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Smart 451 (H7) H.I.D Installation- Step by Step instructions with pictures

71K views 154 replies 49 participants last post by  wilteran  
#1 ·
We just installed a H7 8000k HID kit on our new Cabrio, and we decided to document the whole thing with instructions. Although any HID kit will do, we chose the ultra-slim ballast 8000k kit. It came to about $85.00 with shipping. It looks awesome!

Here's how we did it....enjoy!!

Brad and Jenna
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#2 · (Edited)
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AT THIS POINT, YOU HAVE THE OPTION OF USING THE RUBBER GROMMET THAT CAME WITH THE KIT, TO PASS THE WIRES THROUGH THE RUBBER CAP ON THE PROJECTOR. IF YOU DON'T USE THE GROMMET LIKE WE DIDN'T, BE SURE TO SILICONE SEAL THE WIRES AS THEY EXIT THE RUBBER CAP!

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#4 ·
I went with the 4300K for the white look... have 6000K on my Vue and wanted the whiter and brightest light for the smart.

Word of warning... do not do the high beams... I did... Bad idea.
It's great if you don't mind the bulbs taking a minute to warm up and drive long country back roads all the time. but if you ever plan to flash someone.... FAIL! :eek:

I recommend the Sylvania Silverstars for the high beams... They are almost as bright as the 4300K HID's, probably a bit brighter than the 8000K's and close to equal to the 6000K's. I'll be installing my SilverStars tomorrow and will have a set of 4300K HIDs up for sale that are only slightly used.

BTW... awesome install pics.... a bit more to it if they are like mine and have the bolt-in mounting brackets. Although you could always add the double-sided sticky.
 
#5 ·
I went with the 4300K for the white look... have 6000K on my Vue and wanted the whiter and brightest light for the smart.

Word of warning... do not do the high beams... I did... Bad idea.
It's great if you don't mind the bulbs taking a minute to warm up and drive long country back roads all the time. but if you ever plan to flash someone.... FAIL! :eek:

I recommend the Sylvania Silverstars for the high beams... They are almost as bright as the 4300K HID's, probably a bit brighter than the 8000K's and close to equal to the 6000K's. I'll be installing my SilverStars tomorrow and will have a set of 4300K HIDs up for sale that are only slightly used.

BTW... awesome install pics.... a bit more to it if they are like mine and have the bolt-in mounting brackets. Although you could always add the double-sided sticky.

We live in Los Angeles so we never use high beams. The only bummer is the person we bought the car from didn't get fog lights. I wanted to do HID's in the fogs as well. If I can get ahold of the fogs I might do it myself.
 
#7 ·
Bob & Jenna,
Great job! :) What an AWESOME instructional :woohoo: ! I know it's a PITA to document your installs; I've done plenty. I just want to thank you for your time and effort and those of use yet to do the install applaud you! :bigthumbup:




:smartje.rd.zw: :RS-c.gl.zw: :smartje.wt.zw:
 
#11 ·
are the high beam lights seperate ? Why no high beams ?
If you want high beams you need to order them and install them separately, along with fog lamps. There's really no need for high beams where we live, otherwise we would have done both. We would use high beams abot .1 percent of the life of the car.

Like the gentleman above suggested, probably a nice aftermarket bulb for the highs will work great, something like a silverstar, or a ricer ebay bulb.
 
#12 ·
Not a bad fitment but why would do this?

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This is asking for water ingress and headlight fogging.
If you look at the kit, there is a rubber grommet just behind each bulb.
You are supposed to use a hole cutter and use that grommet in the hole.
 
#13 · (Edited)
Not a bad fitment but why would do this?



This is asking for water ingress and headlight fogging.
If you look at the kit, there is a rubber grommet just behind each bulb.
You are supposed to use a hole cutter and use that grommet in the hole.
Curious, how are you going to cut a perfect hole in very flexible rubber? It seems easier just to put some silicone sealer where you ran the wire through the caps.

Also the caps aren't a vacuum seal on the back of the projectors, so the seal after the wires go through is about the same. We only cut a slice big enough to force the wires through.

