Wire HID headlights for using all on high beam

[granatl]

Alradco sells High Intensity Discharge (HID) headlights as a replacement kit for the older style headlights. Even on low beam the brightness of the HID's far exceeds the brightness of stock headlights on high beam. For this reason others and myself recommend having tinted headlight covers. By default when you purchase both the low beam and high beam kits, you lose the use of all four headlights on high beam; instead, it changes to the use of the outer headlights on low beam, and then inner ones on high beam. This guide will show you how to re-wire your HID headlights in order to have all four headlights on high beam. The changes shown here will alter your headlight wiring and will not allow you to easily drop back to the stock configuration.

[TABLE="class: grid, width: 1000, align: left"]
[TR]
[TD]##[/TD]
[TD]Item[/TD]
[TD]Notes[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2[/TD]
[TD]4700uF capacitors[/TD]
[TD]Capacitors help prevent low beam flicker when switching between low & high beam. Electrolytic type. Axial style or radial style will work. This link is for the 35V variety. 16V will work too. 4700µF 35V 20% Axial-Lead Electrolytic Capacitor - RadioShack.com[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2[/TD]
[TD]3A diodes[/TD]
[TD]Provides current on the low beam wire while on high beam, but not the other way. 3A Barrel Diodes - RadioShack.com[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]4[/TD]
[TD]Bosch-style 30A relays[/TD]
[TD]Better supports the initial current draw of the HID ballasts. 4-pin relays are okay since you won't need the 87a pin.[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]1[/TD]
[TD]roll of solder[/TD]
[TD]Crimp-style connectors are better when soldered[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]12[/TD]
[TD]yellow female spades[/TD]
[TD]Crimp-style connectors for 12/10 gauge wire. Be sure to get the wider ones that fit on the relay spades.[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]4[/TD]
[TD]yellow male spades[/TD]
[TD]Crimp-style connectors for 12/10 gauge wire.[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]4[/TD]
[TD]yellow loops[/TD]
[TD]rimp-style connectors for 12/10 gauge wire. These are needed if you draw power from your power source.[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]4[/TD]
[TD]blue wire taps[/TD]
[TD]16/14 gauge wire taps to pull ground from existing headlight wiring[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]12[/TD]
[TD]blue female spades[/TD]
[TD]Crimp-style connectors for 16/14 gauge wire. Be sure to get the wider ones that fit on the relay spades.[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]1[/TD]
[TD]Alradco low beam kit[/TD]
[TD]http://alradco.com/index.php?page=s...page.tpl&pop=0&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]1[/TD]
[TD]Alradco high beam kit[/TD]
[TD]http://alradco.com/index.php?page=s...page.tpl&pop=0&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]40[/TD]
[TD]heat shrink tubing[/TD]
[TD]Easier to use than electrical tape[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]1[/TD]
[TD]10ga red wire stranded (roll)[/TD]
[TD]Length varies depending upon your power source (battery or alternator or ...)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]1[/TD]
[TD]14ga black wire stranded (roll)[/TD]
[TD]ground wire for the relays[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]1[/TD]
[TD]14ga blue wire stranded[/TD]
[TD]relay trigger wire[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

General Assumptions:

• After crimping and soldering a connector, you will melt heat shrink tubing around the wire and connector.
• Choose an adequate point to draw power. On my car my battery has twin posts, so I use the top post for accessories like the stereo, fans, and passenger-side headlights. For the driver-side headlights, I pull from the alternator post to a power distribution block and then 10 gauge wire to the relays. In both cases I choose to run an 8 gauge fused wire to the power distribution block.
• On the OEM headlight connector, you will have 3 pins. Black is ground, tan (2 wires on driver's side) is high beam, and green (2 wires on passenger's side) is low beam.
• It is perfectly normal for them to take 30 seconds or more to reach full brightness.

