Hey everyone, so the time has come to replace the old sealed beam Sylvania light bulbs that the previous owner has installed in my XJ. I would like something brighter then what was installed.I checked at my local autozone and found a replacement bulbs for between 20 and 25 dollars each. a quick search on Google led me to a sponsored link for http://www.simplyhidkits.com/ these HID lights are not much more expensive than just buying replacement bulbs from autozone. Plus I get the benefit of an HID package. Does anyone out there have HID lighting? How do you like it? Pros & cons? I truly appreciate any input that anyone can give me.
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HID Light kit?
- Thread starter outracing
- Start date
SuperRA
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Santa Clara, CA
Those are the illegal kits that blind everyone else on the road. Don't do it.
LYKOS
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Bent Mountain Va
Re: Re: HID Light kit?
THIS!
The most common, and best imho, headlight up grade is a relay harness and Ecode housings with H4 bulbs. It's what I run and its quite possibly the best modification I've done to my Jeep. When properly adjusted it puts the sun in front of you at night and doesn't blind oncoming traffic.
THIS!
The most common, and best imho, headlight up grade is a relay harness and Ecode housings with H4 bulbs. It's what I run and its quite possibly the best modification I've done to my Jeep. When properly adjusted it puts the sun in front of you at night and doesn't blind oncoming traffic.
- Location
- Wasatch Range
Your supplied link indentifies the company as KASA Auto Parts at the bottom of their web page........cheap HID's = crap. Do some research and buy from reputable companies.
http://www.complaintsboard.com/comp...-hidkitcom-minneapolis-minnesota-c372781.html
That being said, upgrade your harness and get some quality H4 lighting, then add some LED offroad units to make daylight when you hit the trail
Alexia
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Huntsville, AL
Usually the upgraded harnesses piggy back on to the existing bulb connectors. The existing connectors simply drive the new relays while the upgraded harness provides the power. Assuming your plow harness is not crazy it should work with it.
xjsnake
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Nashville, TN
You can do it, you just have to cut into the factory harness and wire in stand alone relays down by the bulbs. Would still protect the factory switch, give you much better lighting and maintain the plug and play lighting from the snow plow.
I had a western on my 93 XJ wired in that way with plow lights
Part of the factory harness has been done away with and replaced with the harness for the snow plow. I am worried that I would have to some how build up the plow harness. I'm not sure if it can be done either. Each head light as I understand it used to have its own circuit, with the plow, it rewired them so that only the right side circuit is used to power both lights.
hubs97xj
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Fort Wayne, IN
An upgraded harness will only connect to one of the factory plugs, and that connection is only used to trigger the relays. I would think that you could connect a new harness to either the plow harness or the stock driver's side wiring without having to rewire either the factory or plow harness. That's the whole point of the upgrade.
donthelegend
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- St. Louis, MO
If you can turn your current stock headlights on, you can wire in an upgraded harness like everyone is talking about. Period.
Not saying the plow harness isn't going to make things a bit more confusing, but if your stock headlights work now, you can upgrade the wiring with a Putco (or similar) harness.
Not saying the plow harness isn't going to make things a bit more confusing, but if your stock headlights work now, you can upgrade the wiring with a Putco (or similar) harness.
- Location
- Lakeside, CA
You can do e-code housings with better bulbs and upgraded harness. The factory harness has one circuit for low and one for high. Your plow harness may already have the relays.
A quick google came up with this:
http://www.smithbrothersservices.com/sealed-beam-plow-light-wiring.html
A quick google came up with this:
http://www.smithbrothersservices.com/sealed-beam-plow-light-wiring.html
Talyn
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Radford, Communistwealth of Virginia
This thread has some good information on upgrades: http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1103927
raypla
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Upstate,Eastern, NY
You seen these LED's? http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1082758
Best option if you have the dough. I'll stick with my Cibies, which I highly recommend.
Best option if you have the dough. I'll stick with my Cibies, which I highly recommend.
cruiser54
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Prescott, Az
Best write-up I've seen on improving XJ front lighting:
Originally Posted by xjsnake http://www.cherokeeforum.com/f2/headlights-151196/index2/ - post2069179
http://www.cherokeeforum.com/f2/headlights-151196/index2/ - post2069179
Upgraded headlights the legal (ish) way...
