As the years go by, more and more newer vehicles are coming with brighter, whiter, safer HID lighting. If you've ever sat in a car that has this type of lighting from the factory, you'll know it's like having your own personal sun beaming down in front of your car.
There have been many solutions as to how to put these lamps in older cars and trucks, however most of these solutions are dangerous for both the owner o the vehicle and the others on the road and not to mention illegal.
True HID headlights have 3 main components. An HID bulb (looks like a long thin clear stick), a ballast (usually a square about 4" in size and varying thicknesses depending on model), and a wiring harness. In a proper retrofit, the harness connects directly to the battery to provide the extra amperage needed by the ballasts to fire up the HID bulbs.
Many people have purchased inexpensive HID kits from places like DDMTuning or eBay. These kits have a re-based HID bulb that is made to fit into your vehicles stock headlamp lens (h4 in our case if you've swapped out the oem sealed beam headlamps). This will increase the lighting output by a great deal, but this is very wrong and very dangerous to others on the road.
HID lights are not designed to be used in reflector type housings, which our trucks have. The light output gets scattered and leaks out to places where it shouldn't be, blinding others on the road with intense white light, which could cause an accident or visual impairment. These kits are also built with cheaper components that could malfunction and fry your entire electrical system. (Not something you want to do on a rare SyTy let alone anything else)
So how to do this the right way you ask? Well, there are a few extra steps and some added cost. However, in the end, the results will make both you and those on the road much happier and safer.
1st step is to purchase a set of headlamp housings. Our trucks came from the factory with sealed beam headlamps. These headlamps were a one piece construction that contained both the entire lens and the bulb inside, so each time the bulb went out, you had to replace the entire headlight housing with it. There are several types of headlamp housings available to convert our sealed beam headlamps into permanent housings with replaceable h4 capsule bulbs. This is actually a mild upgrade in itself, since the h4 bulbs and new lenses will provide much better output than the sealed beams. I recommend a simple set of diamond reflector housings that are made of GLASS not plastic. There are a select few that have metal housings instead of plastic, get those if you can, if not it isn't necessary. Do not purchase ones that have "projectors" in them... they aren't projectors, they don't work like projectors, and you're going to pay more for something that would get ripped out of the lens anyway. If you don't like the diamond reflector look, don't worry, you can paint these later, the chrome reflector isn't needed.
2nd step is to purchase a retrofit kit. I recommend going to theretrofitsource.com for this, as they sell good top quality product for a decent price range. They have kits of varying difficulties, but most of them are the same concept. The kit I recommend is the Mini D2S. This kit will come with a very well built HID ballast, all harnesses needed, D2S type bulbs (oem hid), and most importantly, glass bixenon (low beam high beam in one lens) projectors. These aren't as cheap as your ebay kit, but this is the price to pay to do it right with no issues or danger.
The kit will come with specific instructions, however, the general idea is as follows.
You will place your headlight housings you just purchased into your oven and head them for 10-15 minutes to soften the rubber glue seal that holds them together. You'll carefully pry the lenses apart to disassemble them. You'll paint your reflector or keep it chrome, whatever you choose, and add any additional lighting if youd like, such as decorative halos, or LED light strips (ala 2013 Mercedes and audis). You'll mount the projector into the reflector housing, properly aligning it as per the instructions. Youll heat the lens again and clamp the glass back onto the housing and seal with the re-sealing glue that comes with your kit. Your lenses will now be ready for install on your truck.
Next comes the lighting. You'll attach a relay harness directly to your battery, which will provide power to the ballasts. You'll find a good place to mount your ballasts in the engine bay with either brackets, or double stick tape. (I recommend brackets so they don't move or fall.) The ballasts will have a connector that will plug into the D2S bulbs, and the bulbs will fit securely into the projectors that you installed into your headlight housings.
There will also be a connection to the original headlight harness that was for the sealed beam lamps. This is to make your headlight switch work and to make the projectors switch properly between low and high beams.
That's pretty much it, you'll now have a true HID lighting setup on your old 91-93 with a light output just as good as a new Mercedes. Because of the projectors, you'll have a sharp cutoff line which will prevent others on the road from being blinded by your new headlights. The projectors also focus that light that would normally escape, back onto the road so you'll see much better. You'll also retain your high beam function, which will now be blindingly badass. You'll also have a reliable setup with better manufactured parts with a WARRANTY so if in the rare event anything goes wrong the manufacturer will take care of you. Best of all, these HID bulbs outlast sealed beam and h4 capsule bulbs by a hell of a long time, and are becoming less and less expensive to replace when they finally do go out.
I've seen a lot of incorrect setups, and not only do they not look good, they're a hazard to others on the road and to your trucks electrical system if rigged up improperly, or if a battery harness isn't used. This setup is the proper way to go, and the results are worth every penny. It's a great way to bring your SyTy up to speed with new technology without permanent modification. (you can revert back to stock sealed beams in about an hour.)
Hope this guide helped you, and hopefully more people will do HID the right way. Post up pictures of your retrofits I think we'd all love to see them :tup:
Here are some example photos of what a sealed beam conversion looks like. IMO I think it would be better to paint the reflector the body color of the truck to make it looks a little more OEM in appearance. Also, I forgot to mention that you are given a choice of shrouds for your projectors that come in varying designs, so futher customize how they're gonna look on your truck.
