Here is some information I said I would post for Drake.
I have/had E-Code HID headlights in my supra and they are great. The car has been stolen and until it's recovered I don't know whether I still have them or not.
Anyways, rule 1 is ALWAYS BUY QUALITY PARTS. I can't stress that enough; when you're buying important parts that affect your safety and the safety of others, don't skimp.
Please note that you do lose your high beams with this modification, although I can say that I didn't miss them with a beam 4 lanes wide, 50 feet long, and 3 feet high
.
To pull this little modification off, I started with the housings. After some careful consideration european style E-Code housings were the way to go. ECE beam patterns have a decidedly sharp horizontal cutoff and right hand flares to illuminate road signs. DO NOT BUY JDM HEADLIGHTS, they are made for left-hand traffic and their flares go the wrong way (into oncoming traffic) when used in the US. I went with hella E-Code 6054 housings designed to accomodate a standard H4 bulb. I later tried some "autopal" brand E-Code lights from ebay and had the exact same results with those. The build wasn't up to Hella standards, but it was pretty respectable for a $27 pair of H4 conversion housings. The beam pattern was quite good with halogens as well.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=33710&item=7976901461&rd=1
AVOID DIAMOND CUT CRAP LIKE THE PLAGUE!
Next I needed some bulbs. I wanted OEM quality, and the best way to get that was OEM equipment. In order to fit D2R bulbs into an H4 housing you need some adapters. The added benefit of these is that they shield the bottom half of the bulb from the reflector which creates (a) a cutoff line and (b) no upward glare since the bottom of the bulb is what reflects upward from the headlight. These shields can be obtained from Caspers Electronics. http://www.casperselectronics.com/ They are somewhat expensive but the quality is great. There are cheaper imitations on ebay which work pretty well but rumor has it that they don't preserve the proper arc location on the HID bulb.
With the adapters selected, I just needed some bulbs to slide into them. All OEM HID bulbs (currently) have the same connector and same ballasts. The only difference is on the bulb glass itself.
D2R bulbs are the ones with a small metal band around the lower part of the bulbs. They are used in OEM reflector style HID systems. (Acura TL, Volvo XC90/S60R, Prius, etc).
D2S bulbs are designed to be used in projectors and lack the metal glare ring. They are slightly brighter by a couple hundred lumens but at the expense of glare.
Since I was trying to build a reflector HID system I chose phillips 4500K D2R bulbs. When I got them they were stamped 5000K but I can't really tell the difference.
Last, definitely not least are the ballasts. These are the most important components in the whole system. They ensure that your bulb ignites and remains in constant arc during operation. I got a great deal on some ballasts from ebay. They were Matsushita (OEM Nissan/Infiniti) ballasts installed into weatherproof housings by a now-defunct company at http://www.rmhid.com. The seller's name on ebay is espperformance and (at the time) he had many sets of their ballasts. I got a pair for $88 shipped. Usually a single ballast will cost you that much. Make note of the ignitor style and location of your ballast. The ballast -> ignitor wire can be extended, but the ignitor -> bulb wire is all you get. If your ballast has integrated ignitor, you may have a tough time mounting it in such a way that the headlights can still pivot.
Luckily my ballasts were mountable in the engine bay and had seperate ignitors. I ran wires from the engine bay through the stock grommets into the headlight buckets, and my ignitor happened to mount perfectly on the headlight cover with double-stick tape after removing it with a screwdriver.
Power was also easy. It's important to the life of both bulbs and ballasts to have proper amperage. I ran my wires straight to the 15 amp fuses in the engine fuse box. Each side has its own fuse and power wire. This also bypasses the headlight dimmer switch so whether the brights or the low beams are on you still have constant power to the lamps. The ballasts are grounded to th chassis.
Hope that helps.
I have/had E-Code HID headlights in my supra and they are great. The car has been stolen and until it's recovered I don't know whether I still have them or not.
Anyways, rule 1 is ALWAYS BUY QUALITY PARTS. I can't stress that enough; when you're buying important parts that affect your safety and the safety of others, don't skimp.
Please note that you do lose your high beams with this modification, although I can say that I didn't miss them with a beam 4 lanes wide, 50 feet long, and 3 feet high
.
To pull this little modification off, I started with the housings. After some careful consideration european style E-Code housings were the way to go. ECE beam patterns have a decidedly sharp horizontal cutoff and right hand flares to illuminate road signs. DO NOT BUY JDM HEADLIGHTS, they are made for left-hand traffic and their flares go the wrong way (into oncoming traffic) when used in the US. I went with hella E-Code 6054 housings designed to accomodate a standard H4 bulb. I later tried some "autopal" brand E-Code lights from ebay and had the exact same results with those. The build wasn't up to Hella standards, but it was pretty respectable for a $27 pair of H4 conversion housings. The beam pattern was quite good with halogens as well.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=33710&item=7976901461&rd=1
AVOID DIAMOND CUT CRAP LIKE THE PLAGUE!
Next I needed some bulbs. I wanted OEM quality, and the best way to get that was OEM equipment. In order to fit D2R bulbs into an H4 housing you need some adapters. The added benefit of these is that they shield the bottom half of the bulb from the reflector which creates (a) a cutoff line and (b) no upward glare since the bottom of the bulb is what reflects upward from the headlight. These shields can be obtained from Caspers Electronics. http://www.casperselectronics.com/ They are somewhat expensive but the quality is great. There are cheaper imitations on ebay which work pretty well but rumor has it that they don't preserve the proper arc location on the HID bulb.
With the adapters selected, I just needed some bulbs to slide into them. All OEM HID bulbs (currently) have the same connector and same ballasts. The only difference is on the bulb glass itself.
D2R bulbs are the ones with a small metal band around the lower part of the bulbs. They are used in OEM reflector style HID systems. (Acura TL, Volvo XC90/S60R, Prius, etc).
D2S bulbs are designed to be used in projectors and lack the metal glare ring. They are slightly brighter by a couple hundred lumens but at the expense of glare.
Since I was trying to build a reflector HID system I chose phillips 4500K D2R bulbs. When I got them they were stamped 5000K but I can't really tell the difference.
Last, definitely not least are the ballasts. These are the most important components in the whole system. They ensure that your bulb ignites and remains in constant arc during operation. I got a great deal on some ballasts from ebay. They were Matsushita (OEM Nissan/Infiniti) ballasts installed into weatherproof housings by a now-defunct company at http://www.rmhid.com. The seller's name on ebay is espperformance and (at the time) he had many sets of their ballasts. I got a pair for $88 shipped. Usually a single ballast will cost you that much. Make note of the ignitor style and location of your ballast. The ballast -> ignitor wire can be extended, but the ignitor -> bulb wire is all you get. If your ballast has integrated ignitor, you may have a tough time mounting it in such a way that the headlights can still pivot.
Luckily my ballasts were mountable in the engine bay and had seperate ignitors. I ran wires from the engine bay through the stock grommets into the headlight buckets, and my ignitor happened to mount perfectly on the headlight cover with double-stick tape after removing it with a screwdriver.
Power was also easy. It's important to the life of both bulbs and ballasts to have proper amperage. I ran my wires straight to the 15 amp fuses in the engine fuse box. Each side has its own fuse and power wire. This also bypasses the headlight dimmer switch so whether the brights or the low beams are on you still have constant power to the lamps. The ballasts are grounded to th chassis.
Hope that helps.
