Official "Slimcubby" HID Kit Install DIY

EDIT: Fog install info is now below at the end of the DIY.

Okay everybody, here is my Slimcubby HID Kit DIY for the headlamps only:

First off.....it looks like a lot of wiring when you see it in the box, but you are simply dealing with two ballasts, one relay harness, two HID bulbs all with connections. It's really not that bad. If you have ever done HID's before this should take you no more than 45 mins, and about 1/1/2 to 2 hours if you are a newbie like I was.

Here are the tools you'll need for the project:



Flathead Screwdriver
Electrical Tape
Zip Ties
Industrial Velcro
Knife or Boxcutter
13/32 Socket Wrench
10 mm Crescent Wrench
(Not Pictured) 5/16 Socket for aiming headlights

First you'll start by looking at and inspecting your new HID kit:

In it you will find one set (pair) of telescoping HID bulbs with chrome shields (so you don't blind other drivers). This is the H4 kit 6000k



with slim digital ballasts and relay harness



They look good to go, and the kit looks complete. Let's move on...

First, pop the hood and disconnect the battery entirely. You don't have to take out the battery altogether, but it gives you the room needed to remove the drivers side stock cover/bulb without issues. Besides, you'll want to disconnect the negative battery terminal anyway to avoid accidental shorts/electrocution:







Next, go to the passenger side and take off the top two nuts holding in the windshield wiper reservoir.



You might have to siphon some of the fluid out of it so you can swing it out of the way without issues. You will not be able to remove it entirely due to the fluid pump at the bottom:



Again, you don't have to loosen the wiper fluid bottle or swing it out of the way, but it sure makes things easier with removing the bulbs, etc.

 

Next, it's time to remove the old bulbs and put the new ones in. You now have a nice big space that looks like this in the area of the drivers side where the battery used to be:



You can see the stock headlight bulb male/female connector. Unplug that.




Take off the rubber dust/water cover by pulling the two rubber tabs:



You are now left with this:



You need to GENTLY lift up on the wire cage/spring clip that is holding the stock headlight bulb in place. It will swing up and out from it's retainer. It will remain attached. See above.

Now remove the stock bulb assembly by twisting and pulling (gently) until it releases:



Now it's time to insert the new HID bulbs.

BEFORE you insert the bulbs, please see below posts for how to put back on the rubber protective boots as you reinstall the HID bulbs - without having to modify them in any way whatsoever.

NOTE: The chrome shield should face DOWNWARD in the headlight housing and the bulb should be facing UP when inserted. Also, NEVER touch your HID bare bulbs. If you do get them spotty, gently clean with an alcohol wipe or dry lint free cloth or so I've read.

Now simply insert the new bulb taking care to ensure a snug fit and that everything is aligned. Also lock the bulb in the locked position by turning it slightly to the right. You'll be able to plainly see how this works when you see the bulbs in the kit. It's just a matter of simply turning them to the
locked position which is clearly indicated on the bulb housings. Then simply place the wire spring clip back into it's original position which should hold the bulb housing in place for the most part. You will be able to move it slightly but don't mess with it once it's in place. This is normal and it should remain snug regardless.

This is what it should look like once installed: Note the orientation of the wire with the wire loom at the bottom. If yours looks like the below picture when inserted and locked, then you have the bulb oriented correctly with the shield down/bulb up so as not to blind oncoming traffic.




EDIT: I have since gone back in and put both passenger and drivers side rubber boots back on - which is not shown in the pictures.



Now let's route the harness and start plugging things in:



I choose to route the main relay wire under the radiator plastic shroud cover, so I removed it. I thought this would look much cleaner and keep it out of the way of moving parts.





Remove the plastic tabs holding it in with a flathead screwdriver by simply prying up on the plastic screw heads. They should pop out, but take care to not lose them as they WILL pop out and start flying into your engine bay never to be seen again if you don't be careful to hang onto them as you remove them. Then simply zip tie the main relay wire under the lip of the steel radiator frame pictured and reattach the plastic radiator shroud cover:

Now let's finally start plugging things together and get this baby fired up!

Start with the relay connections to the HID bulb. Just match and plug in:



Then plug in your old stock male/female headlamp plug into the new harness one. You will not need to do this one step on the other side, so the other one at the other headlamp, you'll just simply wrap some electrical tape around the stock headlamp plug to seal it off and zip tie it someplace out of the way.

 

Now plug the yellow harness plugs that are color matched to the ballast plugs themselves:



You will then ground the black wire to a convenient place on the truck body. You can ground wherever you like. I chose here:



You should now have everything assembled and it should look like this pretty much for each side:





Next is to repeat all of the above bulb and harness installation steps to the other side (with the exception of the before mentioned stock headlight plug), and then put back your wiper bottle and battery.



Don't connect the battery just yet, as you'll need to ground the red power wire from your harness on the positive terminal of the battery if you have the hi/low beam Bi-Xenon option as I do:

 

Now, BEFORE we mount anything, one should check their HID's to see if they work. I fired up my truck and well, the passenger side one worked but the drivers side did not. Bloody hell......let's see what went wrong.

Connections all secure....check.
Grounds secure.....check.
Bulbs secure.....check.