When you run the wires through the cap the rubber seals back closed pretty much, but use silicone sealer if you're nervous.

If there's a better/easier way, please explain how this is done.
 
#14 ·
Great Instructions, I didn't have the patience to do that. I love mine. The only thing I had to do was adjust the headlight down a little, upon acceleration the beam flashes oncoming traffic. I installed lowering springs and it doesn't squat anymore. Thanks !
 
#17 ·
My only concern :think: with this install would be, what is the heat difference between the HID's and the stock lights? Do they run hotter and if they do, will the headlamp housing be able to handle the extra heat? I have not had any experience with HID's and am just inquiring! :D


:smartje.rd.zw: :RS-c.gl.zw: :smartje.wt.zw:
 
#20 ·
My only concern :think: with this install would be, what is the heat difference between the HID's and the stock lights? Do they run hotter and if they do, will the headlamp housing be able to handle the extra heat? I have not had any experience with HID's and am just inquiring! :D


:smartje.rd.zw: :RS-c.gl.zw: :smartje.wt.zw:

As stated above, I have always had HID's in all my vehicles that I have added, and never had a problem.
 
#18 ·
There isn't much in it really, the HIDs are only 35 watts and are more efficient at turning power into light so they should run cooler.

Braddman - glad I could assist, I have just bought a similar kit off of Ebay for my 451, thanks for pointing out the slim digital ballast kits.
 
#19 ·
There isn't much in it really, the HIDs are only 35 watts and are more efficient at turning power into light so they should run cooler.

Braddman - glad I could assist, I have just bought a similar kit off of Ebay for my 451, thanks for pointing out the slim digital ballast kits.
Anytime...This is a great kit...for anyone interested the person I bought from was

choi-q
 
#25 ·
#27 ·
What is wrong is that the 451 low beam uses a H7 bulb and you had selected a 9007 bulb which isnt the right one. Also all factory (aka OEM) HIDs use 4300k lights. So i wouldnt do anything higher than 6000k. Any higher than that and you are actually getting less light output than a regular Halogen light but your getting a blue/purple color.
 
#28 ·
Any higher than that and you are actually getting less light output than a regular Halogen light but your getting a blue/purple color.
Not true.
Standard H7 halogen bulbs emit between 1000 to 1700 lumens depending on the bulb performance (higher brightness is often met with lower operational life).
HID kits with a colour temperature of 12K (which is near on purple) have an output of approximately 2100 lumens.
Only H9 bulbs can match that sort of power but have an operation life of about 250 hours.

HID kits around the 5K mark (white) can produce 3000 lumens.
 
#34 ·
I ordered mine yesterday off of xtralights.com i am against buying no name brands as they tend to not last as long and are cheap quality i ordered the 6000k yours look good by the way how bright are they i see you have the 8000k which is not as bright as the 6000k but how do they look??? thank you
 
#35 ·
Finally, the information I was seeking.

I ordered mine yesterday off of xtralights.com i am against buying no name brands as they tend to not last as long and are cheap quality

Absolutely agree. You get what you pay for.

i ordered the 6000k yours look good by the way how bright are they i see you have the 8000k which is not as bright as the 6000k but how do they look??? thank you
This is the ordering information I have been seeking. Thank you.

Evilution provided me the background HID information I needed to understand the terms, technology, ...., what matters. Hell, I did not know my H7 from my ballasts from my "ouch, that wire is hot".:)
 
#38 ·
Which HID is least obvious to police?

Remembering of course that ALL HID kits are NOT road legal.

Sylvania Headlights & Blue Euro Lights FAQs
Read the very last bit of info.
A lot of BMW, Lexus, etc. have a slight blue tint to their headlights. Even though the H7 6000 ("crystal blue" light color) puts out less light than the H7 4300 ("white" light color), it might be less obvious a modification than 4300, 8000 (definite "blue" light color), 10000 ("purple"), etc.. Your thoughts?
 
#39 ·
BMWs and Lexus have the HIDs installed in the factory so therefore have the correct reflectors for the HID bulbs and are therefore totally legal.

