HID Upgrades
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From: Troy,MI
HID Upgrades
HI guys,
I have an 03 expedition and am hoping to upgrade to hid lights all around. I want to put 55 watt 8000k for low beams and fog lights. was wondering what people have had luck with and if relays and chancellors will be needed. Any other tips and pointers for the install would be great. I also have subs on my stock 110 amp alternator and am concerned with possible overdraw on my alternator. Thanks for the help
I have an 03 expedition and am hoping to upgrade to hid lights all around. I want to put 55 watt 8000k for low beams and fog lights. was wondering what people have had luck with and if relays and chancellors will be needed. Any other tips and pointers for the install would be great. I also have subs on my stock 110 amp alternator and am concerned with possible overdraw on my alternator. Thanks for the help
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Joined: Aug 2009
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I have a 2001 EB Expy, and did a HID upgrade to headlights and fog lights. I can tell you my experience.. not sure how your 03 is different from my 01.
First off let me start with 8000k is very blue, and would probably easily be considered illegal to your local police, and depending on the cop, could cause a routine traffic stop. I had 6000k which I felt were pretty blue, and when those went out (keep reading) I replaced with 5000k which are supposed to be pure white, but still have a blue tint... Choose your color wisely.
My first set was dual beam, HID low beam and halogen HIGH BEAM - even though the low beams were 10x brighter than the high beams. The alternative is to get single beam (low beam only) and when you flip to high beam your lights will simply go out as there is no "high beam" bulb. There are also some HID kits out there that physically shift when you hit the high beam switch to cause the beam to change angle and give the illusion of "high beam" - except for the single low beam kits, adding shifting or halogen high beams are considerably more expensive (or at least, they were when I bought mine)
If you get the right kit for your truck, its pretty much plug and play as far as wiring goes, the biggest problem is placement of the inverter. Most of the kits I saw give you what they call high temp tape, so you can tape the inverter somewhere you have room, I'm not a fan of taping anything in the engine compartment - so buyer beware on that... I didn't use it, it may work great, I used tie wraps and metal brackets... which was good and bad.. keep reading.
As for the wiring, essentially you unplug your regular bulb, attach the adapter to headlight supply wire, which goes in to the inverter, then your HID bulb plugs in to that. Simple, you're up and running, now just hide/mount your hardware. I never had any problem with electrical errors, warning lights or anything light that. The expy had no idea I changed the bulbs.
OK NOW HERE'S THE BAD.. and remember YMMV - this is MY experience.
My 6000k were too blue, so when I finally had to change them, I replaced them with 5000k which were supposed to be completely white like real factory xenon's - though even the 5000k still have a subtle hint of blue but no where near as "bad" as the 6000k.
My first set last about 1 year total, I started seeing problems after a few months.. aftermarket HID's take time to warm up, so they start out dim and gradually (quickly) get brighter as they warm up. Well, one of mine was taking noticeably longer to get to 100% brightness after a few months, and would occasionally not ignite at all, so I'd have to either hit the head light or power cycle the headlights. Eventually it stopped coming on completely. I originally thought it was the inverter/power supply, so I got online and bought only the inverters... well, of course that was not the problem - turned out the bulb died, so then had to buy new bulbs. Buying it all separately cost me more than buying new "kits", but again - that was user error.
The new set I have in there now, the bulbs themselves FLICKER - both bulbs, and I'm not sure if its the bulbs or the inverters.
When the HID's don't come on, your kinda screwed.. because depending on how you MOUNT your hardware, it may or may not be easy to simply replace your HID bulb with a standard head light bulb should you find yourself out and about with NO HEADLIGHTS. Keep that in mind when mounting your hardware!!!!! My first install I mounted them hidden and professionally, yada yada yada... well, that was NOT the best idea, because that night when I didn't have any headlights - I couldn't get to the original harness to plug in a regular head light, so I had to drive home with only FOG LIGHTS. The second time, I mounted everything to where I could completely remove the HIDs if I needed too.
I'm sure the quality of HID kits vary just like everything else. I've only had 2 set's so far, one expensive and one cheap set - and I'm not terribly impressed with either honestly. AGAIN YMMV.
