How to Install HID Back-up (Reverse Lights) The Right Way

do u have some night pic? to see how it looks (the street)

Get some tonight

i like that.. i love that, i want that

Pics I took 2 min ago. Note my street is well lit so output shots werent as good as head on.

http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/y...-05-34_104.jpg
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/y...-04-35_836.jpg http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/y...-05-12_488.jpg

Yeah, that'll make a fool back his ass up!

Yea they're a little bright...

geeeeeeeeeeeezus that's bright man lol

NICe!!! i think im going to try this out!

i heard that HID's get too hot and will warp the plastic of the tail lights if you have them on for too long. any problems with that so far?

^ No since you would have to have them on for a long time. Longest I have used them for was between 3-5 minutes straight. It would take alot longer than that to damage the housing.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by oakrdrs187

OK TGC, this is my first "How To".
I have installed HID lights in my Reverse Light Socket for backing up in dark areas, I can also use them to blind a tailgater if they get me to that point.
Some of you may wonder, How do you do reverse lights "THE RIGHT WAY??"
"I didn't know there was a wrong way!"
Let me assure there is no right or wrong way, it's HID in your reverse lights it's not something you need.
The way I have done it is, an effective way to ensure maximum ballast and bulb life. Basically meaning, not killing your HID kit because you go to reverse so many times in one week (also having them on during the day) and when you go from Park to Drive it quickly kicks 12 volts to the back up bulb, that alone will have your ballasts begging for mercy in less than a month.

OK, on to what you clicked this thread for.
You will need:
10mm socket/ratchet
1 inch length screws
Silicone/sealant
20 ft 14 awg wire
10 ft 16 or 18 awg wire
Soldering iron and soldering wire or butt-connectors (I prefer solder to ensure best connection)
Electrical tape
Zip Ties
Self Tap Screws
Drill with phillips bit and a wire wheel bit to sand for good ground connections
3 12Volt Relays
1 Complete Dual beam HID Kit from VVME.COM (Pictured) Mine is 8000k 35w

So we start with what most of us have now. A Stock, Dim, Yellowish pair of lights.
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/y...s187/white.jpg

Here's the HID kit from vvme.com
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/y...-06-09_879.jpg

This is what makes this kit so special for this install. It's their H4-2 8000k 35w kit.
The bulb has to sides to it, one HID capsule and one 55w Halogen side for use of high beam.
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/y...-07-26_883.jpg

Close up. The HID side will be connected to run off a switch of your choosing, and the halogen side will be tapped straight to the Revers wires in your car.
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/y...-08-07_340.jpg

First step is to remove your tail light assembly
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/y...-11-31_409.jpg

Then pull your stock 1156 out, mine is a silverstar which still wasn't enough for me.
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/y...-15-21_422.jpg

Next prep your bulb by cutting of the socket attached to it, removing the ballast harness and running your halogen capsule power wires through the grommet.
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/y...-13-57_754.jpg

Next, test fit your bulb, it goes right into the opening without going through it, no need to modify whatsoever.
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/y...-16-17_371.jpg

I used these to screw the bulbs in place, they were kind of long so I cut them, now they are a bit longer than the self tap screws.
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/y...187/screws.jpg

Here's the bulb held down, nice and snug. Just enough to get the bulb held down for silicone to weather proof.
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/y...5-26-21_26.jpg

Whatever you have it doesn't matter, I used black on one side and goop on the other.
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/y...-05-39_584.jpg

Connect/Tap into the reverse power and ground wires in the harness that is on the tail light, I prefer to solder.
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/y...-31-09_668.jpg

Here's the tail light back on with the HID wires ran through.
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/y...-42-32_448.jpg

In order to avoid pinched wires
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/y...rs187/kink.jpg

Here's my ballast mounted
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/y...-45-11_417.jpg

Wired up to power, quickly to test it then butt connector came off and soldered the connection.
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/y...-37-22_848.jpg

End Result
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/y...187/white3.jpg

In this image, the drivers side is the Halogen side of the HID, and the passenger side is the Silverstar 1156 bulb, already the new halogen bulb is noticeably brighter than stock, even though mine is a pepped up stock bulb.
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/y...187/white2.jpg

So how's it work?

The halogen side of the bulbs come on with reverse gear at all times.
The HID side comes on when I toggle them on, the car does not have to be in reverse.
I have wired the HID's in back to my fog lights, since my fog-lights are tapped to a relay off the low beam ballast they always come on with lows and remain on with highs too, I have no use for the switch that's on the dash or the stock fog harness. So what I did is got the 12 volt wire from the stock fog harness on the drivers side and used it to trigger a relay to send direct battery 12 volts throught the 14awg wire I ran to the back. This wire then splits into each ballast.
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/y...-37-56_514.jpg

One very important thing I did to assure the housing does not melt when youre backing up with the car in reverse and the HID's are on.
If you don't use a relay to cut power to the halogen bulbs whenever the HID's are on you will have two bulbs in a very small area turned on together and that will heat up real fast.

Start by cutting the red with blue line wire like so.
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/y...-28-44_852.jpg

Next you want to wire up a relay on each side
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/y...-28-30_648.jpg

Finished installation with cut-off relay.
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/y...-36-56_388.jpg


These are some quick diagrams for those of you who aren't that relay savy.
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/y...utoffrelay.jpg
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/y...ytoHIdside.jpg

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Great write up, i was thinking to upgrade my back up light from halogen bulb to HID kit, but i don't want to cut the tail light, also consider about the power consumption of the 35W hid kit, if there is 20Watt or even lower power consumption HID kit with same bulb type of the back up light will be perfect. I tried to search the HID back-up light ( reverse light) and found one site called online store of Kingtech Auto Parts Co., Ltd It has one type HID Reverse light KT-HRL-15, it seems it can almost meet my requirements. Here is the link http://eshop.ktautopart.com/car-hid-...kt-hrl-15.html does anyone ever buy it from this site, or any suggestions about this item, i consider to buy one.

Well I had never seen a plug and play kit for HID until now, Lol!

It looks like the kit comes with everything you will need to install it the reverse lights.
But $80 compared to other HID kits is a lot. But then again the kit is deigned to work with little to no modifications.

The only thing I don't like about this type of kit is that no matter day or night its gonna come on. The kit I chose has another bulb on it that I use for regular reverse, my HIDs come on with a switch. The reason I did this is to maximize bulb life. If I don need them on I don't want them on.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by oakrdrs187

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David2012, hope you got to see this alternating video between HID and regular reverse.

Hi oakrdrs187,

thanks for your suggestions. price is a big issue, but i think is okay, because i don't know to cut the original light, as the hid reverse light is already includes several bulb adaptershttp://eshop.ktautopart.com/media/ca...t-kt-hrl-1.jpg
the life span may not a big issue, as the life span for hid light is around 2500H or 3-5 years. I need to make more investigation about it. :)

You are correct on the lifespan, but those figures are not based on HID used for reverse lights. Think about how often your back up bulbs come on in one day (anytime you find yourself in reverse), now think about how long they come on for. Now think about times when you see other drivers shift straight from park to drive but you still see their back up bulbs quickly come on an off. HID is very sensitive to all of the things i just mentioned. In other words HID ballasts/bulbs hate starting up and shutting off, they just like to be run steady.

Great idea and nice job! :033:

Thank you Doc.

This would be a great tool for those that loves to hi beam you from the rear!

That's why I have em.

Thanks for the tutorial. Moved to knowledge base.