Installed some HIDS on my '10 Prius

Thanks for the info. Is it same unit as HIDMobile or is it the one you recommend or using it now?

 

Please report back on those h9s

 

Thank you. Any idea compare to Coolbulbs one?

 

I just received my HID kit and wanted to ask if I need the optional relay harness to hook up to the battery (fuse box connection)? Will it work without the harness?

 

I asked the place where I bought it and Club Lexus forum, where I find the place where I bought my kit, and they all told me that newer Toyota/Lexus doe not required any relay.

Our headlight housing <-- their new HID bulb <-- their new ballast <-- their new wiring harness <-- our OEM connector.

 

Received & installed the SLIM HID kit tonight and 5 mins per side. The kit itself is well made and the ballast is crazy small, about credit card size, and slim, 1" thick. The only problem I have is I ordered 6K color bulb but it is pure white and no blue, absolutely ZERO blue, at all.

 

Did you have to install the Relay harness to the battery?

 

The relay harness is connected to the HID kit; no battery involved.

 

ajc,

No. My SLIM kit does not come and won't fit relay harness, maybe after some modifications can. I spoke with the owner of the shop where I purchased and few people in other forum where I bought the kit, very long thread about this kit, and they all said that it does not need relay harness. But I noticed OP and few others did get the power directly from fuse box and ground the chassis. Bottom line is I did not and I just plug and play.

 

HIDextra bulbs

For those who got HIDs from HIDextra, did you use the white hard plastic washer than came in the clear plastic housing in addition to the standard red rubber washer? I saw both in the clear housing. At first I thought the white washer was for use for the plastic housing, but when I mounted the bulb, it was extremely loose and had lots of play. Then I tried adding the plastic washer/ring on top of it. It fit better, with less resulting play, but the white and red washers didn't line up well so a portion of the white washer ended up being off centered. I'm worried that this may still not be a good seal and may lead to problems down the line with condensation in the projector housing and even shorting of the wires.

 

Re: HIDextra bulbs

My bulbs came in the same type of case (kbcarstuff.com). I did not use the plastic piece BUT my bulbs were not even close to loose. They were a very snug fit. If they are loose then something sounds wrong. I'm pretty sure that plastic piece is just for the bulb container. FYI, the first kit I bought had a bunch of different problems. I ran across kbcarstuff.com and tried sending them an email for help (the place I bought them from was NOT helpful at all) after sending him pics of my problems he said sorry you just have a cheap kit and there's not much you can do about it. I decided to scrap the whole HID idea and went back to halogen. After a few weeks of not being satisfied with the halogens I bought a kit from kbcarstuff.com. I figured even thought they are more expensive, they had proven very good customer support. The kit I received had zero issues and is working great to this day. Shoot them an email and they will probably help you diagnose you problem.

 

I ordered my HIDs from vvme.com. They are not mentioned much here but I found generally good reviews on other forums.

I chose their "digital SLIM" version with 4300K bulbs. They were super easy to install thanks to their small size and the bulbs are exactly the color I was looking for. Pure white with no blue.

To install them I simply removed the plastic panels mounted on the sides above the headlights and screwed the ballast to them. I held the ignitor in place with a zip tie.

The kit came with straight prongs that plug into the existing plug but I purchased a simple H11 pigtale so I could have snap-in waterproof connections.

No relays, no flicker, no problems at all. Very nice.

Here's the link to the kit:
Digital Slim H8(H11) HID Conversion Kit Wholesale Digital Slim H8(H11) HID Conversion Kit HID Bulbs Xenon HID Car Headlights Ballast at cheap price [VVME-HKSH8-DSL] - $54.99 : VVME.COM, Car Parts, HID KIT, Tattoo Kit, Ballast, Bulbs

 

BTW, for anyone trying to decide between color temps, I also went for the 4300k bulbs. I don't like the blue tint I see on some cars (I think it makes it look like cheap HID fake halogen). The 4300k bulbs are super white with no blue.

 

I checked the bulb again. Turned out one of the tabs/flange at the hub had broken off. The OEM had metal flanges. Very lousy construction for such a critical area of the bulb.

It turned out the lights had reversed polarity when I did the straight relayless connection. I then added the relay and kept the reverse polarity but the lights didn't turn on once again. I reverted back to the original polarity and that worked. Turned out the reversed polarity is in the light wire harness itself. Again, not good factory QA.

There are actually holes on each side of the side fender lips that the hood sits on. I found that I could just secure the ballast bracket right on these holes instead of doing the other mod of removing the side plastic panels. The one on the driver's side does block the fusebox cover will post pics of this later.

 

One thing about the broken tab. A lot of the vendors claim some sort of warranty on the kits. Try to get a replacement bulb. Also, I don't know if it really makes a difference but I could see the ballast getting wet from rain if ziptied to those holes.

 

I called HIDextra and they said to email them a picture of the bulb and they will replace it. Hopefully it will be soon because I left the entire set up as I didn't want to rewire everything again.

The mount ended up not working. The hood was hitting the ballasts on the inner edge of the underside of the hood. I ended up velcro-ing the driver's side ballast onto the fusebox cover. For the passenger side, there are 2 holes on the antifreeze container so I screwed the bracket through that hole and zip tied the bracket to the other hole. From the way the fender lips are formed, it looks like there shouldn't be any issue with water when it rains but I will be keeping a close eye on it.

 

i just ordered a vvme.com digital slim 4300K kit. Stay tuned for reviews. $71 shipped. awesome price.