Sayantsi
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For those of us without HIDs from the factory that may want them, here is a DIY on how to add them! Since the Genesis has projector-style light assemblies, all that is needed is a brighter bulb and the power to run them.
To start, I purchased a 35W DDM Tuning "slim ballast" (ie- digital) HID kit ( http://www.ddmtuning.com/products/DDM_35W_or_55W_Slim_Ballast_HID_Kit-101-0.html ) with H11 bulbs at 4300K. I went with DDM based on price and reputation - the set was $65 plus shipping so it came in under $80 for everything you'll need, and DDM has a good history of quality product and aftermarket support, plus a lifetime warranty on the hardware.
Some background - HID kits can come in 35W and 55W versions these days, but imo 35W is bright enough and runs cooler so you don't have to worry about overheating your light assembly, although I think OEM HIDs are 55W...
HID bulbs come in different temps, ranging from a "yellow" 3000K to "violet" 10,000+K. The brightest and closest to daylight are those in the 4000-5000K range, so I went with 4500K - the temp that will give you the closest light to actual daylight that DDM offers.
Now for the installation. What you'll need:
screwdriver or hole bunch
10mm socket
flashlight
drill with a 1" bit, pilot bit.
knife
scissors
Step one - open the hood. Looking at the engine bay over each light you will see the clips and bolts that hold down the cover plastic blocking you from your lights. Here I have my 10mm socket on the bolt you need to remove on the driver's side - the handle is pointing directly to the center most clip you'll need to remove. The first one you remove should be the one holding the end of the cover to the car, closest to the wheels - work your way in.
Removing the bolt is easy - lefty loosey. There are two clips on the driver's side and three on the passenger side that will also need to be removed. To remove these, take your screwdriver or hole punch and gently but firmly push in the center "dot" of the clip until it pops in. At this point you should be able to pull the whole tab up and plastic cover up with it. I don't bother removing the whole cover as I can get to the light assembly without doing so, but if you want to remove the whole thing, just keep popping the clips until you can take the whole cover off.
After you take the clips out and remove the bolt, the cover can easily be lifted. Here's a peek at what you'll be working with - note you can see the back cover of the light assembly:
Grab the cover for the light assembly and give it a quarter turn to get it off.
Now you have access to the light, but we don't touch it yet. Since the Genesis doesn't (that I know of) have an accessory cover you can remove, you 'll need to create one on the cover. You'll need just more than 1" to get the connector through the cover. To give you the basic layout, the HID system takes the car's low voltage current from the OEM connector inside the light assembly, runs it out of the assembly to the ballast, which goes to the ignitor, which goes to the HID bulb with a return wire. Since the ballast and ignitor don't fit inside the light assembly, we need to run the wires out of and back in to the assembly.
So, we'll need around a 1" hole, and thats about as big a hole as you can drill into the assembly cover you've removed. I happened to have a 1" drill bit designed for coring holes for deadbolts - it was part of a doorlock installation kit and it worked perfectly.
I braced the cover against my drill surface in one hand, and my drill in the other, and drilled the 1" hole. If you have an extra piece of wood lying around that you can drill into, perfect - don't drill into your kitchen table!
That hole is "just" too small, so I drilled a pilot hole, then bored it with a larger bit, then used the knife to cut open the clearance on the gap.
The pilot hole:
Bored and cut to open it up:
Now that we have a big enough hole, we can just squeeze the HID kit connector through it - make sure you go the right way through!
Once the big one is through, run the two smaller connecters through, and push through the grommet that is on the wires.
Its not the prettiest looking seal, but flatten out the rubber on both sides and you should be good. You could probably add a silicone seal to the outside if you really wanted to - I didn't think about it until after I was done.
Now... this install originally would have taken me about an hour, but when I first wired everything up, the lights wouldn't work, so I had to do some trouble shooting. The Hyundai uses a "reverse polarity" lighting system ( http://ddmtuning.com/support/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=26&nav=0 ), which basically means you need to swap the positive and negative wires at some point between the car connecter and the HID kit, or the lights won't work.
