looking for an HID light that I can turn on and off separately from my low beam.

PS - HID's are about half the price now as they were in 2001. I have paid for my HID purchase 10 fold with the number of deer I have been able to see way off in the fields next to the highway. For this kind of driving, IMO there is no other type of light that should be used.
 

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#13 ·
The big problem was with turning them on and off all the time, as some of you know this will kill even the best HID's quickly. The worst case was with startup. I park in the garage, so the lights would turn on everytime I left the house, plus to compund it they would turn on and off twice

key position off --> run --> crank --> run
lights off on off on
Anyone know of a way to keep the headlights off during startup, yet preserve the autoheadlamp function? This extra on/off cycle can't be good for any bulb, HID or not.
 
#15 · (Edited)
On the blazer I used a 2.2K ohm resistor in place of the headlight sensor (dark colored dome on dash board)

You can also set your parking brake when you start the vehicle. The auto lights wont turn on while the Pbrake is set. I was going to add a timer relay to the parking brake circuit. That way every time I turned the key on, the relay would fake a parking brake signal for 5 or 10 seconds, preventing the lights from kicking on. I just decided to go the resistor route and control things manually.
 
#16 ·
Do you know if the 2.2 will work on our trucks too ?

.
 
#18 ·
no. Whatever works on 2002 and older trucks wont work on the 2003+ trucks. Everything is different. Im not sure if someone has figured out an override for the 2003+ trucks yet. Im not worried about it. What I do at night is turn the key on, then (even if the glow plug light goes out) wait like 3 seconds for the HID balast to transition from the pilot arc phase to the main arc phase, and for the bulb to warm up to temperature. If you look carefully and even LISTEN carefully, you can see/hear the arc transition/ballast swtich over and when the bulb comes up to temp. THEN I crank the truck. In my honest oppinion, on and off for HID's is no worse than normal halogens. What IS bad is rapid on-off-on-off. IE. flicking the lights on and off and on without letting the bulbs fully ignite and start the main arc. If you turn the HID on and then off while its still on the pilot arc phase of ignition, extinguishing the high voltage pilot arc would leave bad deposits on the inside of the bulb and possible carbon build up maybe? A common misconception is that HID's run like a 25,000 volt arc. Well yes, the pilot arc is 25,000 volts to jump the gap and ignite the arc, but after about 2-5 seconds depending on the ballast, it transitions to the main arc sequence which is whatver the current battery voltage is. Once the arc is burning and a stable burn is established, an HID light can maintain an arc on as little as 9 volts. Thats just the physics of it...as I understand it.

Now...im not saying thats correct...but with my dorky "general understanding" of how this stuff works, what I said above seems intuitive to me and makes sense...what I said completely came from my head (it is not based on anything other than my own understanding)...

So... If you guys still feel like you want to disable the automatic headlights and are worried about the HID's, im sure there is some way, but I do not know of it. Max Power might... On my truck however, im just going to leave it as is BUT I will be conciences (sp) of the headlights and make it a point to pay attention to the color temp, brightness, and arc status of the HID's before I turn them on-off-on, as in a engine start sequence. JMO :)

--Ben
 
#20 ·
but after about 2-5 seconds depending on the ballast, it transitions to the main arc sequence which is whatver the current battery voltage is.
That is incorrect. The firing voltage is 25kV, and the sustained voltage is in the range of 6-10kV. It is physically impossible to sustain an arc that size at battery voltage.

Most gas discharge lamps in commercial applications have a 15minute timer on them, once you shut them off you have to leave them off for 15mins b4 you can trun them back on again (HID's are gas discharge).

You may be fine for a while, but in the long haul, you will see a premature half life from your HID's by letting them run for as long as 2 minutes at every start up (you were talking in the range of seconds). This damage is irreversable.

You can just apply your parking brake b4 you crank 'er over to prevent the headlights from turning on. A resistor will still work for bypassing the AHL, however I do not know what value to use here.
 
#21 ·
Guys, the problem with posting the site with the HIDs is that we had a previous thread like last week where we were setting up a group buy on a product that wasn't approved by mods and wasn't from a vendor. The posts regarding this were deleted and we're not supposed to plug that site. Just thought I'd fill everybody in.
 
#23 ·
Maintaining the arc is the job of the ballast, that is why light output is consistant regardless of battery voltage (within the 8-18 volt operating range). In lighting, that is what a ballast does, step up or boost voltage and maintain that boost with fluctuations in input. There is a starter in the ballast box that gives the 24kV. The starters used to be separate, but with microchips and such, they have been able to make starters that dont have to be replaced, so they have integrated them into the ballist units.

