# HID DIY FAQ for Xenon HID's in a Passat CC.



## OnlineAlias (Apr 16, 2011)

Ok, I got no love originally. Not a single response on this post. Yet, people seem to keep coming in here asking about aftermarket HID's. I have learned even more about it since I posted this the first time, and I'm just going make sure it is all posted clearly so this information is complete when someone searches. I have learned all of this the hard way, mostly, and I would have paid money for this to be a Google away.

So, feel free to just consume the info and not thank me, I've learned how it is with you people. 

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*Everything you wanted to know about what can go wrong and how to avoid the problems:*

Ensure you buy the slim type xenon ballasts. This will become evident later in a big way. Also, do not even think about not getting the cancellers. Eventually, the evil CAN BUS will catch up to you and the lights will go out, permanently. 

Why is this, you say? Can't be, you say? 

Well, what happens is the voltage spikes during start up are kept track of by the computer. This is marked as a "right/left headlight is out of voltage range" and is detected about right as you are leaving for work a week or so after installation. The spike isn't always marked, because it isn't always severe enough, but it will eventually get you. Once you have 2 codes for out of range, the computer shuts down the light, permanently in order to protect the wiring from catching on fire or effecting the computer itself. By the way, it is the "central electric" computer that controls the lights. The canceller is actually a capacitor that smooths out the spikes on startup, thereby "cancelling" the computer codes. Some cancellers even have the word "decoder" on them. What is this? I never. I digress.

Now this situation isn't as bad as it seems. Some have taken their cars back in under warranty (after removing any evidence that the lights have been tampered with), and the dealers have been reported as doing everything from changing the central computer (for a big cost to VW) to taking off the battery negative terminal. Disconnecting the battery from the car clears the stored code. I have cleared the code via VAG-COM. No muss, no fuss.

*What about glare, you say? Will my car look obnoxious with HID's in reflector housings? *

The simple answer is yes, a little. But given our $1700 alternative to get factory bi-xenons, what are we going to do? 

So, some things that can help immensely with the obnoxiousness are one, get 4300k bulbs and good hot ballasts (don't forget the cancellers), and two, lower the beams a little from stock. There is a white allen bolt right behind both lights, you can't miss them. Shine the lights on a wall and turn them downwards for at least 3 turns on the driver's side, and 2 turns on the passenger's. It is astounding how much this helps with glare (I have tested it both behind a car and coming up on it). Other drivers will thank you. 

BTW, you aren't fooling me with those 6K and 8K color temperature lights. You do not look good. You are putting out less light. Get good 4300k's (often Ebay guys will sell you 6000k's marked as 4300k's so they don't have to stock a bunch of different ones). Everyone knows, and you will be driving a ricer, so don't do it.

Now, the next thing that you are likely to run into is the "clip problem". Some only have a bitch of a time with it, others have gone on 3 state killing sprees in anger. If you would like to give the killing spree a try, stop reading and go and try to put aftermarket H7 HID's into the clips and twist them in right now. Wait, send me an PM first, I want to get out of your way. Then let the killing begin.

Please, just read below carefully, take it slow, and it will go as smooth as silk.

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*Note: this technique modifies no parts on the car, not even the clip or the housing. *

Take out your H7 bulbs by turning counter clockwise. Take the bulb out of its mounting (important, the bulb comes out right now, it isn't clipped in) Then, use a small screwdriver to dislodge the clip from the electrical fitting.

Remove any spacers or grommets that might be on your new xenon bulbs. 

Put the clip over the xenon light bulb wires. It is very snug over the big fitting, but it *will* fit. Just get it started and then "wiggle" it forcefully over the plug.

I mounted the base in lightly in a vise, leaving the covers still on the bulb.

Take a drill with a 3/32nds bit, and drill holes here:










*Ensure that the tabs from the clip fit down into the holes.* Widen the holes with the bit until the clip is *absolutely flush*. It is *imperative *that it doesn't want to spring out or separate on its own.











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Install the bulbs in the car, it will slide in just as easily as a factory H7. Aint that great? No killing spree or nothin. 

Wire the cancelers into the factory plug for the H7's, and then ballasts to the cancelers. Take note that the ballasts are polarity specific. Turn the lights on for a split second to see if the xenon lights. If it does you are good to go, if it doesn't, the polarity is probably reversed.

