2013~2016: Anyone do a CX-5 HID conversion?

[suj]

We've had a 2015 for 10 yrs now and my stock halogen bulbs haven't burnt out anywhere yet.

I keep telling myself I'd upgrade them when they burn out but it hasn't.

Now I'm debating on doing a hid conversion after reading over a few discussions here and my other car having stock HID lights.

I was curious is the conversion that most people have done on halogen headlight models, just adding a ballast and dongles and plugging in the hid bulbs to the stock halogen projector? Or did you have to retrofit the housing to a new projector?

 

[RedBaron]

I did it on my 2014, but only in the highbeam low beam projectors. You can't really do it in the low high beam reflectors, because:

1. Those HID bulbs never work well in reflectors and produce too much glare to oncoming traffic
2. The DRL circuit will either cause the lights to flicker and/or die prematurely, and/or light the high-beams at full brightness during the day.

 

[suj]

Wait the halogen on the outer side of the headlight housing that's the low beam right? The drl/high beam is the inner part that's the reflectors? I'm thinking about doing it with the projector on the outer side. Something like the attached image?

 

[suj]

I did it on my 2014, but only in the highbeam projectors. You can't really do it in the low beam reflectors, because:

1. Those HID bulbs never work well in reflectors and produce too much glare to oncoming traffic
2. The DRL circuit will either cause the lights to flicker and/or die prematurely, and/or light the low-beams at full brightness during the day.

Did you use the stock halogen projectors for what you did ? Did you have to retrofit or update the headlight housing at all?

I need to also find a good place to mount the ballast and everything too lol

 

[RedBaron]

Wait the halogen on the outer side of the headlight housing that's the low beam right? The drl/high beam is the inner part that's the reflectors?

Yes (I think). I think I confused myself with my earlier reply - now updated. The outer sides (left side of your pic) are the projectors for the low beams. These are what I updated, using just HID bulbs with no modifications to the assembly. The reflectors (right side of your pic) are for the high beams & DRLs and couldn't be modified/updated to HIDs.

Did you use the stock halogen projectors for what you did ? Did you have to retrofit or update the headlight housing at all?

Yes, stock, no mods.

I need to also find a good place to mount the ballast and everything too lol

I mounted mine on the inner fender metal near the headlights, using a bracket bolted-on with existing bolts.

 

[suj]

Yes (I think). I think I confused myself with my earlier reply - now updated. The outer sides (left side of your pic) are the projectors for the low beams. These are what I updated, using just HID bulbs with no modifications to the assembly. The reflectors (right side of your pic) are for the high beams & DRLs and couldn't be modified/updated to HIDs.


Yes, stock, no mods.


I mounted mine on the inner fender metal near the headlights, using a bracket bolted-on with existing bolts.

Oh weird maybe I've been calling it wrong. Thought your low beams were what I called the high beam and vice versa.

But that does answer my question, I wasn't sure if I'd be able to run HID bulbs in the stock projector that was meant for halogens on our cx5's