john brown

Hey guys, I was running 30 watt per bulb led lights on my 98 civic ex coupe in an after market projector housing, they went out and I got 45 watt per bulb led lights. The 45 watt bulbs are less bright than the 30 watt ones and I tried other led bulbs of 45 watt and they were all less bright than the 30 watt bulbs. Any one know why this would be ? Could this be due to the power source not providing enough power ? Does anyone know how much power is provided to the headlights in a 98 civic ex coupe ? Thank you for any help.

xRiCeBoYx

iTrader: (22)

OEM headlight bulbs are 55w. Are they the same color temperature?

john brown

yes they are both 6000 K, they were not bright enough as I drive at night on highways a lot. I decided to go with HID lights instead. I got Kensun 55 Watts Hid conversion kit. On start up they draw 8.4 Amps and then they go down to 3.4amp operating, I believe I don't need a relay harness as the amp draw is not that big. Correct me if I am wrong. Thank you !

xRiCeBoYx

iTrader: (22)

Get a relay harness anyways. I had digital ballasts that only drew 9-10A at startup and probably 5A at normal ops. Had a problem where one side wouldnt light up all the time. Relay harness solved all my problems.

Better safe than sorry, and theyre only like $35 for high quality ones

john brown

ahh I see and you're not wrong, better safe than sorry. Thank you

xRiCeBoYx

iTrader: (22)

https://www.theretrofitsource.com/wi...n-h4-9003.html

Search around. 90% positive there's a coupon code out there for TRS. Great customer service, amazing products

Do yourself a huge favor and do a proper HID retrofit (LPT: check theretrofitsource during their black Friday/cyber Monday sales). The Morimoto mini retrofit is, by far, the easiest retrofit to do in headlights originally designed for h4 bulbs. Took my buddy 3 hours to do on his '00 dx, and he wasn't terribly wrench savvy

john brown

Nice just checked out the site, I already ordered a pair of Kensun 55 watt HID 8000K conversion kit, had good reviews lets see it works out. But will definitely shop at that site during sales season. And 3 hrs for a retro fit...sounds kinda long no ? and I have aftermarket headlamp assembly which use H1 instead of OEM H4 bulbs. Thanks for the input definitely will use it next time !

xRiCeBoYx

iTrader: (22)

3 hours, start to finish. Includes taking bumper off, taking the headlights apart, retrofitting the HID projector in, sealing them up, and reinstalling everything on the car. Only thing he didn't do in that 3 hours was aim them.

Other retrofitting methods include getting crafty/creative with mounting the projector inside the headlight assembly. Even more creativity involved if you want full adjustability and proper sealing on the backside of the assembly.

Good to know about your H1 headlights. If they're halogen projectors, the light output isn't going to be as effective as a true HID retro. I've done it all. lol. Started with HIDs in H1 halogen projectors, then bought a retrofit from another member, then did my own (check the "her baby blues" link in my signature).

Furthermore, the relay harness will do you worlds of good since you have a dual bulb setup. With normal operations, if you flip your high beam on, it'll turn off the low beam bulb and illuminate the high beam bulb. With HIDs, that can cause some trouble if you're flashing them real quick to signal another driver. The relay harness TRS sells maintains the low beam activated as you flip your high beams on. Sure, you run into the same problem when your headlights are off and you wanna signal another driver. Pick and choose your battles, I ran with the latter since I don't ever flash my high beams on during the day.

Lemme know if you have any more questions, I've been around the block for quite some time and have a lot of experience via trial and error when it comes to headlights.

edit: forgot to add my 2 cents about the HIDs you bought. I'm not a fan of color temperatures over 6000k. Too much blue light to make effective lighting. My opinion of the best (white) color temps to use is 4350K-5500K. 6000K pushes it a bit, but is acceptable. Then again, you're gonna be rocking a 55w HID system, so it'll wash the color out a bit.

john brown

Ah I see what you meant by retro fitting, and yeah mine is designed for HID projectors so I should be set had leds in there but they just suck. I never thought about HID disrupting the high beam if I wanted to flash someone real quick. I have to look into it more once I get the kit because my headlight wiring harness from the car is 3 prong socket and it plugs into the after market headlight assembly via a 3 prong pin and then splits into the high and low beam power cables, which have their own separate housing, projector housing for the low beam and a regular reflective housing for the high beam. I will have to wait and see what adapters the kit comes with and how its designed to work before I can say more but definitely will work in a relay in there. Keep you posted.

I couldn't find pictures of your car itself just the engine bay and the stats on the dyno, the list of modification, wild stuff. I am still a novice at this so I definitely can't fully appreciate all of it but hey gotta start somewhere.

Thanks for the help, really appreciate you taking the time !

xRiCeBoYx

iTrader: (22)

Here's my first retrofit. Disclaimer: I did not do this retro, I bought it off another member and modified it to suit my wants. Post #8 is a pic of my first HID setup in halogen H1 projectors.

A teaser of my current setup. Kinda implies why my specific retrofit took so long.


My current HID setup

john brown

That looks sick, how did you go about making it? Also, I had a question, can I wire in yellow fog lights hooked up to the battery for a power source through a fuse and a separate switch to turn them on and off? or will it cause too much drain on the battery or something I am am not aware off ?

xRiCeBoYx

iTrader: (22)

The retrofit is actually quite easy. Hardest part is taking apart your headlights. Even then, that's quite easy, just fairly nerve wracking the first time you do it.

Here's a video from TRS of how to retrofit the morimoto minis into headlights. Fairly straightforward.

I took some extra steps due to the shrouds I chose and the size of my reflector bowl. Also wiring in the LED halos and whatnot and having them come on when I want them to.

As far as foglights, that's pretty much how they're done, except with a relay in line. Drew up a simplified wiring diagram for you
[img][/img]

The +12VDC power source is the stipulation with which you want the fogs to be on. If you want them on whenever you flip the switch, you can get rid of the relay and just wire in a switch in place of the relay. If you want them only to come on when the car is on, find a +12VDC line that's hot only when the car is on and hook it up to the (labeled) 85 pin on the relay. Similarly if you only want them to be able to be on when the headlights (or parking lights) are on, find a +12VDC line that's hot when the headlights (or parking lights) are on and hook that line up to the 85 pin.

john brown

yo thank you so much man, I didn't expect the forum to be so helpful. Really appreciate it, and I am gonna go with a separate switch for the fog cuz I am putting them in for foggy highway conditions cuz blue and white light are useless in the fog. Again thanks man really helpful stuff.

xRiCeBoYx

iTrader: (22)

Any time man. The wiring schematic I drew up for you puts the fogs on their own switch. If you dont know how a relay works, I can explain if youd like. If you do know, soldier on. I'm always open for questions

john brown

Hey man, I got the hid kit and wired in a relay wasnt hard to figure out everythings working. For the highbeam, i got extra wires and used the unused headlight wiring harness from the car, cuz the relay only needs one, I wired the highbeams to the other unused headlight harness and everything works. I can flash my highbeams when the lights are off and when they are on.

xRiCeBoYx

iTrader: (22)

Cool man, happy to hear it worked out for you. Is it safe to assume you haven't gotten any night time play with it yet?

john brown

yes good even beam pattern, no flickering, adjusted it so it doesnt blind other ppl. Thanks again man !