And the last tidbit of knowledge I'll share is this, while connecting the inverter directly to the headlight harness seems fine, I noticed evidence of excessive heat, or over draw of power whatsoever, I think the best method is to use one of those kits that come with the relay switch, where you would connect the factory headlight harness to the HID harness, which ONLY triggers a relay that would be directly connected to the battery terminal, so your HID inverters would get power from the battery... the factory headlight harness wire is only used to trigger the relay on/off.
(ok, 1 more thing) pay attention when driving at night - its SUPER easy to spot HID kits on the road... especially the aftermarket one's, mainly because of the color. 8000k may be street ILLEGAL - I know for a fact 10000k is illegal here in Texas.... Obviously I like the look of the HID's, otherwise I would never have even attempted to fix mine. I'm just disappointed that of 2 kits, from 2 vendors, both were of poor quality... oh and don't believe the "warranty" crap, the first kit I bought LOCALLY came with a 3 year warranty, and when I went to resolve my issue after only 1 year, I was treated like a criminal and told it was my trucks electrical system's fault so of course, no warranty--- typical.
GOOD LUCK.
First off let me start with 8000k is very blue, and would probably easily be considered illegal to your local police, and depending on the cop, could cause a routine traffic stop. I had 6000k which I felt were pretty blue, and when those went out (keep reading) I replaced with 5000k which are supposed to be pure white, but still have a blue tint... Choose your color wisely.
My first set was dual beam, HID low beam and halogen HIGH BEAM - even though the low beams were 10x brighter than the high beams. The alternative is to get single beam (low beam only) and when you flip to high beam your lights will simply go out as there is no "high beam" bulb. There are also some HID kits out there that physically shift when you hit the high beam switch to cause the beam to change angle and give the illusion of "high beam" - except for the single low beam kits, adding shifting or halogen high beams are considerably more expensive (or at least, they were when I bought mine)
If you get the right kit for your truck, its pretty much plug and play as far as wiring goes, the biggest problem is placement of the inverter. Most of the kits I saw give you what they call high temp tape, so you can tape the inverter somewhere you have room, I'm not a fan of taping anything in the engine compartment - so buyer beware on that... I didn't use it, it may work great, I used tie wraps and metal brackets... which was good and bad.. keep reading.
As for the wiring, essentially you unplug your regular bulb, attach the adapter to headlight supply wire, which goes in to the inverter, then your HID bulb plugs in to that. Simple, you're up and running, now just hide/mount your hardware. I never had any problem with electrical errors, warning lights or anything light that. The expy had no idea I changed the bulbs.
OK NOW HERE'S THE BAD.. and remember YMMV - this is MY experience.
My 6000k were too blue, so when I finally had to change them, I replaced them with 5000k which were supposed to be completely white like real factory xenon's - though even the 5000k still have a subtle hint of blue but no where near as "bad" as the 6000k.
My first set last about 1 year total, I started seeing problems after a few months.. aftermarket HID's take time to warm up, so they start out dim and gradually (quickly) get brighter as they warm up. Well, one of mine was taking noticeably longer to get to 100% brightness after a few months, and would occasionally not ignite at all, so I'd have to either hit the head light or power cycle the headlights. Eventually it stopped coming on completely. I originally thought it was the inverter/power supply, so I got online and bought only the inverters... well, of course that was not the problem - turned out the bulb died, so then had to buy new bulbs. Buying it all separately cost me more than buying new "kits", but again - that was user error.
The new set I have in there now, the bulbs themselves FLICKER - both bulbs, and I'm not sure if its the bulbs or the inverters.
When the HID's don't come on, your kinda screwed.. because depending on how you MOUNT your hardware, it may or may not be easy to simply replace your HID bulb with a standard head light bulb should you find yourself out and about with NO HEADLIGHTS. Keep that in mind when mounting your hardware!!!!! My first install I mounted them hidden and professionally, yada yada yada... well, that was NOT the best idea, because that night when I didn't have any headlights - I couldn't get to the original harness to plug in a regular head light, so I had to drive home with only FOG LIGHTS. The second time, I mounted everything to where I could completely remove the HIDs if I needed too.