There have been many solutions as to how to put these lamps in older cars and trucks, however most of these solutions are dangerous for both the owner o the vehicle and the others on the road and not to mention illegal.
True HID headlights have 3 main components. An HID bulb (looks like a long thin clear stick), a ballast (usually a square about 4" in size and varying thicknesses depending on model), and a wiring harness. In a proper retrofit, the harness connects directly to the battery to provide the extra amperage needed by the ballasts to fire up the HID bulbs.
Many people have purchased inexpensive HID kits from places like DDMTuning or eBay. These kits have a re-based HID bulb that is made to fit into your vehicles stock headlamp lens (h4 in our case if you've swapped out the oem sealed beam headlamps). This will increase the lighting output by a great deal, but this is very wrong and very dangerous to others on the road.
HID lights are not designed to be used in reflector type housings, which our trucks have. The light output gets scattered and leaks out to places where it shouldn't be, blinding others on the road with intense white light, which could cause an accident or visual impairment. These kits are also built with cheaper components that could malfunction and fry your entire electrical system. (Not something you want to do on a rare SyTy let alone anything else)
So how to do this the right way you ask? Well, there are a few extra steps and some added cost. However, in the end, the results will make both you and those on the road much happier and safer.
1st step is to purchase a set of headlamp housings. Our trucks came from the factory with sealed beam headlamps. These headlamps were a one piece construction that contained both the entire lens and the bulb inside, so each time the bulb went out, you had to replace the entire headlight housing with it. There are several types of headlamp housings available to convert our sealed beam headlamps into permanent housings with replaceable h4 capsule bulbs. This is actually a mild upgrade in itself, since the h4 bulbs and new lenses will provide much better output than the sealed beams. I recommend a simple set of diamond reflector housings that are made of GLASS not plastic. There are a select few that have metal housings instead of plastic, get those if you can, if not it isn't necessary. Do not purchase ones that have "projectors" in them... they aren't projectors, they don't work like projectors, and you're going to pay more for something that would get ripped out of the lens anyway. If you don't like the diamond reflector look, don't worry, you can paint these later, the chrome reflector isn't needed.
2nd step is to purchase a retrofit kit. I recommend going to theretrofitsource.com for this, as they sell good top quality product for a decent price range. They have kits of varying difficulties, but most of them are the same concept. The kit I recommend is the Mini D2S. This kit will come with a very well built HID ballast, all harnesses needed, D2S type bulbs (oem hid), and most importantly, glass bixenon (low beam high beam in one lens) projectors. These aren't as cheap as your ebay kit, but this is the price to pay to do it right with no issues or danger.
The kit will come with specific instructions, however, the general idea is as follows.
You will place your headlight housings you just purchased into your oven and head them for 10-15 minutes to soften the rubber glue seal that holds them together. You'll carefully pry the lenses apart to disassemble them. You'll paint your reflector or keep it chrome, whatever you choose, and add any additional lighting if youd like, such as decorative halos, or LED light strips (ala 2013 Mercedes and audis). You'll mount the projector into the reflector housing, properly aligning it as per the instructions. Youll heat the lens again and clamp the glass back onto the housing and seal with the re-sealing glue that comes with your kit. Your lenses will now be ready for install on your truck.
Next comes the lighting. You'll attach a relay harness directly to your battery, which will provide power to the ballasts. You'll find a good place to mount your ballasts in the engine bay with either brackets, or double stick tape. (I recommend brackets so they don't move or fall.) The ballasts will have a connector that will plug into the D2S bulbs, and the bulbs will fit securely into the projectors that you installed into your headlight housings.
There will also be a connection to the original headlight harness that was for the sealed beam lamps. This is to make your headlight switch work and to make the projectors switch properly between low and high beams.
That's pretty much it, you'll now have a true HID lighting setup on your old 91-93 with a light output just as good as a new Mercedes. Because of the projectors, you'll have a sharp cutoff line which will prevent others on the road from being blinded by your new headlights. The projectors also focus that light that would normally escape, back onto the road so you'll see much better. You'll also retain your high beam function, which will now be blindingly badass. You'll also have a reliable setup with better manufactured parts with a WARRANTY so if in the rare event anything goes wrong the manufacturer will take care of you. Best of all, these HID bulbs outlast sealed beam and h4 capsule bulbs by a hell of a long time, and are becoming less and less expensive to replace when they finally do go out.
I've seen a lot of incorrect setups, and not only do they not look good, they're a hazard to others on the road and to your trucks electrical system if rigged up improperly, or if a battery harness isn't used. This setup is the proper way to go, and the results are worth every penny. It's a great way to bring your SyTy up to speed with new technology without permanent modification. (you can revert back to stock sealed beams in about an hour.)
Hope this guide helped you, and hopefully more people will do HID the right way. Post up pictures of your retrofits I think we'd all love to see them :tup:
Here are some example photos of what a sealed beam conversion looks like. IMO I think it would be better to paint the reflector the body color of the truck to make it looks a little more OEM in appearance. Also, I forgot to mention that you are given a choice of shrouds for your projectors that come in varying designs, so futher customize how they're gonna look on your truck.
Last edited:
opcorn2:
