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doyouquaxu
New Member
I picked up a pair of these lights not too long ago basically brand new for $100 each. Not bad seeing as the cheapest I could find them were $130+tax&shipping. I picked these lights over Hella 4000's due to the included space in the housing to do an internal HID set up. Mine were halogens when I bought them. Baja Designs wants $100 per light for their conversion kit. Hell no. After hours on google, and searching various forums, I never came across someone converting their lights without the Baja Designs kit. Oh well, I can just pick up an HID kit from DDM Tuning for what, $40 shipped, right? Yes and no. As I found out, the Baja Designs ballast is custom made, and has the plugs for the wiring exit the top of the ballast, instead of the side like the DDM ballast. At this point, I considered running the ballast externally, but then I wasted my time and should have just bought Hella 4000s to begin with. Out came the Dremel, and here's what I did:
Remove the lights from your vehicle. Then remove the housing assembly from the halo assembly by removing the two adjustment bolts on the side, and the knob on the top.
Not pictured:
At your work station, use a 3mm Allen wrench to remove the 4 silver cap head screws that hold the plastic housing to the metal front ring. Lift the housing off of the lens assembly, and disconnect all the wiring. The ground wire for the halogen is riveted to the lens assembly. I simply bent it back and forth till I broke it off, and started a trash pile. I removed the halogen bulb, and replaced it with the HID unit, careful not to touch the bulb.
Now the fun part:
Get out your rotary tool with a cut off disc. On your nice new HID ballast, cut the metal that acts as the female portion of the plug for the power wires. In the pics below, you can see where I cut and how much. I should have cut more off, it would have made it a lot easier to solder to later on. Also take note, I cut the silver collar that goes around the wire going to the ignitor/HID bulb. I found that it made for too tight of a fit to make me comfortable, and since my rotary tool was already out, another cut wasn't too hard.
Now get your wire cutters. I cut off the male end of the plug pictured in front of the ballast, and stripped the wires in that neat plastic loom. I soldered those wires onto the positive and negative wires already run into the housing. Harbor Freight shrink wrap is an added bonus.
Next, I trimmed the wire down to only 3-4" long, and soldered those ends to the HID ballast, and shrink wrapped the connections as well. For a more professional look (ironic, since I cut up the ballast lol), I cut the plastic loom already on the wiring to fit the new length, and shrink wrapped the end like it came from DDM.
I attached the ballast to the housing with the supplied double sided tape, connected the ballast to the HID bulb, and then put everything back together. It's easier to put the lens assembly flat on your work station then lower the housing onto it, otherwise the o ring seal for the lens assembly likes to fall out of it's little groove and piss you off. Tighten up the 4 Allen head screws, and you're ready to re-install the metal halo.
*Disclaimer: this is what worked for me. It's not the prettiest solution, but then again the ballast is internal so besides when you're doing the conversion you'll probably never see it again. It will void your warranty, but these kits are so cheap these days that if one does fail, you're still out less than half the money if you bought the Baja Designs kits. If you try this and mess up everything, I am not responsible. I'm just a guy on a forum.
Remove the lights from your vehicle. Then remove the housing assembly from the halo assembly by removing the two adjustment bolts on the side, and the knob on the top.
Not pictured:
At your work station, use a 3mm Allen wrench to remove the 4 silver cap head screws that hold the plastic housing to the metal front ring. Lift the housing off of the lens assembly, and disconnect all the wiring. The ground wire for the halogen is riveted to the lens assembly. I simply bent it back and forth till I broke it off, and started a trash pile. I removed the halogen bulb, and replaced it with the HID unit, careful not to touch the bulb.
Now the fun part:
Get out your rotary tool with a cut off disc. On your nice new HID ballast, cut the metal that acts as the female portion of the plug for the power wires. In the pics below, you can see where I cut and how much. I should have cut more off, it would have made it a lot easier to solder to later on. Also take note, I cut the silver collar that goes around the wire going to the ignitor/HID bulb. I found that it made for too tight of a fit to make me comfortable, and since my rotary tool was already out, another cut wasn't too hard.
Now get your wire cutters. I cut off the male end of the plug pictured in front of the ballast, and stripped the wires in that neat plastic loom. I soldered those wires onto the positive and negative wires already run into the housing. Harbor Freight shrink wrap is an added bonus.
Next, I trimmed the wire down to only 3-4" long, and soldered those ends to the HID ballast, and shrink wrapped the connections as well. For a more professional look (ironic, since I cut up the ballast lol), I cut the plastic loom already on the wiring to fit the new length, and shrink wrapped the end like it came from DDM.
I attached the ballast to the housing with the supplied double sided tape, connected the ballast to the HID bulb, and then put everything back together. It's easier to put the lens assembly flat on your work station then lower the housing onto it, otherwise the o ring seal for the lens assembly likes to fall out of it's little groove and piss you off. Tighten up the 4 Allen head screws, and you're ready to re-install the metal halo.
*Disclaimer: this is what worked for me. It's not the prettiest solution, but then again the ballast is internal so besides when you're doing the conversion you'll probably never see it again. It will void your warranty, but these kits are so cheap these days that if one does fail, you're still out less than half the money if you bought the Baja Designs kits. If you try this and mess up everything, I am not responsible. I'm just a guy on a forum.
