Thanks for the tip OE!
And thanks for the comment Jeff! If you are thinking about replacing the wimpy Civic stock horn, those are the way to go.

 

A lot of guys put them on STi's, I've been meaning to do it for over a year now but I'm lazy. While I do the STi I'll end up doing the civic b/c the oem horn is approaching the usefulness of a clown horn or a bell on a 5 year olds tricycle

 

Well, I installed my HIDs today. It took me about 3 hours... but it is definetely worth it! Since I went with a different seller on eBay, I got a different style of HID ballasts and mounts, but I only paid $79.99 shipped. The seller is in SoCal - I'm sure the units come from out of country, but he has them local (in the US). I had them in about 4-5 days. These are the ones I got: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...139865044&rd=1

I went with 5000K true white. I have put my installation pictures below. Since I did get a different style than the OP, I had to figure out a different place to mount them (which is one of the reasons it took me 3 hours). The ballasts didn't have a mounting screw hole built in to the box, but came with mounting brackets (see pic #1). After checking everything out under the tire well, I found that the bracket would fit in an empty area next to the turn signal light. There is a screw hole on the frame that I was able to finagle a bolt from the backside and put the nut on the front where I could get at it with a socket wrench. On the left side, the hole was accessible from behind the frame. On the right side, I had to go under the hood to get to the hole.

So here's some pictures...

1) Contents of the package:

(Large Pic: http://www.vpforums.com/temp/hch/parts_lg.jpg )

2) Left mounted ballast and wires. I had to put the ballast in the mounting bracket before I bolted it down, otherwise I would not be able to get the ballast into the bracket. You can see the one visible bolt hole in the picture below. If you reach your hand on the side of this area you will feel a hole that you can get one finger into. I also had to take out the turn signal lamp to get the socket wrench in to tighten the bolt. I only used one twist tie to secure all the cables. The twist tie was put through the hole in the lower bracket of the picture.


(Large Pic: http://www.vpforums.com/temp/hch/left_lg.jpg )

3) Right Mounted ballast and wires. Everything was the same on this side except how to get the bolt through the bracket. There is a wiring harness in the way of getting your had up high enough, so I had to go from the top downside (see pic #5), but it was mounted in the same place.


(Large Pic: http://www.vpforums.com/temp/hch/right_lg.jpg )

4) How to mount the screw without proper tools - use your finger and tape (hey - it worked great!). I don't know the exact size of the screws. They were in my "miscellaneous" drawers, but they had a washer pre-attached which made it easier to put tape on it and my finger and stay in place while I get it through the hole and get the nut on the other end.


(Large Pic: http://www.vpforums.com/temp/hch/screw_lg.jpg )

5) Right side under hood. I removed the pop clip that holds the top portion of the windshield washer fluid resivoir (see pic #6 as well). The hole that the screw needs to be put in is the lower red arrow which comes out the other side to put through the ballast bracket's screw hole.


(Large Pic: http://www.vpforums.com/temp/hch/right_top_lg.jpg )

6) Removal of windshield washer fluid resivoir. The top red arrow shows the pop clip to remove. The lower red arrow is where the resivoir fill top separates from the larger resivoir.


(Large Pic: http://www.vpforums.com/temp/hch/right_top2_lg.jpg )

7) Difference from factory installed lamp (left side of pic or the right bulb) vs HID installed (right side of pic or the left bulb).


(Large Pic: http://www.vpforums.com/temp/hch/difference_lg.jpg )

Now I need to get the 9005 brights changed which I'm sure will be about 20 minutes vs 3 hours

Just a note... jacking up the car, removing the tire, and pulling the 10-12 pop clips took about 5 minutes to remove and another 5 minutes to replace. So the other 2 hours and 20 min was a lot of thinking (while smoking), and mounting. Thanks to the OP for this thread as it did help me quite a bit and took some of my worries away!

 

Great info on HID conversions!
I just got my '07 HCH last week. I knew by buying a Civic there'd be magnitudes more information than for my last car (Cavalier)...

Does anyone know if there are any legal issues with putting in different headlight systems like this? Especially in Massachusetts?

I was just thinking yesterday that it would be nice to put HID lights in, then I found way more info than I was expecting, this is great!

--
M

 

OE, yesterday I ordered the same kit you have, looking forward to trying install it next weekend. Thanks for this thread and the detailed instructions- should be a fun time.

edit: Nice post, AJR. This helps me out as well, thank ya.

 

Hey all. Yesterday I went to flip my ballasts around, like OE said... I thought that I would be able to do it without taking the wheel off, since you can change the light w/o taking the wheel off. I was able to do it on the right, but not the left.

Anyways, just for fun I tried to unscrew and screw in the light bulb with the wheel on and off. It took about 5 minutes with the wheel off and I couldn't do it w/ the wheel on. Has anyone ever changed their light like the manual recommends, w/o taking off the whole wheel? It seems pretty impossible unless you have 3 elbows. My hands are pretty big too, but they are not huge. Maybe the HID light bulbs are harder to grip than the regular ones, and that makes it harder. I'm not sure. Has anyone else had trouble replacing the light w/o removing the entire tire?

 

I just installed the HID conversion on my 07 HCH. It's not dark yet so I don't know if they're perfect but they are pretty **** bright in daylight!

Does the orientation of the bulbs matter? One has the insulated wire (on the bulb) on the bottom side, and the other has it on the top.

--
Martin

 

yes, the wire should be on the bottom. turn the other one around.

 

False alarm. They are both the right way around.
I got the 4300K bulbs, they are amazingly white/bright. I've only ever had normal non-xenon bulbs.

--
Martin

 

I drove my friend's accord last night. She does not have Xenon. It felt very dark. I have only had the xenon for a few weeks, but I'm already very used to them. I don't think I'll ever be able to go back.