What could it be? Well, as it turns out, I switched the ballasts to the opposite sides (driver and passenger) by unplugging them only and voila, both lights now work perfectly! No noise or static from the stereo as some have reported, and no noise from the ballasts either. Man, these HID's sure are bright though! The fogs have GOT to be changed ASAP, because....boy, do they ever suck compared to the new lighting. The only thing I can think that might have caused one HID to not light initially is that sometimes HID's don't come on at the same time, especially when new, and it takes a few cycles of turning the lights on for a period of time and then off to "burn them in".

Now we need to mount our ballast boxes, ballast control boxes, and relay box. First clean the engine bay surfaces you want the velcro pads to stick to. Simply cut to size and attach your industrial velcro to the backs of the areas where you want to mount plus the back of the boxes and then stick the boxes in their locations. Here are where I mounted mine for each side from a suggestion from a fellow member earlier in this thread:

Drivers side ballast with box:




Relay control box:




Passenger side ballast and control box:



Next, just zip tie your loose wires together. You might have to unplug a few and untwist them as they tend to get wrapped around other wires, but just play with bundling both sides out of the way how you like and you're good to go.

Needless to say, the lights work flawlessly, and look absolutely incredible.



Enjoy your new HID's, and thanks Slimcubby!

 

I've had my kit from Slim for a while, this writeup may have pushed me over the edge to actually do the install especially with the darkness of winter months.

1 thing I cannot stand is the lack of light from these oem headlights..

very good writeup, thank you for taking the time to do it.
I think i'm getting back in project mode again after finally installing dynolock tailgate yesterday.

 

Hope it helps some people out.

As for the fogs, they are very easy to do....more so than the headlamps.

No need to take anything out, except the front grill, although it's not really necessary. It just gives you more room to reach your hands down to unplug/remove the stock fog bulb assemblies. The other option is just to work from underneath the truck on both sides - which is nice and accessible as well. The slimcubby kits are direct plug and play, and then just mount the ballasts somewhere on the steel bumper reinforcement for each side with some industrial velcro as was done for the headlamp ballasts.

The only thing to remember is that each H10 bulb for the fogs is a one way directional twist lock, so you will have to have the right one for the passenger and drivers sides matched up accordingly; otherwise, they will not mate correctly into the fog housings. Don't try to force them. Just use trial and error until you get them seated and locked down in the fog housings.

Also, just as a side note, in case anyone hasn't already noticed with the fogs; but the orientation of the male/female plug from the bulb assembly to the truck fog harness makes a difference as far as which way you have it plugged in. If for some reason, you have a fog that isn't working, then simply switch the plug around the opposite way and plug it in again and voila......the fog now works.

Yes, I learned this one the hard way after way too much trial and error.

Here is a picture of one fog harness and ballast to help with matching of plugs. Labeled is the male/female plug for the harness and ballast matched up. The other female plug connects with the male plug that you unplugged from the stock fog bulb. It is the same for both sides.

 

good to know on the fogs.
i'm gonna do a 2 phase approach. #1 is headlights so I can friggin see at night.
then 'll pimp out the fogs since they'll be so lame in comparison to the heads. but my visibility is more important than fog light appearance lol..

will try and remember to post back although I'm prepping now and this writeup is looking straightforward now that i'm in the hood..

 

Well, thanks again for a very nice writeup.
I am done with the headlights. first time success, really no problems.

(as a reference) ..For me, this project was much easier than the tailgate ( dynolock ) install.

CableTec, I took a few pictures showing how I modified those thick ruber dust covers. Not sure if I did it right, but certainly seems right and is much better than no cover for sure. Let me go finish some stuff up and i'll upload the pics to this thread as an addendum if someone wants to cut them. It only took a couple minutes.

 

How to get the rubber dust/water covers back on the bulbs before inserting:

I probably should have mentioned this, but there is no need to modify the rubber dust covers.

Here's how to reinstall them with the new HID's:

 

lol... well another way is to cut 'em a little .. oh well, i think they'll still protect. worst case i'll get some new ones.

 

Here's some new night shots for reference:

6000K H4 Bi-Xenons









Low Beams:



High Beams:

 

CableTec, so it's getting dark now.

If i need to tweak the aim of the lights, what's the best way to do this ?
After installing these, I'm not sure how you would change the "aim" of the lights.

 

My picture is protected by copyright, sir. I'm going to have to ask you to take that down..

I'm just kidding of course. Nice writeup.

 

Here's how you do it....



Adjust these two knobs in the pic above for each headlight - you may have to move the windshield wiper bottle out of the way on the passenger headlamp.....

See above pic - Lower left near the truck changes up and down. Turn it to the passenger side to move the headlight down. Dial it left (towards the drivers side) to raise the beam. The upper one (with the plastic cover) changes side to side angle. Right turns = beam moves to the right, and left move the beam left.

Same configuration for both sides.

 

LOL, thanks for letting me off the hook man.

 

Thanks CableTec,
and I apologize for being a bad forum user and not searching before asking.
I did an easy search for "headlight adjust" and found the info...
It's in this thread in case anyone else does the same thing: http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/new-members/58020-head-lamp-aim.html

Cabletec's answer below is the same info.

 

Cabletec I must say very nice write up! And thank you for taking the time for future buyers to have a nice detailed write up. Many thanks!

Oh and check your PM's I have your replacement bulb ready to go out for you.

 

Great tutorial! I credit you with my successful install. Everything worked perfect.

 

Cool! Glad this is helping you guys out. Always nice to contribute to the forums in some way.

 

if i have the blackout headlights, would i have the same output on the road? of would the blackout mess up the light pattern?