HOW-TO: Catz HID kit Installation

[Deuce415]

Here's a quick walkthrough of the Catz HID kit install. For the ones in the liteswap group buy for the kit, you can use this in addition to the instructions. Make sure you do the bulb test before you open the bulbs.

[Deuce415]

Out of the box pics are in the liteswap group buy thread. (http://www.v6performance.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3569&perpage=30&pagenumber=3)

I couldn't find a good mount spot for the ballasts on the passenger side inside the engine, so I took the bumper off.

[Deuce415]

Here's where I mounted the passenger side ballast.

[Deuce415]

Closeup of the passenger side mount.

I don't like mounting metal on metal unless there's something in between. So I cut up a piece of foam padding and put that in between the ballasts and the frame.

[Deuce415]

Same thing on the driver side.

Since I had my bumper off already, I thought I'd clean my intake filter as well. :D

HEre's a bit of advice: if you live in an area that's been having tremendous flash floods and thunderstorms for the past month, make sure you check the weather report before you park your car outside and decide to clean your intake. :mad:

[Deuce415]

Close up of the driver side mount.

[Deuce415]

Damn, that pic didn't turn out that great. The camera focused on the wrong thing... oh well.

I've got e-code headlamps, so I have a leveler piece that sticks out on the housing. I thought this would be a good place to mount the ignitors.

Here's the passenger side mount:

[Deuce415]

Driver side mount:

[Deuce415]

There are 2 wires to connect from the ballast. The black is the ground, and the red with the rubber boot is the positive. On the passenger side, I used an existing ground point that had 5 wires connected to it already.

[Deuce415]

Same thing on the driver side. I used a common ground with other wires already connected to it.

[Deuce415]

Connect the positive to the positive on the OEM harness. The connector slides right in. When you look at the wires on the harness, there is a black wire and red wire with a yellow stripe. At least this was the case for my car. The black is the negative.

[Deuce415]

After I covered the connection with the rubber boot, I wrapped it with electrical tape. This pic gives you a better idea of the red wire on the harness that I was talking about in the previous post.

[Deuce415]

That's just about it. There are alot of mount locations and I picked a spot that I thought would be out of the way and not too visible. At least for the ballasts, I might move the ignitors to a different spot if I can find a better spot for them.

I haven't taken any pics of the HID lights on yet because it started thunderstorming right after I finished hooking it up. And my car is stuck where it is because my intake filter is drying. But I'll post night pics as soon as it stops raining.

[Plumaccordcoupe]

Great install pics of your HIDs :D . This gives me ideas for my car :) , but no money :( . And abram2001, stop butting into peoples threads :D .

[Sam Lin]

That'll work.

The one thing that I'm surprised by is the positive hookup to the factory headlight plug for turn-on, in that it's bare wire that you stick in the socket and tape - most decent kits have a plug on that wire that matches the stock bulb's plug, so you just plug it in and it locks watertight. On a kit priced like this one, I'd be very disappointed about that.

Sam

[loxllxol]

Originally posted by Sam Lin on June 22nd, 2003 at 02:29 AM

That'll work.

The one thing that I'm surprised by is the positive hookup to the factory headlight plug for turn-on, in that it's bare wire that you stick in the socket and tape - most decent kits have a plug on that wire that matches the stock bulb's plug, so you just plug it in and it locks watertight. On a kit priced like this one, I'd be very disappointed about that.

Sam


That's the exact same thing I was thinking. Try to secure that connection by buying a female 9006 socket at autozone (or any similar store). That will be a much better connection than your current one.

[Blazin036]

good info but wheres your filter? i see CAI but no filter

[abram2001]

Originally posted by PlumAccordCoupe on June 21st, 2003 at 03:20 PM

Great install pics of your HIDs :D . This gives me ideas for my car :) , but no money :( . And abram2001, stop butting into peoples threads :D .


:gotme:

[PMantis24]

Nice How-to Deuce415, stickied :up2:

[Sam Lin]

Blazin036, try actually reading his posts...:rolleyes:

Sam

[J30A02]

great post! can't wait to get mine on thursday and start installing!! how long did it take you to do this? minus the time to take off the bumper. the CATz plug with the boot plugs into the where the OEM bulbs plugs into right? what the hell is that hug red wire running on your driver side to the battery? :confused: also do you have any pics of your whole engine bay after the instal? thanx for clearing anythign up!! im so excited

[kayotik]

nice! whered u get the ecode headlights?

[showgunz]

Originally posted by loxllxol on June 22nd, 2003 at 03:14 AM

That's the exact same thing I was thinking. Try to secure that connection by buying a female 9006 socket at autozone (or any similar store). That will be a much better connection than your current one.


