Hello to all Pilot owners!
I have been reading up this forum for quite a while now. I have to say that I really learn a lot of things from all the Pilot enthusiasts on this board (thank you! you guys rock!). It is the "research" site that makes the wife and I finally decided on the purchase of the Pilot. We are now the happy owner of a 2003 SandStone EX-RES!
Anyways, I think it is my time to "contribute"..
How it gets started
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I saw a guy selling his HID kit for Civic online and I jumped on it before we even received the Pilot! The guy warned me that they tried to install on a 03 Civic but it didn't work. However it works fine with the older Civics. I purchased it anyways.
Knowing that if it fails on the Pilot, I still have another candidate for it still anyways.
What does the kit come with?
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The kit comes in and it includes some harness, Hella HID ballasts and the modified Philips D2S bulbs with H4 base and a metal shield (more to this shield later).
I plugged the kit into my old Civic (heh, the backup candidate) and it works just fine without any modifications.
An important side note
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I read a while ago that the newer Hondas have that "ground activated" or "negative activated" headlight systems.
So when it is time to install the HID on the Pilot, I first hook it up directly to Pilot and try my luck. Surely not, there was no such luck.
I played with the kit a bit and it turns out that I just have to redo the pins on the connector and re-organize the polarity. It works like a charm! Wifey likes it a lot!
The harness pin re-organization may not apply if you purchase a kit that's made for the Pilot. But for the folks out there who want to buy used kit, it may be a nice bit of info to know.
The Real install
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As for the installation, I took off the plastic panel that's around the hood latch. This will expose a large empty area behind the grill. Look around and there is actually some support structure behind the grill that you can put the ballasts. The support structure is nice enough to have one on each side. There you go; just put one ballast each side on the support. I used some 3M foam tape and zip ties to secure the ballasts.
The hid bulbs are easy to install since it's already modified for H4 sockets. install the bulbs and test fit the connector. The Hella ballast/connector has very thick cord and wierd direction. Depending on your situation, I had to dremel some plastic in the back of the headlight housing to make it right. (I know it's hard to imagine, I will post up some install pictures when I have a chance.)
The road test..
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Love that bluish light when the headlights first turned on
!!
The HID is brighter than Helogan (sp?) bulbs. The Pilot headlight housing may be designed very well. I actully compared the light output pattern with one HID and the stock light bulb. To my surprise, there is really no obvious intrusion compared to the stock light bulb. We have been driving with the HID for quite a while now, no one flashed us at all. So I guess it's not blinding the oncoming traffic.
I would like to mention about the metal shied that comes with the modified H4 type HID bulb. I believe it is there to shield off any unwanted light source that will be reflected to the oncoming traffic. IMO, this may be there as a precautious mean; especially for the headlight systems that are not designed well from the factory. I will be interested in reading other people's experices that do not have the shield on their HID systems.
We love the HID and are very satisfied with the result, though with this basic kit, we no longer have the ability for high beam. I will be working on wiring a Hella driving lamp on the bumper some day.
Thanks!
Derek