The HID DIY

[O 16581 72452 5]

I didn't find any info searching, so here's my how-to on it. It's not the most complete, but i'm lazy.

First step, if you do not know how to remove your headlights, please don't attempt this. These are the easiest headlights to remove.

That said, i consider this step one:

Remove the positive



Insert it in to the positive of your HID kit



Remove the two ground wires (connected to one prong).



Put it on the ground to the HID kit.



Remove the bulb and put the HID in, there's a cap that's screwed on the HID, this obviously has to be removed.

The HID only fits one way, make sure you get it lined up.



I pulled part of the cap back to the O-ring, dunno what else to do with it . I've worked on cars where that would've screwed on the headlight housing however, but not on this car. Electrical taped it up.



Everything now quick disconnects from the ballasts to run your wiring for installation. This is my personal installation, may or may not work for your car. I had to bend the vacuum nest bracket on my TDI for the driver's side ballast.

Remove your rain tray cover and windshield wipers. If you don't want to remove your windshield wipers, tough ****, that's how the cover comes off. The cover fits in a channel below the windshield quite snug, it'll take a little negotiating to come out.

Here's where i chose to install my ballasts.



Ignore my disgusting engine bay, i'm getting it ready to tear down come spring for a bigger turbo.

Anyway, in that location you'll likely have sound insulation...i think, i don't. There's a threaded nub for a plastic type nut that would hold up the insulation. Mine was missing.

Directly above that nub you'll see where it was welded to the chassis. Set your ballast on top of that and line the hole on one side to this nub spot, drill a hole on the other side using one of the other two holes as a guide...now you can't go wrong measuring.



The kit came with nuts and bolts...



And there it is in it's position i chose for it.

Plug your headlight in like normal, run the wiring from the HID to the ballast, good to go.

Hope it helps a bit, i was confused as hell when i opened the box.

[Yello_jellybean]

Hey Thanks! I don't need this "How To" right now, but maybe in the future.

This I can say for sure though.... Many others will find this VERY useful, as they probably had, or WILL HAVE the same questions you did.

Thanks again!

[O 16581 72452 5]

Originally Posted by Yello_jellybean

Hey Thanks! I don't need this "How To" right now, but maybe in the future.

This I can say for sure though.... Many others will find this VERY useful, as they probably had, or WILL HAVE the same questions you did.

Thanks again!

Glad to be useful, anyone looking to do this PM me with questions, but once i figured out the extremely simple wiring, it was really straight forward.

[jdubvdub]

Awesome write up... if you get a slim ballast kit then they fit in the cubbys right being the housing... Im not sure if those cubbys are only past a certain year tho...

[SMG]

Man your headlight lens looks haggard. You're definitely going to be blinding people at night.

[Beetlecup]

I want to see some pictures at night.
What color did you go with?
Thanks for the write up.

[DZLBUG]

Yellowed and hazy lenses: FAIL
Rebased HID kit in a halogen projector: FAIL
No relay to power ballasts - will result in burned up wiring: FAIL

And just what the heck is going on at the bottom of this picture? What are those wires going to? Is that a CCV hose going into a Vault bottle? That engine bay is NASTY.

[O 16581 72452 5]

Originally Posted by DZLBUG

Yellowed and hazy lenses: FAIL
Rebased HID kit in a halogen projector: FAIL
No relay to power ballasts - will result in burned up wiring: FAIL

And just what the heck is going on at the bottom of this picture? What are those wires going to? Is that a CCV hose going into a Vault bottle? That engine bay is NASTY.

I just got the car not too long ago, cut me some slack, i paid $2k for a TDI Beetle, of course it's not the cleanest thing there is.

I tried wetsanding and buffing the lenses and they won't come out of it. I'll eventually buy new ones. The glare isn't bad at all with the halogen housings. I needed something though, my halogens were so old i had shadows from cars behind me in my own headlights, lol. These were $40, new bulbs are around $30...i figured *shrug*

No burned wiring yet...that's what fuses are for, to prevent burned wiring.

Yes, my PCV is routed to a vault bottle, like i said, i'm tearing it down for a bigger turbo come spring. It's not meant to look pretty in the mean time. I took the factory intake piping off to get started on stuff that will have to be removed for the turbo. Those wires are for the relocated MAF sensor (since the intake piping is removed). I'm going to do a MAF delete tune, so that will be completely cut out.

[SMG]

DZLBug... I agree with all of your points except one. Have you ever ran HID's in NB halogen projector housings? Honestly it works fine. The cutoff is razor sharp on my garage door and they don't blind oncoming drivers at all. If you wetsand your lenses please go side-to-side and not up and down. That will cut down on glare for oncoming drivers.

[O 16581 72452 5]

Decided to go out and get a picture, sure the Beetle has a halogen housing, but it's still ellipsoids with cut offs. I wouldn't put HIDs in something without ellipsoids, i've seen Civics with that, it pisses me off with all the glare.

Here's the Beetle's HIDs.



Here's my Audi's factory HIDs...that need aligned on the driver's side.



If it weren't for knowing my Audi needed aligned, i wouldn't know which was which.

So how about not being a hater.

[SMG]

My cutoff looks exactly like the bottom one. If your lenses weren't messed yours would look a lot nicer.

[O 16581 72452 5]

Originally Posted by SMG

My cutoff looks exactly like the bottom one. If your lenses weren't messed yours would look a lot nicer.

