Vette10R Posted April 14, 2016 Report Share Posted April 14, 2016 Hey guys I just installed some HIDs tonight and have a couple questions. The kit I ordered came with the harness with relays and came with a couple plugs with capacitors. I decided to hook them up without using those and they seem to work just fine. There is a little flicker right when they turn on but that goes away fast and they seem to work great. My question is do I need to use the harness and capacitors? Am I going to hurt the HID kit in the long run or will I be fine as long as the lights are working fine? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candurin Posted April 14, 2016 Report Share Posted April 14, 2016 You can put the capacitor on and see if it helps eliminate the flicker. All the capacitor is designed to do is give a little more boost/crank power from the initial ignition to help eliminate the flicker. My capacitors never had an effect on my HID kit. I've been using my TRS kit without the capacitors for 4 years with zero issues. I did try using them, as I have always had a initial flicker on my passenger side. It never bothers me and it seems as though it only occurs if I start my edge in the dark. If I am driving and it turns dark enough for the auto function to ignite the lights, the flicker does not occur (cold start = flicker, hot start = no flicker). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vette10R Posted April 14, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 14, 2016 Did you use the additional wire harness with relay? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candurin Posted April 14, 2016 Report Share Posted April 14, 2016 (edited) Yes, as I have a 55w HID kit. I used the heavy duty relay wire harness with my morimoto kit. Edited April 14, 2016 by candurin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vette10R Posted April 14, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 14, 2016 I have a 55w kit as well not did not use the harness. So far on the test drive last night they worked perfect and this morning on my way to work I flipped them on even though it was sunny out and I could see in the reflection of other cars that they were working fine. I think I will leave it this way unless problems pop up in the future or if anyone thinks its a bad idea? I do have all the parts sitting in the garage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vette10R Posted April 14, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 14, 2016 Another question I have is I noticed a "hotspot" on the ground coming from the drivers side headlight last night when I test drove it. At first I was thinking I might have put the bulb in crooked where maybe only 2 out of the 3 tabs actually went in so I came back and pulled the light out then re-installed and it is definitely in there correct. I checked the manual and it says I can only adjust the lights vertically, do you think my light is just aimed to low on the drivers side? I guess I never noticed the stock headlights being anything but perfect... I passed several cars last night and none of them flashed me so I am assuming the lights are not shining high and into the oncoming traffic. Im thinking I should try to adjust the drivers side light up to get the hot spot off the road? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candurin Posted April 14, 2016 Report Share Posted April 14, 2016 You may just have to rotate the tabs. The bulb return wire should be on top of the bulb (between 9 and 3). I would advise against not using the relay harness. That is really designed to take the strain off the lower gauge factory headlight wires. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vette10R Posted April 14, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 14, 2016 Ok I'll throw the harness in thanks... As far as the bulb, when I pull the back cap of the housing off so I can see the bulb the red wire is in the 3 o'clock position and the black wire is in the 9 o'clock position. How would I go about changing that? I pulled the bulb out a few times last night on both sides and I can only get them to lock in one way... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candurin Posted April 14, 2016 Report Share Posted April 14, 2016 Sorry.... I don't mean the wires feeding power to the bulbs. I mean the metal wire attached to the glass of the bulb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vette10R Posted April 14, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 14, 2016 I understand that I was just stating what I could see hoping you could understand when way my bulb was facing, kind of a long shot but figured I would try lol... Eitherway how would I change the way the bulb faces in the housing? Like I said I tried several times and can only get the bulb in one way. It always ends up with the red wire to 3 o'clock and black to 9 o'clock... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candurin Posted April 14, 2016 Report Share Posted April 14, 2016 I'm sorry again Vette! I'm confusing myself! Which size bulbs did you go with 9006 or 9012? You want to make sure the return wire is facing as close to 6 o'clock. This ensures that the projected "shadow" of the wire is at 12 o'clock and not in your beam pattern. If you do not see the shadow, you're good. As far as the hotspot is concerned, you can possibly readjust the beam height but that was not something I had to do. Whew! I went off on a tangent! