Another HID morimoto install. CX5 sport

eclypsecl

Member
:
Mazda CX-5 Sport
I wanted HID, never did a mod like this because I usually had it OEM. The kit from the retrofit source came in nice packaging very top notch, good wrapping, good packing, and easy instructions. I received what I expected to receive, shipping was quick.

Obseravations..the beam pattern is so so, it has nothing to do with the kit, but more to do with our halogen projectors. There's some bleeding above the cutoff, not enough to blind cars in front of me, but it does make it look a little odd while driving. The color is great, brightness is much improved from standard halogens and is WHITE not blue. I was very worried about blinding oncoming cars so I had someone drive in front of me on a road at various distances to check for blinding..he said it was fine and wasn't seeing anything in the rear view or side mirrors even though I saw faint halos on the back seats.

1) Install is easy, just take your time. It took me an hour, but mostly because I did this in the cold and dark. Most of the time was spent looking for mounting locations. I'm very visual and there just weren't enough pictures for me to follow. I hope this may help someone attempting this.

2) I saw several installs on this site where people drilled into the frame to install the relay. This isn't necessary as a clean install is possible using the two supplied screws and NO additional materials for fixing equipment to the frame.

3) Rubber electrical tape was taped on the back of ballasts and brackets where they would rest on top of the painted car frame to prevent paint scratching and water perforation/corrosion. Wherever these foreign parts met I added this barrier.

4) Brackets for ballasts are bendable very easily, don't be afraid to bend them into place. Don't bend too many times because I feel like it would break. If you do a lot of bending I suggest wrapping the metal to protect from corrosion. I didn't do this for a bracket and on the next day it was coated with rust at the bend points.

5) Conclusion, morimoto kit is excellent. The road is brighter at night, the look is cooler, the kit is cheap compared to OEM. The not so good, bleed through because it's a halogen projector. But it's definitely not bad like a reflector, so don't worry about blinding women who don't check their rear view mirror anyway. (JK)



The kit I got is from The Retrofit Source

http://www.theretrofitsource.com/hid-systems/morimoto-elite-hid-system-h11.html#.VF7i4zTF-So

Configuration was h11 style, 3fiveDSP, h11 relay, xb35 5500k (white not blue)

My pictures generally go step by step in the order I did this.
























 
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I did this to my CX-5 and loved the difference. Now I'm getting ready to do a bi-xenon retrofit in place of the factory projector. another projector in the high beam location and halos on both. will post pics when i get it done.
 
I just placed an order for the clear lenses, since we already have projectors this shouldn't be too hard. Bake old light, scrape the old gasket material out, pop out old lens, swap with new and replace the butyl gasket..considering angels for the drl+low beams. Not so sure about getting projectors for the high beams, I don't really know if there will be any added functional value in that..Lens for low beams will make HID's have a sharp correct cut off without light bleed...considering doing a write up on this with pictures.
 
You are sure, that the lens will do all that? I would think, that a new HID projector housing is needed, too no?
 
You are sure, that the lens will do all that? I would think, that a new HID projector housing is needed, too no?

I just placed an order for the clear lenses, since we already have projectors this shouldn't be too hard. Bake old light, scrape the old gasket material out, pop out old lens, swap with new and replace the butyl gasket..considering angels for the drl+low beams. Not so sure about getting projectors for the high beams, I don't really know if there will be any added functional value in that..Lens for low beams will make HID's have a sharp correct cut off without light bleed...considering doing a write up on this with pictures.

You're going to need more than just the lens for that... The bowl and cut off shield is completely different and swapping the lens will do little to nothing to correct the halogen housing and produce true HID projector field of light.

You might as well retrofit a new projector.
 
I just placed an order for the clear lenses, since we already have projectors this shouldn't be too hard. Bake old light, scrape the old gasket material out, pop out old lens, swap with new and replace the butyl gasket..considering angels for the drl+low beams. Not so sure about getting projectors for the high beams, I don't really know if there will be any added functional value in that..Lens for low beams will make HID's have a sharp correct cut off without light bleed...considering doing a write up on this with pictures.

You probably would need the housing also.. The lens help a bit, but not that great. If you're baking open the headlight, might as well just do a complete retro ;)
 
Completely agree with all here. Only changing the lens will do very little to prevent light blead IMHO. The projector bowl and cut-off shield are waaay more important. I am also surprised that you find your light patern so-so. I actually find it very good (see pictures in my review).
 
Completely agree with all here. Only changing the lens will do very little to prevent light blead IMHO. The projector bowl and cut-off shield are waaay more important. I am also surprised that you find your light patern so-so. I actually find it very good (see pictures in my review).

I'm going to get the projectors as suggested. Since I'm going from a projector and not a reflector I thought that although it won't be fully perfect, at least the cut off will be sharper with better optics. My beam pattern is similar to yours but I dont like those hot spots or light bleed, the output is great, but I'm seeing light above the cut off.
 
My beam pattern is similar to yours but I dont like those hot spots or light bleed, the output is great, but I'm seeing light above the cut off.

Light needs to be concentrated near the top of the beam pattern since you want the light to be projected into the distance, hence the hot spots. A lack of hot spots indicates that too much light is thrown right in front of the car where it is not useful and may lead to a dangerous loss in night vision. The shape and widht of these hot spots may be slightly different between HID and Halogen though.

