HID Retrofit Log 99 Explorer *LOTS OF PICS*

Ive always loved the look of HID and aftermarket lighting on cars. On my old explorer, I had the diamond cuts with high temp harness and hyper white 80 watt halogen bulbs. On my new explorer, I wanted to do something new and go beyond what I used to have. Eairly on I decided to buy one of those 9007 HID kits on ebay that are plug and play but after doing some homework I found that they are actually illegal and dangerous to operate due to the amount of glare and stare light they give out. I then decided to fork out the extra money and do it the right way. (Plus I love the way projectors look!)

I bought a kit off ebay that consisted of the projectors, 4300k D2S bulbs, ignitors, and ballasts. ($350 shipped) I also had to buy a new set of diamond cuts because my old set on my old truck got smashed in the wreck ($100 overnighted, Thanks sideswiped for the awsome deal

Now to the pics

It was a friday nite and instead of going out with my friend and such, I decided to stay home and work on this project. I started around 8 and ended at 12 so i got 4 hours in of measuring, cutting, recutting, and playing around in. Heres what I have so far...

Diamond Cut with projector sitting inside with lense on, this will be about what it will look like when it is all done (Plus the shroud)

Halo Eyes from Advance Autoparts

Shoud that will go around the projector, had to be trimmed at the top

Lense on again with projector inside

Lense off, projector inside...test fitting

....

Rear before trimming

Rear after

A lot more trimming to go, the whole inner circle needs to be cut out.

BMW Projectors I am using

Ballast and ignitors with 9006 plug. I already have a 9007 high power harness so I will just cut off the 9007 plugs and splice these 9006 in and bam...power to the ballast. The only easy thing to this project!

More to come tomarrow night when I get more progress! I will try and show I mount the projectors and seal everything up

 

[Cue]

Im not sure what you mean? What kind of projectors do you have? The bosch Bi-Xenon like I have do not have a high and low beam bulb. There is 1 bulb that is always on, when you hit the high beam the solenoid pulls a shield down which lets more light out of the projector so I don't know what you mean by your lowbeams go off? If you mean you driving lights in the bumper then yes those are supposed to go out when your high beams are on, they do from the factory also.

 

[trucku]

Nice job..looks awesome.

I want to do this to my 02. I have much bigger headlights so I should not have clearance issues.

I also want to make some angel eyes for them too...


here is great link on a DIY Angel Eyes

 

[Creatve]

n/m i think I got the highbeam problem solved.
I got the E46 M3 Bi-Xenon Projectors Ballasts & D2S Bulbs. I think its the same as the bosche.

I finally got my projectors and in the process of cutting my new black headlight housing

 

[Creatve]

Cue, do u ever have any problems with the solenoid not pulling the shutter down when u engage your highbeams? Im having trouble with mine, mostly it just moves about a centimeter and stops. sometimes it pulls the shutter all the way down. It seems like its not getting enough power or the solenoid isnt strong enough to pull the spring back...

 

[Cue]

No I never have had a problem with them. Does yours have 2 wires or 3? I have heard of some having a weak ground on a third wire that is supposed to hold it open but not strong enough to pull it open. Mine had 3 wires on it but the extra wire did not go to anything on the circuit board.

 

[Creatve]

yeah theres three wires, i found out from some other thread that the green wire was ground and the red and black was power. Red would open the shutter faster than the black wire.

 

[Creatve]

cue, when u did the washer mod, how many washers did u put on each screw and did u do it to all 4 screws, bottom screws or top screws only?

 

[Cue]

I did it to the bottom screws only, I think put 2 under there but they were pretty thick, just have to see what it looks like, put a couple under and fire them up and try more or less of them.

 

[xpl951]

can you repost/email me the pics plz?

 

[Riken]

you're supposed to use the circuit for the e46 bixenon projectors.
one wire is to activate the solenoid(high current) and the other is to hold the solenoid(low current). putting high current to the one wire, it will eventually burn out the solenoid.
the schematic is on hidplanet.com somewhere.

 

[Creatve]

you're supposed to use the circuit for the e46 bixenon projectors.
one wire is to activate the solenoid(high current) and the other is to hold the solenoid(low current). putting high current to the one wire, it will eventually burn out the solenoid.
the schematic is on hidplanet.com somewhere.

yeah i had that feeling that i'd have to rewire my wiring to the schematics i've seen on hidplanet.com as to not burn out the solenoid....kinda been lazy to fix the wiring....and been so lazy fixing my shrouds that im driving with two different shrouds on my projectors lol. 1 shroud i made out of some lawn light shrouds and the other is an e46 bixenon shroud....havent been able to locate another e46 bixenon shroud for a decent price...hopefully i dont burn out my solenoids in the mean time

 

[Cue]

Not sure where my post went but 2 years later my lights are still working fine. Im selling my Explorer though and took them out, I probably will put them on Ebay

 

[PedroDaGr8]

By the way, here is the wiring schematic, mentioned earlier: