HID Headlights?

TTLSX418

Amateur Racer
Apr 23, 2013
108
0
0
Baton Rouge, La
To answer your question...

If you have the separate beams you will have to purchase two HID kits. The Bi-Xenon kit is used for headlight systems that contain both the low and high beams in the same bulb like the 9003/9004/9007 (there may be more).

Take my daily for example. I have a 07' Trailblazer SS that I drive to and from work. It has separate low/high beam set up. I would have to order a 9006 HID kit for the low beam, and a 9005 HID kit for the high beam set-up. Now the way the truck works is that when you are driving with low beams and want to switch the high beams it turns the low beams off and runs strictly the high beams. Some vehicles do this, some don't. Some vehicles run both lows and highs, when the high beams are selected.

In YOUR case, you would have to run two harness kits, one for the low beam kit and one for the high beam kit. If I were in your shoes I would run your low beams on a relay set-up and run your high beams directly plugged into the vehicle harness with no relay kit. The reason I say that is because you probably barely use your high beams and it doesn't really warranty a harness kit in that sense. Personally I don't run high beams on any of my vehicles because I really just never use them. I live in the city limits and do most of my driving there. Plus flashing high beam HID's is kind of pointless because they have to be on and fully warmed up to be their brightest, whilst incandescent bulbs react quicker.

That's completely your choice though. HID's aren't really complicated BUT there is a lot of information and options to consider when deciding, correctly, what is best for your needs. I hope this answers your question, let me know if you have anymore.

ALSO - I wanted to comment on the city lights most of the conversion housings come with, if you want to use them you are going to come into some trouble with putting the headlight into the car. It might be different with separate low's/high's but if memory serves me correctly I have to notch my headlight buckets to clear the bulb and harness because it wouldn't allow the light itself to sit back in the bucket all the way. People normally just take them out and cover the hole with electrical tape. The city lights don't come pre-wired either, so you will have to tap into an existing power source. I gotta say though they do look good with LED lights that give off 180* of light.
 

Wagon Master

Amateur Racer
Thread starter
Feb 16, 2012
125
1
0
New Jersey
I was going to stick with incandescents for the dedicated high beams specifically for the reason you mention that they need time to warm up when they turn on. I just want to do HID for the low beam. FYI, the low beam glass I bought takes an H4 and the high beam glass takes an H1. I'll do a higher color temp H1 for the high beam to closer match the HID's.

So I guess my question boils down to this, will the relay kit keep the low beam on when I switch to high beams? Currently they turn off, somewhat similar to your truck.

Regarding the city lights, I was avoiding them and the glass I bought doesn't have provisions for them anyway.
 

Doober

Moderator
Jun 2, 2003
14,704
1
38
Catalina, AZ
www.cardomain.com
For a bi xenon setup I plan on tapping into the wire running from the headlight switch to the high/low switch, this will keep the bulbs on all the time (trigger wire for a relay), and the high/low switch will still retain power for triggering the shield for high/low beam... this is an H4 setup of course with 2 housings, not 4.
 

TTLSX418

Amateur Racer
Apr 23, 2013
108
0
0
Baton Rouge, La
Wagon Master said:
So I guess my question boils down to this, will the relay kit keep the low beam on when I switch to high beams? Currently they turn off, somewhat similar to your truck.

The relay kit uses the signal from your harness to turn the headlights on, the relay kit itself just uses battery power rather than harness power, if that makes sense. So to answer your question, no it won't. It should turn off whenever you switch to high beams, provided that is the way your headlights normally work.
 

Wagon Master

Amateur Racer
Thread starter
Feb 16, 2012
125
1
0
New Jersey
Yes, it makes sense. I understand how relays work and how they are used. I thought the HID relay kit might also have a feature that works similar to the relay kit that you would get for the 88-98 Chevy trucks to keep the low beams on when switching to high beams. Maybe there is a way to adapt that relay kit to the car in addition to the HID relay kit.

whats a couple of more relays? Just add it to the collection of the fuel pump relay, the fan relays, the painless wiring harness relays, etc... :)

Then again I could run a wire off the headlight switch as doober suggested or even trigger the HID relay from the parking lights. I wouldn't be able to run parking lights only, but how often do you really do that?
 

Wagon Master

Amateur Racer
Thread starter
Feb 16, 2012
125
1
0
New Jersey
I installed the H4 Low and H1 High conversion clear diamond cut headlights this weekend and here are some pics of the end result. I haven't order the HID's yet as I wanted to get these in first. So these pics show the 4k incandescents that came with headlights. I also didn't get around to aiming the headlights. When I do, I'll post a picture of the light pattern on the garage door.

Before
2013-07-06_10-42-56_539_zps0c474593.jpg


After
2013-07-07_11-08-34_989_zps98722062.jpg


Low Beam
2013-07-07_11-09-51_830_zpsd3b098bc.jpg


High Beam
2013-07-07_11-10-29_123_zps9f457710.jpg
 

TTLSX418

Amateur Racer
Apr 23, 2013
108
0
0
Baton Rouge, La
yeah i'd leave the high beams as normal incandescent bulbs, and use the HID's in your low beams. That way if people flash you, you'll actually have a full on bright light to flash back.
 

Wagon Master

Amateur Racer
Thread starter
Feb 16, 2012
125
1
0
New Jersey
Yep, that's the plan...just now have to decide whether to go Bi-xenon or just an single HID for the low, order the kit and the relays, and figure out how to keep the HID low beam on when it goes to high beam...
 

TTLSX418

Amateur Racer
Apr 23, 2013
108
0
0
Baton Rouge, La
The second picture shows that all 4 headlights are on when the high beams are activated. So if you replaced the low beam with an HID kit, why wouldn't it stay on when you activated the high beam?
 

Wagon Master

Amateur Racer
Thread starter
Feb 16, 2012
125
1
0
New Jersey
Because there are two filiments in the low beam headlight, one for the low and one for the high. When you switch to high beam, the low beam filiment turns off and the high beam filiment turns on.
 

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