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Thanks again Thermo,
Or should I call you Edison? I'll just get the parts for what you basically recommended. 35w 4300k with a ballast and if I wanted to change the fogs too what would those light be? Same basic lights I would guess, is that right? Along with two more ballasts for the fogs?
I'm up in Massachusetts, but thanks for the offer!
So I've got 4 35w 4300k bulbs (low beams, and fogs) and 4 ballasts to buy. Sound right?
Orson, yes, you have the right idea. The big thing that you want to look for with the fog lights is that some of the HID bulbs come as an H11 bulb which will allow you to undo the factory halogen bulb, slide in the new HID bulb, make up the connector that they provide and it will plug right into the factory harness. One side note, HID bulbs are polarity sensitive. So, make sure you get the red wire to the positive wire (green wire with a white stripe) and the black wire to the negative (black wire). Pretty straight forward. If you need the colors for the headlights, let me see what I can dig up for you.
With the headlights, I would recommend using the rubber seal that is provided with a lot of kits for the H1 bulbs and then drill a 1/2" hole in the back cover of your headlights where the low beams are. This will ensure a water tight seal when you put the headlight back together and will ensure a long life to the HID system. Make sure to make up all the connections inside of the headlight.
Unbolt the 2 additional 10mm bolts under the Light Unit
Take off back covers to exposing the bulbs
Install New HID Bulbs H1 Style
The Metal clips will hold the bulb in place... the Low Beam is manufactured with less tolerance so I place a small zip tie around the metal clips once installed to ensure not to accidentally pop off.
The Brown wire is the Negative - This is very helpful
In the back of housings you will need to drill 7/8-1" diameter hole to allow wires to fit through. With the Kit I got it came with a nice weatherproof grommet. ** NOTE don't go any bigger the grommet will be too loose. if you need any extra room dremel out a relief for the connector to pass through
Once this complete connect ballasts for both Lights.
There is very little good spots to secure the ballasts behind the Unit go this is something that is a pain
Reassemble in reverse order
Time Spent: 2.5 hours, that included testing so now that I have done this you can save that time.
Spyderman
hello friend you have mentioned very important information.. I am so glad to find the thread.. Really thanks alot
Well I decided not to wait for the forum to give any advice.
I took photos of this 2.5 hr project.
Yes you have to take off bumper, here are a few reasons why:
there really is not enough room to efficiently get your hands and eyes to the back of the light unit.
There are bolts behind the bumper to get the Unit out.
Here we go:
Here is a forum thread that has complete Bumper removal. Removing-front-bumper
Unplug Fog Light Connector
Unbolt the 2 additional 10mm bolts under the Light Unit
Take off back covers to exposing the bulbs
Install New HID Bulbs H1 Style
The Metal clips will hold the bulb in place... the Low Beam is manufactured with less tolerance so I place a small zip tie around the metal clips once installed to ensure not to accidentally pop off.
The Brown wire is the Negative - This is very helpful
In the back of housings you will need to drill 7/8-1" diameter hole to allow wires to fit through. With the Kit I got it came with a nice weatherproof grommet. ** NOTE don't go any bigger the grommet will be too loose. if you need any extra room dremel out a relief for the connector to pass through
Once this complete connect ballasts for both led lighting.
There is very little good spots to secure the ballasts behind the Unit go this is something that is a pain
Reassemble in reverse order
Time Spent: 2.5 hours, that included testing so now that I have done this you can save that time.
Spyderman
hello friend you have mentioned very important information.. I am so glad to find the thread.. Really thanks alot
myexcursion, if you need any help with that excursion, let me know. I know the Fords all too well too. 97 Expy on 37's. Granted, if you know someone looking for a toy, let me know. I need to get rid of the truck so I can get my bigger, better jag. He he he he he.
I did not cut OEM connector off & splice wires together... This is something that you will have to decide if this is a permanent job or not.
Also I would order LED for Accent Bulbs before you start and Turn Signals if you so choose... I will be taking this all off again and replacing sometime soon.
I would also inspect your adjusters while in there, I found that one of my Adjusters was broke after I was ready to put it together.
Spyderman
2004 Jaguar X-Type 3.0 Auto
Thank you guys. But to just change a left bulb on a low beam in an '04 X-Type 3.0 wouldn't I just remove battery, change bulb & assemble? Pardon this dumb question- we just got this, haven't got owner's manual yet, just joined forum & this laptop is slow (to search proper thread).
Joshy, it is possible to do it that way. Just be careful when you are doing it as your hand will still be in a funny position and you don't want to be pushing/pulling on the headlight internals too much. As the car gets older, the internals are getting more and more brittle.
In the middle of replacing my headlights and have some questions:
Brown is ground, correct?
If so, referencing the attached picture, does factory 1 needs to spliced to ballast 1, and 2 to 2?
As far as mounting ballasts, in this case two per headlight, can you point out where we mount the ballast in our cars? I see a place to mount below the headlights, but the potential left-side mount point has a 1 inch conduit running across it which makes it hard to fit two (2) ballast in the slot. See other pic.
If possible, it helps me if you can mark-up the pics with specifics.
Jag4, I am taking it that you are looking to upgrade your high beams to run HID bulbs, correct? If so, yes, the brown wire should be your ground (negative) wire. So, you would connect the brown wire to the black wire of the ballast wiring and the white wire to the red wire of the ballast wiring. That should make the high beams work properly.
As for where to put the second ballast for each side, I cannot help you there. I would have to have a car in front of me to see what all the options are.
On a side note, your high beams are the 35W HIDs correct? If so, then you should be fine as the factory relay will handle the current surge of the HIDs. If you are running 50/55W HIDs, then you need to make sure that you are running an aftermarket wiring harness or else you are going to find that you are going to have issues in the near future. If I need to go into more detail, please let me know.
06-04-2012, 02:57 PM
