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Just a matter of hours ago, I finished installing a set of Philips HID lights into my 855T. First the install:
I also rewired the stock 9006 wiring from where the wiring meets the coupler at the back of the head light assembly. I did this because a couple years ago, when changing out a light bulb (the stock Philips), I noticed that the 9006 plug that goes to the bulb on the passenger side had indications of extreme heat in the form of discoloured and brittle plastic. As such, I decided to replace this wiring. I went out to my local UAP, and purchased two 9006 wiring units. They went for about $8 Canadian, and used to be like $5-6.
I began by disassembling the head light. I removed the head light wiper by first disconnecting the fluid hose, then lifting up the cover over the nut that attaches the wiper tot he motor rod. I then removed the body colour painted plastic trim below the head light and above the bumper. Lastly, remove the side markers by tugging on the metal loop that attaches to a spring that holds the side markers in place. At this point, you'll gain access to all the clips that hold the head light lens on. Remove all of them, and put them into a magnetic dish along with the little 8mm nut. Then, I carefully removed the lens with the rubber/foam gasket. I then removed both bulbs. There are three connection points for the reflector to the assembly. On low and in between the two parabolas that is a ball and socket joint consisting of a metal ball and plastic socket, there is another point up high in between the two parabolas that consists of some thick rubber tubing that slides onto a plastic rod, and last, there is one that connects at the pointy part of the head light shape. There are basically two ways to remove the reflector, either by sliding off the top connection first, then the two ball and socket joints together, or all at the same time. It doesn't really matter. Just make sure you are pulling from the right places. The reflector is VERY thin and weak plastic, as it wasn't designed to be handled. So be gentle or you'll crack it. At this point, you should see where the wiring goes to the bulbs. To remove this, take some pliers and grab on the top flat flap and the bottom, pinch together and push. It looks like you'll need to compress the sides as well, but you don't. Just grab, and push, and it should pop out the back. Then feed the wiring and bulb sockets through the hole one at a time. Dissassembly is complete.
At this point, I rewired the 9006 low beams by twisting the copper wires together, soldering, and heat shrinking. This is optional, but HIGHLY recommended. I'd hate to ruin HID bulbs just because of shitty stock wiring. BTW, don't bother working with it if you can. It is SO thin, and SO brittle, it's not worth handling. I reused the male quick disconnects, with the new wiring I purchased from UAP.
After rewiring, I reinstalled the low beam and high beam wiring with the coupler. Simply put each connector through the little hole in the back of the headlight assembly, then the snap the coupler back into place. Then I installed the reflector. To do his I lined up all three attachment points, and pushed down on the appropriate areas.
I then installed the bulbs, and test fitted the HID wiring, which requires some trimming of the stock opening to fit. To do this, I just used a rotary tool, and shaved off about .5-.75 cm around about 2-3 cm of the outer edge opening. The extra 5-.75 cm in diameter, and 2-3 cm in circumfrence. This just allows the thick wiring to plug into the back of the bulb, and twist, to lock into place.
After the trimming, I attached the ballast to the bulb, and the 9006 stock wiring to the 9006 extension, that goes to the ballast. I was lucky, as my kit had a 9006 female to male extension, so all I had to do was "plug and play," although this modification isn't exactly easy. If you don't have the 9006 female to male 9006 extension, you'll have to do a little more work here to secure the headlight wiring to the extension. I attached everything first to get a better idea of where to mount my ballasts. My ballasts were a little larger in dimension then Charles Linden's because mine had integral mounting bracket/casing, which made it a little larger. As such, I couldn't not mount my ballast the way Charles Linden did on the passenger side. Instead, I used some zip-ties and soft foam to secure the ballast to the ECU cooling duct, and some plastic near the radiator. As for the driver side, I used double sided foam tape to secure it to the top of the battery.
I also cleaned out the reflector, as well as polished the inside and the outside of the lens. I also took the time to polish the side markers. It made a HUGE difference. There was SO much black gunk on the polishing cloth. It really made the lens and side markers "crystally" and shiny.
Some important differences between my kit and the one Charles Linden has featured on Volvospeed.com, are:
Wiring - Mine came with 9006 female to male extensions, that simply plugged into place. Charles Linden had to improvise a little. He made a " to hold the two ends and then sealed them with liquid electrical tape." Either will work fine. The only main difference is, I can simply plug and unplug. In my opinion, it is worth making such a connector from an old bulb, just for the ease of plugging and unplugging easiness. Obviously Charles Linden disagrees and some of you may as well. As I already said, either will work fine.
- Also, my wiring came with sheaths over the wires that would run together, so there was no need to zip-tie wires together.
Ballast - My ballasts had an integral mounting bracket/casing which made the outter dimensions, slightly larger, thus requiring a different way of mounting on the passenger side. I found two ways to do this. I had some scrap metal consisting of 90 degree bent metal about 1" on each side and cut about a 1" squre on each side. It basically looks like this ^ cross sectionally. It's similar tot he stuff used on drywall corners, but much thicker. There is a long bolt on the power steering fluid reservoir. Remove it, and reverse so that the bolt points from back to front, just so you don't have to thread the entire bolt through the bracket. Attach the ballast to the bracket. I was worried that it was too close to the belts, so I decided against it, but it should work.
The Kit Itself - This kit came with EVERYTHING. Beyond the ovious two HID lights, the ballasts, and the 9006 extensions, it had all kinds of wiring for all different setups. For example. You can't simply run the battery straight to the ballast and then the bulbs. If you wanted to, you'd need relays and fuses, which the kit comes with, that are integral to the wiring. It's amazing. In fact, if anyone is interested, I can take pics of those too. Basically, if you were making a car, or wanted to entirely junk the lighting on a car, you could replace ALL OF IT, with this kit.
I took a couple pics, and will probably develop them after Wednesday. I'll be glad to send pics to anyone interested. I have a pic of the stock 9006 plug compared to the MUCH better UAP replacement, a pic of the ballasts, with one of the bulbs, before and after pics.
As for performance. Put it this way. I wanted to make sure they worked before I did anything else. So I installed the HID's into the reflectors, that sat in my engine bay. I turned to position II, and BOOM! I was expecting better light, but I was absolutely shocked. I guess I've just been let down by all these premium bulbs out there until I got to the Philips Blue Visions, and I was expecting more light, but not this much more light. My garage got lit up like I have never seen. I have halogen work lamps that use a lot of energy and get hot enough to fry eggs, and they have never lit up my garage like that.
After adjusting the beams, I went for a quick spin. It has been raining for most of the day, and was when I went for the test spin. When I got to the end of my street with a bend, the light reflecting off the wet and shiny road was brighter then my head lights ever were. Another thing I realized was just how lop sided my driveway is. It's a good 2-3 inches lower on the driver side :) I got my dad to drive in front of me to check for glare, and he said, "the glare coming off half of the other cars (without HID's) is way worse. You don't notice the glare, just the colour." The lights look white when you look at them from the outside, but the light looks a pinch blue from the driver's seat. Maybe it's just relative to the regular halogens I've been running.
Anyone have any questions?
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