I have edited this to reflect changes I made after this was originally posted. The modifications include the addition of a second relay, some heavier gauge wire and a fuse & holder. The reason for this is to prevent voltage drop at the ballast and to prevent the delicate start button contacts from having to carry the headlamp current.
Okay folks, for those of you who, like me, don't want the HID ballast cycling twice while starting up, but can't find a Euro-spec thottle-side set of bar switches that can be bought for less than the price of your left testicle, I have a solution. I just finished doing this on my bird and it works perfectly!
*Warning* This involves cutting and soldering to your wiring harness and is not for the inept or faint at heart. Jean-Claude, this means you. I am unable to upload pics at the moment, so I will have to try to do this without visual aids.
Alright, the list of materials for this mod is pretty short. All this really takes is a few feet of 18ga wire, enough red 12ga and black 12ga wire to reach from the nosecone area to the battery, some male and female spade connectors, heat shrink tubing, a 5-pin relay (his is simply a relay that will have a "normally closed" pin, usually marked 87a or 87q, as well as the usual "normally open" pin, marked 87), and a 4-pin relay. I won't teach anyone to solder as Smurf has already done a marvelous job of that in his Acumen DV8 install thread.
Okay, here it is. Install your bulb and mount your ballast if you haven't already done so. I found that mine quite nicely tucked in behind the instrument panel and a couple of tie straps hold it there perfectly. My kit included a totally useless rubber grommet (which the instructions referred to as "rubber gourmet" in an obvious reference to JClaude's cooking) which did nothing except make the wires difficult to manage so I removed it.
Now you will need use your handy dandy Haynes manual to identify the wires in the harness that supplies the instrument cluster. The one you're after is the oil pressure switch wire (on my '02 this is blue w/red). This is going to trigger the relay coil. You need to splice into this with a length of the 18 gauge wire, decide where to mount the relay (somewhere that the original headlamp wiring will reach as you will need these to feed the 4-pin relay). Solder a female spade connector to each of these and attatch them to the coil terminals of the relay (pins 85 and 86). This will "open" the switch in the relay when the key is turned on and the oil pressure lamp is lit.
I found it easier to remove the spade connectors from the OEM headlamp plug. This can be accomplished by using a small pair of needle nose pliers to squeeze the barb in the side of the connector. The plug into the 4-pin relay, blue w/white to pin 85, green to pin 86. The black wire from the ballast should be extended with the #12 black wire and run to the negative battery terminal. The red wire from the ballast goes to the 5-pin relay. You will need to remove the male connector it came with and solder on a female connector. This goes to pin 87a (or 87q), not pin 87. Pin 30 on the 5-pin relay gets a jumper (using the red #12 and a couple of female spade connectors) to pin 87 on the 4-pin relay. Pin 30 on the 4-pin relay goes to the battery, via more of the red #12 wire and the fuse holder.
The HID will not be energized until the engine is running and the oil pressure warning lamp has extinguished.
So, in summary:
Materials:
4-pin
Okay folks, for those of you who, like me, don't want the HID ballast cycling twice while starting up, but can't find a Euro-spec thottle-side set of bar switches that can be bought for less than the price of your left testicle, I have a solution. I just finished doing this on my bird and it works perfectly!
*Warning* This involves cutting and soldering to your wiring harness and is not for the inept or faint at heart. Jean-Claude, this means you. I am unable to upload pics at the moment, so I will have to try to do this without visual aids.
Alright, the list of materials for this mod is pretty short. All this really takes is a few feet of 18ga wire, enough red 12ga and black 12ga wire to reach from the nosecone area to the battery, some male and female spade connectors, heat shrink tubing, a 5-pin relay (his is simply a relay that will have a "normally closed" pin, usually marked 87a or 87q, as well as the usual "normally open" pin, marked 87), and a 4-pin relay. I won't teach anyone to solder as Smurf has already done a marvelous job of that in his Acumen DV8 install thread.
Okay, here it is. Install your bulb and mount your ballast if you haven't already done so. I found that mine quite nicely tucked in behind the instrument panel and a couple of tie straps hold it there perfectly. My kit included a totally useless rubber grommet (which the instructions referred to as "rubber gourmet" in an obvious reference to JClaude's cooking) which did nothing except make the wires difficult to manage so I removed it.
Now you will need use your handy dandy Haynes manual to identify the wires in the harness that supplies the instrument cluster. The one you're after is the oil pressure switch wire (on my '02 this is blue w/red). This is going to trigger the relay coil. You need to splice into this with a length of the 18 gauge wire, decide where to mount the relay (somewhere that the original headlamp wiring will reach as you will need these to feed the 4-pin relay). Solder a female spade connector to each of these and attatch them to the coil terminals of the relay (pins 85 and 86). This will "open" the switch in the relay when the key is turned on and the oil pressure lamp is lit.
I found it easier to remove the spade connectors from the OEM headlamp plug. This can be accomplished by using a small pair of needle nose pliers to squeeze the barb in the side of the connector. The plug into the 4-pin relay, blue w/white to pin 85, green to pin 86. The black wire from the ballast should be extended with the #12 black wire and run to the negative battery terminal. The red wire from the ballast goes to the 5-pin relay. You will need to remove the male connector it came with and solder on a female connector. This goes to pin 87a (or 87q), not pin 87. Pin 30 on the 5-pin relay gets a jumper (using the red #12 and a couple of female spade connectors) to pin 87 on the 4-pin relay. Pin 30 on the 4-pin relay goes to the battery, via more of the red #12 wire and the fuse holder.
The HID will not be energized until the engine is running and the oil pressure warning lamp has extinguished.
So, in summary:
Materials:
- 18ga wire (2 colours, if desired)
- 12ga wire (some red, some black)
- female spade connectors to fit each size of wire
- 4-pin automotive relay
- 5-pin automotive relay
- in-line fuse holder, 12ga
- 20a fuse
- shrink tube
- electrical tape
- tie straps
4-pin
- Pin 85: Low beam +12v (blue w/white in my case)
- Pin 86: Low beam -12v (green)
- Pin 87: pin 30 of the 5-pin relay (using red 12ga wire)
- Pin 30: +12v battery terminal, via in-line fuse holder (using red 12ga wire)
- Pin 85: Needs +12 V (Jumper from pin 30)
- Pin 86: Oil pressure switch - goes to ground when switch is actuated (blue w/red)
- Pin 87a: Ballast +12v lead (red)
- Pin 30: Pin 87 of the 4-pin relay