I'll get new lights no worries.

[DZLBUG]

I will admit that the H7 projectors are passable with HID's. But the proper D2S projectors are cheap and readily available, and they bolt right up. In the pics above; there is more light bleeding off above the cutoff, also note the more intense "hot spots" near the cutoff where the D2S projectors are much more evenly spread. This creates poor light output for you, and it does create additional glare for oncoming drivers when the cutoff line is above them (hills etc). I have run next to and head-on with NB's that have HID kits in the stock projectors. I know first-hand that the output is not as good as my headlights and the glare is worse.

Another problem, poor quality bulbs and ballasts. I dont know about you, but I like to know that my headlights are of good quality and will not fail on me in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere. My Hella ballasts and Phillips bulbs are made in Germany. Yours are made in China with the cheapest methods/materials/labor available.

VW's are somewhat notorious for having undersized wiring for the loads they handle and for the fuses that are on the circuits. Think cooling fan problems. HID ballasts do draw much more power and they will screw up the wiring and/or headlight switch long before it pops the fuse. The fuse is there primarily to provide protection against dead shorts. They are not very good at overload protection. I've seen many pictures and cases of melted/burned wiring on VW's running HID kits without a relay. A relay harness is simple and cheap to build.

[oceanjoe89]

My HID kit in regular projectors looks like the bottom picture as well. (Minus the poor aim). Mine are a perfect stair step with no glare above the cutoff. Something looks whack with your passenger side light, too. It looks about 40% as bright as the left one. Is this just a product of the picture, or is it really like that??

[jdubvdub]

Oh, Jesus take the wheel... Its not worth even humoring dzlbug, he is the oem hid conversion psycho police of the internet forums... ya I said it... you act like a freakin nazi, you know your stuff, don't get me wrong, but dang you act like we should be put in concentration camps and gassed if we dare put a hid kit in "OUR" beetle... Mines been fine for years, the hid kit in my sisters beetle is going on 5 years old, no problems, no circuts or wires melting, no fuse boxes melting, no melted housing, no flickering, no killer glare, cut offs fine etc, and ya it was cheap, and ya it was off EBAY, and made in China just like most everything else is on this planet... "My Hella ballasts and Phillips bulbs are made in Germany. Yours are made in China with the cheapest methods/materials/labor available" who cares our cars are freakin' put together in Mexico "with the cheapest methods/materials/labor available"... You could just nicely inform him about it rather than being so judgy, condescending and nasty about it all the time... Good point with the relay harness tho, thats a must

[O 16581 72452 5]

Originally Posted by oceanjoe89

My HID kit in regular projectors looks like the bottom picture as well. (Minus the poor aim). Mine are a perfect stair step with no glare above the cutoff. Something looks whack with your passenger side light, too. It looks about 40% as bright as the left one. Is this just a product of the picture, or is it really like that??

They're as bright, but they're different colors, probably had one replaced at some point. The right one is kinda purple, the left one is more blue.

[jdubvdub]

Originally Posted by DZLBUG

Yellowed and hazy lenses: FAIL
Rebased HID kit in a halogen projector: FAIL
No relay to power ballasts - will result in burned up wiring: FAIL

And just what the heck is going on at the bottom of this picture? What are those wires going to? Is that a CCV hose going into a Vault bottle? That engine bay is NASTY.

I don't even care if I get suspended but you are such a nasty douche...

[DZLBUG]

Originally Posted by jdubvdub

Oh, Jesus take the wheel... Its not worth even humoring dzlbug, he is the oem hid conversion psycho police of the internet forums... ya I said it... you act like a freakin nazi, you know your stuff, don't get me wrong, but dang you act like we should be put in concentration camps and gassed if we dare put a hid kit in "OUR" beetle... Mines been fine for years, the hid kit in my sisters beetle is going on 5 years old, no problems, no circuts or wires melting, no fuse boxes melting, no melted housing, no flickering, no killer glare, cut offs fine etc, and ya it was cheap, and ya it was off EBAY, and made in China just like most everything else is on this planet... "My Hella ballasts and Phillips bulbs are made in Germany. Yours are made in China with the cheapest methods/materials/labor available" who cares our cars are freakin' put together in Mexico "with the cheapest methods/materials/labor available"... You could just nicely inform us about it rather than being so judgy, condescending and nasty about it all the time... Good point with the relay harness tho, thats a must

Originally Posted by jdubvdub

You are such a douche...

Someone is a little thin-skinned? Who is being condescending and nasty?

[jdubvdub]

I guess I am still a little raw from our previous conversations, and Im being condescending and nasty towards YOU cuz your a douche bag.... not to someone who was proud to show off their new mod... I came down to your level to write these messages, but I am going back up now, see ya...

[DZLBUG]

Originally Posted by jdubvdub

Im being condescending and nasty towards YOU.... not to someone who was proud to show off their new mod...

Never said you were being condescending and nasty, I could care less. I was cornfused as to how you thought I was being condescending and nasty.

I don't think anything I said is that bad, I'm just not going to blow smoke up someone's arse to make them feel good.

Whatever, I'm done arguing with you. Think what you like, I could care less.

Originally Posted by jdubvdub

Im being condescending and nasty towards YOU cuz your a douche bag.

Look at my posts and how much time/info/help I have given to people and tell me that again.

Sorry if I'm not "friendly" enough for you.