Now available: Complete Elise HID kits

[ekological]

In between

[ekological]

notice the light dropoff

[MikeVR4]

I just finished installing the 4500K kit from Ekological, along with Silverstar main beam bulbs and LED parking lights...I sprung the extra $3 for the interior LED light bulb as well. Thanks to Dave for posting this great idea.

I am VERY happy with Ekological's kit, and the installation guide. A suggestion - I would add a list of tools at the beginning of the guide. I was also able to find enough room to mount the passenger side ballast with the wires facing down, I just removed a bracket holding a hose to get the necessary space to drill the mounting holes, and then replaced the bracket. I thought about using the pre-drilled hole the bracket snaps into, but got lazy and just drilled another one...

I will post pics of the lamps when it gets dark - THANKS EKOLOGICAL!

MikeVR4

[MikeVR4]

Here's the "brilliant" result, along with the cool interior ambience:

[Obsidian]

I'm sorry I don't have any pics right now but I did want to say that I got the XTec 50 watt 8000k driving bulbs. They are a world of difference over the old ones. I can finally see street signs. The instructions were spot on and the result is well worth the time and money.

There are two pieces of documentation in your instructions I'd recommend including. The first would be some instructions on aligning the headlights. Mine were all messed up so I spent a while just trying to resolve what seemed like someone's prank

The second item is a picture of the fuse box with which fuses to change. I just got out the service manual but some may not know how to count backwards from 22

Mounting the ballast on the passenger side was a pain. But the most painful thing was getting the retaining clips around the bulbs. I actually had to bend those a little bit in order to get them to work. I spent by far the longest time trying to get those little paperclip-like pieces of metal around the larger plastic housing of the new bulbs.

Thanks again for the huge improvement in my driving experience! I'm no longer concerned to drive this thing at night!

I know there’s debate all over that halogen bulbs are actually brighter. I don’t know what to say other than these seem to illuminate a lot more for me. There’s no more “V” shaped blind spot in front of my car and I can see quite a bit further ahead than the stock bulbs.

[ekological]

Obsidian,

Thanks for the tips. I would have included tips for aligning the headlights, but I have yet to adjust mine, myself....so I'm not sure what affects what. Also, with the fuses, I'll snap a picture when I change mine out, but to date, I've only changed the fuses for the horn (scary driving around with an inoperable horn!!).

All,

I have a fresh supply of HID kits. Of course, many of the 6000K kits are already gone, but I think I have one or two left. I have 4500K kits and even one 8000K kit.

[ekological]

I just realized that I could provide a 100% crop of the retaining clip that secures the bulb to the reflector. Check out the picture and see how I had one side of the clip hold the bulb in regularly. The other side (the one of the top in this picture) is manipulated such that it catches the little hook in the reflector and then is lifted over the other side of the clip. This ensures that both sides always have tension keeping them towards the centerline as well as ensuring that they stay against the little hooks.

[Red05Elise]

Originally Posted by ekological

I just realized that I could provide a 100% crop of the retaining clip that secures the bulb to the reflector. Check out the picture and see how I had one side of the clip hold the bulb in regularly. The other side (the one of the top in this picture) is manipulated such that it catches the little hook in the reflector and then is lifted over the other side of the clip. This ensures that both sides always have tension keeping them towards the centerline as well as ensuring that they stay against the little hooks.

I safetywired mine together, then used gorilla tape as a seal.

[ekological]

Originally Posted by Red05Elise

I safetywired mine together, then used gorilla tape as a seal.

Yeah....safetywiring them together would work as well. What's gorilla tape? Seal?

[ct_mazi]

Originally Posted by ekological

Yeah....safetywiring them together would work as well. What's gorilla tape? Seal?

I think that it's an expensive vesion of the regular duct tape.

[TrackRat5]

Installed Ekological's 6000K kit over the weekend. OMG what a difference. Before the HID's, I thought I should have my eyes checked. Good to know I'm not going blind! Not only can you see better but the car looks even more "exotic". Great product - a must for any Exige / Elise owner.

[BZRD69]

Originally Posted by TrackRat5

OMG what a difference. Great product - a must for any Exige / Elise owner.

Just installed mine too! ...Chesters' got the goods!