There is a color temperature legal range so even a BMW with legal HIDs can't be fitted with 10K and 12K bulbs.

Even 12K bulbs are brighter than the brightest H7 halogen bulbs (bulb brightness is measured at a particular distance and does not take into account the amount of reflected light).

The lower the number you go for, the less they "look" like HIDs, you can always spot them as most go for 6000K with a blue tint. The colour stands right out. Even the 4200K are white beyond any H7 bulbs. Going down further gives a less obvious HID color, they are more likely to think you just have very good bulbs.

Once you fit an HID kit you should have the headlights aimed professionally but ask them to aim them slightly lower than spot on, this stops more of the blinding effect and people flashing their headlights at you thinking you have full beams on.
 
#43 ·
Can you backup your claims with evidence? I had cheap kits on both of my M3's, my Supra, and now my smart. On every single kit I only had one problem, and it was due to the bulb grounding out to the headlight housing. Nothing to do with the kit whatsoever.

So how many cheap kits have you had fail?

Also you know you probably just bought the exact same bulbs and/or ballasts that all of us have and paid 3 times as much.

Seriously, back up your claims with evidence. You say they "tend not to last as long", what exactly failed?
 
#42 ·
Funny though... Only had one balast go bad so far out of 7 "Cheap" kits purchased, and I think it was my fault it went bad. Looked at some of the "expensive" kits, and they used the EXACT same ballast I got in the "cheap" kit.

So what, pray tell, is the difference between the cheap kits, and the expensive ones, if they use the exact same ballasts, and in most cases, the same bulbs? Only differences I have noticed with the majority of the kits I have seen is that the stickers are different, although a couple have had different connectors, (these were on the more expensive kits, and I think it is purely a marketing trick to make you buy replacement bulbs for them t double the cost).
 
#44 ·
I'd have to agree... with HID kits you get what you pay for... with that in mind, thanks for not living here so I don't have to be blinded by your cheap HID's... nothing is more annoying that driving down the road and being blinded by someone who installed a lesser set...
 
#45 · (Edited)
Obviously you know nothing about HID's. The bulbs shine where the projectors point.

Period.

It has absolutely nothing to do with the price of the kit. Would you care to explain how it does?


(I can't wait to hear how a bulb overrides the optics it's inserted into.)
 
#47 ·
I agree that cheap kits are the most waterproof of the range, that's why you are careful when deciding on a position or give the seams a coat of silicone sealant.

Only ballasts I have seen break actually burst open, this was both ballasts and they were expensive.
 
#49 ·
#50 ·
Hmm, has anyone here had experience with the units linked here/is this wht the ics are actually of in this thread?

eBay Motors: HID Xenon Slim Ballast Kit H1 H3 H4 H7 H9 H11 9006 9007 (item 160278147253 end time Sep-03-08 09:03:11 PDT)

The ultra low price has me both intrigued and concerned.... but it looks to be a decent set up with a 2 year warranty. The $54.99 shipping price is beyond laughable I suppose, though.
All the HID vendors on EBAY mark the prices low and the shipping high, so don't worry about that.

That is the exact kit I have from the same vendor.
 
#55 ·
Hey braddman - how are you HID's holding up so far? Are you still happy with them? I'm thinking of getting a kit from the link you provided. I'm not sure which color temp to choose from but likely considering the 5000k's vs the 6000k's. Currently I have been using a 6000k halogens for the past 2 months and seams to have less visibility than the 4300-5000k's. Will the 6000k's xenons be much brighter than the 6000k's halogens? Any feedback to help me choose between the two is greatly appreciated.
Also - I'm not sure with kit to choose from; analog kit vs the digital. I read from another post (can't find it) that digital was not reliable on the smart. Can this be true? I read positive feedback from other car owners using the digital kits.
 
#56 ·
Digital doesn't know what kind of car it's installed in, so that cannot be true. I haven't had any problems with mine.

At $80.00 the kits are disposable anyway, if they last a couple of years I'm fine with that.

6000k Halogen standard bulbs aren't nearly as bright as even 8000k HID's. 6000k Xenons will outperform 6000k Halgen by a mile.