Think about old flourescent lamps, they had separate starters that you had to replace. Go to a new hardware store, they dont even carry starters anymore, because the newer FL's have starters built into the ballast units now, just like our HID's.

That is an interesting point about the factory units. I have never paid attention to how they switch the HID's on at startup on OEM installs. I know somebody that might be able to answer that ?, or somebody who knows can chime in here.

If the factory does not do anything different with the on/off at startup, I wonder what is preventing those from dying an early death??

Does a 9005 and 9006 have the same base to them? If so, I will take my 9006 HID's and test them in the foglight of the HD (which should take 9005's). Then I can evaluate the light output here, and verify there are no bad glaring or poor cutoff issues.
 
#24 ·
Thanks for all that info...its much appreciated, and im always open to learning more about this stuff! :D

As far as OEM HID's, they operate exactly like the factory halogen auto light controls in our trucks.

On my moms Lexus, the headlights are: automatic on/off, halogen hi's, HID lows, dynamic reflector positioning on the HID lows (adaptive front lighting, can swivel reflectors left and right to 'see' around corners, as well as adjust the top cutoff of the HID beam to avoid blinding other drivers when you crest a hill)

when you start her car at night, key ON, headlights come on. Turn the key to CRANK, and the lights as well as all electronics go off, then release the key when engine starts and lights come back on. There is no delay or anything, so anytime you start the car at night, the lights go ON-OFF-ON. The HID lows do stay on with the hi beams tho, so theres no on-off switching when you flash the hi beams. Im not going against what you said, it makes perfect sense that over time extinguishing and reigniting the arc in rapid sucession would be bad for the life of the bulb, but wouldnt the Lexus engineers have thought about this? They ddint seem to miss any other tricks :)

AFAIK, all OEM HID systems operate like this...
 
#25 ·
Yea, Lexus is good like that. I remember the 1st gen coupe (SC) they made. The door hinge moved the door out as it pivoted on the hinge. Made it easier to get in and out with limited door movement. Ingenious.

Maybe they have improved the on/off with newer HID's. Think back 5 years ago, there were very few autos that you could get HID's with. There may have been a reason for that.

Glad to drop knowledge where I can, doing so makes us all that much smarter):h
 
#27 ·
ok my truck dosent do the on off on that you are talking about. after reading about concerns of bulb life shortened from cycling the lights i found a way to get around it and i dont know why but im gonna find out. heres what i do, i remote start my truck at night or in the morning when i know the auto headlight sensor will want them on, only the daytime running lights come on, when i put the key in and tap the brake then they fire off and stay on. i have the max power data bypass module if that makes a difference.
 
#28 ·
ok, went through the schematics and come to the following conclusions, on my truck low beams are fed through low beam headlight relay powered from b+ buss, they are controlled by body control module grounding the low beam headlight relay coil. thats it, the bcm data controlls it bottom line. thats as far as i go, bcm is over my head.
 
#30 ·
There is a sensor that goes into the BCM that senses daylight. You need to bypass that sensor with a resistor to disable the auto headlights.

...if you are wanting to disable the AHL's
 
#31 ·
Does anybody know if the 9005 and 9006 have the same mounting flange on them??
 
#32 ·
I think they are different.
 
#33 ·
They are different.

IIRC the 9005 high beams fit into the fog lights with little or no modification.

If you want to use a 9006 bulb you will have to trim the notches on the opening with a dremel or something. Should be able to work but I havent tried it to say for sure.

.
 
#34 ·
Cool, thanks for the responses. I will post more when I try something out here.
 
#35 ·
You'll have to trim a little bit of one of the 3 plastic tabs around the bulb and there is also a little plastic tab inside the connector on the bulb that can be trimmed off. Its the top tab. There's a little tab in the connector on the bulb that has to be trimmed down too, its between the two wire terminals. You'll also have to put an extra o ring on it to make it seal right.

Edit: Sorry, thats for how to make 9005 fit in a 9006 hole. You probly wont have to trim much if any.
 
#41 ·
If any one is looking for HID's from another vendor JP Customs sells them too for about $300 and the ballasts are made in the USA.

I got a set last week and will install them when it gets a little warmer out.


Nick and Speed,

Everytime I talk to Jason at JP I keep trying to convince him to be a vendor here since I and a few others always suggest him as a possible vendor for the Electronic stuff he sells, and I'm sure he gets some business from it.

I'm trying best as I can to help.

DD

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