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

[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/yy281/oakrdrs187/white.jpg

Here's the HID kit from vvme.com
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/yy281/oakrdrs187/2011-04-14_15-06-09_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/yy281/oakrdrs187/2011-04-14_15-07-26_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/yy281/oakrdrs187/2011-04-14_15-08-07_340.jpg

First step is to remove your tail light assembly
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/yy281/oakrdrs187/2011-04-14_15-11-31_409.jpg

Then pull your stock 1156 out, mine is a silverstar which still wasn't enough for me.
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/yy281/oakrdrs187/2011-04-14_15-15-21_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/yy281/oakrdrs187/2011-04-14_15-13-57_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/yy281/oakrdrs187/2011-04-14_15-16-17_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/yy281/oakrdrs187/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/yy281/oakrdrs187/2011-04-14_15-26-21_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/yy281/oakrdrs187/2011-04-14_15-05-39_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/yy281/oakrdrs187/2011-04-14_15-31-09_668.jpg

Here's the tail light back on with the HID wires ran through.
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/yy281/oakrdrs187/2011-04-14_15-42-32_448.jpg

In order to avoid pinched wires
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/yy281/oakrdrs187/kink.jpg

Here's my ballast mounted
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/yy281/oakrdrs187/2011-04-14_15-45-11_417.jpg

Wired up to power, quickly to test it then butt connector came off and soldered the connection.
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/yy281/oakrdrs187/2011-04-14_16-37-22_848.jpg

End Result
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/yy281/oakrdrs187/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/yy281/oakrdrs187/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/yy281/oakrdrs187/2011-04-14_16-37-56_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/yy281/oakrdrs187/2011-04-14_18-28-44_852.jpg

Next you want to wire up a relay on each side
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/yy281/oakrdrs187/2011-04-14_18-28-30_648.jpg

Finished installation with cut-off relay.
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/yy281/oakrdrs187/2011-04-14_18-36-56_388.jpg


These are some quick diagrams for those of you who aren't that relay savy.
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/yy281/oakrdrs187/Cutoffrelay.jpg
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/yy281/oakrdrs187/RelaytoHIdside.jpg

[oakrdrs187]

GHQIboQ8q6I

[Joshua42007]

Great write up :cool:


www.ddmtuning.com has cheaper HID kits

[mrg7243]

wow much simplier than i though. I assum you arent done, ass i didnt see the use of the 3 relays, or how you wired the hids up. Also what size HID are they, like bulb socket size 899?

[oakrdrs187]

Great write up :cool:


www.ddmtuning.com has cheaper HID kits
Thanks!
You are correct sir, but they don't carry this bulb, and they are slacking on shipping hard. I just got my heads and fogs from them 2 days ago and I ordered on the 25th of March. I'm still gonna buy from them, LOL! They just don't have this dual function bulb, theirs has the solenoid to move the HID capsule for high beam light.


wow much simplier than i though. I assum you arent done, ass i didnt see the use of the 3 relays, or how you wired the hids up. Also what size HID are they, like bulb socket size 899?

Not done yet bro, I'm putting the diagrams together. The Kit I ordered is a H4 or 9003

http://www.vvme.com/standard-h429003-hid-conversion-kit-p-50.html?cPath=44_53_47


The 3 relays are as follows:
1 under the hood tapped to the stock fog harness to send send the needed juice to the ballasts at the push of the stock fog button. Which is nice cuz the indicator on the dash let's me know they are on.

Other 2 are used to cut off power from the halogen bulbs when the HID's come on. So you don't have to lights in a small compartment. I will have a video of them in action later today. AND NIGHT PICS!!

[PR8GG]

Nice, I like this, I have to put this in my "to do list".

[finald8ta]

wow much simplier than i though. I assum you arent done, ass i didnt see the use of the 3 relays, or how you wired the hids up. Also what size HID are they, like bulb socket size 899?

it the same type of socket as are headlights(usdm) i have this set up running in my headlights right now just dont like the high beam.

great right up man

[oakrdrs187]

it the same type of socket as are headlights(usdm) i have this set up running in my headlights right now just dont like the high beam.

great right up man


finald8ta: You are correct, if you have HIDs on your headlights, some are this type of bulb, the high beam function on it is mediocre, this dual beam bulb was only intended to pass inspection, it was not designed for high beam output. But I have put it to use here.

[finald8ta]

finald8ta: You are correct, if you have HIDs on your headlights, some are this type of bulb, the high beam function on it is mediocre, this dual beam bulb was only intended to pass inspection, it was not designed for high beam output. But I have put it to use here.

tru. still a good right up

[qnz]

Nice write up. But isnt it illegal to have white lights on the back end of your car if youre not going in reverse?

[wetamup2k3g]

Good setup, I have those kind of bulbs on my car now, but the ballasts are bad, I got DDM's coming too, but I ordered them tuesday and they have yet to even ship, I think they're slacking forreal.

[Rabbi1991]

Nice write up. But isnt it illegal to have white lights on the back end of your car if youre not going in reverse?

these are the reverse lights.
How to Install HID Back-up (Reverse Lights) The Right Way

[AVERAGE]

Nice write up but i can't seem to think of any reason why I would personally need this setup.

[qnz]

these are the reverse lights.
How to Install HID Back-up (Reverse Lights) The Right Way

In his writeup, he says the HIDs come on with a toggle switch. it does not have to be in reverse

[oakrdrs187]

I imagine if I were to get caught I would be in deep shit. Mostly use them for backing up now, so I manually toggle them ahead of time to allow tjem to warm up and not sit there in reverse more than i need to.