[ScubaJKD]

Finally got around to installing my 50W 6000K kit today. WOW fantastic kit, works better than I even expected and he is a wonderfull guy to deal with. TWO THUMBS UP!!!

[ekological]

Originally Posted by ScubaJKD

Finally got around to installing my 50W 6000K kit today. WOW fantastic kit, works better than I even expected and he is a wonderfull guy to deal with. TWO THUMBS UP!!!

Wow! Hahaha...didn't realize you hadn't installed the kit! Glad you liked it! Enjoy!

[ekological]

I was thinking back to when I developed this kit and all of the ideas that floated around. I wanted the kit to be plug and play so that it would be 100% reversible. As many know, stock H1 halogen bulbs get their power by a 1/4" female terminal pressed onto the back of the bulb. Ground is achieved through contact with the base of the bulb. In the Elise/Exige, the ground wire attaches via a smaller female terminal. Have a look here:



Larger version can be seen here: http://www.elisetalk.com/gallery/sho...&original=1&c=

The lowbeam connectors are on the top right next to my yellow text. Notice how the original ground wire coming from the connector is a heavy gauge. It has to be since it grounds the highbeam, lowbeam, parking light, and side reflector light. Somewhere in the wrapped part, Lotus splits the large ground to the individual wires (it probably isn't very pretty).

It's my guess that certain vendors offering their alternative plug-n-play kit will either pass two additional wires past the grommet with the appropriate 1/4" male terminal and smaller male terminal for power and ground. Or, if the wires aren't sent into the grommet, the original connectors are pulled back through the grommet....and you lose the weather sealing of the grommet.

I thought back to one of Doma's comment (http://www.elisetalk.com/forums/show...98&postcount=5):

Originally Posted by doma

The quality of the connectors included in this kit are tops. Any EE's out there like me will get a big grin looking at them. They match the connectors on the car perfectly.

I remember reading this and smiling that someone out there truly appreciated the custom harness. The connectors match the car perfectly because everything in the harness are the exact same parts that Lotus uses. My thought was to get the power and ground as early as possible--elegantly and cleanly. I crimp my terminals using a professional crimper with no solder whatsoever. I also use wire seals on all wires to preserve the factory's weatherproof quality:



An example of a link from the female connector to the male connector:





And when it all comes together, you get the lowbeam solution like this:


And the lowbeam/highbeam custom harness:




If you're with me so far, thanks for reading.

[babak]

Originally Posted by mrluky

Do you have a picture of 8000k?

Darksol has 8000k, do a search of his posts and you'll see a picture.

[darkSol]

http://www.elisetalk.com/forums/show...07&postcount=1

Before left / after right


Front view


Close up from above


Enjoy!

[wrh3]

I received my HID kit (50w 4500k) last week and had the opportunity to install it Saturday. Start to finish took about 2.5 hours, pretty simple thanks to darkSol's instructions (THANKS). The hardest, most time consuming part of the install was bending the wire retaining clip with needle nose pliers and getting both sides to stay latched- once both sides would stay hooked I put zip ties around the base to lock them in place.

RESULTS: Consistent with other reviews, this is a night and day difference. This is what our cars should have come with from the factory. My pics don't illustrate this before/after difference as well as others....... I feel comfortable driving at night now.......Thanks for the great service Chester

I also took the opportunity to install some SilverStar high beam bulbs.

Kit contents:


Passenger Side installed:




Driver Side installed:


Zip tie "safety" holder for clip:

[gameson]

Originally Posted by Obsidian

The second item is a picture of the fuse box with which fuses to change. I just got out the service manual but some may not know how to count backwards from 22

If I am not mistaken, the fuse for the headlights are slot 20 and 21 and per manual, it's already 15 A. WHy do people get the 10 A?

Obsidian, did you get the 8000K? Can you post some pics?

THanks.

[rnr]

The instructions that came with the kit were really good though there were a couple of places where I did get a bit confused. I ended up taking a whole bunch of pics to help the next person out.

The photos are available on flickr and have most of the parts marked out (mouse over the pics to see the notes) - feel free to comment or correct. If you'd like to add pics just let me know and I'll stick them in.
http://flickr.com/photos/rnair/sets/72157594391327363/