[OpTicaL]

Received the kit last week and had some time this weekend to install them, but ran into a few issues. I noticed that the Morimoto H11 bulbs do not "lock" into place like the stock bulbs. The stock bulb's uses a metal ring that clicks and locks into place whereas the Morimoto bulbs are traditional plastic. When I turn the Morimoto's into place I feel they're not as snug as the stock bulbs, but my main concern is if it will cause condensation if it's not tight.

I'm also having a hard time choosing a place to mount the relay and ballasts. Does anyone here have suggestions as to where to mount the relay and ballasts on a 2013 xB?

 

[Chris-Garage]

Remove the rubber o ring from the stock bulbs and put them on the HID bulb it should help with it being a tighter fit. Hope this helps

 

[Chance12XB]

Remove the rubber o ring from the stock bulbs and put them on the HID bulb it should help with it being a tighter fit. Hope this helps

What he said. Don't use the ones that came on the hid bulb.
Also I usually take off that plastic o ring that you have pictured.

 

[ElusiveB]

i ran into the same issue and it turned out to be that plastic washer ..... it was over sized and didn't allow the bulb to seat into place

 

[OpTicaL]

Thanks, will give that a try tonight.

i ran into the same issue and it turned out to be that plastic washer ..... it was over sized and didn't allow the bulb to seat into place

I don't think that white plastic washer is supposed to be installed, it's just there to hold the bulb in place during shipping.

My issue is not the bulb not seating into place but the Morimoto bulbs feeling loose and not snug.

 

[OpTicaL]

Attempted to finish what I start a month back. Ran into a few problems with this Morimoto kit, it's not compatible!

First, the harness that goes to the stock plug is not compatible. Second, the stock bulb uses a metal tab that locks into place while the HID bulbs uses the traditional plastic tab. With the plastic tab the bulb is loose and doesn't lock into place.

 

[Chris-Garage]

can you post pictures of everything you got that would help

 

[OpTicaL]

Since this is a 35W kit, relay is not needed and the installation is much more straight forward. 2 sets of wires coming from the ballast, one plugs into the bulbs and the other plugs into the stock harness. There is also a single H11 adapter but since I'm not using the relay I'll need to get another one.

So, plug-in the bulbs, use the H11 adapter and plug that in the stock harness (made sure polarity is correct), start the car, turn on the headlights and…nothing…

Maybe it's a bad ballast and/or bulb. Swapped it out for the other ballast, fired it up, no go. Swapped the bulbs, fired it up, no go.

I'm reading on another forum that the relay is needed for this kit, which doesn't make sense because many of my friends are running theirs without a relay and it's working fine. Heck, the stock halogen bulb is 55W.

I don't know what I'm doing wrong here, maybe someone can give me some pointers. :crying:

 

[autobotguy]

While the 35 watt kit does use less power than a standard halogen bulb, the startup of the new 3Five DSP ballast's igniters can take upwards of 8 amps to get the bulbs to initially light up. I would try temporarily setting things up with the relay and see how things go from there. It could just simply be a matter of the stock wiring not being able to supply enough power for the initial startup. BTW, while the XB35 H11 bulbs do place the return wire in the proper position when installed, there seems to be an issue with the XB35 bulbs not operating at the same kelvin rating. They seem to require burning in for a few weeks to color shift properly.

 

[OpTicaL]

Urgh, I was looking for a kit without the use of a relay. Trying to find a place for the grounds is a PITA. I called TRS and they said I could swap out the relay for canbus.

 

[Chris-Garage]

no need for the relay kit just install like in the picture i edited. 1 adapter was provided cause the relay kit needs power from one source to operate. sometimes you need to plug the oem harness to the adapter backwards for it to turn on.

 

[OpTicaL]

Tried backwards too, actually that was how I plugged it in the first time not knowing it was backwards. Both ballast/bulbs won't turn on, backwards or not.

 

[Chris-Garage]

all your fuses are good it is getting 12v to the ballast?

 

[OpTicaL]

Called TRS and they're saying it requires a relay or canbus. I'm going to give the canbus a try and see if that works. I really don't want to scrap paint off for the negatives in order to use the relay.

 

[autobotguy]

Scrape paint??? Just attach a small ring terminal and attach the ground to the negative battery post.

 

[OpTicaL]

You know what, that's actually a great fucking idea. Will this work? Since I have all these holes in the engine bay I can put one of these bolts through them and have it act as a negative. Do these rings/washers have to be a certain material for it to work?

 

[autobotguy]

The larger bolts will work as long as the threads are clean, but tiny bolts will not provide a good enough ground, you'd be relying on very little surface area. That's why I suggested just grounding to the battery. The cables should be long enough.

 

[OpTicaL]

Ok, the canbus arrived, connected it and no go. Then I was thinking to myself, "could it be the polarity?" Flipped the H11 adapter around and whoa la! we have light! So in the end the adapter had to be installed the wrong way for it to work. Actually to get the adapter to fit the right way with the correct polarity is easy. Just get a mini flat head screw driver and push the two plastic pins inside the connector so you can pull the pins out, flip the connector around and it'll lock the "right" way with the correct polarity.

 

[autobotguy]

Glad to hear it all turned out ok! ^_^

 

[Chance12XB]

Pics of Output!