Hey everyone, I have a 99 V70R and bought some Nokya fake HID superwhite headlight bulbs, problem is they look like every Honda and Acura on the road. Was wondering if anyone has upgraded to a real HID xenon kit? Suggestions on real HID kit? Yes? No?

Yes. I have a HID 6000K kit in house. Got custom brackets made to mount the ballast and starter. However, I'm experiencing the lights getting dimmer when I turn on the A/C, juice is getting sucked from somewhere, so I'm holding off on the HID install until this dimming thing is settled (see another thread below). Sin has done it on his 850. He did a complete detailed write-up on it if you use the search tool for it.

Regards,
Mike H.
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1998 Nautic Blue C70 - minor mods here and there...and HID!!!

Mike H or Sin could you let us all know the details of the kits you installed. I am interested in doing the same thing on my 98 V70 as I really don't like stock lights.

98 Blue V70, IPD and minor mods.

Thanks
Norby

All of this has been discussed at length, with great instructions, with pics, and with multiple sources for the instrucstions, comparisons and pics, that took quite a while to put together. Try a search.

So you finally got them in eh? Sorry to hear they are giving you problems though. How exactly did you wire them? Did you use the direct 12V with external relays/fuses that should have come as a kit, or did you wire the stock wiring to the ballast to the HID lights? Post the details of your install, and hopefully, I might have some ideas on where to look. What kit did you get? Hopefully you got a good one, and you can rule out the components, and start looking into your car's electrical system. Otherwise, it'll take quite a while to figure out whether it is the HID system or the car's electrical system that is causing the problem. Do you notice any dimming with the stock lighting? Since your HID's are (I am assuming) 35W, instead of 55W per stock, if you aren't getting any dimming problems with your stock lighting, you can probably rule out the car's electrical system, unless the way the kit was wired in, is somehow not entirely compatible.

I never notice any dimming on my kit, so I'm assuming it can be done. BTW, how long did you run them in your car? I noticed that for a while after getting the kit, the lights got brighter. Maybe I'm just seeing things, but logic and psychology would dictate that they would appear very bright, and not as bright now. So I'm assuming that they have actually gotten brighter. Maybe there's some kind of break in period.

Sin,

I don't have the HID kit on the car yet, that's the problem. I was planning on doing it this past weekend, when I noticed the dimming problem. I know that the HID kit would suck up a lot of juice as well so I decided not to put it on. I'm hoping it's just the battery so that I'll just replace it with a better one.
Anyways, I got a Hanabi 6000k kit through a group deal about two months ago. $400 shipped. It took a long time to get things started because I was waiting the custom brackets I had made to mount the starter and ballast. It will look a lot cleaner. I didn't want to mount it on the battery. Plus, if there's something wrong with the kit, I can take it off as a whole unit instead of part by part. I'm not sure if my kit has relays, I posted pictures of it in the gallery if you want to take a look, I don't think it did. Anyways, I'm planning on going through the stock wiring (I plan on upgrading that as well.) We'll see how that goes. Don't worry, I plan on writing a detailed write-up and tons of pictures for everyone as well as CAD drawings for the brackets.

Regards,
Mike H.
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Mike H. - 1998 Nautic Blue C70 - minor mods here and there...and HID!!!

No no, HID's use WAY less power, while producing WAY more light because of efficiency. HID's essentially use an arc across noble gasses (xenon), while halogens send an electrical current through a filament. HID's typically use 35W, for applications where stock is 55W. So if your HID's are dimming, while your stock lighting isn't, I'd first start with checking the HID kit, and then the compatibility of your HID kit to your car. It sounds like your kit was either not wired properly to your car, or your alternator is messed up, or your battery is almost dead, or your kit isn't very good quality. In either case, I'm sure it was still WAY brighter then stock, wasn't it?

Do you have access to a CAD machine? I'm trying to get a short shifter for my 98'Maxima SE 5 spd made. I have access to one in Waterloo, but I just don't have time to find a SS, and then map it, and then have one made. It'll probably have to wait till after exams (end of April, early May), but that's ok since it's too cold to work on the car for long periods of time right now anyways. I'm sure you've heard of just how much of a pain it can be to work with the stock exhaust to get at the SS on the 4th gen Maxima.

Oh, I know that the HIDs use 35W. What I'm saying is that probably during start-up the ballast and starter will suck up a huge amount of current to light of the HIDs. I'm pretty sure it's not the HIDs since I haven't even tried them on the car yet. I wanna get this problem solved before I even tweak with the kit. I don't want to mess them up.

As far as the cad drawings, I have access to a machine shop (thank god for work and it's free too), I just gotta make up the drawings so that people can get them made. As far your SS, ask the guys at forums.maxima.org, they do all kinds of crazy stuff there. As far as I know, Stillen only makes the SS, a lot of people seem to just cut their stock ones.

Regards,
Mike H.
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Mike H. - 1998 Nautic Blue C70 - minor mods here and there...and HID!!!

It seems that everyone that carries the short throw shifter for the 4th gen Maxima is out of stock right now. Not a real problem though, since removal of exhaust components to change the short shifter will have to wait till it gets warm enough, and probably after my finals (late april, early may).