Just installed these and wanted to chime in on those planning to install an HID kid.
As for the headlights themselves, installation is pretty straight forward. Theres a few videos on YouTube that already explain how to take off the front bumper/remove headlights. Only additional advice I can add is to use a wrench or pair of long nose vice grips to hold on to the locking nut on the bottom of the headlights before you start unscrewing them. Also, removing a few more screws in the wheel well so you can pull back the liner further also helped a lot. Oh, and also if you're not planning to take off your wheels, I found that for some screws turning the wheel fully outward instead of inward can give you more room and better angles.
Anyway, I wanted to chime in on HIDs because I couldn't find a single guide or good explanation online, and some info I found is just completely wrong. Unfortunately I didn't take many pictures of my installation which I regret, so this will just be some brief tips that should get you going. If anyone has any questions let me know. Like most, I went with the Morimoto H7 Elite purchased from The Retrofit Source.
There are two things you are going to need.
The kit itself:
https://www.theretrofitsource.com/h7...-H7?quantity=1
H7 Euro Adapters:
https://www.theretrofitsource.com/h7...APT?quantity=1
For the kit, I went with the most probably the most popular options. This is what I selected:
35w/AMP
H7B XB 5500k bulbs
Canbus H7 Wire Harness
You do not need the Anti-Flicker Capacitor Link
I went with 35w because I heard the 55w may be too hot for aftermarket headlights + 55w tends to have a shorter lifespan than 35w
5500k is the most popular option for HID kits. Not too yellow, not too blue, just a nice white. 6500k could look cool if you want a little more blue. I wouldn't go with 4500k because they might not match the Angel Eyes too well having a little more yellow.
Canbus works fine for our F30s, plus less wiring than the relays, so get these.
Now I cannot stress this enough,
GET THE H7B'S. I have absolutely no freaking idea how everyone in this thread is buying H7A's. The only way I got the H7As to fit correctly were to install them upside down (the difference between the H7A and H7B is where the return wire is. On H7A it is on the top, H7B is on the bottom. There is a pic on TRS's product page showing the difference). I originally bought the H7A's and had to install them upside down with the return wire upwards and the light output sucked. Luckily I was able to exchange them for H7B's. To make this clear, for correct HID installation the return wire on the bulb must be on the
bottom when it is inserted into the housing. I'm pretty sure the some of people in here having issues with output or cutoff is because they have H7As installed upside down. Because of the way the adapters were, I found it impossible to install H7A's the correct way
When I was installing the HID kit I was following this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbZh0Vtqz0k&t=204s
I'm a bit reluctant to recommend you follow it since he skipped over explaining some things and got things wrong, but I'll try to cover them here. The only real thing I'd follow in that video is his wiring in the end and the way he mounted the canbus harness and ballast. Other than that, he got the parts you need wrong in the beginning as well as not explaining how to get the adapters to fit onto the bulbs.
In the kit there are pairs of 5 things: The Ballast, the bulbs, the igniter, the canbus harness, and some extra cable that looks like this:
You do not need these wires for installation. At (3:11) in the video above he says you need them but you don't. I'm pretty sure they're for some testing purposes but I can't remember exactly. Just throw them aside.
The first thing I'd do is to put on Euro Adapters on the bulbs. I was a bit confused on how to install them, but the way you have to do it is to fit them on from the back of the bulb. In order to do this, you must pass the adapter through the wires the bulbs are attached to.
However, the first thing I noticed is that the H7 wire that connects to the Canbus harness is too big to fit through the adapter (see below pic)
In order to get around this, I had to make a small cut on the rubber seal around the igniter wires to free the bulb and igniter wires from the seal. I made the small cut here:
I didn’t cut the entire seal because I still wanted it for at least some waterproofing because they're suppose to cover the hole in the headlight cap that you make later on. Once I got the adapter through to the back of the bulb, I pushed the igniter wires back through the rubber seal where they were before.
Now before you get the adapter on the back of the bulb, there is a bit of plastic behind the bulb that you have to slide off.
The plastic is just a cover that can be slid off with a little bit of force. Then pretty much jam that plastic through the adapter so the adapter can fit flush with the bulb. You can technically fit the adapter over that piece of plastic, but from what I found it stretches out the adapter a little bit and didn’t allow it to fit into the headlight properly.
This is the plastic piece that I'm taking about which you can slide off:
Once you get the adapter to the back of the bulb you can slide that plastic piece against the adapter to prevent it from falling off. I would not recommend you cut it off or remove it as it helps you twist the bulb into the headlight housing during installation.
Next step is to drill the hole on the headlight cap so you can feed the wires through. I recommend a 7/8 inch spade drill bit.
Once you feed your wires through, fit the bulb with adapter into the headlight housing. If you're having issues twisting the adapters into the two screws that secure the bulb to the headlight, I'd recommend loosening them. In my case, I had to loosen them otherwise it would have been impossible to twist the euro adapter behind the two screws. The screws are on pretty tight, so you'll probably need a drill at first to loosen them up. Make sure to try to get the adapters/bulbs as flush as possible in the headlight or else you'll get some cutoff problems.
Then, you can chose where you want to mount the ballast and canbus harness. Many people like to chose the the metal rod behind the front bumper before they reinstall it back onto the car, but I chose to install them above the headlight with some 3M adhesive. That way if I ever need to swap out the ballast or take out the HID kit, I won't need to take off the front bumper and can just pop the hood. (The guy in the video I linked above also chose to mount his on top of the headlight, watch it for reference.)
IF YOUR CUTOFF/BEAM PATTERN IS BAD
Honestly, don't expect an OEM cutoff or projection. These are still aftermarkets at the end of the day. If something looks unusual or your bulb is curved or something like that, its most likely because the bulb's aren't correctly placed into the headlight. I'd recommend turning on the headlights and fiddling around with the bulb inside the housing until you get a nice projection or pattern. Tightening/loosening the two screws also can help as you're adjusting the bulb position. Once your projection looks good, you can adjust the vertical and horizontal with the two screws on top of the headlight.
USR actually released a video explaining how to do this here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6K4zdRp61gY
My projection is looking pretty good, but my cutoff seems to have a slight incline towards towards the right side. I'm gonna do some more tinkering this week and see if more adjustments to the bulb can fix this. It kinda looks like an ECE projection, but I'm pretty sure these DEPO's are supposed to have DOT projection? I'm honestly not extremely worried about is as I'm satisfied with the projection itself.
I'll let you guys know if I can get the cutoff any better. I honestly just wanted to share this guide so people can at least get the HID's install correctly in the first place. Here's what mine looks like so far:
If you guys want a laugh, here's what my projection looked like when I first installed them. This happened because the adapter wasn't flush with the housing inside the headlight. All I had to do to fix this was angle the bulb further down inside the housing and tighten the screws to lock it in place. If your beam is curved like this its probably because the bulb is angled upward inside the headlight. Again, doing some micro adjustments/fiddling with the bulb can help a lot.
