Hi guys,

I have a 2005 X-type. I've ordered headlight adjusters and am planning on doing the repair after they arrive. I thought at the same time that I would upgrade the FOG lights to 35w HIDs as a supplementary light source for when I need it. I was thinking of going with this kit from HIDExtra. It's an H11 kit but I see an old thread here suggesting a H1 bulb.

I was only going to go with the 35w 'Signature' series, the cheapest one. I know the OEM-style ballast would probably be better, but it's $120 instead of $60 and I rarely use fog lights.

Any comments from someone who has done this, or installed a different HIDExtra kit, or knows whether this will tax the fog light wiring would be helpful!

 

nalgarryn, first off, welcome to the Forums. Lots of good information here and tons of great people. But, we do ask a small favor from you first. Please stop by the New Member section and tell us a little bit about yourself/car. We pride ourselves in being a better car group and as part of this, we are like family and like to get to know one another. This will also give you a chance to meet those that make this place what it is.

As for your question, I have done this mod a quite a few cars. The question you have to ask yourself is how much money are you willing to save for the amount of time it is going to take now and in the future. Yes, you can use an H1 bulb, but it requires a fair amount of modification to the factory bulb base to make the H1 bulb work. The factory bulb is an H11 and if you can find an HID kit that is specifically for an H11 bulb is going to make the install pretty much plug and play vice a lot of drilling and RTV applying.

On a side note, you will find that there are a lot of HID kits that use the thin ballasts. DO NOT BUY THEM!!!!!!! They will work fine for about a year but then you will start having issues with them. I know it is a bit more money, but what I would recommend you do is to buy yourself a set of H11 HID bulbs in the color that you want (if you have questions on this, let me know) that are 35W units and then find yourself some "Maxlux replacement HID ballasts". These run about $30 each, but trust me, you install them, you will never have another issue. The final thing that you will need is a set of "high temp 9006 sockets". These can be had at any auto parts store. These will allow you to plug your factory wiring into the ballast box and keep things as simple as possible. The big thing that you need to keep in mind is that the ballast is polarity sensitive (ie, the positive wire has to be attached to a specific pin and the negative to the other pin), if they are backwards, the ballast will not turn on the bulb. You can plan on spending about $80 to do things this way. But the long term benefits are well worth the money. I had the Xentecs that a lot of people buy. The bulbs are fine, it is their ballasts that I keep on having issues with.

If you need any more info, let me know. If you look in my gallery, I have a few pictures of what it takes to add in one of the H1 Xentec kits for the fog lights. That will give you an idea of what you are looking forward to.

 

You can actually buy the kit directly from MaxLux on Amazon right now to $70; ballasts, bulbs, and cables, and they have both the H1 and H11 kits.

The only downside is that if you want the heavy-duty mounting brackets, they are sold separately. As an engineer, I prefer the bracket to the zip-tie method.

 

Thanks for the tips... photos look useful. Hopefully I don't have a hard time getting the bumper off.

I've ordered a MaxLux kit from ebay for H11 fog lights and will do it with the adjusters when they arrive. If all goes well, and I like it after a couple months, I might consider doing the high beams as well.

 

nalgarryn, if you do the high beams, then there is a bit more wiring involved with them if you step up to the 50W HIDs. If you are sticking with the 35W HIDs, then you should be ok for wiring them up to the factory plugs.

If you have any questions, let me know. Wiring is what I do for a living and can step you through just about anything.