1) Get a new headlight harness.
You can make your own http://www.go.jeep-xj.info/HowtoHeadlightLoom.htm
Or you can buy one: http://www.eautoworks.com/Putco-H4--...s-PRD7540.aspx
The eautoworks harnesses used to be quite cheap until everyone on this forum started recommending them and the price was raised accordingly.
You can pick them up for $29.99 here http://www.lmctruck.com/icatalog/csd/full.aspx?Page=48 part number 36-3580. It says it fits a chevy blazer but it's the same as the eautoworks harness and I'm running the LMC harness in my XJ.
There are other more expensive options for pre-made harnesses but I'm not super familiar with those.
2) Upgrade to H4 housings
There are two types of regulations pertaining to headlight housings. There are DOT approved housings which are legal in the US and there are Ecode lights which are European housings and aren't legal in the US although many people use them as they are considered superior housings due to the light pattern.
DOT
Rampage http://www.quadratec.com/products/97009_501.htm
IPF http://www.quadratec.com/products/97017_1600.htm
Delta http://www.quadratec.com/products/97009_121.htm
Hella http://www.quadratec.com/products/97009_02.htm
Ecode
Autopals (look on ebay for Autopal 200mm H4 housing)
Hella http://www.rallylights.com/detail.aspx?ID=744
Cibie http://www.clearcorners.com/products/cibie/
Personally I won't buy housings that have plastic lenses, I much prefer glass but your mileage may vary.
3) Get good bulbs
Some of the above housings come with bulbs included with them. I tend not to recommend bulbs as the choices are extremely vast and everyone has their own preferences as to color and wattage.
4) Aim your headlights properly!
I can't say enough how much improperly aimed headlights annoy me on the road plus you are wasting all that time and effort to upgrade the lighting if you don't aim the light where it does the most good... http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=78017
5) On HID Lights
I do not recommend HID's for use in XJ's... People will show links to cheap HID kits and "Projectors" off of ebay and other sites which will give you a lot of light and will also throw a lot of light in all directions making you very visible to police and possibly blinding other drivers.
Read http://www.danielsternlighting.com/t...nversions.html for a well written description of the problems with HID kits.
When using HID's you need a true projector housing. I'm sure people will chime in and say they run HID's and ebay housings and have had no problems but I'm describing the legal (ish) way.
If you want to go down the road of HID's, take a look at what true projector housings cost http://www.kbcarstuff.com/6054-200mm...-p/xd-6054.htm
http://www.brightheadlights.com/hid-upcoming.htm
or you can buy the projectors and retrofit them into existing housings if you are so inclined: http://www.cherokeeforum.com/f58/hea...9/#post1391556
There are a myriad of options available to consumers with the limiting factor being cost. One can spend under $100 and have significantly upgraded their lighting or they can spend $1000 and upgrade their lighting more. It's all in how much money you want to spend.
For those wanting to do some of these upgrades but not necessarily all I would do them in the following order:
1) Headlight Harness (major improvement even with sealed beams)
2) Housings and Associated Bulbs
3) Hid and Projectors (Cost prohibitive to do correctly)
For installation of the harness and housings see this excellent write up: http://www.cherokeeforum.com/f59/my-h4-upgrade-114440/
Disclaimer: Always check your local and state laws as some places have more stringent lighting laws than others... I am in no way associated with any of the above companies and none of what I say should be taken as the absolute truth or only way to do things. Flame on...
Originally Posted by xjsnake http://www.cherokeeforum.com/f2/headlights-151196/index2/ - post2069179
Upgraded headlights the legal (ish) way...
1) Get a new headlight harness.
You can make your own http://www.go.jeep-xj.info/HowtoHeadlightLoom.htm
Or you can buy one: http://www.eautoworks.com/Putco-H4--...s-PRD7540.aspx
The eautoworks harnesses used to be quite cheap until everyone on this forum started recommending them and the price was raised accordingly.
