300ZX (Z32) Forums Dedicated to 90-96 ZCars otherwize known as the Z32's

after market HID's

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Old Feb 7, 2006 | 07:54 PM
  #1  
Z32GhOSt's Avatar
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after market HID's

hey guys i just got some aftermarket HID's for my 93 Z32 and i need some help hooking them up. there are just 2 wires to connect ground and power but when i do it they dont turn on. Both wires work fine, i put a test light to them but it seems that they just dont turn on. The lights work because when i put it straight to the battery they work fine. Please help me out. I'll appreciate the feedback. thanks
Old Feb 7, 2006 | 08:01 PM
  #2  
Aphrodite's Avatar
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From: Yokosuka, JP
Originally Posted by Z32GhOSt
hey guys i just got some aftermarket HID's for my 93 Z32 and i need some help hooking them up. there are just 2 wires to connect ground and power but when i do it they dont turn on. Both wires work fine, i put a test light to them but it seems that they just dont turn on. The lights work because when i put it straight to the battery they work fine. Please help me out. I'll appreciate the feedback. thanks

Lights work when you put strait to battery? do you mean strait from bulb to battery? if so they arent real HID's... when you say you are connecting ground and power and they dont work, where are you connecting them? you might not be getting the right voltage

Last edited by Aphrodite; Feb 7, 2006 at 08:17 PM.
Old Feb 7, 2006 | 10:14 PM
  #3  
RPS13_GZ32's Avatar
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um....if your hooking em up to your headlight harnesses.....did you flip the switch that turns on your headlights? (thought I'd ask)
Old Feb 7, 2006 | 11:50 PM
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Originally Posted by RPS13_GZ32
um....if your hooking em up to your headlight harnesses.....did you flip the switch that turns on your headlights? (thought I'd ask)
HAHA! LOL! That is pretty funny. But, seriouusly, a lightbulb will not work without negative potential. A light working by just connecting it to one terminal of a battery is impossible. Electricity just does not work that way. I don't care what kind of light it is. It will not light without an out-path. Do you mean you are connecting the neg. and pos. straight to the batt.? If so, you probably already blew your bulbs. Too much current. Get some standard spec bulbs, install them and I am pretty sure they will work. My guess is that somebody told you to test them on your battery before hand and then you tried to install them. Then, they didn't work. Makes sense, considering that old school bulbs usually had pretty high current ratings before fuses were impemented into headlight circuits. Did you have an old school car enthusiast with you when you got your HIDs? If that is the case, buy new ones and just install them. If not, you may have to do continuity readings on your lighting harness. It isn't that hard since it isn't much more than a line-to-line path. But, have fun getting to that harness.
Old Feb 8, 2006 | 12:55 AM
  #5  
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Are they just bulbs? or did you get he ballast with them too?
Old Feb 8, 2006 | 12:58 AM
  #6  
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what?

Jaffi, are you stoned? you can hook any 12 volt applicitable device straight to the battery and it will work. Lights, relays, sirens, horns...whatever! If the device came with an inverter/converter that goes in line (meant for 12v), then it is still fine as long as it was 'inline'. The guy is not a moron, he just wants some advice from people he 'thinks' may be able to help him...if thats not you....leave it alone. I am an MECP installer, and i blown away by some of the advice i hear on this site. If it is a negative only trigger from the switch, then tell him that! if you dont know, but have a piece of backyard wisdom, keep it to yourself and save us all the sigh. we come to this site to learn and help each other, not be a bunch of condescending monkeys. These are Z's, not civics. lets try to respect the brotherhood huh?
Old Feb 8, 2006 | 03:38 AM
  #7  
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Originally Posted by justinmy300z
Jaffi, are you stoned?
lol, he wishes he were.
Old Feb 8, 2006 | 03:57 AM
  #8  
RPS13_GZ32's Avatar
S13 or Z32?....decisions, decisions.
 
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Originally Posted by justinmy300z
Jaffi, are you stoned? you can hook any 12 volt applicitable device straight to the battery and it will work. Lights, relays, sirens, horns...whatever! If the device came with an inverter/converter that goes in line (meant for 12v), then it is still fine as long as it was 'inline'. The guy is not a moron, he just wants some advice from people he 'thinks' may be able to help him...if thats not you....leave it alone. I am an MECP installer, and i blown away by some of the advice i hear on this site. If it is a negative only trigger from the switch, then tell him that! if you dont know, but have a piece of backyard wisdom, keep it to yourself and save us all the sigh. we come to this site to learn and help each other, not be a bunch of condescending monkeys. These are Z's, not civics. lets try to respect the brotherhood huh?
You have to excuse some of the people who respond and ask questions on this forum, although we all come here to learn, some people (and more often than not) ask or say stupid things with out knowing of what they said (although IMO Jaffi's response didn't fall under that category, if anything it was a misunderstanding of the question). Newcomers come and go often, and there have been a fair share of dumb questions asked, so old questions asked by new members are usually (don't know why) repsonded in a condesending manner instead of a helpful way in which we would all benefit. Hopefully the addition of you being here will help change all this that much more.