Low Beam (outer headlights):

1. Take one capacitor and wrap the negative leg around pin 86 on the relay. Place this (both the leg and the body of the capacitor) as close as possible to the body of the relay. The negative side of the relay is often shown with either > or - while the positive side has no indicator. Solder the capacitor leg to the relay pin.
2. Wrap the positive capacitor leg around pin 87 on the relay and solder it as well. Be sure to keep the solder close to the relay body to prevent interfering with the slide-on spade connectors that you will be using.
3. Cut a length of 10ga wire and then crimp & solder a yellow female spade to one end. Connect to pin 30 on the relay. Connect the other end to your power source.
4. Cut a length of 14ga blue wire and then crimp & solder a blue male spade on one end. Insert spade into the OEM headlight connector, mating it with the green wire.
5. On the other end of the 14ga blue wire, crimp & solder a blue female spade and push onto pin 86 on the relay.
6. On the headlight connector for the new HID low-beam (the one with the red and black wires in a connector), cut both the red & black wires close to the connector. Dispose the connector.
7. On the HID red wire that you just cut, crimp & solder a yellow female spade connector. Slide this onto pin 87 of the relay. {Optionally, you may have to extend this wire, depending on the location of your relay}
8. Take the HID black wire that you cut two steps ago and crimp & solder a blue male spade connector. Push firmly into the OEM headlight connector, mating with the black wire.
9. Using a blue wire tap/splice and a length of 14ga black wire, splice the new wire with the black/ground wire of the OEM headlight harness. On the opposite end crimp & solder a blue female spade connector. Slide this onto pin 85 of the relay.
10. Take the diode and carefully bend the leads so that one lead will go into the OEM headlight connector mating against the tan wires and the other against the green wire. On the diode, there is a symbol like >| The lead closest to the | mates against the tan wires (think "tan line" as a way to remember). [You may only need to use just one diode on EITHER low beam connector. I chose to use one on BOTH connectors]
11. Using electrical tape, tape all wires around relays, connectors, etc.
12. Test the headlights. This one should be lit for both low beam and high beam. If the blue high beam indicator on the dash stays on no matter if you're in low beam or high beam, then you have the diode backwards and must correct this.
13. Repeat these steps on the other low beam headlight.

High Beam (inner headlights):
The high beams are more straight-forward to wire than the low beams. The high beam HID wiring comes with male spade connectors on the red & black wires. The red wire connector will be replaced with another connector. Plug the HID black wire into the OEM headlight harness mating against the black.

1. Cut a length of 10ga wire and then crimp & solder a yellow female spade to one end. Connect to pin 30 on the relay. Connect the other end to your power source.
2. Take the HID red wire and crimp & solder a blue female spade on one end and push onto pin 86 on the relay. {Optionally, extend this wire if needed}
3. Using a blue wire tap/splice and a length of 14ga black wire, splice the new wire with the black/ground wire of the OEM headlight harness. On the opposite end crimp & solder a blue female spade connector. Slide this onto pin 85 of the relay.
4. On the HID red wire where you removed the male spade connector earlier, crimp & solder a blue female spade connector. Slide this onto pin 87 of the relay. {Optionally, you may have to extend this wire, depending on the location of your relay}
5. Using electrical tape, tape all wires around relays, connectors, etc.
6. Test the headlights. This one should be lit for high beam only.
7. Repeat these steps on the other high beam headlight.

(I will try to provide diagrams soon)

 

[granatl]

I have a couple of typos that need to be fixed. How do I edit my post? Although the polarity of relay pins 85 & 86 often do not matter, my original instructions flipped them sometimes.
Low beam #1 should read
... The negative side of the capacitor ...
Low beam #5 should read
On the other end of the 14ga blue wire, crimp & solder a blue female spade and push onto pin 85 of the relay.
Low beam #9 should read
...Slide this onto pin 86 of the relay.
High beam #2 should read
Cut a length of blue wire. On one end crimp & solder a blue male spade connector and then insert into the OEM high beam connector mating with the tan wires. One the other end crimp & solder a blue female spade connector and then slid it onto pin 85 of the relay.
#3 should read
86

 

[Evaddave 87gn]

This is great! Thanks....

