HID Install How To (For ambiguous retrofit)

Let me start off with saying, do this at your own risk. I am not liable for your mess ups! This is just to help people installing their HIDs. This is my install, wiring, and alignment of Burt’s HIDs found here. I got the FX-R with halos. I hope this helps some people down the line and saves everyone some time. Burt let me know if you see anything I missed. I am going to try to be as detailed as possible for everyone.

This is what the lights look like right out of the box.



You then have to take your daytime running lights and parking lights out of your current lights and put them into the new ones.



The third arrow pictured above is the hole where the projector and halo wires exit the housing. I pulled the wire out as much as possible and sealed the hole with some silicone, just to insure no dust or moisture was able to enter.

Once you get to this point, the headlights can be mounted onto the truck. I didn’t put a step by step on that. Here is an existing link you can use. Very easy, 4 screws and a plastic tab.

Now the wiring begins. Let’s start with the halos. There are 4 wires coming out of the hole of the light. Two red ones that have a plug (I will come back too) and a pink and white wire. The pink is positive and the white is ground and are the halo wires we are looking for. Pictured below, sorry for the blur.



I wanted my halos to come on when I clicked the lights over one click, which is the parking lights. To do that, find the plug going to the parking lights. It will have a green and white with black stripe wire running into the connector. Green being positive and white being the ground. The wires are a little different gauge, so I clipped the pink and white metal ends down with wire cutters, right below the barb, like in this picture. Sorry for the blur again.



The connector right there is a little thicker and worked perfectly with the quick slices I used. Then use quick splices to connect the green and pink wires and the white and white striped wires together pictured below.





Once you have done that, you can click the connector back into the light and test. You should have this result with one click on the light to the parking lights position.



Now on to the ballast and control box... All of these wires don’t leave you a lot of room to work with, so test your distance before you start mounting stuff. I will show you exactly where I mounted mine. First the control box (gold box) pictured below, I lost the screw, which ended up working out, because I wouldn’t have been able to mount it where I wanted to anyway, because of the slack in the wires. I zip tied mine to the hood cable that runs beside the battery pictured below. Right beside the connector so it didn’t move around.



Then you need to mount your ballast. The ballasts are the black boxes included. They come with a silver mounting bar and screws. I used existing holes beside the lights and they worked perfectly. On the driver side, this is the hole I used.



Under the hood view, looking down beside the light (driver side):



Passenger side, the lock washer will fit thru the hole, but the nut will not, so do not use the washer, because it will not allow you to tighten properly and position the box. Below is the spot I used on the passenger side:



Under the hood view (passenger side):



Now from the control box, run the passenger side wires thru the holes next to the driver side headlight and over to the same hole by the passenger side headlight. Plug the wire coming from the ballast (black box) into the wire labeled “ballast”, then plug the wire labeled “projector” into the plug running out of the back of the lights with the halo light wires. Then use the wire labeled (Battery -) to a good ground. The one I used on the passenger side pictured below.



Then plug the only other unused wire on the passenger side, that is coming from the ballast into the light. It only goes in a certain way… Once you get that pressed on, then rotate the connector clockwise until it stops and it will be secured. BE VERY CAREFUL while doing this step! Burt said he has had several bulbs break during this step, so don’t force anything too hard. You have to give a little force to turn, but do not overdo it. At this point, the passenger side should be done and looks like this:



On the driver side, the ground I used is below (wire labeled “Battery –“):



Then connect all the same wires just as you did with the passenger side. The OEM plug will plug into the old connector as shown below. The passenger side OEM connector will not be used.



Then connect the wire labeled “Battery +” to the positive battery terminal.



Everything should be done with the wiring. Test and make sure everything is good. To align the lights correctly, turn the gears in the picture below. Hard to get a good picture, so I used the pictures out of the box.



You will be able to see how everything moves while turning. To align properly use the DOT’s measurement guidelines. Find a very level place to do this. If the ground isn’t level, the measurement will be off. I would make sure your air pressure is correct in all your tires before you start. Having your hids pointed to high can blind oncoming traffic! Measure from the floor to the center of the projector (Mine was 42.5 inches). Then place the front of your truck 25 feet from a wall on level ground. The cutoff line should be 2.5 inches below the first measurement (42.5–2.5=40). So, 40 inches off of the ground. Then measure the distance between the center of both projectors, mine was 54 inches. Example below:



This is my finished product.

 

Great writeup.

Important to reinforce the criticality of getting a good ground on that "Battery-" lead.

I tied mine to one of the bolts on the radiator support that holds the AC line.
No go.
It metered 12v, but wouldn't spark up.
Thought the ballast was dead, but I moved the wire to one of the bolts holding the air pump bracket and it works like a champ.

Seriously consider just cutting those two forks off and hard-wiring to a single 14ga stranded black all the way back to the body ground next to the battery. I've installed 5 HID systems in cars, trucks, and motorcycles, and I've had issues with grounding on 3 of them.

 

Nice write up. Been seriously considering doing this. Burt's work seems to be quality and everyone seems to rave about em.
Maybe ill treat myself this Christmas.
Do you have a shot of the light output at night, perhaps?

 

can also use the add-a-fuse feature if you dont want to splice your wires!

 

I'm sure I missed it, but what's with the two red wires coming from the halo?

Also, what's the add a fuse feature?

 

I don't, but I can take some tonight for you.

 

The two red wires have a plug on the end of them and they plug into the wire from the control box labeled "projector".

 

Ah, okay thanks. Nice write up!

 

Awesome write up! Thanks Danny =)

 

No problem. Hope it helps some of your future customers!

 

You definitely helped me out. Wiring the halos was the only thing I wasn't sure on how to do. You showed how simple it is.

 

IIRC you can also use that hole just above and to the left of where you mounted. It is actually threaded the same as the bolt that comes with teh ballast.
Looks great OP! Burt does some amazing work. If I can't get my retros done second time around third time will be all his! I initially didn't want to use the halos that I got with mine but the more I see them the more I like them and may add them. I did a horrible job on my retrofit so I am re-doing them slowly but surely.

 

Good to know. I obviously didn't even check it. lol...

 

Anybody care to elaborate on this? This sounds better than splicing into the factory wiring.

 

I didn't splice the wires completely, I used a quick splice which doesn't cut the factory wires. So, you can remove the quick splice and it is fully reversible... You can add a fuse if you like, but this is an easier solution for someone that doesn't know much about wiring, such as myself.

 

Find a circuit that is hot only with the parking lights, or optionally, hot only with the ignition on.
Plug in the Add-A-Fuse to that spot and you now have power available.

 

Thanks for the how to. Should come in handy when the time comes to install and align my retros by Ambiguous. I plan to wire my halos as DTRL. Anyone know what wire I should splice into for the 2012+ with factory DTRL ?

 

Looks good. Where did you get the headlights from?

 

ambiguous does retro fits here is the thread

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2n...fs-fx-r-mini-retrofits-bhlm-no-down-time.html

 

Driver DRL Power: Yellow wire

Passenger DRL Power: Blue Wire

For the Ground use the White/Black wire on both.

Thanks to DATSIK for this.

Instead of using the 3m wire taps I'm using these:



Causes less damage to the OEM wiring harness. When removed all you will have is a pin hole in the wire instead of risking a wire that is cut clean through or a weak/fatigued connection overtime.