New HID Headlight Install

[TomInPA]

I wanted to update this since there have been some pretty significant failures in a short amount of time. During our Mount Hamilton ride last weekend, one of my headlights went out. I installed a regular bulb so I could keep riding, and after doing diagnostics, it turns out one of the G4 ballasts failed. Called HIDCountry and they immediately sent out a new ballast which arrived in just 2-days. No charges or shipping, so kudos to HIDcountry for delivering.

Yesterday, the good HID bulb went out. This time it was the bulb. So again call HIDcountry and the manager offers a brand new set of motorcycle slim ballasts, and a pair of 4300K bulbs. Again, shipped with no charges, and a promise to return the old parts. I don't know why the bulb failed. Seems coincidental that I am running one HID and one incandescent.

I have been using the motorcycle slim ballast in the cruiser for two years without problem, so this is going to work out fine. The point of this update is, don't get the Generation 4 ballasts yet. They clearly are not as reliable, and with the amount of disassembly that is required to work on this and replace it, you only want to do it once. Bulbs can be replaced without any disassembly, but ballasts and relays, mean the whole nose cowling is off the bike again. One other recommendation is to keep your OEM connectors in a place they can be reached easily in case you have a failure. I was able to remove the bad HID bulb, install a conventional bulb and hook it up in less than 5-minutes. If I had been touring, it would have been nothing more than a minor inconvenience to convert back to halogen bulbs. I have had pretty good luck with HID equipment up to now, and these are the first failures. I can't say enough good about the vendor in this case who has express-shipped new parts and stood behind this set, even without the extended warranty.

 

[Fred W]

I just yesterday finally got around to reinstalling my telescopic H4 HIDs in my FJR. They were installed over 3 years ago and working flawlessly up until I smashed the headlight bucket on the rump of a recalcitrant ruminant. Actually the HID lights were still working even after the bambi crash, though the headlight bucket was totaly fragged. Before I brought the bike in to the shop that did the insurance bodywork I pulled the HIDs out and set them aside to simplify their task, and never got around to re-installing them.

Fast forward 2 years. I missed my bling head lights.

I also noticed a conspicuous difference in the way cagers around me reacted when riding with just the halogen lamps in daylight hours. There is no doubt in MY mind that it makes a difference in conspicuousness, yet I have no tangible proof to offer others.

Mine are Chinese telescopic BiXenon 4300K lamps with ultra-slim ballasts. Here is the post where I installed and made some comparison testing. I doubt that my seller is still around three years later. eBay vendors tend to have have the life expectancy of a gnat. And I'm 100% certain that the way various vendors represent the color of their bulbs vary tremendously. But I think that the 4300K HIDs that I have are completely white without the slightest hint of blue. I like that.

 

[puppychow]

I have the McCulloch 4300K HID Lo Beam only lights. I love them so far, but they have only been on here for about ~600 miles or so. There is just no comparison between these Lo Beams and the OSRAM Nightbreakers I had before. The HID lights rock!

 

[TomInPA]

I have the McCulloch 4300K HID Lo Beam only lights. I love them so far, but they have only been on here for about ~600 miles or so. There is just no comparison between these Lo Beams and the OSRAM Nightbreakers I had before. The HID lights rock!

I really liked the appearance of your headlights, and they were very visible compared to the other FJRs behind me, other than Brodie who was also running Clearwaters (upper Krista and lower marker lights, as well as brake lights). The 4300K color was something I decided I wanted to go with anyway, so not it's not on my dime.

How did you fit those full-size McCulloch ballasts?

 

[puppychow]

Stacked on top of one another on the rack on top of the headlights. I moved the windshield up an down to make sure there is no interference between these and the windshield slide - I eyed them as well with a flashlight as the windshield slide went up and down - plenty of margin, so they are good. The ballasts are sizable still, German made with integrated ignitors. I used "cushioned" 3M DS tape the vendor supplied to stick them on the rack and to each other - then used zip ties to secure the wiring to the nose frame. The wiring was already loomed from the factory - perfect!

I have a bunch of other crap - (GPS power box, Sat radio power box, V1 power distrib. unit, plus audio mixer plus ground loop isolator and all the associated wiring and cables and looms plus the wiring for the heated grips and for the powerlet and SAE outlets) running around the nose area and residing in the pockets in front of the battery and the glove box, so the rack above the headlights was the only space leftover for the ballasts.

This leaves me with no more space in the nose area for aux HID lighting and is the reason I am considering LED aux lights to act as my high beam to supplement my always-on HID Lo Beam.

 

[TomInPA]

HID Part 2:

HIDcountry felt I would be better served with the motorcycle HID kits and replaced the G4 ballasts, bulbs and relay with a new set of slim ballasts, 4300K color bulbs and two relay harnesses. I was not charged anything, and the new set was sent before I sent my old unit back. The customer service was phenomenal. Props to Gerald who said just send back your old unit when you get the new one. :yahoo:

The new unit uses two separate relay harnesses. While that is slightly less compact, it actually provides a safety redundancy of two relays and two fuses rather than risk losing the entire headlight set with a single fuse or relay. The relays are 40 amp and fits together tightly with connections to the original H4 plug, a power line with inline fuse, a ground wire, power connector to the ballast and a hi/low solenoid controller wire. The ballasts are slim ballasts with external igniter module, and a set of hook-up to the bulbs. The H4 bulbs are well built in a heavy shielding with a locking base tot he wiring assembly. They are indistinguishable from the bulbs being distributed with the McCullough kit that cost more than twice as much with regular full-size ballasts.

Here is the kit before installation:

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Here is the right bulb assembly in the headlight socket before putting on the dust and moisture seal. The retaining wire easily fits over the lamp assembly and holds it securely in place.

The dust and moisture seal has to be cut to make enough room to fit over the base of the bulb and harness assembly. Just a single cut of the inner rubber circle is enough to allow it to be stretched over the bulb-base. You want to avoid pushing this over the bulb as it is possible to bend the mounting tangs on the bulb and affect the bulb alignment.

The ballast and relays all fit into the side body panel below and in front of the battery. It is secured with a piece of Velcro to keep it from jostling around. and the wires are zip-tied to be neater. The objective here is to avoid attaching anything to the front cowling, so it can be easily removed for maintenance later by just unplugging the bulbs. I still have all the space around the headlight assembly available for other accessories. The nose cowl very easily slips on and there is no need to move wiring harnesses around to attach it. Very clean install this way.

With every thing tucked away, the nose cowl slips right on.

The white light from the 4300K bulbs is an improvement over the "diamond white" of the 6000K bulbs. As far as longevity, I had a bulb burn-out, but I'm fairly certain that it was a consequence of the testing I was doing to determine whether the ballast or a bulb was bad. You don't ever want to switch the live ballast hook-ups after the arc is struck. Ask how I know.

 

[griff]

Tom: So you got both ballasts, relays and associated wiring in the right side fairing area? Could I get that stuff in there without taking off the front cowl again?

 

[bramfrank]

I tried a couple of HID conversions and was unhappy with all of them - besides, I like to run a headlight modulator and as pointed out, HID conversions for high/low are pretty much hit or miss.

So, like Skooter I have been running Halogen bulbs and HID driving lights for years - I never have to worry about a ballast failure because the main lighting doesn't use them. As it happens, the Gen 3 German-made Phillips ballasts I am running have neverr failed and neither have any HID bulbs in almost 125,000 miles of riding.

Then there';s the fact that the reflector is specifically designed for use with an H4 bulb with it's point-source rather than the relatively large blob that is a plasma ball.

As to power consumption, beyond the strike time D2S and D2R systems use ballasts, being switching power sources are more than 90% efficient and have worst case running draw on a 35 watt bulb of less than 40 watts per side. There would therefore be between 30 and something less than 40 watts of total power savings over stock with a conversion . If your bixenon uses a power-on solenoid, you'd need to add in the coil wattacge for those as well.

 

[TomInPA]

Tom: So you got both ballasts, relays and associated wiring in the right side fairing area? Could I get that stuff in there without taking off the front cowl again?

I have one ballast in each side. They are secured with a piece of Velcro to keep them from bouncing around. I can access all the wiring and fuses without any disassembly, but it does help to take off the forward dash panels. Personally, I find it easier to remove the front nose cowl. Once you have done it a couple times, it gets really easy, but it is not necessary.

Halogen bulbs have their own failure mode that is much more common than a failed ballast. Filaments break and put out the light. HIDs are usually pretty bombproof, but like all electronics, components typically have an initially high, but rapidly decreasing, failure rate. My luck to have had one Gen4 ballast failure. I have installed three other units with conventional slim ballasts with no problems. As long as customer service is reliable, the benefit of much better light, and longer mean times between failure, outweighs the inconvenience of dealing with the "early failure rate: Halogen bulbs themselves are subject to early failures as well. With this system, it is very easy to unplug the ballast relay and install a Halogen bulb as a backup if needed. Nothing needs to be disassembled or disconnected, just swap the bulb and plug it in.

Modulators are a whole debate in themselves. I prefer the visibility of the HID without the antagonizing effects of modulation. But to each his own.

 

[Roy Epperson]

Not sure if it is a Gen II verses Gen I, but I can find space on the right side for the relay, fuse and ballast below the turn signal. But the left side is not working..... The radiator reservoir take up the space for the ballast.

Bummer, I wired them up and turned them on to see what they were like before I tried to find homes for all the pieces.....