 

[Red C5]

What a great write up. Thank you very much, Jack. I'm sure many will find this very useful. It's threads like this that make this site what it is.

Peter

 

[Mark E.]

Alradco sells High Intensity Discharge (HID) headlights as a replacement kit for the older style headlights. Even on low beam the brightness of the HID's far exceeds the brightness of stock headlights on high beam. For this reason others and myself recommend having tinted headlight covers.


I am suprised you would recomend the tinted covers. These lights are the same brightness as new factory cars, right? There should not be a blind the oncoming divers issue. Serious question, I am thinking of this upgrade.

Thanks, Mark

 

[granatl]

I have a 2010 Camaro with HID's. They are certainly bright and far exceed the illuminated surface area of incandescent sealed beams. But, I am telling you, the Alradco ones are BRIGHT. My 2008 truck still has non HID's. Maybe I'll take some pictures in the street of all 3 vehicles and it will help you understand the difference. I haven't driven the GN at night very much since I installed the HID's, mostly because I kept destroying power steering pumps. The one night that I did drive w/o the covers, I had several flash their lights at me. My garage door is white. On low beam the reflection is enough to illuminate the side of my neighbor's house.

 

[granatl]

Headlight photo comparisons

I just snapped several photos comparing my 2008 Silverado, 2010 Camaro (OEM HID's) and 1987 Buick GN with HID's, both with tinted covers on and off. See if you notice a difference!
2008 Silverado low beam:

2008 Silverado high beam:

2010 Camaro low beam:

2010 Camaro high beam:

1987 Buick GN low beam, tinted:

1987 Buick GN high beam, tinted:

1987 Buick GN low beam, untinted:

1987 Buick GN high beam, untinted:

 

[Mark E.]

Thanks! Those sure do look good.

 

[turbojd]

In the picture above, are you using the 4300k hid bulb. Sure looks whiter then my 6000k bulbs.

Excellent write up, as was said above! and pics! This might get me to do my high beams next

 

[1KWIKSIX]

Great write up and diagrams / pics Jack!
Thanks alot.

Something that came to mind when seeing your GN low beam pics.

I'm wondering if your hi-low beam bulb incorporates an anti glare shield that will redirect the light output so it won't blind oncoming dirvers. I have seen these built into many Zenon (low beam - single) H4-1 bulbs, and BiZenon (hi-low beam - dual) H4-2 bulbs but don't believe that all bulbs incorporate this.

H4-2 BiZenon (hi-low beam - dual)


H4-1 Zenon (low beam only - single)


I've heard that if not used on H4 conversions that the light output will be too much because of the reflector and poor light cut off and will be in the eyes of oncoming drivers.

I plan on using D2S - 4300k bulbs when I do my HID conversion and will be using an anti-glare shield (like Caspers' Billet HID -H4 Adapter).

Here's what it says on Caspers' site.

HID Shield for H4

This adapter allows the OEM D2S or the D2R HID bulb to be used on a standard H4 headlamp housing, such as motorcycle or aftermarket automotive style housing. Has correct beam alignment shield to project light from the HID lamp to the road, eliminating upward glare. Perfect low beam disbursement is achieved with a clean cut-off point.

NOTE: Price is for SINGLE unit, order two for cars, one for motorcycles. Does not include D2S bulb, ballast or wiring. THIS ADAPTER FITS STANDARD H4 HOUSINGS ONLY and is designed for use with unmodified OEM D2S or D2R lamps ONLY. Do not try to use an aftermarket lamp in this adapter - it won't fit.



dave

 

[jsta6]

FYI, here is how I did mine, I welcome any comments:

http://www.turbobuick.com/forums/th...read-alradco-hids.353932/page-11#post-3353630

 

[Fitman]

Granati,
Can you please furnish me a diagram for all 4 to work on high beams?
Not the best on electrical...
Installing these things were a bitch! lol
Thanks in advance!