Howdy Folks!

Just now finished up my install - took several days since I've been busy, and I wanted to explore all the possible wire routing options.

Instead of using the self tapping screws and mounting the ballasts under the light assembly, I used some industrial Velcro and mounted them on the inside of the inner frame (next to the air filter). I just ran the power wires out the back, around the hinge assembly and down. seems like a *great* place for them, and with the Velcro, I can pull them out in an instant without having to remove the entire housing.

I had some trouble getting to fire up initially - I thought I had a proper ground with that small bolt on the front corner of the fusebox (the 10mm, not the 14mm "hot spot") - there's a good frame ground behind the battery in the corner though. All the relays and fuses tuck away pretty nicely in the battery area. It was a pretty simple debug - I knew the old light harness had voltage (which signals the relays to fire up the ballasts), so I tracked it back to the power supply.

I taped up all the exposed wire areas, right up the connectors (left the connectors exposed so everything can easily be pulled apart). The power to the drivers side I ran up under the front fascia, and used some zipties to fasten it to the black plastic pushpin type connectors (they have an open loop on the end which is perfect!).

All in all, it looks pretty clean

The lights look really slick - just talking the housings themselves - I got the black surrounds (they all have nice chrome bezels around the lights).

Functionally, they're spectacular The wifey has am X5 with the fully adaptive Bi-Xenons, and I finally got over my headlight envy. Of course, since they're full on replacement projectors designed for an HID bulb, the cutout is razor sharp and there's no odd light dispersion. The setup is basically like the C6: HID normal, brights are a reflector/halogen setup without the HID, and the flash-to-pass appears to fire up the halogens but leave on the HID (which I understand is not good to quickly turn off-on).

While these were NIB, they did have the older style ballasts which I've heard a few people say +might+ not be as water proof. I guess we'll see I might add a little Dielectric grease around the two connectors on the ballast, specifically the one to the HID bulb (the other is upstream to the power) that seems to have a less solid seal.

Are they worth the $800-$1000? Maybe. They're certainly the best light solution. I got these a good bit less "pre-purchased" (plus a little horse trading) - I've seen $700-ish on some GPs, though none recently. I sold my T84's which were an excellent upgrade over the stockers if you want a nice improvement at a 1/3 of the cost (and a lot less install effort).

I might shoot some pics later

OK, next is my cam/pulley and misc goodies...

 

congrats on the lights! they're good stuff.

 

Holy Smokes! Had a nice drive tonight and I could actually SEE

They really need to be aimed better, they're way too high right now (almost looks like the X5's bright lights).

Is there a good reference for this? Like X feet from a wall, and the cutoff at Y height?

 

25"(y) @ 3'(x) on a flat surface is a good starting point.

 

Oh wow, thanks so much, that's exactly what I needed! Jeez, I bet they're easily *twice* as high (as was apparent from all the flashing lights during my test drive )

 

Congrats on the install - more light is good.

 

The more light, the better. Good job on the install.

 

Nice!

 

At what distance? 20'?

 

no, 25" from ground to the top of hotspot cutoff @ 3 feet from the wall. (inside your garage usually works well.)

 

have any pictures of the wiring that came with them? I'm curious as to what all is in the kit.

what temp are the HID's that it came with. I didn't see any option to select that when you buy them, and I'm pretty sure they don't come with 6000k out of the box, meaning if that's what you want you have to buy them in addition to the projectors. that's what lead me to the ebay HID solution. I still might want this eventually though, I think it looks much better than the stock lights appearance wise.

the C5 for some reason still has all those 80's looking lights on it, nothing is clear its got all kinds of strange angles on it which deflect the light in weird ways. I have all of my lights swapped out for aftermarkets which are actually smooth lenses and look much more modern, the only thing left to go is the headlight lens. I just invested in Ebay HIDs so they will stay for a while, but eventually...

 

they only come with 4300k D1S bulbs, you cannot order any other color. stock on right, aftermarket on left.





my 6000k replacements weren't cheap, but they were purely for cosmetic reasons.

 

JDM answered about the lights - 4300K - from what I understand this is the whitest, brightest light color. It does have a small "blue shift" around the edges (looks just like our X5 OEM Xenons which I also belive are 4200-4300K).

I probably should have taken some shots of the kit, but I think if you search enough you can probably find some.

I'll try to briefly explain it though:

The high beam on the new HID housing connects to the old high beam harness (no new wiring used).

There are two harnsses - one for each lamp. These wire directly to the power supply (and ground). They're pretty heavy gauge wire protected by plastic accordian cover (with 3 wires, green, black and red). This (red/black) plugs ino the ballast (actually has a small "pigtail", probably to make it more modular for other kits). The power wire from the HID bulb also connects to the ballast. The final wire is a small lead that connects to the old low beam connector and to the 3rd (green) lead from the main harness.

At the power end of the new harness are the power/ground connectors, a fuse block (the system has its own inline fuses) and a relay block - this basically powers up the system by taking power from the old low beams and switching the relays.

It really is plug~n~play - no splicing or anything. I had to dremel the power connectors a little to make them slip over the stud little easier. I also mounted the ballasts as I described which I think it MUCH better than having to remove the housings to access them (or the wiring). I would say I could reverse this install and return to OEM in ~1-1/2 hours and you'd never even know they were installed - that's how modular everything is.

I'm actually OOT (writing this via BT to my 3G phone while chillin' at the in-laws )

~DT

 

RELAYS / POWER / FUSES





DRIVERS SIDE (Looks like Jebus is returning - what's with the lights on the left?





PASSENGER SIDE (Existing OEM, Foglights, etc. wiring)





STICKY BUMPS FOR NO REASON...





FINISHED INSTALL / HOUSINGS





CLOSE UP DRIVERS SIDE

 

good stuff, my man!

 

Excellent choice! I installed my ACA's over a year ago. I paid over $1100. at the time, but consider it money well spent.

 

Looking good

Chuck

 

thanks for the post...I will be needing your writeup soon, if Nate can get me a driver side headlamp...waiting on the 'mystery' order.

 

Nice! Looks well thought out and done too.

One thing I did notice however is in the picture of the passenger side, I see the harness running directly under **** on the rear of the headlight motor. Since that **** spins every time the motor kicks in to raise/lower the light, you might take a look to be sure it's not touching or rubbing. Maybe the picture just looks that way and it's not touching. Just a thought.

 

WOW....I really like those! Thanks for sharing!