Hm, that concerns me a little. I thought this kit was head and shoulders over other kits in terms of engineering and reliability. But if they skimped on costs by doing this, I don't know... But then I'm not sure what you guys are talking about this thin wire and not-so-snug 9006 connector. :confused:

[Deuce415]

Originally posted by showgunz on June 23rd, 2003 at 10:55 PM

Hm, that concerns me a little. I thought this kit was head and shoulders over other kits in terms of engineering and reliability. But if they skimped on costs by doing this, I don't know... But then I'm not sure what you guys are talking about this thin wire and not-so-snug 9006 connector. :confused:




Ok well, to clear it up a little, the wire is not bare wire there is a connector on it that slides into the positive on the OEM 9006 harness and locks into place. It has a rubber boot attached to it that you slide down and cover the connection. The boot fits pretty snug over it. I just played it safe and taped it up.

Overall, I'm pretty satisfied with kit.

[Deuce415]

Originally posted by J30A02 on June 23rd, 2003 at 10:10 PM

great post! can't wait to get mine on thursday and start installing!! how long did it take you to do this? minus the time to take off the bumper. the CATz plug with the boot plugs into the where the OEM bulbs plugs into right? what the hell is that hug red wire running on your driver side to the battery? :confused: also do you have any pics of your whole engine bay after the instal? thanx for clearing anythign up!! im so excited



Thanks :D . It took me total about 1.5 hours, some of it was due to me changing my mind about where I wanted to mount the ignitors midway through. The big red wire is 4 gauge going back to my amp.

[Deuce415]

Originally posted by kayotik on June 23rd, 2003 at 10:30 PM

nice! whered u get the ecode headlights?



I bought my e-codes about 2 years ago from Bnewton Honda (http://www.bnewton-honda.com/) . I paid $220 shipped, but I heard they recently raised prices.

[J30A02]

do you just put the bulbs in like regular bulbs???

[abram2001]

can you post some night time pics?

[J30A02]

ok, things are done. the bulbs are a lil loose in the huosing tho :confused:

[liteswap]

you can adjust tension using a Philips head screwdriver on the bulb housing. You should see 3 silver looking screws.... tighten those.

[J30A02]

thanx liteswap!!! thats what i thuoght about doing, loosen the screws and get the bulb under there and tighten them! great output!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! my cam didn't get good shots of how WHITE the light was on the ground. i will take videos of them, maybe it'll work out better. thanx liteswap for making my summer :)

[liteswap]

glad we could help you out :) although now, you might need to change your sig from Bone Stock to... Catz HID from Liteswap.com !! :cool:

[J30A02]

done :) i don't feel like making a link tho hehe

[b rockav66]

J30A02: POST PICS!!!:D

[J30A02]

ok guys, these aren't the greatest pics, but i will try to get better ones soon. and take videos of it power up :) its so cool when it powers up. here ya go guys and girls http://members.cox.net/seyha_k/accord/Accord 048.jpg sorry about the pics, i don't have enough time to make it easier to browse. pics 048-064. the HID pics are at the end. the output is PURE white for the 4500k kit

[liteswap]

Keep in mind that it has not burned in yet... give it about 60 hours and youw ill see a slight hint of blue in there.... maximum performance and perfect color ;)

[Goliath]

J30A02 - I loved looking at the pix, especially going from 054 to 055. Talk about a difference! I got my set yesterday, thanx liteswap! Going to get them installed on Thurs next week at the stereo shop while they're working on a few other things. Can't wait!

[J30A02]

make sure they test the bulbs before breaking the seal!!!!!!!! those are pricey!

[J30A02]

another pic http://www.v6performance.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=68165#post68165
ok....my bulbs still jiggle a lil bit in the housing...but does anyone else having a "problem" with the foward distance of the light....does it seem not enough for anyone?

[J30A02]

sorry to be a post whore on this, but here are some videos.
http://members.cox.net/celi_gotoslow/hid2.mpg http://members.cox.net/seyha_k/HID1.mpg

[liteswap]

actually... the HID shouldnt change your "distance" much. You aren't changing your housings, just the light output. You get pretty much the beam pattern you had before, only much brighter....

if your beam pattern changes or similar... that means there is something wrong..... I would recheck your aim... but as I said above... your pattern should not change by much.....

[showgunz]

Right. The Catz HID kits are good in that they keep their HID bulb at the stock halogen bulb distance so that the beam pattern will be as good as stock. The HID kits with rebased bulbs may not be stock length and therefore create all kinds of glare and shorter/longer light pattern. So if you want longer distance but GLARE, then maybe other HID kits were for you. But you'll probably get some people flashing you and attract cops who may think you have your high beams on.

[7thGenAV6]

Does anyone else have this problem where the beam of light seems to spread out further on the right side than it does on the left? Is it an aiming thing and if so, how do I adjust the aiming on a 7th gen? And no...don't tell me "RTFM"!! :D

[liteswap]

make sure the bulbs are in right .... are both sides the same intensity?

[QuizWORX]

check out my HID installation, its nice and clean.

[J30A02]

how much did you pay for your brembos?

[QuizWORX]

90 bucks each. I got this friend of mine who owns a shop in moreno valley.