You can pick them up for $29.99 here http://www.lmctruck.com/icatalog/csd/full.aspx?Page=48 part number 36-3580. It says it fits a chevy blazer but it's the same as the eautoworks harness and I'm running the LMC harness in my XJ.
There are other more expensive options for pre-made harnesses but I'm not super familiar with those.
2) Upgrade to H4 housings
There are two types of regulations pertaining to headlight housings. There are DOT approved housings which are legal in the US and there are Ecode lights which are European housings and aren't legal in the US although many people use them as they are considered superior housings due to the light pattern.
DOT
Rampage http://www.quadratec.com/products/97009_501.htm
IPF http://www.quadratec.com/products/97017_1600.htm
Delta http://www.quadratec.com/products/97009_121.htm
Hella http://www.quadratec.com/products/97009_02.htm
Ecode
Autopals (look on ebay for Autopal 200mm H4 housing)
Hella http://www.rallylights.com/detail.aspx?ID=744
Cibie http://www.clearcorners.com/products/cibie/
Personally I won't buy housings that have plastic lenses, I much prefer glass but your mileage may vary.
3) Get good bulbs
Some of the above housings come with bulbs included with them. I tend not to recommend bulbs as the choices are extremely vast and everyone has their own preferences as to color and wattage.
4) Aim your headlights properly!
I can't say enough how much improperly aimed headlights annoy me on the road plus you are wasting all that time and effort to upgrade the lighting if you don't aim the light where it does the most good... http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=78017
5) On HID Lights
I do not recommend HID's for use in XJ's... People will show links to cheap HID kits and "Projectors" off of ebay and other sites which will give you a lot of light and will also throw a lot of light in all directions making you very visible to police and possibly blinding other drivers.
Read http://www.danielsternlighting.com/t...nversions.html for a well written description of the problems with HID kits.
When using HID's you need a true projector housing. I'm sure people will chime in and say they run HID's and ebay housings and have had no problems but I'm describing the legal (ish) way.
If you want to go down the road of HID's, take a look at what true projector housings cost http://www.kbcarstuff.com/6054-200mm...-p/xd-6054.htm
http://www.brightheadlights.com/hid-upcoming.htm
or you can buy the projectors and retrofit them into existing housings if you are so inclined: http://www.cherokeeforum.com/f58/hea...9/#post1391556
There are a myriad of options available to consumers with the limiting factor being cost. One can spend under $100 and have significantly upgraded their lighting or they can spend $1000 and upgrade their lighting more. It's all in how much money you want to spend.
For those wanting to do some of these upgrades but not necessarily all I would do them in the following order:
1) Headlight Harness (major improvement even with sealed beams)
2) Housings and Associated Bulbs
3) Hid and Projectors (Cost prohibitive to do correctly)
For installation of the harness and housings see this excellent write up: http://www.cherokeeforum.com/f59/my-h4-upgrade-114440/
Disclaimer: Always check your local and state laws as some places have more stringent lighting laws than others... I am in no way associated with any of the above companies and none of what I say should be taken as the absolute truth or only way to do things. Flame on...
xcm
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Southern Oregon
This is such bullshit... and it comes up every thread. BMW's produce much worse blinding, and when aimed incorrectly, any headlight is blinding.
Illegal? you mean like removing fender flares, installing 5pt harnesses, or running beadlocks? What are you a cop?
HID's arent the best thing since sliced bread, especially via conversion kits, but people get so god damn uppitity about them for no damn reason... get over it.
...that being said, I would go for a high wattage halogen setup with an upgraded wire harness.
hubs97xj
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Fort Wayne, IN
SuperRA
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Santa Clara, CA
- Location
- Lakeside, CA
Lot of cheap HID kits out there. I put one on my quad, it didn't last a season, internal short in the ballast, killed the quad until I unplugged it. Of course this happened at night, in the middle of the desert. I got lucky as it has 2 lights though.
GrimmJeeper
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Gardena, CA
HIDs in a headlight housing, boo.
converting an offroad light to HID, worth every penny.
converting an offroad light to HID, worth every penny.