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vette10R Posted April 14, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 14, 2016 Haha thanks man! Ill try doing some adjusting and see if that helps, otherwise I think the next step is to pull the housing out of the truck and try to get the bulb right where I need it that way... Bulb is a 9006 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candurin Posted April 14, 2016 Report Share Posted April 14, 2016 I had a bear of a time getting my 9006 bulbs to seat properly. I had to trim one of the tabs to get the bulb to turn. If you can pull the headlight housing out you should be able to really make sure all three tabs are locked in and aimed properly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vette10R Posted April 14, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 14, 2016 That must be my problem then, I'll try to get the housings out and fix it this weekend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vette10R Posted April 18, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 18, 2016 I still haven't had time to pull the fixtures to make sure they are seated correctly. Last night the wife got flashed a few times coming home. Has anyone else had issues with getting flashed? I thought projector housings were made for HIDs? Would you guess it's the alignment way out of wack or should I be using 35w instead of 55w? I may throw the stock bulbs back in until I figure this all out... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Halstead Posted April 18, 2016 Report Share Posted April 18, 2016 Last night the wife got flashed a few times coming home. Has anyone else had issues with getting flashed? I thought projector housings were made for HIDs? Not true. There are 3 different types of projectors. Halogen, HID and LED all are made to work with the correct bulb. Putting the wrong bulb in, turns you into that person driving down the road throwing glaring light at everyone. Granted a projector housing glare is not as bad as putting HID/LED into non projector housings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vette10R Posted April 18, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 18, 2016 I read on this forum that you can swap to HID in the projector housing... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candurin Posted April 18, 2016 Report Share Posted April 18, 2016 Unfortunately, Nick is not a fan of any retrofit without ANY complete projector housing modification on the 2011-2015 edge (Nick, I'm not trying to be antagonistic). Many, MANY of the forum members have had zero issues and zero "flash back" from on-coming traffic after retrofitting HID kits. The shadow, off-center hotspot and the fact you are getting signals from other drivers is a strong indicator that your bulbs are not seated correctly. You definitely want to check that out. You should have NO issues with on-coming traffic if everything is installed properly. You won't get the razor lined sharp cutoff that OEM provides, however, you will obtain a cutoff on the retrofit inside the halogen projector that does not have any deleterious effects on other drivers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vette10R Posted April 18, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 18, 2016 Ok thanks. I'll pull the HIDs and put the stock bulbs back in until I get time to remove the housings and install them correctly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
normcloutier Posted April 19, 2016 Report Share Posted April 19, 2016 I have some great pics of the back of the housings with HID installed. Also have a pic of what needs to be trimmed on the tab in order to rotate the lamp. I will post those tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Halstead Posted April 19, 2016 Report Share Posted April 19, 2016 to be "headlight junkie" correct, a retrofit is taking out the halogen projector and swapping in the correct HID/LED projector. This is the correct way to run HID/LED setups. Changing bulbs is not a retrofit of any sort, it's just adding PNP (Plug and Play) HID/LED bulbs into housing.adding PNP HIDs to a Halogen projector gives you average results. nowhere near as bad as stuffing them into basic Halogen reflective housings. contrary to what your eyes thing they see, when you add PNP HID/LED to Halogen lights it creates more foreground lighting, which makes your eyes/brain think they are better. Yes, they are brighter but your Halogen bulb had more USABLE light. For example, everyone's eyes are different and everyone wears different glasses. Well, your headlight bulbs are your eyes and the projectors are the glasses, each one is designed for the correct bulb to work "properly."When taking pics of a retrofit you should be able to see the cutoff beam. A PNP kit cannot mimic this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
normcloutier Posted April 19, 2016 Report Share Posted April 19, 2016 Here are some pics of my install. The black sharpie shaded areas shown on the tabs of the OEM bulb are what need to be trimmed in order to be able to rotate the bulb and have it seat properly. If you installed the HID bulbs in the default position, you probably have shadows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vette10R Posted April 19, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 19, 2016 So those are 9012 blubs in your pictures and I bought 9006 bulbs, are the tabs the same on the 9006? If they are the same then it looks like from your pictures that I need to trim the top center tab down about an 1/8 inch and notch the right tab so its the same size as the left tab. Does that sound right? Thanks for the pics! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Halstead Posted April 19, 2016 Report Share Posted April 19, 2016 Everything above the black is leaking into oncoming traffic. Also, lighting references should be done 50ft from a wall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candurin Posted April 19, 2016 Report Share Posted April 19, 2016 The stock bulb is an HIR2 bulb, which is a 9012 pattern/size. There are 9012 aftermarket size HID bulbs (two/three years ago there was not, which is why we used 9006 or 9005 bulbs). I (and many others) have used 9006 size kits. Some have been able to "wrench" the 9006 bulbs into the OEM socket with no issues and others have had to modify the top tab to fit. There is a very slight and subtle difference in the 12 o'clock tab on the two bulbs: http://store.candlepower.com/mohirbuba.html http://www.motorfiend.com/mobile/9012-Replacement-HID-Bulbs-30000K-Extreme-Blue/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.