Which HIDs for 2011 CX-9 Touring?

Love the truck. And you're right - I didn't realize the non-HID versions had projectors so you should be just fine in that regard. Granted, the position of the light from an HID bulb is not likely to be exactly where it would be on a halogen, but whatever... that's minor. The projector is the main thing, and you have a nice cutoff on those.

Hope everything gets worked out. You've had bad luck indeed. To me, it certainly looks like two different color temperatures.
 
Update- so, in my haste and laziness, I didn't troubleshoot the setup properly the first time. Since the bulb was dimmer on the driver side, where I installed the replacement ballast, I just assumed the ballast was bad..d'oh.

I went ahead and tried these things the next day, and swapped ballasts from side to side, and the dimmer bulb stayed on the driver side. Then I swapped bulbs, and the dim bulb went to the passenger side. I swapped ballasts again, and the dim bulb stayed on the passenger side. So, I have a bad bulb. (either wrong temp, or just faulty).

I emailed the steps I took, with pictures, to mod-express. I requested a replacement set of bulbs (2), that had been tested and verified. They replied and said that they will send me 1 replacement bulb. I hope everything matches up when I get that new bulb in, or else I'm going to spend the $10 to send everything back, and get my $85 back.....and try the next vendor (yupnope)

Also, when I get the new bulb in and re-install everything, I think I am going to keep the ballasts out of the headlight area. The ballast is metal, and gets pretty warm. I'm sure it would be fine to keep it inside the headlight assembly, but I'm going to put a hole in the cover thing, and mount the ballasts outside of the headlight housing.

This is such a simple mod, but it's damn frustrating that you have to go through several companies before you get something that is right. Unfortunately, I'm starting to believe that no matter how much you pay for a HID setup, they are all the same thing, and are all made in the same place, China.
 
The difference is in the quality of the bulbs. They may all be made in china but there are diff levels of quality like anything else.
 
I'll elaborate on the subject a bit later when I don't have to type things out on a iPod touch
 
Ebay/ddm tunning 3000k bulb
IMGP0829watermarked.jpg

Better bulb, still china made, still a 3000k bulb
IMGP0830watermarked.jpg

Can you see the difference? If you need a bit of help. The ebay bulb is painted yellow. The better bulb is built by using the correct amount of salt to create the reaction to make the yellow color.
Outputs from the bulbs using the same projector.
IMGP0845watermarked.jpg

IMGP0842watermarked.jpg


I won't go too much in depth because it can get me in trouble.
But I will pass along a bit of info. Just because a car/truck/suv comes with halogen projectors doesn't mean you can simply put in hids... well i guess you can but the focus will be off.
The focus output location is in a different spot. Don't know if you noticed when you put in the hids your cut off now is fuzzy or out of focus. Thats because the halogen focus point is closer to the bowl of the reflector. Putting in hids, which are larger puts the focus in a different spot.
I will go a bit further in detail once I complete my retrofit for the 3.
To answer your question though, sorry I can't provide any info on where to buy a good quality plug and play kit.
But there are people out there that can set you up with good quality bulbs and ballasts that you would be happy with. You just need to dig. Hint avoid ebay and ddm... ever wonder why ddm now ships all their kits directly from china to you. because they got slapped by the government. plug and play hids are actually illegal though not enforced much unless they are a large company such as ddm/.

PS.. if a mod has issue with this post please inform me I do not wish to start off on the wrong foot. I will gladly remove the posts.
 
Last edited:
I appreciate your insight on the different focus of HID's in a projector that is made for halogens. That really isn't my concern. We did some night driving in the CX-9, and the factory halogen low beams are pathetic, so I was forced to drive with my high beams, probably pissing people off, because I wanted to see more than 15 feet in front of me going 75mph on the interstate. I haven't spent much time researching, but I can't seem to find an adjustment in there to change the aim of the lights? I know the higher end models have a light adjustment in the cab...

I drove the car around the block after installing this last set of hids, and even with one of the bulbs being faulty, I noticed better lighting. Blurry, fuzzy, whatever the case, the road was lit up better, and I'm pretty sure the cutoff line was good enough so as not to blind oncoming drivers. I think I'll continue my quest to find a good set of HIDS for the 9.

My problem has been getting a FUNCTIONAL HID kit in the mail. I bought (3) $28 sets off ebay. 2 for my truck, 1 for the 9. 2 of the 6 ballasts were DOA. I put 2 sets in my truck (fogs and lows), and returned the 3rd set for a refund. The idea being, if it is DOA, how long would it actually last if it worked, and I installed it? That's why I bought this $85 set, hoping that it would actually work. FAIL. Though, I'm giving them one more chance. On a side note, I've had no issues with the cheap-bay hids in my truck so far, been a month or so, but I do very little driving in the dark. I don't have projectors in my truck, so I aim the lights down, to keep from blinding people. They are nice and bright, and I haven't been flashed yet, so I guess I'm good. A complete retrofit for my truck costs >$1,000, but to be honest with you, I think the projectors in Tundras look...stupid (safe word)

I can't debate you about the projectors in the CX-9's, because I'm not schooled on it...however, I find it hard to believe that Mazda built 2 completely different projector/headlight assemblies...one for the Touring, and one for the GT that comes with HIDs? I wish I could look inside the headlight assembly of a GT. I would bet that you could unplug the bulb/ballast, whatever, and plug in a regular halogen bulb, and it would work? Or is there a lot more to it with the GT's?


Also, if you have any hints or recommendations, feel free to PM me :)
 
Ok, here's an update. I'm still waiting on a replacement bulb, but I've gone ahead and removed and re-installed the setup for now. Before, I just had the ballasts and all wiring shoved into the headlight housing. I wasn't sure that was a good idea, because the metal ballast seems to get pretty warm, so I re-did the setup so the ballast and all wiring was outside of the headlight housing. The first picture below is how I had it before, with everything shoved in there:

IMAG1187.jpg



Here is a picture of the cover, and the rubber grommet that I need to put in there:
IMAG1188.jpg




Here is the tool I used to make a 1" hole. (actually, this only made a 3/4" hole, I had to widdle out a little more with a box cutter knife to get the full inch I needed):
IMAG1189.jpg



Hole made:
IMAG1190.jpg



Grommet inserted into hole, with bulb and connector on the inside part:
IMAG1191.jpg

IMAG1192.jpg



This is where I put the ballast and wiring on the driver side (double-sided tape to hold ballast in place):
IMAG1193.jpg

IMAG1194.jpg




This is where I put the ballast and wiring on the passenger side(double-sided tape to hold ballast in place):
IMAG1195.jpg

IMAG1196.jpg



Probably not the cleanest, most professional install in the world, but I'll go with it. Had some other projects I wanted to get done today, including tire rotation, so I hurried through this.
I'll keep an eye on the setup to see if there are any issues with mounting locations, but I think I should be good.

Side note- .I feel like a complete idiot, in that I didn't know how to adjust the angles of the projectors....there was a screw down there looking right at me, and it never occurred to me to try that screw to adjust the up/down angle of the lights (d'oh). UR told me how to adjust the angles of the lights. Thanks :D I aimed the lights up some last night, and after a few adjustments and night time test rides, I think I have the low beams at the perfect angle, to provide the best lighting. For now, I'm pretty confident that the light output and cutoff is about as good as an OEM HID system, though I've never driven a CX-9 GT with OEM HIDs. The GT's have the adjustments in the cab, I believe, which would be cool.
 
Last edited:
What type of connector is this
H11 or something else?

Thank you very much.
 

Attachments

  • What TYPE of connector is this.jpg
    What TYPE of connector is this.jpg
    226.5 KB · Views: 83
Back