Look at the connector that goes into the ballast from the bulb assembly:
If you look at the sides, you'll see "+" and "-" and if you look inside, you'll see a guide so you can only connect the wires one way. You'll have to cut that guide out - I think. I didn't actually try to just connect the wire from the bulb to the ballast wire to see if you can just plug them in backward, I just took my knife and sliced at it until it was mostly gone. Make sure you can plug the wiring that goes from the HID bulb in the light assembly to the ballast in backwards. Note the lock and the clip are on opposite sides:
Once they fit, you're prepped and ready to swap bulbs!
Now comes the part you want to be very careful about - swapping the bulbs. Getting the old bulb out is simple enough, but you want to be very careful about removing it and especially installing the HID bulb - you don't want to break it in the housing!
To remove the old bulb, first, disconnect the car wiring from the bulb - its a simple two sided prong you have to pop with your finger nail. Its slightly difficult as you can't see what you're doing, but if you've changed lights on a car before its simple. Once the connecter is off the OEM bulb, give it a 1/3 turn and it will come out. You want to take the wiring off the bulb while its secure so you don't risk breaking it.
Now that the old bulb is out, take the new HID bulb, remove the plastic cover from it, and take the whole wiring harness with the bulb and now the light assembly cover to the car. Work the cover and bulb under the engine cover you loosened and install the HID bulb in the socket.Once that is safely secured, connect the OEM wiring to the connector inside the light assembly so you'll have power from the car to the ballast system. Once that is connected, reinstall the light assembly cover - make sure the rubber weather seal is in place as you do this, or it will become impossible to do! Line up the tabs and a quarter turn and you are done.
Now all you have to do is make the connections from the light assembly to the ballast and ignitor. Remember to connect the wiring from the light assembly to the ballast backwards! (see pic above) Once everything is wired, go turn on the car, turn on the lights, and you should see the HID fire and warm up.
If everything is working, you just need to secure the ballast and ignitor to the car and you'll be done with it. The DDM kit comes with double sided tape and zip ties to help you clean up the install. I took the tape and cut it into three pieces:
The bigger square for the ballast, the smaller rectangle for the ignitor:
Apply the tape to the bottom of the ignitor and the ballast, and tape the ignitor to the ballast:
Now you just need to tape it to the car. Try to stick the assembly some place where its out of the way if you ever need to change the bulb. This is easier to do on the passenger side. Here's the driver's side with everything installed:
One side done, one to go!
To start, I purchased a 35W DDM Tuning "slim ballast" (ie- digital) HID kit ( http://www.ddmtuning.com/products/DDM_35W_or_55W_Slim_Ballast_HID_Kit-101-0.html ) with H11 bulbs at 4300K. I went with DDM based on price and reputation - the set was $65 plus shipping so it came in under $80 for everything you'll need, and DDM has a good history of quality product and aftermarket support, plus a lifetime warranty on the hardware.
Some background - HID kits can come in 35W and 55W versions these days, but imo 35W is bright enough and runs cooler so you don't have to worry about overheating your light assembly, although I think OEM HIDs are 55W...
HID bulbs come in different temps, ranging from a "yellow" 3000K to "violet" 10,000+K. The brightest and closest to daylight are those in the 4000-5000K range, so I went with 4500K - the temp that will give you the closest light to actual daylight that DDM offers.
Now for the installation. What you'll need:
screwdriver or hole bunch
10mm socket
flashlight
drill with a 1" bit, pilot bit.
knife
scissors
Step one - open the hood. Looking at the engine bay over each light you will see the clips and bolts that hold down the cover plastic blocking you from your lights. Here I have my 10mm socket on the bolt you need to remove on the driver's side - the handle is pointing directly to the center most clip you'll need to remove. The first one you remove should be the one holding the end of the cover to the car, closest to the wheels - work your way in.
Removing the bolt is easy - lefty loosey. There are two clips on the driver's side and three on the passenger side that will also need to be removed. To remove these, take your screwdriver or hole punch and gently but firmly push in the center "dot" of the clip until it pops in. At this point you should be able to pull the whole tab up and plastic cover up with it. I don't bother removing the whole cover as I can get to the light assembly without doing so, but if you want to remove the whole thing, just keep popping the clips until you can take the whole cover off.
After you take the clips out and remove the bolt, the cover can easily be lifted. Here's a peek at what you'll be working with - note you can see the back cover of the light assembly:
Grab the cover for the light assembly and give it a quarter turn to get it off.