The other reson i put this on is because of tailgaters, the extreme ones. I ride clean and drive the speed liimit, on the right side lane. Some people think that by getting close i will drive faster, i wont so they can backoff with these insane lights in their face. Also dont use your high beams behind me or you will get a taste, i always look before i leap for cops. Ive used them before in the mentioned methods and have worked out in my favor, they switched back to lows and either backoff or went around.

A slow or slower moving car such as the speed limit gets more attention than the faster ones simply cuz theres more time to watch it go by.

I apologize for some of my writing "hiccups" if you will. Im on my phone.

[ichbindasgehirn]

I know this is really OT but I know that the Ebay halo projectors use H1 HIDs, and if I'm ordering the slim HID kit from DDM should I get the error eliminator, the HID harness, or the adapter cables?

[oakrdrs187]

^^^^ (2nd post) Added Video!!!

[keith6110]

Why not just use the hid kit for the oem reverse switch. The stock setup doesn't provide enough amps for the setup or?

[oakrdrs187]

The O.E reverse wire powers up the halogen side of the bulb and the fog light switch on the dash triggers a relay for the HID side.

[BIG_WILLY_831]

Good job man i like i dont think i need them ether but i dont care ima do it.......thanks

[raks_22]

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

[oakrdrs187]

Get some tonight

[qcustoms]

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

[oakrdrs187]

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/yy281/oakrdrs187/2011-07-26_01-05-34_104.jpg
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/yy281/oakrdrs187/2011-07-26_01-04-35_836.jpg http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/yy281/oakrdrs187/2011-07-26_01-05-12_488.jpg

[wetamup2k3g]

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

[oakrdrs187]

Yea they're a little bright...

[quicksilver22]

geeeeeeeeeeeezus that's bright man lol

[BassinG]

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

[E_Emerson88]

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?

[oakrdrs187]

^ 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.

[david2012]

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/yy281/oakrdrs187/white.jpg

Here's the HID kit from vvme.com
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/yy281/oakrdrs187/2011-04-14_15-06-09_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/yy281/oakrdrs187/2011-04-14_15-07-26_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/yy281/oakrdrs187/2011-04-14_15-08-07_340.jpg

First step is to remove your tail light assembly
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/yy281/oakrdrs187/2011-04-14_15-11-31_409.jpg

Then pull your stock 1156 out, mine is a silverstar which still wasn't enough for me.
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/yy281/oakrdrs187/2011-04-14_15-15-21_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/yy281/oakrdrs187/2011-04-14_15-13-57_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/yy281/oakrdrs187/2011-04-14_15-16-17_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/yy281/oakrdrs187/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/yy281/oakrdrs187/2011-04-14_15-26-21_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/yy281/oakrdrs187/2011-04-14_15-05-39_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/yy281/oakrdrs187/2011-04-14_15-31-09_668.jpg

Here's the tail light back on with the HID wires ran through.
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/yy281/oakrdrs187/2011-04-14_15-42-32_448.jpg

In order to avoid pinched wires
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/yy281/oakrdrs187/kink.jpg

Here's my ballast mounted
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/yy281/oakrdrs187/2011-04-14_15-45-11_417.jpg

Wired up to power, quickly to test it then butt connector came off and soldered the connection.
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/yy281/oakrdrs187/2011-04-14_16-37-22_848.jpg

End Result
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/yy281/oakrdrs187/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/yy281/oakrdrs187/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/yy281/oakrdrs187/2011-04-14_16-37-56_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/yy281/oakrdrs187/2011-04-14_18-28-44_852.jpg

Next you want to wire up a relay on each side
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/yy281/oakrdrs187/2011-04-14_18-28-30_648.jpg

Finished installation with cut-off relay.
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/yy281/oakrdrs187/2011-04-14_18-36-56_388.jpg


These are some quick diagrams for those of you who aren't that relay savy.
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/yy281/oakrdrs187/Cutoffrelay.jpg
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/yy281/oakrdrs187/RelaytoHIdside.jpg
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 (http://eshop.ktautopart.com/car-hid-kits-1/hid-reverse-light/hid-reverse-light-kt-hrl-15.html), it seems it can almost meet my requirements. Here is the link http://eshop.ktautopart.com/car-hid-kits-1/hid-reverse-light/hid-reverse-light-kt-hrl-15.html does anyone ever buy it from this site, or any suggestions about this item, i consider to buy one.

[oakrdrs187]

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.

[oakrdrs187]

GHQIboQ8q6I

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

[david2012]

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/catalog/product/cache/1/thumbnail/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/h/h/hhid_reversing_light-backup_light-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. :)

[oakrdrs187]

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.

[doctor]

Great idea and nice job! :033:

[oakrdrs187]

Thank you Doc.

[KaziKai]

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

[oakrdrs187]

That's why I have em.

[mko]

Thanks for the tutorial. Moved to knowledge base.

[Redhaze]

its all fun in games until you use this on a undercover tailgating cop.

[oakrdrs187]

^ that I'm afraid of. TBH I hardly use them. They come in handy backing up in dark streets.


I'm gonna edit this to include wiring for daytime and night time use. (As in during the day the regular lights will come on and at night the HIDs will come on, both just by throwing it in reverse.)