Bi-xenon HID retrofit project finally finished

[Taz]

I've been too busy to check in here for a while, but I haven't been neglecting the Cobra. Back in July, I sent a pair of new headlight housings and a bunch of money off to a company to have a pair of bi-xenon HID projectors installed in the housings.

They finally finished their end of the headlight project last month and sent me their solution. I took it to the next level from there. Here's the end result ...

For those interested in more details, here's a link to a VERY LARGE PDF file containing a wiring diagram and a shitload of photos chronicling my end of the project. Due to the size of the file, you'll probably want to grab your own copy by right-clicking the link and selecting "Save Target as."

Link to very large PDF

Happy trails,

T-

 

[out99sider]

damn, that looks awesome. im downloading the pdf now to check it out.

 

[edswhite99]

Looks sweet!

 

[green99_svt]

damn i love comcast downloaded that file in under 20 seconds

 

[VirtualSVT]

What company?

 

[E. Green Cobra]

looks good whats a ball park figure for this (minus the cost of new lights)? Also does it retain high/low etc.?
Thanks

 

[Blk98Cobra]

Yea what company is that, I've been looking into doing this to my headlights. Also, whats up with your hood? Or is that just a reflection im seeing...

 

[themadgmkillr]

looks expensive and time consuming...looks good though

 

[NotoriousJaegs]

does it retain high/low etc.?

A Bi-Xenon system would, and he seems to know his stuff, so I assume that yes, it does.

 

[Taz]

Thanks to all of you for the props.

looks expensive and time consuming...looks good though

Unfortunately, you are right on both counts. But it is, by nature, expensive and time consuming to do HID's properly.

The projectors themselves are ECE-spec Hella bi-xenons - identical to those used by certain Audis and other European cars. (You can get DOT projectors instead of ECE if you prefer, but I like the sharp cutoff that only the ECE lights can produce.)

Because these projectors are genuine bi-xenons, they do, indeed, provide me with high beam illumination, as well as low beam. As many of you probably know, HID's cannot be switched on and off like halogens, so bi-xenons contain a solenoid-activated shutter that switches between two positions to provide the two different light patterns. The two wires you can see extending from the backs of the retrofitted light housings in the photos are the +12VDC and ground wires for the solenoid that operates the shutter.

As for lighting quality, I think I can pretty much see across three states when I switch these new HID's to high beam, but there's absolutely none of the glare you always get from the kits that just provide rebased HID bulbs to install in your OEM reflector housings. And when the lights are switched to low beam, I can stand in front of my car on a dark road, look directly at its grille, and have no blinding light shining directly into my eyes, because the upper beam cutoff is aimed about waist level - below the windows and rear view mirrors of other cars. The beam is that tightly focused. It's GREAT!

Before proceeding with this project, I did quite a bit of research, and as far as I could find, mine represents the first successful retrofit of a pair of bi-xenons into a '99 - '04 'Stang. I ran across a couple low beam HID retrofits, but no bi-xenons in any of our cars.

In fact, even though the company I paid to provide me with my bi-xenon mounting solution has performed many retrofits on many different cars, they had never before tried a bi-xenon retro on a pair of New Edge housings. And they damned near threw in the towel more than once before everything finally fell into place (so to speak). At one point, my contact even said he was considering just buying me a fresh pair of housings and refunding my money. It was that tough. Of course, the first one of anything is always the learning experience. The rest are cookie-cutters.

Which brings us to a question foremost on at least a few minds: what company and how much?

Well, the second part of that question is much easier to answer than the first, but you better sit down before you read on. All four of the best and most reputable outfits willing to do this kind of work are going to charge you about the same for the parts and labor required to pull off this retro - about a grand, give or take a few shekels, and that's not counting your donor housings.

I spent significantly more for a couple reasons. First, the plug-and-play solution that I requested came with Denso ballasts, which draw far less startup current than most other HID ballasts. This enabled the use of the factory harness and eliminated the need for new ballast high current circuitry. But I just couldn’t come up with suitable mounting locations for those ballasts because of their peculiar shapes, so I swapped them out for a pair of Philips ballasts. This, naturally, precipitated the need for additional circuitry, along with more money and drama to create that. Finally, the as-delivered housings would have required hogging out the openings in the fiberglass cross-member to which the housings are secured in the nose of the car. After studying them for a while, I determined that I could fab a solution that would not require cutting the factory structure. I gutted the backs of both housings and reworked them to make them fit the factory opening. As you can see from the photos, I was able to accomplish this. After some more money and drama.

Now, as for the first part of the above question, that's sort of sticky. You see, the entire HID retrofit scene is more or less an underground cottage industry that is on the verge of extinction at the hands of the NHTSA bureaucrats and their various sycophants, snitches, and storm troopers.

What I’m saying is that I'm not sure it's okay to be throwing names around in connection with HID retrofits. One HID website that I’ve been visiting is currently offline, and I'm not sure if it will ever be back. I had ordered a few spare parts from there, and just received a refund notification from PayPal, but nothing directly from the vendor. Strange. Anyway, here's what I propose: I'll contact the company that provided my retros and point them to this thread. What they do about answering the "who" part of the question will be up to them. Fair enough?

Sorry about this cloak and dagger nonsense, but I happen to like the guy who worked his arse off to get the job done for me, and I'm not about to put him sideways with Big Brother. I hope you'll all understand.

Okay, I’ve got time to answer one last question.

Also, whats up with your hood? Or is that just a reflection im seeing...

Haha! I see what you mean. Yes, the car is parked with its nose just outside the garage entrance, and the reflection of the building structure above gives the leading edge of the hood a strange look – sort of like a black duck bill. But not really.

Happy trails,

T-

 

[VirtualSVT]

about a grand? I know the company.

I had their site but I lost it.

They do amazing work.

 

[99 svtcobra]

Can we see it from the front with and without the lights on. Maybe from a distance also..

cobrafan

 

[rmgtc01]

+ 1

 

[casey99COBRA]

cool

 

[2JZFAN]

I just wanted to say thank you for this post. I had a Meccatune HID which caught on fire in my car. I'd been looking for some direction on a TRUE retorfit setup to replace that carp. Thanks again! This is the ONLY way to rock HIDs on a Mustang. :thumbsup:

 

[Taz]

I just wanted to say thank you for this post. I had a Meccatune HID which caught on fire in my car. I'd been looking for some direction on a TRUE retorfit setup to replace that carp. Thanks again! This is the ONLY way to rock HIDs on a Mustang. :thumbsup:

Thanks for the kind words. I'm glad to hear this thread helped you out. I promised cobrafan that I'd post some additional photos this past weekend, but I got roped into finishing up the Christmas decorations on Saturday, and the weather wasn't good on Sunday. Maybe tomorrow.

I emailed a link to this thread to the outfit that did my lights hoping they would post up, but they never did. I think they're concerned about developing too much visibility, and rightfully so. The Feds have been coming down hard on HID conversions in general because of all the complaints from drivers blinded by the glare from most rebased HID kits.

When done right, retrofitted HID's are just the same as OEM HID's, but most don't want to spend the time or money required to do them right. They opt for the down and dirty rebased HID kits and mount the wrong bulbs into reflectors that were designed for halogens. Then, they drive around blinding everybody and bringing the wrath of NHTSA in response.

Whatever. I'll just say that if you were to use Google to poke around a bit, you'd probably turn up at least a few websites devoted to retrofitting HID's into cars for which they're not available as OEM equipment. You'd also most likely find an assortment of individuals and small companies who are willing to help you with your own.

:thumbsup:

Happy trails,

T-

 

[Taz]

Okay, cobrafan, these are for you. I hope they're what you had in mind.

First, no lights, and then low beams only ...

Then, low beams with the fog lights, and finally the high beams ...

Usually, when you see HID's that look like the high beam shot, they're the result of somebody sticking rebased HID bulbs into stock halogen reflector housings.

Most kit lights look like high beams because the bulbs aren't running through the correct optics to focus their beams and the required cutoff shield is missing. The only problem is they're supposed to be low beams, so they're blinding oncoming drivers.

Happy trails,

T-

 

[VirtualSVT]

Damn those things are bright.

 

[Taz]

Damn those things are bright.

Ya, and that's in broad daylight. They're un-freaking-believable at night.

:-D

 

[txrunsvt]

get some night pics!