I just tried to test out my HIDS4U conversion kit, plugging it in before installing to check that the bulbs and ballasts were working ok (onto my second mod already, after my successful sports grille installation earlier ! )

However, I hit a slight problem. The connector for my dipped headlamp and the connector on the HID kit didn't quite fit together properly. It looks like the connector on the HID kit is slightly too recessed for the two to be able to contact properly. I had a minor panic when I got them jammed together in an attempt to "make" them fit, but after perseverance I eventually prised them apart !

Did anyone else with the HIDS4U kit have this same problem ? Don't know if the connectors have changed at all, my IS200 is a 1999 model.

I wanted to check what others had done before starting to hack off bits of plastic, in case I'm missing something obvious !

i though the same with the kit of got of dazz..

let me try n explain..

take the ballase and the side with the square nobbly bit on the side. then the connector with the movey plastoc thing and lift it up then slide oiver the square nobbly bit!!!


sorry, not explained very well..

if that doesnt help then let me know and will pop out n try n take a pis or pm me and will giveyou my number..

you shouldnt need to cut any bits,mine was the same but with a bit of persuasion it will go together,the first few times are always tight it will loosen up

Redz, I love the technical explanation

Here are some pics of my connectors.

Connector on HID kit (the pins are deep in the second "bulge" on the connector, some way down :




Connector to headlamp :


I did try turning on the lights to see if the contact had been made. Nothing happened. So although it's possible either the bulb or ballast was faulty, I'm guessing it wasn't in far enough to make electrical contact.

Edit - sorry the pictures are a bit rubbish !

Ooh err

Ahem. Have you got the same connectors as in my pics ? I had to really force it to get it to go as far as I did, and even then it didn't work. As I said I suppose it's possible I have a faulty component, I didn't try the other bulb/ballast.

Not sure if that will help, but you carry on, it doesn't bother me! LOL


You may find that the connecters need a little physical persuasion to lock in.

If you had no light at all, try flipping one of the connections 180 degrees. Many people, me included, have found that these kits are wired (it would appear) backwards. If you get my meaning? Just try it, you will probably find that gives you light!

They are the same connectors as the kit I got for my GS. They will go together, but have to be tight to keep things water tight. Once connected up, if the lights don't fire up, try swapping the wires round in the connector. Some of the kits, including mine, are wired the opposite way round so don't work straight off.

ok, that's one of the reasons I was asking, I didn't want to try too much force in case there was another solution.


Yeah I've seen that mentioned in other threads on HIDs. Probably a dumb question, but how do I do that ? Aren't the connectors uni-directional, i.e. keyed to only connect one way ?

The connectors will go the other way round but won't lock on. I swapped the pins round on mine, just use a needle/pin to free the locking clip on the pin and push it out of the back. Once both have been pushed out, push them back in the the other way round.

ok, thanks. Sounds like I don't need to trim the connectors, just force them together, but perhaps I've hit the "reversed" wiring problem and that's why it didn't appear to work. So I'll give it another try

I had their kit and fitted it with no problems

Now, that way round requires even more physical persuaion!

What you need to do is THE BROWN connecter ( in you hand ) THAT goes directly into the ballast...the ballast has a nobbly bit on it...the BROWN connecter has a slide connection on the top of it that has to go over the nobbly bit on the ballast...hey presto and it will work......

Then the connection from the ballast ( THE SEALED ONE ) with the little 2 black/yellow connection ( male connection i believe )simply connect that up to the other 2 little Black/ yellow connection ( FEMALE one) from the Xenon Bulb.....I think thats right...?? they are the only small black /yellow ones in the box...?

Hope that helps you out matey..

I saw from the instructions that you could do it that way, and I didn't try it but I thought it would be overly restrictive on the placing of the ballast, i.e. you have a much shorter difference from the headlamp wiring to the ballast.

So I was connecting the extension lead from the bulb into the original headlamp connector, and the other end of the extention lead on the HID kit into the ballast. Did you not find your way to be a problem then ? As I said, I hadn't actually tried it. There's loads of room on the driver's side, but much less on the passenger's side.

Actually, now that I've looked at all the connectors again, it looks very easy to reverse the way that the low-voltage connector plugs into the ballast, with very little force required. So that gives me another option to try.

Sorted now then mate?

surely they must be working now, it takes 5 mins to fit them, 10 if you have to change the postive/negative terminals over.

I've had mine months and not fitted them.

Part laziness, part waiting for return of my drill, to mount ballasts!

In the mean time, I'm now worried I may not even have room for the ballast (nearside) in my engine bay!

you can mount it next to your ait intake on the suspension front and I used a sticky pad that came with mine so no need to drill

Next to (& slightly underneath on the vertical part) the blow off valve on the bulkhead, that's where my passenger side ballast lives.
Matey get em on, takes 5 mins to fit them, no need to drill, just use some sticky pads

Yeh should be able to fit them in.

Hadn't considered sticky pads. Probably should have!

I haven't had a chance to try again yet, but will definitely be doing so at some point tomorrow.

Put it here using the sticky pad. No need to drill.

Yep thats the best place to put the passenger side one ..like peeps have said just use double sided sticky pads.....the only bugger was getting the bulb in the passenger side .....dosent help when you have big hands..

Attempt #2. Pushed the connectors together as far as they would go. Didn't work. Reversed polarity of 12V wiring by plugging in connector on ballast the opposite way round - didn't work.

Looking at it from the side, I can see clearly what the problem is. The connectors are not going together far enough, no matter how hard I try to force it. They go in so far but get stuck. Looking at the side, there's no way the pins inside the female (HID) connector are engaging with the male (car) connector.

I'm going to have to try filing/sanding down the male connector to try and make it fit further in. I wonder if they are using slightly different connectors on this kit which are a bit different thickness ?

mate.. pm me your mobile number.. had the same problem and was an easy fix..

ok, I got one side installed and working ok, yay ! Thanks to Redz_uk for suggesting plugging the brown car connector straight into the ballast. This meant that I didn't need to worry about the other connector not fitting since I didn't use it.

Still contemplating where to mount the passenger side ballast though, since there's less room there. If I'm going to plug straight into the ballast then I can't mount it as per WylieCoyote's photo, it won't reach that far.

Could stick it between the air box and diagnostics connector, but then you wouldn't be able to get the lid off the diagnostics connector.

Hmm ...

Got it all installed and working, woo-hoo !

I went back to my original solution of cutting down the connector so that I'd still have long wires to play with. I cut approx 5mm off the HID female connector with a hacksaw and filed down the edges so that it was smooth. This then connected no problem whatsoever to the brown bulb connector in the car. Could have done this on the driver's side too, but short-cutted the problem by plugging directly into the ballast, as previously described.

Then it was a matter of that fiddly passenger's side lamp installation, and I ended up using sticky pads to put the ballast in the same location as WylieCoyote's picture.

Oh, and as usual the wiring needed reversing too, but this was just a matter of plugging the connector the "wrong" way into the ballast, which was trivial.

The lights look cool in the daylight, can't wait till it get dark !

Thanks to all of those who have offered suggestions. Feeling very chuffed now !

glad your saga has come to an end, HID's are great

Thanks. Yeah, I did go for a drive in the dark last night and they were excellent. I'd say they were even better than the factory-fit HIDs on my old car ! (although that was 9 years old so the bulbs would have been getting old)

Awesome upgrade, well worth the money.