Now you have access to the light, but we don't touch it yet. Since the Genesis doesn't (that I know of) have an accessory cover you can remove, you 'll need to create one on the cover. You'll need just more than 1" to get the connector through the cover. To give you the basic layout, the HID system takes the car's low voltage current from the OEM connector inside the light assembly, runs it out of the assembly to the ballast, which goes to the ignitor, which goes to the HID bulb with a return wire. Since the ballast and ignitor don't fit inside the light assembly, we need to run the wires out of and back in to the assembly.
So, we'll need around a 1" hole, and thats about as big a hole as you can drill into the assembly cover you've removed. I happened to have a 1" drill bit designed for coring holes for deadbolts - it was part of a doorlock installation kit and it worked perfectly.
I braced the cover against my drill surface in one hand, and my drill in the other, and drilled the 1" hole. If you have an extra piece of wood lying around that you can drill into, perfect - don't drill into your kitchen table!
That hole is "just" too small, so I drilled a pilot hole, then bored it with a larger bit, then used the knife to cut open the clearance on the gap.
The pilot hole:
Bored and cut to open it up:
Now that we have a big enough hole, we can just squeeze the HID kit connector through it - make sure you go the right way through!
Once the big one is through, run the two smaller connecters through, and push through the grommet that is on the wires.
Its not the prettiest looking seal, but flatten out the rubber on both sides and you should be good. You could probably add a silicone seal to the outside if you really wanted to - I didn't think about it until after I was done.
Now... this install originally would have taken me about an hour, but when I first wired everything up, the lights wouldn't work, so I had to do some trouble shooting. The Hyundai uses a "reverse polarity" lighting system ( http://ddmtuning.com/support/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=26&nav=0 ), which basically means you need to swap the positive and negative wires at some point between the car connecter and the HID kit, or the lights won't work.
Look at the connector that goes into the ballast from the bulb assembly:
If you look at the sides, you'll see "+" and "-" and if you look inside, you'll see a guide so you can only connect the wires one way. You'll have to cut that guide out - I think. I didn't actually try to just connect the wire from the bulb to the ballast wire to see if you can just plug them in backward, I just took my knife and sliced at it until it was mostly gone. Make sure you can plug the wiring that goes from the HID bulb in the light assembly to the ballast in backwards. Note the lock and the clip are on opposite sides:
Once they fit, you're prepped and ready to swap bulbs!
Now comes the part you want to be very careful about - swapping the bulbs. Getting the old bulb out is simple enough, but you want to be very careful about removing it and especially installing the HID bulb - you don't want to break it in the housing!
To remove the old bulb, first, disconnect the car wiring from the bulb - its a simple two sided prong you have to pop with your finger nail. Its slightly difficult as you can't see what you're doing, but if you've changed lights on a car before its simple. Once the connecter is off the OEM bulb, give it a 1/3 turn and it will come out. You want to take the wiring off the bulb while its secure so you don't risk breaking it.
Now that the old bulb is out, take the new HID bulb, remove the plastic cover from it, and take the whole wiring harness with the bulb and now the light assembly cover to the car. Work the cover and bulb under the engine cover you loosened and install the HID bulb in the socket.Once that is safely secured, connect the OEM wiring to the connector inside the light assembly so you'll have power from the car to the ballast system. Once that is connected, reinstall the light assembly cover - make sure the rubber weather seal is in place as you do this, or it will become impossible to do! Line up the tabs and a quarter turn and you are done.
Now all you have to do is make the connections from the light assembly to the ballast and ignitor. Remember to connect the wiring from the light assembly to the ballast backwards! (see pic above) Once everything is wired, go turn on the car, turn on the lights, and you should see the HID fire and warm up.
If everything is working, you just need to secure the ballast and ignitor to the car and you'll be done with it. The DDM kit comes with double sided tape and zip ties to help you clean up the install. I took the tape and cut it into three pieces:
The bigger square for the ballast, the smaller rectangle for the ignitor:
Apply the tape to the bottom of the ignitor and the ballast, and tape the ignitor to the ballast:
Now you just need to tape it to the car. Try to stick the assembly some place where its out of the way if you ever need to change the bulb. This is easier to do on the passenger side. Here's the driver's side with everything installed:
One side done, one to go!
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FYI to anyone.....All OEM HID systems are 35W. 55 would be way to bright!