Sorry for the thread heist, on with the Q&A

Last edited by RPS13_GZ32; Feb 8, 2006 at 04:04 AM.
Old Feb 8, 2006 | 04:12 AM
  #9  
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S13 or Z32?....decisions, decisions.
 
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Straight to the point:

Did it include the ballasts?
Where and how did you try to hook it up?
Old Feb 8, 2006 | 09:21 AM
  #10  
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I got the bulbs with the brains you know the full HID package and i connected the brains straight to the battery and they worked. Then i cut the harness to the stock bulbs and connected the - to the - and the + to the +. THats all i did. The bulbs flash twice and they turn off. My head light fuse blows every time i do it.
Old Feb 8, 2006 | 12:16 PM
  #11  
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if you keep blowing fuses then the HID's are drawing too much power.
easy remedy.
just wire in a relay per ballast so that your drawing your main current from the battery instead of the headlight circuit.
Old Feb 8, 2006 | 04:39 PM
  #12  
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Originally Posted by Riz Z Speed
if you keep blowing fuses then the HID's are drawing too much power.
easy remedy.
just wire in a relay per ballast so that your drawing your main current from the battery instead of the headlight circuit.

^2nd^
just make sure you use a relay meant for the current drawn by the ballasts, and you might want to put an inline fuse on there in case something goes wrong with the lights(eg. short out.. dont want your battery shorted out...), just find out the max current they need and get a fuse a bit higher then that.
Old Feb 8, 2006 | 07:01 PM
  #13  
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I finally got em to work. All i had to do was change the fuses from a 15 to a 25 and they worked perfectly. thanks for the advice guys. Now can you guys help me out and tell me how i can take out the whole headlight so that i can install the bulbs good.

Last edited by Z32GhOSt; Feb 8, 2006 at 07:05 PM.
Old Feb 8, 2006 | 07:09 PM
  #14  
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Originally Posted by Z32GhOSt
I finally got em to work. All i had to do was change the fuses from a 15 to a 25 and they worked perfectly. thanks for the advice guys. Now can you guys help me out and tell me how i can take out the whole headlight so that i can install the bulbs good.
what aftermarket HID kit did you get? Send a link?
Old Feb 8, 2006 | 07:30 PM
  #15  
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Originally Posted by Z32GhOSt
I finally got em to work. All i had to do was change the fuses from a 15 to a 25 and they worked perfectly. thanks for the advice guys. Now can you guys help me out and tell me how i can take out the whole headlight so that i can install the bulbs good.

You should probably make sure nothing else is getting powered from there that might get damaged by more then 15amps

but yeah... if there isnt grats, and why didnt I think of that? always tryin to do things the hard way... installing extra relays and such...
Old Feb 8, 2006 | 07:54 PM
  #16  
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To remove the headlight, you have to remove your front bumper. There are like flat metal plates the headlights are mounted to, and on the underside you will be able to feel 4 bolts, just remove those 4 and the harness from the back, and the headlight should just pop off of its plate. I looked for a diagram in the FSM, but no luck. It really isn't that hard.

Last edited by RPS13_GZ32; Feb 8, 2006 at 10:35 PM.
Old Feb 9, 2006 | 02:13 AM
  #17  
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Originally Posted by RPS13_GZ32
To remove the headlight, you have to remove your front bumper. There are like flat metal plates the headlights are mounted to, and on the underside you will be able to feel 4 bolts, just remove those 4 and the harness from the back, and the headlight should just pop off of its plate. I looked for a diagram in the FSM, but no luck. It really isn't that hard.
Here comes the part I like.........

WRONG!!!!!!!!!

You do not have to remove the front bumper....


http://www.twinturbo.net/net/viewmsg...&msg_id=927171


Sorry, didn't mean to flame...
Old Feb 9, 2006 | 06:53 AM
  #18  
RPS13_GZ32's Avatar
S13 or Z32?....decisions, decisions.
 
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ah haha LOL sooo sorry

I don't frequent TT.net so i've never seen that write up....that really kinda goes the long way around the problem if you ask me, for a first time (if you are smart enough to be able to re-install everything correctly) I found just removing the front bumper to be a very straight forward and simple way. This second way would work just as well, IMO I think it would take a little longer to do the job, but if your worried about the front end of your car, this would be the way to go (I had the advantage of having a POS bumper that came off easily, so a stock complete bumper might actually take a lot longer to remove than doing this other way).

Looks like I learned something new today.
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