HID Headlight Problem, Please HELP

[LittleBeast]

Not to say you should not go with Tone, but I know that the xenonriders kit is far more simple, and has fewer components = less stuff to break. I had Tone's HID for one year and it had problems from day one and the issues were never resolved, I have had Xenonriders kits in 4 cars for over 2 years now and 0 problems. I would never say anything against Tone he is an awesome guy, but on this specific subject I suggest the more simple cheaper better qualty product.....

[tysamigo]

LittleBeast

Thank you very much! I called and spoke with Joseph. He knows of the group and indeed offered a GREAT discount (shipping included)!!!!

I purchased the "H4 / 9003 Bi-Xenon Hi/Lo HID Conversion Kit (Dual-Lamp)". He shipped it out today and it should arrive Tue or Wed. I certainly will post back an update of how everything went.

It's WELL worth noting that Joseph answered my questions and spent a great deal of time with me on the phone. I was just wanting to ensure that I'm not buying junk and sort of "quizzed" him on his knowledge of the product down to technicals, and no doubt he knows his stuff. I decided to go with the 10000k just because I have a Proton with the "blue light" thing going on and I wanted a bit more blue in the headlight.

I can't brag about the guy enough on his knowledge and customer service. Now let's see if the product holds up to my expectations.

Kudos to LittleBeast for the info. I'm hoping to have better luck with these versus the Kaixen brand name.

Tyler

[MSHardeman]

Ty/ LittleBeast,

I am interested in getting an HID conversion kit, and from what I've read on XenonRider's website, you can go back to your old halogen bulb if you ever want to. Do either of you know if this is true? Do you have to cut up your headlight assembly? Granted, I intend to keep the VX until is just won't go anymore (and at that point I may rebuild it) so I don't know why I would ever want to go back to halogens, but you never know.

Thanks,

Mark

[Ldub]

Ty/ LittleBeast,

I am interested in getting an HID conversion kit, and from what I've read on XenonRider's website, you can go back to your old halogen bulb if you ever want to. Do either of you know if this is true? Do you have to cut up your headlight assembly? Granted, I intend to keep the VX until is just won't go anymore (and at that point I may rebuild it) so I don't know why I would ever want to go back to halogens, but you never know.

Thanks,

Mark

In case you NEED to go back to halogens would be the only reason...if you delve into their website far enough, you will see that conversion kits are not DOT approved.
There are no state vehicle inspections here in ND, so I'm not too worried.

I haven't installed these particular kits, but it is my understanding that they just replace the standard bulb & the rest of the harness is plug & play. Mounting the ballast is the most difficult part & that's E-Z.

[tysamigo]

Ldub you're right. It's a simple plug and play thing and the ballasts aren't to bad to mount, but here's one thing to note MsHardeman is that this kit (unlike the Kaixen) DOES come with a ballast mounting bracket. The Kaixen came with doublesided tape which melted (hot engine compartment I guess) and the ballasts fell off of the tape within a week. I ended up zip tieing them with extra large zip ties and worked fine. I like the fact that these come with a bracket, I'm also assuming however that the bracket is sturdy and has holes in which to mount somewhere =)

To make sure you can go back to halogen just call:

626.378.8138

And just as LittleBeast said, tell him you are from the VehiCross group and he'll honor a GOOD discount =)

[MSHardeman]

Dub,

I have a feeling that once I go to HID's I won't WANT to go back to halogens. We don't have any vehicle inspections here in Colorado either, so the lights not being DOT approved doesn't matter to me either. I just wonder WHY the kits aren't DOT approved. Too bright? Guess I have some reading to do on the site.

Ty,

Thanks for the info regarding the plug and play. Like I said above, I don't think that I would ever want to go back to halogens, but I just hate to chop up my VX. She's almost bone stock, and the mods that I DO do are usually very subtle. I just didn't want to have to hack up my headlight housings.

Looks like I'll be giving these guys a call soon.