I'm sure the quality of HID kits vary just like everything else. I've only had 2 set's so far, one expensive and one cheap set - and I'm not terribly impressed with either honestly. AGAIN YMMV.
And the last tidbit of knowledge I'll share is this, while connecting the inverter directly to the headlight harness seems fine, I noticed evidence of excessive heat, or over draw of power whatsoever, I think the best method is to use one of those kits that come with the relay switch, where you would connect the factory headlight harness to the HID harness, which ONLY triggers a relay that would be directly connected to the battery terminal, so your HID inverters would get power from the battery... the factory headlight harness wire is only used to trigger the relay on/off.
(ok, 1 more thing) pay attention when driving at night - its SUPER easy to spot HID kits on the road... especially the aftermarket one's, mainly because of the color. 8000k may be street ILLEGAL - I know for a fact 10000k is illegal here in Texas.... Obviously I like the look of the HID's, otherwise I would never have even attempted to fix mine. I'm just disappointed that of 2 kits, from 2 vendors, both were of poor quality... oh and don't believe the "warranty" crap, the first kit I bought LOCALLY came with a 3 year warranty, and when I went to resolve my issue after only 1 year, I was treated like a criminal and told it was my trucks electrical system's fault so of course, no warranty--- typical.
GOOD LUCK.
New User
Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 14
Likes: 0
I have a 2001 EB Expy, and did a HID upgrade to headlights and fog lights. I can tell you my experience.. not sure how your 03 is different from my 01.
First off let me start with 8000k is very blue, and would probably easily be considered illegal to your local police, and depending on the cop, could cause a routine traffic stop. I had 6000k which I felt were pretty blue, and when those went out (keep reading) I replaced with 5000k which are supposed to be pure white, but still have a blue tint... Choose your color wisely.
My first set was dual beam, HID low beam and halogen HIGH BEAM - even though the low beams were 10x brighter than the high beams. The alternative is to get single beam (low beam only) and when you flip to high beam your lights will simply go out as there is no "high beam" bulb. There are also some HID kits out there that physically shift when you hit the high beam switch to cause the beam to change angle and give the illusion of "high beam" - except for the single low beam kits, adding shifting or halogen high beams are considerably more expensive (or at least, they were when I bought mine)
If you get the right kit for your truck, its pretty much plug and play as far as wiring goes, the biggest problem is placement of the inverter. Most of the kits I saw give you what they call high temp tape, so you can tape the inverter somewhere you have room, I'm not a fan of taping anything in the engine compartment - so buyer beware on that... I didn't use it, it may work great, I used tie wraps and metal brackets... which was good and bad.. keep reading.
As for the wiring, essentially you unplug your regular bulb, attach the adapter to headlight supply wire, which goes in to the inverter, then your HID bulb plugs in to that. Simple, you're up and running, now just hide/mount your hardware. I never had any problem with electrical errors, warning lights or anything light that. The expy had no idea I changed the bulbs.
OK NOW HERE'S THE BAD.. and remember YMMV - this is MY experience.
My 6000k were too blue, so when I finally had to change them, I replaced them with 5000k which were supposed to be completely white like real factory xenon's - though even the 5000k still have a subtle hint of blue but no where near as "bad" as the 6000k.
My first set last about 1 year total, I started seeing problems after a few months.. aftermarket HID's take time to warm up, so they start out dim and gradually (quickly) get brighter as they warm up. Well, one of mine was taking noticeably longer to get to 100% brightness after a few months, and would occasionally not ignite at all, so I'd have to either hit the head light or power cycle the headlights. Eventually it stopped coming on completely. I originally thought it was the inverter/power supply, so I got online and bought only the inverters... well, of course that was not the problem - turned out the bulb died, so then had to buy new bulbs. Buying it all separately cost me more than buying new "kits", but again - that was user error.
The new set I have in there now, the bulbs themselves FLICKER - both bulbs, and I'm not sure if its the bulbs or the inverters.
When the HID's don't come on, your kinda screwed.. because depending on how you MOUNT your hardware, it may or may not be easy to simply replace your HID bulb with a standard head light bulb should you find yourself out and about with NO HEADLIGHTS. Keep that in mind when mounting your hardware!!!!! My first install I mounted them hidden and professionally, yada yada yada... well, that was NOT the best idea, because that night when I didn't have any headlights - I couldn't get to the original harness to plug in a regular head light, so I had to drive home with only FOG LIGHTS. The second time, I mounted everything to where I could completely remove the HIDs if I needed too.
I'm sure the quality of HID kits vary just like everything else. I've only had 2 set's so far, one expensive and one cheap set - and I'm not terribly impressed with either honestly. AGAIN YMMV.
And the last tidbit of knowledge I'll share is this, while connecting the inverter directly to the headlight harness seems fine, I noticed evidence of excessive heat, or over draw of power whatsoever, I think the best method is to use one of those kits that come with the relay switch, where you would connect the factory headlight harness to the HID harness, which ONLY triggers a relay that would be directly connected to the battery terminal, so your HID inverters would get power from the battery... the factory headlight harness wire is only used to trigger the relay on/off.
(ok, 1 more thing) pay attention when driving at night - its SUPER easy to spot HID kits on the road... especially the aftermarket one's, mainly because of the color. 8000k may be street ILLEGAL - I know for a fact 10000k is illegal here in Texas.... Obviously I like the look of the HID's, otherwise I would never have even attempted to fix mine. I'm just disappointed that of 2 kits, from 2 vendors, both were of poor quality... oh and don't believe the "warranty" crap, the first kit I bought LOCALLY came with a 3 year warranty, and when I went to resolve my issue after only 1 year, I was treated like a criminal and told it was my trucks electrical system's fault so of course, no warranty--- typical.
GOOD LUCK.
First off let me start with 8000k is very blue, and would probably easily be considered illegal to your local police, and depending on the cop, could cause a routine traffic stop. I had 6000k which I felt were pretty blue, and when those went out (keep reading) I replaced with 5000k which are supposed to be pure white, but still have a blue tint... Choose your color wisely.
My first set was dual beam, HID low beam and halogen HIGH BEAM - even though the low beams were 10x brighter than the high beams. The alternative is to get single beam (low beam only) and when you flip to high beam your lights will simply go out as there is no "high beam" bulb. There are also some HID kits out there that physically shift when you hit the high beam switch to cause the beam to change angle and give the illusion of "high beam" - except for the single low beam kits, adding shifting or halogen high beams are considerably more expensive (or at least, they were when I bought mine)
If you get the right kit for your truck, its pretty much plug and play as far as wiring goes, the biggest problem is placement of the inverter. Most of the kits I saw give you what they call high temp tape, so you can tape the inverter somewhere you have room, I'm not a fan of taping anything in the engine compartment - so buyer beware on that... I didn't use it, it may work great, I used tie wraps and metal brackets... which was good and bad.. keep reading.
As for the wiring, essentially you unplug your regular bulb, attach the adapter to headlight supply wire, which goes in to the inverter, then your HID bulb plugs in to that. Simple, you're up and running, now just hide/mount your hardware. I never had any problem with electrical errors, warning lights or anything light that. The expy had no idea I changed the bulbs.
OK NOW HERE'S THE BAD.. and remember YMMV - this is MY experience.
My 6000k were too blue, so when I finally had to change them, I replaced them with 5000k which were supposed to be completely white like real factory xenon's - though even the 5000k still have a subtle hint of blue but no where near as "bad" as the 6000k.
My first set last about 1 year total, I started seeing problems after a few months.. aftermarket HID's take time to warm up, so they start out dim and gradually (quickly) get brighter as they warm up. Well, one of mine was taking noticeably longer to get to 100% brightness after a few months, and would occasionally not ignite at all, so I'd have to either hit the head light or power cycle the headlights. Eventually it stopped coming on completely. I originally thought it was the inverter/power supply, so I got online and bought only the inverters... well, of course that was not the problem - turned out the bulb died, so then had to buy new bulbs. Buying it all separately cost me more than buying new "kits", but again - that was user error.
The new set I have in there now, the bulbs themselves FLICKER - both bulbs, and I'm not sure if its the bulbs or the inverters.
