99Yuk
Full Access Member
As the title says, I gave myself an early Christmas present. I saw the video of HID reverse bulbs HERE , and thought to myself, I said 'self, I want that!'.
So I ordered up a set of 5000K H11 35w from DDM Tuning. Cost about $80 after shipping, customs and currency conversion. Cheapest place to buy.
Then I took apart my stock taillight housing to discover that they used a circuit board that blocks access to the bulb holes. After removing the circuit board and rummaging through our auto shop bins, I found some new pigtails that would friction fit into the holes, but a test fit in the truck revealed that the pigtails were too long and prevented the taillight housing from fitting without cutting holes into the fender. I didn't want to do that. (I described that process HERE.) So I looked into aftermarket tails. I ended up buying some ANZO G2 LED tails.
What follows is a picture tutorial of my successful attempt to install HID's as reverse lights.
And I have to say, 'I LOVE IT!!!'. There is a warm up period, but it's short, and when they come on in full brightness, it's awesome. I can see when backing up!!!
Well worth the aggrevation, and $$$.
More pics of the install can be found HERE.
You will need some Q-Tips, some black GOOP, a Phillips screwdriver, and some black tape.
1. Drool over the drop dead Gorgousness of your new Taillights.
2. Remove the electrical pins that go into the stock reverse bulb pigtail. Throw out extra bits that are removed here. We need those electric pins to power the HIDs.
Flip it over and drool some more.
Twist the pigtail out from the taillight.
Pull the bulb out. It comes straight out.
Remove the inner socket from the pigtail, two clips and they pull out. I used forceps to pull them out.
Remove the electrical connections, they just pull out now.
3. Using the black GOOP, goop in the ballast to the rear of the taillight housing.
4. Get your HID bulb to look like this. Keep the plastic ring on, remove the rest of the plastic bits. Do not touch the bulb with your fingers.
5. Let things sit for 24hours.
6. Do the wiring. It's pretty easy, the DDM HID wiring is keyed so it can't be messed up. And the cool part is that the power leads from DDM kit match up with the power leads of the reverse bulb from ANZO. The only problem is that they are not covered and are bare, so I wrapped up mine good with black electrical tape. black goes to black, and blue goes to green. Can't mess it up and it works first try.
7. Install onto truck. I didn't have enough room for everything behind these lights. The black small box of the HID wiring had to be shoved into the existing hole in the fender with just the wires sticking out.
Sit back and enjoy the efforts of your hardwork!
Merry Christmas!!!
BTW, don't try to do what I did here first. I thought it would be a cool idea to reuse the ANZO stock pigtail, and then just pop the H11 bulb in that pigtail. I spent a night using a Dremel to drill out the center of the pigtail. And it worked! the h11 fit snugly into the Anzo pigtail. However, the resulting height made it stick out too far to fit on the truck. so I had to remove it, and start over.
EDIT: To correct spelling and grammer mistakes.
So I ordered up a set of 5000K H11 35w from DDM Tuning. Cost about $80 after shipping, customs and currency conversion. Cheapest place to buy.
Then I took apart my stock taillight housing to discover that they used a circuit board that blocks access to the bulb holes. After removing the circuit board and rummaging through our auto shop bins, I found some new pigtails that would friction fit into the holes, but a test fit in the truck revealed that the pigtails were too long and prevented the taillight housing from fitting without cutting holes into the fender. I didn't want to do that. (I described that process HERE.) So I looked into aftermarket tails. I ended up buying some ANZO G2 LED tails.
What follows is a picture tutorial of my successful attempt to install HID's as reverse lights.
And I have to say, 'I LOVE IT!!!'. There is a warm up period, but it's short, and when they come on in full brightness, it's awesome. I can see when backing up!!!
Well worth the aggrevation, and $$$.
More pics of the install can be found HERE.
You will need some Q-Tips, some black GOOP, a Phillips screwdriver, and some black tape.
1. Drool over the drop dead Gorgousness of your new Taillights.
2. Remove the electrical pins that go into the stock reverse bulb pigtail. Throw out extra bits that are removed here. We need those electric pins to power the HIDs.
Flip it over and drool some more.
Twist the pigtail out from the taillight.
Pull the bulb out. It comes straight out.
Remove the inner socket from the pigtail, two clips and they pull out. I used forceps to pull them out.
Remove the electrical connections, they just pull out now.
3. Using the black GOOP, goop in the ballast to the rear of the taillight housing.
4. Get your HID bulb to look like this. Keep the plastic ring on, remove the rest of the plastic bits. Do not touch the bulb with your fingers.
5. Let things sit for 24hours.
6. Do the wiring. It's pretty easy, the DDM HID wiring is keyed so it can't be messed up. And the cool part is that the power leads from DDM kit match up with the power leads of the reverse bulb from ANZO. The only problem is that they are not covered and are bare, so I wrapped up mine good with black electrical tape. black goes to black, and blue goes to green. Can't mess it up and it works first try.
7. Install onto truck. I didn't have enough room for everything behind these lights. The black small box of the HID wiring had to be shoved into the existing hole in the fender with just the wires sticking out.
Sit back and enjoy the efforts of your hardwork!
Merry Christmas!!!
BTW, don't try to do what I did here first. I thought it would be a cool idea to reuse the ANZO stock pigtail, and then just pop the H11 bulb in that pigtail. I spent a night using a Dremel to drill out the center of the pigtail. And it worked! the h11 fit snugly into the Anzo pigtail. However, the resulting height made it stick out too far to fit on the truck. so I had to remove it, and start over.
EDIT: To correct spelling and grammer mistakes.
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