HID Driving Lights

Next on todays menu between rain storms were putting hids in the driving lights. Fun fun

I never knew what a wild method they used for the driving light bulb socket. I never had to change them on my 86 and they worked on the 87 so haven’t touched them till now.

Finding them isn’t easy to be honest. They are under the hood hinges. Flat plastic tab sitting in a round plastic tube.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. First the kit.

I bought these :

XENTEC 880(881/889) 6000K HID Conversion Kit (Ultra White)

Off amazon for $35. Figured at that price if I didn’t like them in the vette I could put them in one of my lawn mowers

Here is what they look like.

hiddrivinglights


XENTEC 880(881/889) 6000K HID Conversion Kit (Ultra White)

Next the removal, prep and install.

First you have to turn the bulb to the left 1/8th of a turn I would say. Then pull out gently. Be VERY careful since this is one weird design holding that bulb inside a looooong plastic tube to get it to reach the light. So breaking it isn’t hard I would imagine.

Once removed it looks like this.

6holderbulb

 

Then you remove bulb and it looks like this :

5holder

 

Now we need that plastic extension for our new hids. I will fully admit when I saw this thing I went into panic mode. Thinking there was no way the hids I bought were going to work with this thing.

But its doable.

What you need to do is roll the foam oring off the base of the plastic adapter thing.

Roll it in the direction of the wires and not the plug or you will rip it probably trying to go the wrong way. We need this thing to keep dust and water out of there.

Heres rolling the foam oring and what it looks like after the plastic piece is removed.

7removing

 

8removed

 

Next take one of your hid bulbs and install the plastic piece onto its wires like it was on the wire and plug you removed it from.

Put the oring onto the new hid bulb’s wires first so its in position to go onto the plastic piece once the wires are in the slots.

Here are pics assembling it.

 

One last thing I didn’t take a picture of on this bulb but I will when I do the other is to tape the bulb base to the plastic adapter. You need to do this to better hold the bulb when putting it back in. The original plastic plug that was on the end for the factory bulb was held in place by the clips on the end. You cant use those with the hid bulb and it twist off in the hole probably if you don’t tape it. Hot glue gun might even be a better idea but I don’t own one of those

Also the hid socket clip that plugs onto the factor power plug needs notching to fit. Heres the notching.

a5step5knotched

 

Now the final results vs the factory bulbs. I didn’t forget to show the actual ballast mounting its just I haven’t actually mounted the ballast yet. I wanted to get this part uploaded while waiting out rain.

Well heres the comparison shots.

bhid1

 

bhid2

 

Here are the night pics.

This is still just one hid installed to show the difference.

In the last pic I’m standing with my back to the car. The light on the left is hid and the right which looks almost not there is the stock driving light. Heck the led blinker bulbs are brighter than the stock light.

night1

 

night2

 

night3

 

night4

 

 

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