Mark

[tysamigo]

Wow, I ordered this kit on Friday at around 5:30pm EST and I received the package today!! It arrived quickly (from CA to KY) and inside was not only the kit but something you just don't see that often these days, a real letter signed by Joseph on thanking me for my business. It looks very nice and he also added a Xenonrider hat which looks pretty cool.

One other thing, the Kaixen kit (well at least the 3 that I fooled around with) comes with an instruction book but the photos are black/white and are very hard to see. The installation instructions flat out suck. For example it says "make connections" as step 3. It doesn't show you how to make the connections but then again its plug and play and seemed simple so that is when I assumed that the RED wire for each unit (fuse protected) went directly to the bat, but later I was to understand that this was incorrect and may be the cause for my problems. I asked for a sheet to show a diagram of where each connection goes but none was available.

This Xenonrider kit has nice instructions and easy to understand, almost no way to goof with a diagram. Also they give their customer support number and say if you have any questions or need help please call, yes with a phone, not by email.

I will install the kit in the next few days and will post back my results.

So far so good...

[LittleBeast]

Yupe, sounds like the same awesome service I got as well. Really a great guy to do business with and a great product, GREAT MOD no one should be without, and since it has a HI beam it passes inspection here with flying colors.

[Tone]

Time will tell. I used the Kaixen kits for almost a year before I even started talking about them. The instructions are pretty clear and simple as is the design and their glare shields are the best I found out there. Improper install can kill the best electrical components. My phone number has always been available for everyone here.

Yes, beast had a problem with the relay sockets when we installed his kit for him in Houston. Kaixen responded immediately with a redesigned socket and harness and replacements were in hand within a week. Multiple shipments to beast were made with no acknowledgement of receipt or the status of the problem. Then a complaining email months later and another shipment of replacement harnesses were immediately sent out and again no acknowledgement. Over a year later, the hacked up kit is finally sent in for inspection and I can see why there were problems. Seems he had some other electrical issues with his VX as well

And with Ty, after sending him parts and multiple complete kits (all from different production runs - 2 of which were tested here before reshipping to him) and yet the exact same problem continues to occur? XenonRider install instructions / design are the same as the Kaixen's except that the Kaixen's use a separate relay and fuse for each side.

[LittleBeast]

Once again Tone you are a great guy and have tried your best in our instances to do the right thing and fix the problems we have had with this kit, but no fix seemed to really help us, that is not saying anything against you or your stuff, just our experiences. And especially in my experiences I have had 0 problems with the Xenonrider stuff for years now in multiple cars, I just think a more simple design has fewer things to break.

As for my other "obvious electrical problems", one was just my yellow top battery dying after just 13 months of operation (weird) and my problems changing all the interior bulbs to LEDs, a problem I fixed myself, but nothing abosolutely nothing WE tried ever fixed the HIDs in my situation, but we both tried all we could. We had problems from day one (when you so patiently put the kit in my car with your own sweat and time, thanks again) and you and I tried everything for a year (back and forth) until I was just tired of messing with it, and I know you were to.

Once again nothing against you or your products, you are great to deal with and do all that you can to make people happy and we all appreciate you and your specialty products, but this one specific HID kit seemed to be unfixable, no big deal, we all live and learn, I wish I would've done a little more research before purchasing the kits I have, but hopefully all of our experiences will help someone else in the future.

[tysamigo]

One of my father's friends fixed the hood release and I never had a chance yet to ask him what he did.

Now on to the Xenonrider, I just got finished installing the kit. Each headlight harness on the VX has a 3 prong connection. On this Xenonrider kit it only has 1 connection. The instructions says:

Step 7: Connect the 3-pin socket on the wiring harness to ONE of the headlight sockets. Please note: Some vehicles are positive-switched and some are ground-switched. You may need to switch some of the pins around if the standard pin configuration does not work.

So when facing the truck from head on, the left side (passenger) is the side in which the 3 prong connector is connected. The other side (driver) is not connected to anything. When I first turned on the lights they both worked and were BEAUTIFUL. In about 3-5 seconds the left side (passenger) went out, no light. The fuses are of course OK and I have not started to switch the ballasts because I think this unconnected 3 prong may have something to do with the problem.

