Camry HybridDiscussion area for the Toyota Camry Hybrid. Topics of discussion range from fuel economy, safety, modifications, performance all involving Americas favorite family car, the Toyota Camry.
I'm a brand new owner of a hybrid... Had a 08 Nissan Rogue and traded it for the Camry in 3 months...
Only mod I have done is Tints... Now I want to get HID's.. I looked and there are so many out there, and I want to know whats a good brand to go with and if you have HID's where did you buy it from?
Nice car. I just purchased my TCH09 two weeks ago. Still waiting on delivery. I also want to put in HID lights, but I was wondering if it would affect the battery more than the standard lights. Anyone know?
I have done 2 conversions for a 2009 hybrid. I used an all electronic/digital slim series conversion kit from ebay.
It was $140 shipped and they worked perfectley once you know the wires are reversed polarity and to bend the connections inwards in order to get the connections to seat the first time.
On the drivers side I double sticked the 1/2" thick ballast to the abs controller and on the drivers side I double sticked the ballast to the rear of the electronic module.
All the wiring neatly hides away and it is basically plug and play and looks great.
I went with the black digital ballast as they do not have the enormous start up draw that conventional ballasts do.
Normally the HID's run at about 35 watts as compared to the conventional 65 or 60 watt halogen bulbs, so it appears that they are lower power consumption then halogen.
However the ballasts have a start up draw of about 200 watts for 5-15 seconds thus on some vehicles overloading the wiring and this is why some hid kits come with a relay kit to allow fro the tremendous start up draw.
These digital units compensate for this electronically and thus no extra relay kit is necessary, I have confirmed this on my amp meter and see virtually no additional start up load with these kits.
As for your original question the halogen run at 65 watts or 4.42 amps at 14.7 volts which is what my camry is putting out.
The hid kits run at 35 watts or 2.3 amps at the same 14.7 volts.
So you can see the hid's will not only give you better and cleaner light but also do it for about only 52% of the power needed to run the halogen bulbs.
I have hid conversions for about 5-6 years on various vehicles and have only seen them to get better and cheaper, my first set was over $1,000, now I am paying $140 for digital ultra slim units which are better quality and smaller then ever before.
Personally for $140 they are cheap insurance, I stay with the 4300K or 5000K light output.
you have to ask for black and also ask for the double stick mounting method otherwise you will get silver ballasts and brackets and screws for the mounting.
I used the 5000K bulbs, the 4300 k might have also worked.
Thx for the link.....will buy a pair once I determine the proper bulb size. How did you learn about reversing the 18" connector? Did it concern you that such a critical piece was not manufactured correctly? I'm assuming if you didn't reverse the connector you'd short the thing out?
first install I found out the hard way over 2 hours to figure such a simple mistake, no damage to ballasts whatsoever
now I use a meter to verify regardless of what it states.
didn't really bother me as different auto manaf. use different sides for polarity, best always to check first.
all in all I have done 4 of these kits and they work well and the service was excellent, had it in 2 days once for an auto show and all at the same price.
so I have bought the HIDs and looked at the engine compartment last night...and with the 12v battery in the trunk, how exactly did you wire it back there? appreciate your help as always...thx much!
It's a pigtail. Plug-and-play harness for the Camry. It works with any Digital HID Ballast.
Just plug one end into the stock H11 plug (Where the low beam normally plugs in) and the other end plugs into the Ballast. If you are using a Digital Ballast, you do not need to run any extra wire or relays.
so I have bought the HIDs and looked at the engine compartment last night...and with the 12v battery in the trunk, how exactly did you wire it back there? appreciate your help as always...thx much!
Sorry for asking, but I'm a car newb. Does the connection go like:
HID bulb -> ballast -> 12v in the trunk
or
HID bulb -> ballast -> original connector for normal bulb?
Looks hard if you have to connect wire it to the trunk.
that depends on your ballast. A 35W Digital can be plugged directly into the original H11 socket.
A non-digital ballast needs to be powered by the battery, as the turn-on draw is higher than the 65W that the stock wiring is rated for.
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Tch 2009 Hid??
Linear Mode