When the HID's don't come on, your kinda screwed.. because depending on how you MOUNT your hardware, it may or may not be easy to simply replace your HID bulb with a standard head light bulb should you find yourself out and about with NO HEADLIGHTS. Keep that in mind when mounting your hardware!!!!! My first install I mounted them hidden and professionally, yada yada yada... well, that was NOT the best idea, because that night when I didn't have any headlights - I couldn't get to the original harness to plug in a regular head light, so I had to drive home with only FOG LIGHTS. The second time, I mounted everything to where I could completely remove the HIDs if I needed too.
I'm sure the quality of HID kits vary just like everything else. I've only had 2 set's so far, one expensive and one cheap set - and I'm not terribly impressed with either honestly. AGAIN YMMV.
And the last tidbit of knowledge I'll share is this, while connecting the inverter directly to the headlight harness seems fine, I noticed evidence of excessive heat, or over draw of power whatsoever, I think the best method is to use one of those kits that come with the relay switch, where you would connect the factory headlight harness to the HID harness, which ONLY triggers a relay that would be directly connected to the battery terminal, so your HID inverters would get power from the battery... the factory headlight harness wire is only used to trigger the relay on/off.
(ok, 1 more thing) pay attention when driving at night - its SUPER easy to spot HID kits on the road... especially the aftermarket one's, mainly because of the color. 8000k may be street ILLEGAL - I know for a fact 10000k is illegal here in Texas.... Obviously I like the look of the HID's, otherwise I would never have even attempted to fix mine. I'm just disappointed that of 2 kits, from 2 vendors, both were of poor quality... oh and don't believe the "warranty" crap, the first kit I bought LOCALLY came with a 3 year warranty, and when I went to resolve my issue after only 1 year, I was treated like a criminal and told it was my trucks electrical system's fault so of course, no warranty--- typical.
GOOD LUCK.
anyone wants the bright white color, should look for the 4300 HID.
may I ask this, I believe you installed the HID on the factory headlight units, so how was the effect on incoming traffic drivers? was it too glaring on their eyes?
Junior User
Joined: Dec 2011
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DDMtuning.com. have a set in my wifes mazda 3 and no problem at all. $30+shipping for single and $50+ shipping on duel beam. Also come with lifetime warrenty. Takes awhile on shipping cause they r from china. But i like hers ordered a set for my navi. Shes got 12k and i got 10k. Then got another set including off a member here for my fogs also.
Freshman User
Joined: Feb 2012
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From: At the Beach
Most of the kits on ebay are junk, and don't even consider installing them if they don't have a "projector" style lens for tight control of the light.
If you add an HID bulb to a reflector housing made for halogen bulbs, the beam is all over the place and blinds oncoming traffic - which is why cheapo HID kits will eventually lead to all HID conversion kits being made illegal. These bad kits will ruin a good thing for everybody.
If you add an HID bulb to a reflector housing made for halogen bulbs, the beam is all over the place and blinds oncoming traffic - which is why cheapo HID kits will eventually lead to all HID conversion kits being made illegal. These bad kits will ruin a good thing for everybody.
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Elder User
Joined: Mar 2011
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well in the navigators headlights, theres a cap looking thing that reflex them back to the cover the reflex back onto traffic so there fine for some vehicles
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From: At the Beach
It doesn't take much hunting around the sport compact car forums to realize the cheap ebay kits are no good, even the ricers who don't care about anything but image say they're a waste of money and go back to their original headlights.
They say the ebay HID conversion kits are:
- Dim, and actually less bright than stock halogens
- Have a terrible light pattern because OE reflectors are not designed for the location of the aftermarket HID bulb (the point of light in the bulb isn't in exactly the same spot as a halogen bulb, so the reflector doesn't work correctly)
- Don't last very long before flickering or dying completely
- Attract tickets from cops
On the upside, the kits are cheap, so there's not much to lose. Only money.
They say the ebay HID conversion kits are:
- Dim, and actually less bright than stock halogens
- Have a terrible light pattern because OE reflectors are not designed for the location of the aftermarket HID bulb (the point of light in the bulb isn't in exactly the same spot as a halogen bulb, so the reflector doesn't work correctly)
- Don't last very long before flickering or dying completely
- Attract tickets from cops
On the upside, the kits are cheap, so there's not much to lose. Only money.
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