Littlebeast, how did you connect yours? What am I missing?

I'll also give Joseph a call in a few moments but wanted to know from someone who has a known working system how the connections were made.

Also note for those considering this mod, the instructions I spoke of are easy to read (the 1 page sheet) however when it comes to the actual installation manual (a small booklet), it sucks. The wording is in broken english as if someone translated it and did a very very very poor job. Nontheless one can mumble through it and use the diagrams to connect it.

Littlebeast????

[tysamigo]

OK GREAT NEWS!!!

THEY WORK!!!!

As soon as I left the computer I called Joseph and he answered immediately (it's 7:18pm EST). It sounded like the call was forwarded to his cell phone, even more impressive that he answered. He said to ensure the ground was not on a painted metal surface and to sand the area to ensure it's metal to metal contact (duh, even though I didn't originally do this). I did this and the same problem happened, the passenger side turned off in 5 or so seconds. My next step was to swap out the ballasts and so I did. Once I did this the darn things work!! I'm guessing (along with Joseph's advice) that nothing is wrong with the ballasts, but that I had a bad connection to the ballast.

He (and the instructions) suggest to run them for 15 min or so for the first time. They have been running for 20 min and NO PROBLEMS!! HOOOORAY!!

I ordered the 10k which is 1 step away from the most bluest color. I LOVE THEM, but the true test will be when nightfall comes. That will be the final test. I'll post back my experience, but so far soooooo goooood

KUDOS to Joseph's great and fast customer service!!

[tysamigo]

I've had an opportunity now to drive with the new Xenonriders (10k) for a few hours now. All I can say is WOW

They are beautiful! The 10ks are a bit more blue than the previous HID set but I love them. If I wasn't satisfied with the color I could have swapped them out (no charge) but I'm definitely sold on these.

The ballast in this kit is smaller than the other kit and so I thought maybe they won't be as bright and brilliant because the other kit was AWESOME (for the 2 months of operation). No problem, these are just as bright, just a bit more blue tint than before. If I remember correctly Joseph said these were about 2500 lumens, a technical spec I could not retrieve from the other kit's retail package. When driving you can see the reflective tape around the stop sign aaaaaall tha way down at the end of the road along with the reflective paint on both sides of the road and inner lanes. The lights bring out so much more visibility that it's actually such a more safer environment to drive in. I can't brag enough . . . however . . . it's still to be determined (although others have had success) if these will be troublefree.

As always, I'll keep you all posted but for now we are all good

[MSHardeman]

Ty,

Can you take a quick photo of the install? I'm really interested in the head light assemblies themselves. Do you have to get rid of the little reflector in front of the halogen bulb, or is this truely a "plug and play" installation?

Thanks for the info, and thanks for keeping us up to date.

Mark

[LittleBeast]

Ty,

Can you take a quick photo of the install? I'm really interested in the head light assemblies themselves. Do you have to get rid of the little reflector in front of the halogen bulb, or is this truely a "plug and play" installation?

Thanks for the info, and thanks for keeping us up to date.

Mark

Plug and play. The little reflector works perfectly with these bulbs. The easiest way to do this is to take everything apart including the rubber boot and see what you are dealing with. Practice putting on and off the connector ring on your stock headlights to see how it correctly clips them in there. Then try with the HIDs. Really is easy as cake just takes a few tries to get the hang of it. Seriously though if you have changed your lights before you can do this, just runs a couple of extra wires.

Ty, if you don't put some photos up maybe I can when I get the VX back from Aamco. Ty, glad everything worked out for you. I ran the ground directly back to the battery, and I did not have to modify the connection at all, however on the Mustang and Pathfinder, I had to switch around the connection plugs until the hi were hi and low were low. Glad you got that little bug figured out. Sometimes on those connections you have to sightly bend the metal part to make good contact, but be careful and make sure no power is going to anything.