Replacing Halogen with HIDS & Interior Lighting

I

istay808

:
cx-5
Hello,

I was looking through the forums for advice on replacing the oem Halogens on my 2015 cx-5. Through talking to some people in the parts department and through this forum, I have been advised to use sylvania silverstar ultra's in the H11 fit and also directed to DDM lighting. My question is what is the difference between the sylvania silverstar replacement bulbls and the DDM route? When looking at the DDM lighting website, they have an option for a 35W and a 55W, would both work on my cx-5? Also, would it be advised to replace the fog lights as well to match the headlights?

Finally, I am looking to replace the interior lighting and license plate light with LED lighting, would you guys be able to make some suggestions?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, Cheers!
 
This is what I have and works very well. Do not fall for those slim kits, they are garbage.
https://www.ebay.com (commissions earned)
If you can afford the Morimoto kit, go for that.
To be on the safe side, you should get the relay kit for these HID kits. The power for the lights will be taken directly from the battery and not from the car's circuitry.
From the car's wire, the kit will get only the signal to turn on the relay.
I wouldn't go for the 55W kit, it's way to bright and most likely it will be hotter too.
Eventually, I will replace the fog lights, with aftermarket projectors and I will install HID lights in them.
I personally, recommend the 4300k or 5000k kits, they are the brightest and they look like the factory "color".
The Silverstar bulbs are just brighter regular bulbs.
 
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FWIW I bought the DDM 35 watt kit. I still haven't installed it while trying to figure out how to remove the black plastic "cups" behind the lights.
 
High performance halogens like the Silverstars will be brighter and whiter, but they usually burn out in a year or so. In the long run they will end up costing a fortune.

I went with the HID route with a 35W Morimoto kit (55W is overkill and will burn your expensive bulbs faster) with relay and 5000k bulbs. Works great. You can see my review of them and install details here: http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?123842433-Morimoto-HID-kit-from-TRS-review

I also put 5000k LED bulbs from VLEDs in my license plate and fogs. The fogs are slightly yellower than the HIDs but are still a pretty good match (MUCH better than the OEM bulbs).
 
Thank you guys for the input! I am looking to pick up a morimoto kit, but there are two different kits on the vled site, the Elite hd and the XB35, what is the difference between the two? Also would these kits be pretty straight forward to install for someone not too familiar with car circuitry and just basic tools? Also with the morimoto kit, would the 5500k or 6000k be better? I am leaning towards to 6000k. Finally if I were to replace the fog lights with VLEDS, what temperature would I get to match the HIDS?
 
istay808 said:
Thank you guys for the input! I am looking to pick up a morimoto kit, but there are two different kits on the vled site, the Elite hd and the XB35, what is the difference between the two? Also would these kits be pretty straight forward to install for someone not too familiar with car circuitry and just basic tools? Also with the morimoto kit, would the 5500k or 6000k be better? I am leaning towards to 6000k. Finally if I were to replace the fog lights with VLEDS, what temperature would I get to match the HIDS?
Click to expand...

You should order the HID from theretrofitsource
http://www.theretrofitsource.com/hid-systems/morimoto-elite-hid-system-h11.html#.VJsDFV4C7A
Get the XB35 (bulbs, do not get 3Five) 4500k or 5500k, depending on your preference. 5500k is most likely pure white.. and if you want to match the fogs, probably go with 5000k from VLEDS.

If you want a hint of blue in your headlight, go with 6000k. I personally prefer pure white or warmer white (4500k) but probably hard to match it for the fog lights.

Reason to order from TRS for the HID is that it's probably cheaper than VLEDS and TRS have the new ballast (Morimoto XB35 is newer) as VLEDS still seem to be selling the older version (Morimoto).
 
runtohell121 said:
You should order the HID from theretrofitsource
http://www.theretrofitsource.com/hid-systems/morimoto-elite-hid-system-h11.html#.VJsDFV4C7A
Get the XB35 (bulbs, do not get 3Five) 4500k or 5500k, depending on your preference. 5500k is most likely pure white.. and if you want to match the fogs, probably go with 5000k from VLEDS.

If you want a hint of blue in your headlight, go with 6000k. I personally prefer pure white or warmer white (4500k) but probably hard to match it for the fog lights.

Reason to order from TRS for the HID is that it's probably cheaper than VLEDS and TRS have the new ballast (Morimoto XB35 is newer) as VLEDS still seem to be selling the older version (Morimoto).
Click to expand...