*What do I do about all the damn wiring? Drill holes, find mounting spots? Damn I don't want to jack up my car any more than I have to.*


The slim ballasts and the cancelers are small enough to fit ENTIRELY inside the housing. Just put all the wiring and ballast inside by sliding it into the flat area under the reflector in a reasonably organized way. Then put the cancelers in by laying it on its side, vertically. Note that the cover itself has a lot more room in it as it is concave. 

Close it up and you are done!

*TA DA! No mods to the car, completely removable in 10 minutes, no wiring anywhere in sight. * 

I've been running for a long while now in this set up and taken the cover off to check the heat, etc. It doesn't even get warm to the touch inside. No problem.:thumbup:


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## db1.8t (Jan 5, 2005)

This is very helpful. I wish I would have seen something like this before I did mine. Thank you!!:beer::beer:


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## Epence (Jan 7, 2010)

:thumbup: bump for good info


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## RlineKevo (Jun 28, 2011)

I just installed my HID kit this weekend using your method and it worked great! Thank you for taking the time to write up this great DIY :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

One concern I have is for keeping the ballast inside the headlight housing, it seems like there's nowhere for the heat to escape. Now I have the bulb and the ballast generating a lot of heat and I'm afraid it may lead to headlight/wires melting.

Is anybody else running same set-up?


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## ebi718 (Jan 16, 2011)

Mine are outside the headlight housing, ziptied securely....probably the safest approach. The bulbs generate enough heat as-is....why introduce more heat and risk melting/fire?

Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk


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## RlineKevo (Jun 28, 2011)

The main reason for fitting everything inside the housing was to avoid drilling holes in the caps since the car is a lease.

I figured since the 35W HID bulb produces less heat than the stock 55W halogen bulb and the ballast don't seem to get all that hot, the combined heat output wouldn't be much different from the stock halogen bulb. Ofcourse none of this is backed by scientific numbers of the actual heat production but somehow it just made sense in my head :laugh:

I ran the car for 4 hours after the install and the headlight didn't seem very hot to the touch considering it was 90 degrees outside. I know that I haven't had them on long enough so I wanted to see if anybody else has theirs set up the same way.


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## ebi718 (Jan 16, 2011)

A friend actually ran this setup on his Audi.... But chose to drill the holes on his CC. I figured I could easily replace the covers when necessary (i.e. at lease end). If it works for you, that's fine.... I just didn't want to take the risk.

Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk


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## milan187 (Mar 15, 2009)

Are these a good option?

http://www.ddmtuning.com/Products/DDM-HID-Kit-Slim-Ballast-35W-or-55W

Cancellers are same thing as error eliminators?
If you have better option then these please let me know or the kit you used?


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## OnlineAlias (Apr 16, 2011)

milan187 said:


> Are these a good option?
> 
> http://www.ddmtuning.com/Products/DDM-HID-Kit-Slim-Ballast-35W-or-55W
> 
> ...


Yes, they are fine. Yes, cancellers are the same.


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## milan187 (Mar 15, 2009)

Thanks I got the 5000k for a totally white look hopefully. I am planning to keep the ballasts inside the housing as well. I will post back when I do the install.

Thanks for the guide :beer:


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## Epence (Jan 7, 2010)

OnlineAlias said:


> Yes, they are fine. Yes, cancellers are the same.


so the slim kit's H7 bulb has a oval shaped handle like the picture you showed? I bought the Raptor kit, the bulb handle is circular shape. I even called their tech support, the rep. said all H7 doesn't look like









I ended up returning the raptor kit. -_-


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## OnlineAlias (Apr 16, 2011)

Epence said:


> so the slim kit's H7 bulb has a oval shaped handle like the picture you showed? I bought the Raptor kit, the bulb handle is circular shape. I even called their tech support, the rep. said all H7 doesn't look like
> 
> I ended up returning the raptor kit. -_-



Raptor is 55watt. I don't know what the bulb looks like in it, but I wouldn't use a 55 watt at all.