It's actually been shown that cutoffs that are too sharp are distracting to the driver, as it constantly looks like a moving object in your periferal vision. Too little bleed above will also make the road signes more difficult to read, so you do need a little bit...

In any case, keep us informed with before/after pictures and your impressions, I'm still very curious as to how it will turn out (even if I would never have the balls to bake my lights!).
 
I wanted HID, never did a mod like this because I usually had it OEM. The kit from the retrofit source came in nice packaging very top notch, good wrapping, good packing, and easy instructions. I received what I expected to receive, shipping was quick.

Obseravations..the beam pattern is so so, it has nothing to do with the kit, but more to do with our halogen projectors. There's some bleeding above the cutoff, not enough to blind cars in front of me, but it does make it look a little odd while driving. The color is great, brightness is much improved from standard halogens and is WHITE not blue. I was very worried about blinding oncoming cars so I had someone drive in front of me on a road at various distances to check for blinding..he said it was fine and wasn't seeing anything in the rear view or side mirrors even though I saw faint halos on the back seats.

1) Install is easy, just take your time. It took me an hour, but mostly because I did this in the cold and dark. Most of the time was spent looking for mounting locations. I'm very visual and there just weren't enough pictures for me to follow. I hope this may help someone attempting this.

2) I saw several installs on this site where people drilled into the frame to install the relay. This isn't necessary as a clean install is possible using the two supplied screws and NO additional materials for fixing equipment to the frame.

3) Rubber electrical tape was taped on the back of ballasts and brackets where they would rest on top of the painted car frame to prevent paint scratching and water perforation/corrosion. Wherever these foreign parts met I added this barrier.

4) Brackets for ballasts are bendable very easily, don't be afraid to bend them into place. Don't bend too many times because I feel like it would break. If you do a lot of bending I suggest wrapping the metal to protect from corrosion. I didn't do this for a bracket and on the next day it was coated with rust at the bend points.

5) Conclusion, morimoto kit is excellent. The road is brighter at night, the look is cooler, the kit is cheap compared to OEM. The not so good, bleed through because it's a halogen projector. But it's definitely not bad like a reflector, so don't worry about blinding women who don't check their rear view mirror anyway. (JK)



The kit I got is from The Retrofit Source

http://www.theretrofitsource.com/hid-systems/morimoto-elite-hid-system-h11.html#.VF7i4zTF-So

Configuration was h11 style, 3fiveDSP, h11 relay, xb35 5500k (white not blue)

My pictures generally go step by step in the order I did this.

























Hi, what size of scews for the hole? I can't find the size in Walmart , they are too small or too big
 
Hi, what size of scews for the hole? I can't find the size in Walmart , they are too small or too big


Did you ever find out what size of screws? The OP said that screws came with the kit...however no screws came with mine. So I'm left trying to figure out what size I need to fit into the holes he used. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Does yours kit light up both side when you turn on the car for the first time after the car is off for some time? I have a different ballast when I got my kit year and a half ago so the bracket they gave me was not the same. Look like you got the older style ballast like vroom.
 
Does yours kit light up both side when you turn on the car for the first time after the car is off for some time? I have a different ballast when I got my kit year and a half ago so the bracket they gave me was not the same. Look like you got the older style ballast like vroom.

tdman, my 2016 cx-5 does not light up the right side passenger bulb. I've been working with TRS to try to resolve, they just sent out a new ballast and that did not fix the issue. My HD relay is hooked up the same way that is shown in this guide. I will update if I get anywhere, but it seems to be a common issue on these forms for the right side to not light up. I've used the OEM hookup on the left side bulb with the relay.
 
tdman, my 2016 cx-5 does not light up the right side passenger bulb. I've been working with TRS to try to resolve, they just sent out a new ballast and that did not fix the issue. My HD relay is hooked up the same way that is shown in this guide. I will update if I get anywhere, but it seems to be a common issue on these forms for the right side to not light up. I've used the OEM hookup on the left side bulb with the relay.

Are you still trying to resolve this? My passenger side bulb quit lighting up at the end of August. Ballasts tested OK, but it seemed one of the relays was bad so TRS sent me a new relay. However, that did not fix it. I've been incredibly busy the last few weeks and have not had much chance to mess with it after I tried the new relay. Going go back out to the garage tonight and mess with it while I'm changing the oil in my wife's car.
 
I have the cheap setup, not Morimoto, but I have the same passenger side issue.
I thought, that the ballast went out, so I have replaced both and after a couple of days, I encountered the same issue. Once in a while, that side won't turn on.
If I turn off and on the switch, it works right away.
I have a relay kit installed and I'm getting the turn on/off signal, from one source(driver's side).
Maybe the bulb is the issue?
 
Are you still trying to resolve this? My passenger side bulb quit lighting up at the end of August. Ballasts tested OK, but it seemed one of the relays was bad so TRS sent me a new relay. However, that did not fix it. I've been incredibly busy the last few weeks and have not had much chance to mess with it after I tried the new relay. Going go back out to the garage tonight and mess with it while I'm changing the oil in my wife's car.

Yes issue resolved, was just a bad bulb. They never had me test bulbs as I had just had a two year old set replaced by them.
 
For those of you that have aftermarket HID , do you retain stock features like...auto shut off, if you forget to turn your headlights off.
 
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