In this link

http://www.vleds.com/hid-headlights/hid-conversion-kits/h11/h11-morimoto-xb35-hid-system.html

they say it is the XB35 kit, so would it come with the newer ballast? Also on TRS the kit would be 170, and VLED is 205 with a 20% discount and +5% (if you can stack the newsletter coupon) bringing it to 153.75, which would be a bit cheaper than TRS.
 
istay808 said:
In this link

http://www.vleds.com/hid-headlights/hid-conversion-kits/h11/h11-morimoto-xb35-hid-system.html

they say it is the XB35 kit, so would it come with the newer ballast? Also on TRS the kit would be 170, and VLED is 205 with a 20% discount and +5% (if you can stack the newsletter coupon) bringing it to 153.75, which would be a bit cheaper than TRS.
Click to expand...

It comes with XB35 bulbs, but the ballast is older version. No stacking allow as far as I konw on VLEDS. You could try to look around and see if there's any coupon for TRS, not sure though. Up to you if you want the older version or the newer one.
 
If you're swapping out the fog light and high beam/DRL with LED.. you're making them useless though fog light is just for cosmetic mostly.. But high beam might come in handy.. I'm not too sure about the high beam/DRL as I'm not sure if there is a need for resistor or something to make it function as a DRL.
 
runtohell121 said:
If you're swapping out the fog light and high beam/DRL with LED.. you're making them useless though fog light is just for cosmetic mostly.. But high beam might come in handy.. I'm not too sure about the high beam/DRL as I'm not sure if there is a need for resistor or something to make it function as a DRL.
Click to expand...

So would it be best to leave the DRL as the standard halogen? I was only considering changing them because I thought it would match the HIDs a bit more.
 
istay808 said:
So would it be best to leave the DRL as the standard halogen? I was only considering changing them because I thought it would match the HIDs a bit more.
Click to expand...

I think it would be better to leave it as halogen, unless you do not plan on using high beam.
 
vroom said:
LED DRLs might not even come on since only half the voltage is sent to the high beam lamps in DRL mode. It is really not recommended to put LEDs there. I disabled my DRLs completely and put these in instead:

http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?123831285-CX-5-Ebay-Fog-Assembly-DRLs

I also agree you should get your Morimoto kit from TRS, they have an amazing service.
Click to expand...

Thanks for all of the input guys! I just ordered the Morimoto kit from TRS and waiting for the new years sale on VLED to place the leds for my fog lights and all of the interior lighting.

I also plan on putting the ebay fog lights later on:) Thanks for all of the help guys!
 
Just as an FYI, most cars run the DRLs by switching the headlight bulbs in series, thus each bulb only gets half the voltage (6-7V). Haven't checked if the CX-5 does this too, but no reason to think otherwise (it's such a simple solution, why do anything else).

UPDATE: OK, so I went and checked the schematics. And YES, the CX-5 does it this way too. :) No idea what this would do with two HID ballasts running in series. Probably some mad flickering, and a very short bulb life.
 
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Bear in mind the vehicles with the Tech Package have factory HIDs and the DRLs do NOT function as the high beams. My GT w/Tech I replaced the OEM P13W incandescent DRLs with the VLEDS 6K P13Ws. The 6K bulbs are noticeably bluer than the HIDs but they are never on at the same time. I liked the cooler appearance of the 6K DRLs. I went with the VLEDS 5K H11 bulbs for the fogs. The 5K LED is a very close match to the factory 4300K HIDs and the VLEDs are a drop-in fit with no mods.
 
I have all my lights on, all the time and I have set the off timer to 30 sec and I don't worry about my lights any more. I don't care about DRL at all.
Soon, I will replace my fogs, with Ebay projectors with HIDs.
 
vroom said:
High performance halogens like the Silverstars will be brighter and whiter, but they usually burn out in a year or so. In the long run they will end up costing a fortune.
Click to expand...

I installed Silverstars in the wifes Honda the fall of 2012. They still work fine.
 
istay808 said:
Thanks for the info! Also in regards to HID's, since I have a 2015 touring would it be advised to replace the DRL's with 9005 VLEDS? As I read that there is an issue with hi/low beams.

If so, would these be the right bulbs for the DRL/fogs?

DRL:

http://www.vleds.com/5k-white-10-led-drl-fog-light-bulbs-hb3-9005-h10-9145-1-pair.html

FOGS:

http://www.vleds.com/5k-white-10-led-drl-fog-light-bulbs-h11-1-pair.html
Click to expand...


FYI, I've tried replacing the DRL's with those exact 9005 VLED's and they DO NOT work. I have a Touring model and I've talked to the manufacturer about this - they claim that my model would require some kind of additional kit in order for their bulbs to work (I have posted about this in other threads). However, they are not sure themselves as to what kit I need exactly, so I've been putting it off...

With this kit, though, would it work? The main issue I've been having is that the replaced DRL bulbs won't even turn on (having to do with voltage, I guess).
 
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Are you absolutely certain that they don't turn on? Car must be in gear with the parking brake off. This has fooled many an owner into thinking they don't work, so just checking the simple stuff! (thumb)
 
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