Hey everyone new to the forums and first time Volvo owner. I am not much of a car guru and was wondering what I should be looking for in order to switch all my 2008 Volvo s60 AWD 2.5 T headlights to those brighter white crisp lights. Is there something you guys would recommend, price range I should be looking for or some type of kit? can I just buy the bulbs and that will do the trick? Basically what I am asking is what is the process and stuff I need to make this happen with your recommendations?


Thanks for your help and time,
Tim

 

Tim,

You are speaking of HID headlights. The best and cheapest lights are from ddmtuning.com

You will need the 35W kit (I recommend the more expensive slim ballasts). Just choose your current bulb type and preferred Kelvin temperature. The stock R is around 4300K. I prefer the slight blue look of either 6000K or 8000K. You may also need the bulb out warning cancellors (also sold at ddm). Installation is straight forward. Let me know if you need help.

 

perfect! When you say warning cancellors, there is an option when im picking out my options for a error eliminator ($15) , is that the same thing? Also I decided to take your advice and go with the slim ballasts, I am gonna order my high beams and low beams, will this cover my daytime running lights (that really small one) my normal lights and my brights? I am gonna go with the 5000k I feel like thats gonna give me the clean white luxury look im going for, correct me if I am wrong. Once again I dont know much about cars and really appreciate your patience!

Thanks for your time,
Tim

 

Yes, the "error eliminators" are what you are looking for. Sylvania.com has a good automotive replacement guide. You fill in you Make/Model and they tell you what size bulbs you need. Your low beams are H11 and your high beams are H9. I do not see anything for a daytime running light so I am not sure if you have one. Maybe your DRL's are just your low beam headlights?

Anyway, 5000K will get you very close to a pure white color. Most people do not do their high beams because of the warm up time on HID type bulbs. Basically, when you turn on an HID it takes about 5-10 seconds to reach full brightness. People stay clear of their high beams because in the case you need to flash your high beams, HID's are not very effective and could turn into a safety issue. Not to mention high beams are aimed upwards which will blind the **** out of other drivers.

DDM tuning has the cheapest HID kits on the market and surprisingly some of the more reliable ones too. This isn't a "you get what you pay for" kind of company. Actually if you look kits up on eBay you will see most sell for around $200 and don't have a brand name or anything. Ask all the questions you want. Even install questions are fair game when your kit(s) come in. That reminds me, beware of DDM tuning's shipping. They could take up to 20 days after you order to make it to your doorstep but just have patience and you will be ok.

 

Great! Thanks again for your help. Just placed my order and Ill keep you posted if I run into any troubles!

Thanks for your time,
Tim Davidson

 

hey man just got the lights in today. I got the kit and plus the error eliminator. I went to go install it, iI hook the error eliminator to the small black box, then I hook the bulb into the error eliminator, hook the bulbs two small round wires together to the box, and then with the loose female end of the bulb into where my OEM bulb was. I turn the car on and instantly still have the low light bulb alert and on top of that the new bulb isn't even lit. Am i doing something wrong?

 

Also after doing some research someone said that my low beam fuse is a 15a and it MIGHT have blown once I turned the car on, and that I need a 20a fuse. The only reason I don't think thats it is that my other light was still working while the HID wasn't but I am not sure if they use the same fuse or not.

 

Sorry I have not been online in a while. Did you ever figure this out? You plug the car's connector into the error eliminator which then plugs into the ballast (slim black thing) which then power the bulbs. If that does not work, try without the error eliminator installed. I do not think you blew a fuse because I have installed these on about 5 cars and none of them ever blew a fuse. Let me know what you found.

 

No worries. I tried what you said and then it goes on for a quick second (super excited) and then goes off. When I did what you said, there are two connectors on the bulb that are just hanging off not connected to anything, is that normal?

 

That extra wire isnt necessary. It just extend the power wire if that is what you need. Ok so I had this problem with a friends car. What happened was when his car detected low voltage (because HIDS anctually run lower voltage after ignited) his car would cut power to the lights. Sounds like yours is doing the same thing. Do me a favor and test this.

What you can do is make sure the ballast is powered individually by the batter. Do not connect to the headlight circuit but rather connect the ballast to the battery. Forget the error eliminators for now. So you should have ballast connected to batter, then bulbs connected to ballast. If this works which I expect it will ,the problem is not with your kit but rather how your car is compaitble with the kit. This can be fixed and I am willing to help but it will get complicated.

 

ok this all sounds good but where do I even start to be able to hook up my ballast to my battery. Like what do I need for this and all? I'm down to do whatever you think will work if you give me some step by steps. Thanks for helping me...

 

You are going to need to buy some 16 or 18 gauge automotive wire for this project. Once you have that purchased, cut two length of wire about 12" each. Trim the sleeve of wire off the ends of both wires. You will have to plug the bare wire into the connector on your ballast but be careful not to touch the wires. Then touch those wires to the positive and negative battery terminals to power up the ballast.

You have to make sure you don't reverse polarity also. The positive wire should touch the right part of the female terminal on the ballast and the negative wire should touch the left part of the female terminal on the ballast. This is assuming you are looking down on the ballast with the black side facing you and the silver side facing down.

If this is unclear let me know before you do this. If the lights stay ignited for 10 seconds you most likely need to do a custom wire job like I said because the ballasts work fine. What I am telling you to do here is a ballast test