[LaoStradamus]

Thats a good place to mount them too Deuce but my question is where is the safest place to mount them ? I would do underneaththe headlights but i also would like to save my HIDs in case i get into an accident. So wheres the perfect (safest) place to mount the ballast ?

[ForceSHO]

I mounted mine in the same place.. There isn't much place to mount it inside the engine bay..

anyway, J30A02, how long does it take for that yellow to go away ? I notice your HID (same kit) is much whiter than what I got.. just curious..

[J30A02]

heheh im not sure, but on the ground its pure white. when i look at my housing after having my lights on for a while 30 mins or more. they look a little bit whiter than stock with a lil hint of yellow. when i did those pics and videos, i barely had them for i would say they have been burning for only about 4 days, and i don't drive at night much so i would say less than 24hrs with it on

[ForceSHO]

Originally posted by J30A02 on August 9th, 2003 at 08:18 PM

heheh im not sure, but on the ground its pure white. when i look at my housing after having my lights on for a while 30 mins or more. they look a little bit whiter than stock with a lil hint of yellow. when i did those pics and videos, i barely had them for i would say they have been burning for only about 4 days, and i don't drive at night much so i would say less than 24hrs with it on


Ok cool.. my old kit was brighter rated around 4000k, so I hope its just a burn in issue. I just install my today but this is my commuter car so I already been driving for 6 hours with it on.. hahah.

[J30A02]

i hardly drive at night anymore, so i drove with my HIDs on during the day to help "break them in" when the sun is about to set and there is still light out, it looks yellow on the ground. but at night, it is staright white for me. maybe its just the roads in arizona? im not sure. but they are tite :)

[QuizWORX]

So, have you guys ever figure out about our aftermarket HID system when the alarm is triggered? I ask some alarm installer about it and they said its bad for the HID. Since HID has a ballast and ignitor, they are not design for flashing. As you can read on the installation manual, it states that: wait after 10sec before turning it ON again.

I tried to trigger the alarm and disconnecting the horn relay at the same time so I could hear the ballast. The Ballast keeps on charging the ignitor ON and OFF. I really say this is not good at all. I read some articles about it too and they say that it would lessen the MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) of the HID.

If you have a sophisticated alarm system in your car, like a shock sensor, you car will be triggered everytime the car senses a vibration.

And thought on this? Can we rewire the factory alarm to use the HIGH BEAM instead? Can someone post a 6th gen factory alarm wiring diagram?

[J30A02]

i was thinking about doing the same thing. it is bad for the HIDs because they do not get to warm up. wiring to the high beam is probably possible, but might be a lil tricky. don't our low beams turn on when we turn on our high beams also?

[QuizWORX]

Originally posted by J30A02 on August 17th, 2003 at 10:43 AM

i was thinking about doing the same thing. it is bad for the HIDs because they do not get to warm up. wiring to the high beam is probably possible, but might be a lil tricky. don't our low beams turn on when we turn on our high beams also?


You mean when you flash the headlight? I don't think so, I think its just the highbeam itself. I was reading some wiring diagram of other aftermarket alarm, it has a wire that will be connected to the headlight. If we could just have a wiring diagram of our factory alarm we might be able to tap it to the highbeam.

Anybody know where to find the factory alarms head unit?

When the dealer install my shock sensor to the factory alarm, this guy has a binder full of wiring diagram and he was able to find and attach the wiring on the passenger side fuse box.

If you have an aftermarket alarm you can find it in the diagram what color of the wire that is to be connected to the factory wiring and the color of the wire for the headlight of the factory harness.

Let's make this happen before we loose our HID and never had a chance to buy a new one again since its already ban to sell HID's.

[J30A02]

all the alarm components are in the dash area. the console is somewhere around the glove compartment and center console section. try www.handaaccessories.com and look for instructions on installing an alarm system. should give you a few ideas

[QuizWORX]

Originally posted by J30A02 on August 17th, 2003 at 11:16 AM

all the alarm components are in the dash area. the console is somewhere around the glove compartment and center console section. try www.handaaccessories.com and look for instructions on installing an alarm system. should give you a few ideas


I already check that out. They have the installation instruction but not the wiring diagram. I don't think the alarm system they sell in there is the same as our factory alarm. I mean, its also honda but I think its a different thing. I check the panels under the steering column and there's nothing in there that has an antenna which could be the main alarm module. It must be somewhere, but even though I could find it I wouldn't be able to tell which wire goes to the headlight.

[accordboy]

hey deuce did u well that extra peice onto the intake?? and could u show me how u installed it cuz im keep on brakin off the handle on mah intake

[showgunz]

I think that you'd either get the electrical diagram from the main service manual or a separate service manual just for electrical systems.

[98EXL]

I have the electrical service manual supplement...don't know if it covers V6 too, but I'll try to look

[dannynguyen]

where can u get the connector things that plug into the 9006 socket?