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## Epence (Jan 7, 2010)

Raptor kit has 35w too. That was what I got

I'll post pics of bulbs for look comparison later, I'm on my iPhone right now


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## Epence (Jan 7, 2010)

This is the H7 style bulb i got along with the Raptor Kit 35w:









This is other H7 bulb (I believe what most got):









See the difference? And those spacers don't help/fit. :banghead:


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## milan187 (Mar 15, 2009)

My ddm tunning kit came like that too. However it also came with plastic clips in the box, they are round I can post pictures if you want but maybe you got them too.

You put the round plastic on the bulb and fits right into our cars, the mod above is not needed. Thanks for the diy though.

How where you able to put everything inside the housing?


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## Aonarch (Dec 4, 2006)

:thumbup:


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## nixon_jetta2.5 (Jan 5, 2009)

dude its a very nice DIY i wish i had the time to try it... lmao but trust me that this link is saved in my pc... cuz when i do it im sure gonna thank you... my car had me crazy on how to do it.. lmao


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## OnlineAlias (Apr 16, 2011)

milan187 said:


> My ddm tunning kit came like that too. However it also came with plastic clips in the box, they are round I can post pictures if you want but maybe you got them too.
> 
> You put the round plastic on the bulb and fits right into our cars, the mod above is not needed. Thanks for the diy though.
> 
> How where you able to put everything inside the housing?


Use super slim digital ballasts, as in the DIY. The entire ballast will slide under the reflector inside the housing.


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## milan187 (Mar 15, 2009)

OnlineAlias said:


> Use super slim digital ballasts, as in the DIY. The entire ballast will slide under the reflector inside the housing.



hmm I was not able to do it and the ballast is slim but have 2 other pieces as well.

You where able to fit all this in yours?


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## cook0066 (Apr 14, 2010)

I did t need the error eliminators. Waist of money. Went in no problem



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## RlineKevo (Jun 28, 2011)

milan187 said:


> hmm I was not able to do it and the ballast is slim but have 2 other pieces as well.
> 
> You where able to fit all this in yours?


I was able to fit mine inside the housing with no problem. I bought the USP kit with slim ballast. The ballast is the only thing that fits underneath the reflector the rest of the wires/cancellers can be shoved right behind the bulb. Been running this set-up for almost a month now with no issues (DRLs not disabled). opcorn:


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## OnlineAlias (Apr 16, 2011)

cook0066 said:


> I did t need the error eliminators. Waist of money. Went in no problem
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Heh, we'll see about that. It takes 2 spikes for the computer to turn the light off. The spikes are much worse in the cold.


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## recluss1 (Aug 2, 2011)

*2012 vw cc*

Thanks for the info on this thread, it was very handy in helping me install my slim can bus HID kit from USP.


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## rkeon (May 11, 2008)

So no one did any VAGCOM changes? I knw on the B6 we need to tweak some stuff as not to burn out the balast.


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## nixon_jetta2.5 (Jan 5, 2009)

RlineKevo said:


> I was able to fit mine inside the housing with no problem. I bought the USP kit with slim ballast. The ballast is the only thing that fits underneath the reflector the rest of the wires/cancellers can be shoved right behind the bulb. Been running this set-up for almost a month now with no issues (DRLs not disabled). opcorn:


ahh man u gotta get them DRL's disabled... otherwise your killing your bulbs!!! and it feels so good when ur driving and another cc driver catches and and ask's . '' Um how come you dont have your lights running in the daytime ? did you get that one imported or something? '' LMAO!! me: ummm just a little programming couple of my boys know how to do....


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## flynnstone (Jul 25, 2011)

nixon_jetta2.5 said:


> ahh man u gotta get them DRL's disabled... otherwise your killing your bulbs!!!


is this true? Will the bulb life be significantly reduced?


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## rkeon (May 11, 2008)

flynnstone said:


> is this true? Will the bulb life be significantly reduced?


Yes and it will prematurely burn out your ballast due to the lower voltage put out by the DRL's over time. I don't want to jinx myself but I've got about 3 months on the DDM Kit and so far so good.


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## flynnstone (Jul 25, 2011)

I went with the USP kit, and was told they would run without issues even with the DRL's on...


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## MrRline (Apr 6, 2010)

Got the DDM kit in the car for over a year now and no issues.


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