Acceleronics HID installation guide

Acceleronics HID Installation Guide

The following text and pictures detail the installation of our HID lamp kit on a C5 Corvette. Clicking on any of the pictures will open a full size version.

The first step is to inventory all the parts in the calm moments before the excitement of the project kicks in. The Acceleronics HID kit contains all the parts you'll need - nothing else to buy. Regarding tools, you'll need whatever is called for by a head lamp change (check your owner's manual or service manual) plus (optionally) a drill to make a hole for the ballast mounting brackets. This C5 installation required a phillips head screwdriver, a drill with 3/16" bit, and a 3/8" socket wrench. The picture on the right shows one complete HID lamp assembly. The connector in the upper-left corner of the picture connects to the factory headlight plug, and the bulb at the bottom of the picture plugs into the factory headlight housing. No other wiring connections are needed. Simple!

On to the installation! You need the headlight bucket raised, but the lamps off. To do this, turn the headlight switch completely on, then quickly to the parking light position. Then remove the 3 phillips head screws holding the plastic trim in place.

When all the screws are out and put in a safe place, carefully remove the plastic trim.

The next step is to reach behind/underneath the headlight housing and twist out the old lamp, then unplug the stock lamp connector. Be careful not to touch the lamp glass! Skin oils cause these lamps to self destruct. You can use the HID lamp shipping tube to store the stock lamp after completing the following test.

At this point we strongly suggest that you do a trial assembly of the components outside the car before proceeding with the installation. Assemble the components for one side as shown in the picture above, then plug the assembled system into your headlight connector. Be sure to keep the lamp in its protective tube and place it somewhere safe. Before turning on the headlights, please read the next section.

Now a little explanation is in order. Filament lamps, like the halogens you are replacing, have 2 wires. One wire goes to battery +, the other wire goes to battery -. A filament lamp does not care which is which, so you cannot connect it backwards. An electronic device like an HID ballast, however, does care which wire goes to the battery + and which wire goes to battery -. Why should you care?

You care because automakers do not agree on how to wire a headlight lamp connector. Some wire the connector one way, the rest wire it "backwards". This means that the HID ballast "extension cord" is correct for some cars, but backwards for other cars. How can you tell? Simple! Turn on the lights. If your new HID lamp turns on, you're golden, you can continue with the installation. If it doesn't, just follow the simple 1-minute fix by clicking this link.

At this point you should have seen the light from your new HID, so unplug the HID assembly from the factory headlight connector, and disconnect the lamp, igniter, and ballast connectors. Take the HID lamp out of its shipping tube (don't touch the glass part of the lamp!) and twist it into the headlight housing.

Now you can connect the igniter to the installed HID lamp. Note that the three igniter connectors are color-keyed and use different connector geometries so there is no way to connect them wrong. Simple!

The next step is to mount the ballast. First attach the bracket to the ballast with the supplied screws. Second, attach a self-adhesive anti-vibration pad to the back of the bracket. This will prevent the ballast from rattling on the frame. Third, hold the ballast tightly against the frame rail and bend the bracket tab over the top of the frame rail. The tab bends easily and will follow the frame contour. The middle picture shows the bracket after bending the tab (you are looking through the slot formed by the hood and the front fascia). Fourth, choose one of the holes in the bracket for the mounting screw and drill a small hole in the frame rail as shown in the picture on the right.

Almost done!

Attach the bracket to the frame using the provided sheet metal screw. The piece of hardware store rubber sheet seen in the picture was used to prevent rattling because the installer didn't notice the self-adhesive pad included with the kit <blush>. Then plug one end of the supplied "extension cord" into the red wire from the ballast and the other end into the factory headlight socket.

You have one last task before enjoying your new HID headlight. Use the supplied tie-wraps to secure all wiring so that it does not get pinched by the hood or headlight bucket as they open and close, or anything else in the headlight neighborhood. Then secure the igniter so that it does not rattle around. Once both sides are installed and secure, it's time to enjoy headlights that should have been installed by the factory!

Left headlight: HID conversion. Right headlight: factory halogen.