MS3 HID bulb switch

[spjoec15]

so I'm looking in the manual and it says that this operation is too complex and it suggests to go to a dealer to have installed. I've heard they'll charge me like 250 for labor! does anyone know how to switch the low beam HIDs out? Probably a stupid question

 

[speed3shon]

well, i know to change the turn signal bulbs, you go through the fender liner... but i think i recall that changing the low or high beams you have to remove the headlights, and to do that you have to take off the bumper...

 

[Ryz]

Yep, bumper off, headlight assemblies out to change.

 

[icspots]

It can be done without removing the bumper, however it's so much more difficult to do, and the bumper is so easy to remove that it's worth just pulling it off the car and doing it the easy way.

 

[Sacrilicious]

how handy are you with ripping your car's bumper off and messing around inside? putting in proper HID lights is definitely a rather large operation. basically, it requires you to rip out the entire lighting enclosure and installing a whole new one because HID lights require more than just a special bulb. the reason for this is in order to generate an HID light beam, Xenon HID lights require about 20,000 volts versus halogen's 12 volts. this is why it's so expensive and painful to do. fortunately, HID lights are also designed to last the entire life cycle of your car, since they are made with burn times of ~3000hrs. make sure you get an actual HID kit and not a "HID style" ripoff halogen light bulb. those are ripoffs and usually run your lights at way higher wattages than they were intended to run.

 

[fatti03msp]

y the hell would they make it that hard to change a dam bulb, that makes no sense and isnt the protege like that to, you have to take off the fron bumper to change the headlight assembly.

 

[krnage]

yeap pull front bumper off then you can remove the headlight housing.
from there you turn the black plastic cover for the low beams and theres like a metal clip that you undo and pull out the globe. D2S globes is what you'll need - i have put 6000k bulbs in but with the Australian specd MS3, we have auto adjustment (going over bumps etc the light direction adjusts on the fly) not the US 0,1 settings - so trying to re align the light after has been challenging. Id say for people doing any changes for the front headlights - to get all the globes you want at once and make it a one time job.

Ive been thinking about getting the 55w HID kit at some stage, just hope the wiring will handle it (not sure if I'll need to pull the whole headlight unit apart to change the wires running from the ballast to the globe (nailbyt))

 

[Sacrilicious]

i don't think that will likely be a problem, krnage. most halogen lights are about 55w...with most xenon lights clocking in at about 35w. what exactly is the wattage on your stock halogens?

 

[krnage]

i have stock hids on my MS3 (which would be 35w) but im wanting to put 55w HID kit in to have super bright lights at night for those mountain runs

 

[Sacrilicious]

ooo...that's perfect, cause i highly doubt that mazda bothered to change out the wires for the GT over the sport. unless mazda decided to go completely anal on us, i'm pretty sure we have wire that was made to handle the standard halogen lights that the sport edition came with.

 

[Sacrilicious]

here we go: if you just check the gauge on the wiring that goes to the housing of the bulb, you will be able to look up the max current rating for that gauge of wire here: http://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm

you figure average current going to a 35w HID would be 35w/12v = ~2.9amps, so average current to a 55w HID would be 55w/12v = ~4.6amps. make sure to use the "chassis wiring" numbers when figuring out what your wire can handle.

i'm pretty sure that we can at least access the connecting wire without going through too much trouble, so a simple look under the hood should tell you what we have.

 

[fullout83]

So what im understanding from all this is that the mazdaspeed3 sport came with 35w HID's and the the mazdaspeed3 GT came with 55w HID's. would i be correct? Also i purshased the canadian model which has some sport features and some GT features, it says on the write up that it has HID's but would they be the 35w or the 55w. My best bet would be to check under the hood, or does any of you know the answer?

 

[krnage]

35w hid is the standard on all vehicles. 55w are technically illegal and for off road use only.
so your hid's will be 35w, but im wanting to upgrade to the 55's

 

[fullout83]

awesome thanks for clearing that up for me

 

[Sacrilicious]

ohhh...i had no idea that 55w HIDs were illegal. that makes sense, though...if the 35w ones are this bright already, the 55w ones are gonna burn the eyes out of oncoming drivers if i go over a bump...

btw, just to clarify, the ms3 sport doesn't have HID lights. they have halogen lights that probably run 55w. so basically, they're sucking up 1.5x the power and giving back like 1/2 the light in return...=/ krnage was referring to the cars that are offered as HID...that they all come as 35w HIDs.

 

[nhluhr]

here we go: if you just check the gauge on the wiring that goes to the housing of the bulb, you will be able to look up the max current rating for that gauge of wire here: http://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm

you figure average current going to a 35w HID would be 35w/12v = ~2.9amps, so average current to a 55w HID would be 55w/12v = ~4.6amps. make sure to use the "chassis wiring" numbers when figuring out what your wire can handle.

i'm pretty sure that we can at least access the connecting wire without going through too much trouble, so a simple look under the hood should tell you what we have.

You can't look only at what the average current draw is. You have to account for the inrush current that happens when you turn them on.

For an industry standard HID capsule, the inrush current is about 12 amps. The wiring has to be able to support that for a short amount of time while the bulb begins its arc and starts to vaporize the salts in the capsule.

Going to a 55w capsule, you could expect roughly 19 amps of inrush.

 

[dandydaniel]

this is a bit off topic but does anyone know how to remove the REAR bumper on the speed 3?

 

[icspots]

To further clarify Sacrilicious's post...

All 3's with standard lights have 35w halogens. GT models get 35w HIDs. It seems like th OP's question was about how to physically replace the OE HIDs lamps with 55w ones (not halogen to HID switch). Do you need to take the car to the dealer? No. Can you replace them yourself? Yes. Can it be done without removing the headlights from the car? Yes, but it's a b**** and a half to work in that small amount of space. Why did Mazda design it that way when the protege wasn't? Because they put a bigger engine in it and there is only so much room to work with in there.

If you have OE HIDs and you want to upgrade to 55w then you need to replace both the lamps and the ballasts as the OE 35w HID ballast can't supply 55w to the new lamps. If you make the upgrade to a 55w lamp and ballast then you should also get a wiring harness designed to work with the increased power. As to 55w HIDs being illegal that's simple. All OEM HIDs are 35w, and all non OEM HIDs are illegal for on road use, including both 35w and 55w.

I realize that this is a really old post but since it was resurrected it's fair game, right?