HID Ballast Mounting Locations - Advice

[Qube]

Got the HID kit today for my 89 e34 535i. Noted that there is ample room on the passenger side (North American), but no where to put the ballast on the driver side. The only place I see is the side of the washer fluid container, which certainly isn't a desireable place to mount a high voltage device!

To those that installed HID retrofits... where did you mount your ballasts? Pictures? ;)

[SC David]

I'd also like to see some pictures of installations. I am sort of interested in doing this myself, as well.

[Patrick]

There's a bit of reflection from the flash on the driver's (left in this case) side ballast. I couldn't decide on a decent place to mount these as the instructions stated do not mount them anywhere they could be seriously exposed to water (i.e. the back of the grill, which would have been the easiest place to mount them). This is a 5200K H1 kit, Hella ballasts, mounted into european ellipsoids. To prevent having to cut/splice into the stock wiring I ordered a custom made set of wires from www.suvlights.com about $40 iirc. Jen was the name of the guy who helped me and he knew exactly what I needed -very nice and easy to deal with. There ph# was 626-967-3139 -been a while so you might check their website for details. The wire set took the total hassle out of the wiring problems.
I spliced the city light wiring into the parking lights since they were available since I'm running the euro bumper trim.
Hth
http://www.bimmer.info/bmw/patrick/HID01.jpg
http://www.bimmer.info/bmw/patrick/HID02.jpg
http://www.bimmer.info/bmw/patrick/535i0008.jpg

[Patrick]

doh! That's the passenger's side ballast (right side on US model) that's got the reflection -but you guys already figured that out -sorry for any confusion..

[bahnstormer]

i thought u were supposed to mount them as low as possible?

[MSM]

Why would that be necessary?

They won't be heavy enough to significantly affect the car's C of G! :)

[Qube]

Mmmm... thanks for the ideas! I may splice some heavy gauge wiring to make it work... any others?

[Tiger]

My locations is theft proof... in between your hood shock mount and the outer body... wedged with a medium stiff foam and double sided velcro that should have come with the kit. Only way to take it out is take the headlight out.

I used factory wire direct into the ballast and upgrade the fuse to 15A... factory wire is thick enough for 15A.

[Qube]

Well I did it. I mounted them both an NO LOW BEAM WARNING! Yippie!

The kit I got was 6500k 9006 from Kaxian. I fired them up and can't believe the incredible difference! Of course, I loomed all the wiring and reinsulated them all just in case.

There's only one issue though... there is a piece on the drivers side where the alternator... 'cooling' tube connects to. I cannot fit that piece in there anymore. I'll fabricate something in the near future, but now it will have to do without that piece. <--- anyone know what I'm talking about?

[Jon K]

Well I did it. I mounted them both an NO LOW BEAM WARNING! Yippie!

The kit I got was 6500k 9006 from Kaxian. I fired them up and can't believe the incredible difference! Of course, I loomed all the wiring and reinsulated them all just in case.

There's only one issue though... there is a piece on the drivers side where the alternator... 'cooling' tube connects to. I cannot fit that piece in there anymore. I'll fabricate something in the near future, but now it will have to do without that piece. <--- anyone know what I'm talking about?


Alternator cooling duct. Totally unnecessary do not bother hooking it back up. I have a rather complex audio/video system drawing tons of power and i've never had a single issue not running the duct. As for my ballasts, they are mounted to the bumper shocks parallel with the main frame rails of the car. I have Philips ballasts which are REALLY insulated. They've been splashed when i was pulling my washer tank resevoir and never had an issue.

Mounted as low as possible martin? Why would you think that?

[Mobius]

Alternator cooling duct. Totally unnecessary do not bother hooking it back up.So, if it's unnecessary - why is it there?

I mean, I recognize that the statement: "My alternator has it's own cold air intake" has a certain humorous value - but there's probably a reason BMW bothered to put it there.

[Jon K]

So, if it's unnecessary - why is it there?

I mean, I recognize that the statement: "My alternator has it's own cold air intake" has a certain humorous value - but there's probably a reason BMW bothered to put it there.


They put it there probably because there was room for it. It was probably one of those "why not" things. Leave it if you want, ive not had mine on for years and i have probably one of the most power drawing cars on the board. guys on bimmerforums.com take them off too.