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XenonDepot Xtreme HID's

20K views 159 replies 18 participants last post by  TimmyB 
#1 ·
Well I got my HID's in the mail on Friday and now that I have some free time I'm going to look into installing my low and fog HID's. Now I want it to be a relatively simple install so I wont be pulling off the front bumper. But my question is does anyone have any idea on where they mounted their Ballasts and relays and all that fancy jazz that comes with the Xtreme kit from XenonDepot.

Pictures would be GREATLY appreciated. Also the positive and ground wires on the hardness, the connectors look very small, are they going to fit on the battery terminal??

Pictures for anything would be awesome. Thanks ya'll.
 
#91 ·
Take the 5.7 off and replace it with HEMI
 
#93 ·
The second one IMO.. the combined one is from the Ram and I like it but add the HEMI badge to your pre-existing 5.7 and WK freaks will think you have an 06 :p
 
#95 ·
Yeah I know too much about these Jeeps but not enough at the same time. I say do it if you like it. Sorry to draw your thread off-topic, buddy.
 
#99 · (Edited)
I luv my xenondepot hid lows. Im waiting for my led bulbs in the fogs to go then i'll be ordering the lows too. Is a relay needed for the fogs though, somewhere I heard its not needed and I can go with the other kit that doesnt include relays?

And with there being no more room I think i'll be pulling the bumper and redoing all the wiring nice and neat, right now everything is just shoved in there with the wires ziptied out of the way but it doesnt look professional.



 
#104 ·
Correct, relays are NOT needed for fog lights. The wiring in the jeep already has the fog lights relayed, so it would be redundant.

I read you are having trouble getting some LED bulbs to work. I may be able to help. This lighting stuff is kinda my forte, so to speak. Let me know if I can be of any assistance.
 
#100 ·
Im thinking about getting the SRTDESIGN emblem for the rear on mine. Like the Dodges have that come without the 6.1 but have the look of it. I just want to be different, and I have yet to see a WK around me that looks like mine except an SRT8. I luv pulling next to stock WK's and see the people staring, I get alot of compliments from people. I mostly notice people checking out the rims, my buddy told me he knows its me driving down the street because how they stand right out.
 
#105 ·
A relay harness is not "necessary" when upgrading the fogs to HID as you will not encounter any flickering or error codes. However, using a relay harness does ensure that the ballasts always receive a constant 12V. Your OEM fog light wiring is designed to run halogen bulbs which can dim if voltage drops below 12V. HIDs cannot dim and will flicker if they do not receive sufficient power. Flickering will reduce bulb/ballast life.

Steve
 
#106 ·
A relay harness is not "necessary" when upgrading the fogs to HID as you will not encounter any flickering or error codes. However, using a relay harness does ensure that the ballasts always receive a constant 12V. Your OEM fog light wiring is designed to run halogen bulbs which can dim if voltage drops below 12V. HIDs cannot dim and will flicker if they do not receive sufficient power. Flickering will reduce bulb/ballast life.

Steve
Not to be argumentative here, Steve, and I do not question your extensive knowledge of the field at all, but I disagree with your statement.

The Jeep already has a relay for the fog lights on-board. This relay pulls current directly from the battery. I fail to see how adding another relay would be of benefit at all. It would be redundant.

Now, I'll come clean with someting before I get called out for being a hypocrite. Yes, my fog lights ARE relayed. In fact, I have two relays for the fog lights - one for each light. First off, and the more important of my two criteria, was for looks and symmetry and consistency of the install. Since I upgraded my highs, lows, and fogs all at one time, it suited me better and looked better to add relays to my setup. However, I will admit that 99% of people would look at my install and the first word that would come outta their mouths is "overkill".

Check it out for yourself: http://www.jeepgarage.org/showthread.php?t=1255

Now, the second reason for relaying my fog lights the way I did was to provide a level of redundancy for safety purposes. If one of my fog light relays fails, the other light remains on because it is a completely seperate system. This is more applicable for the low-beams as they are your primary light source, but again, I was trying to maintain consistency during my install.

Of course, there is one thing you learn in engineering school that should be mentioned here. By introducing more components into the system, you are introducing the probability of failure. Goes back to the old adage 'KISS - keep it simple, stupid'. Translation: you can't have failure if there isn't a component there to fail. The jeep had a relay onboard and I added two more. I now have 3 relays just for my fog lights that can now fail.

Just my $0.02...
 
#108 ·
Precisely. Check this site: http://www.wkjeeps.com/wk_fuses.htm

Look at the integrated power module. There is a fused output from the battery AND a relay for the front fog lamps. I had a '98 grand cherokee that was the same way.
 
#110 · (Edited)
Ummm, I'm not sure that some do and some don't. Did someone tell you that some needed relays and others didn't? Or do we have documented cases of people who tried it without relays and could ONLY get it to work by using relays? Sometimes, using relays will mask other problems. For example, say you have a bad ground. The ground isn't capable of supporting 5 amps (i.e. HID lights) but it is capable of supporting 50 mA (i.e. the coil of a relay). In this case, one might be inclined to say that a relay is required, when in reality, all that is needed is a better ground.

According to wkjeeps.com, all WK jeeps from 2005-2010 have the same integrated power module, meaning that all of them have a fused battery output feeding into an onboard relay. Unless there is something I am unaware of, I don't believe there would ever be a NEED to relay the fogs on a WK.

Are you sure you aren't thinking of low beams, Scott?
 
#111 ·
no....there are owners here that have no relay on the fogs and some that had flickering on the fogs and had to install a relay.......
 
#112 ·
I'm not calling you a liar Scott but flickering seems like the least likely of all problems to have on the fogs. The jeeps have an onboard relay for the fogs already. Throwing another relay on top of that does absolutely nothing for you. All it does is reduce the load on the onboard relay. But that relay was meant to handle at least 45W x 2 with stock 9145 halogen bulbs. HID's draw, at most, 35W x 2, not to mention the superior efficiency of HID's, further widening this gap.

The computer has no control over the fog lights other than to turn them on and off (unlike the low beams). Because the output is relayed, the computer cannot read how much power is going to the lights, therefore flickering (which is a result of the computer seeing abnormal current draw) seems extremely unlikely.

I would love to dissect one of these cases. I never had a relay on my '98 grand cherokee fogs because it, too, had an onboard fog light relay. I understand the WK is a different beast, but I imagine the circuit is pretty close to identical. It just doesn't add up.
 
#114 ·
there are several that needed relays....maybe Tony(tcmglx) can chime in with who it is....I know Lo.7 was one and he has an 06
 
#115 ·
Great discussion, I'm still confused on how grounding the HID's to the battery is not the best way.... Your going back to the source.... This is much better than any chasis ground, EVEN though chassis ground should be the same as the battery.

Also the battery acts like a big capacitor in a sense that voltage fluctuations are minimized.. screw it i'll run 2 grounds.....then all will be well.
 
#119 ·
Word. Bad grounds are oftentimes the trickiest problems to diagnose. And why is that? It is probably the first thing that everyone takes for granted when they have problems...

"You got a good ground?"

"Oh, sure, no problems there!"

Uh-huh. An electrical circuit is just that - it's a circuit. If it isn't a complete circuit, it don't work. You wouldn't use a wire from the battery that was too small or a wire that is big enough but is half cut thru with only a few wire strands left, would you? Same deal with a bad ground.

And for the guy who was asking, yes, there is no better ground than directly to the battery. The problem is that the battery is often the least convenient of all locations to ground. Or, at least, there's a half dozen other locations that are more convenient. And in reference to grounding the battery to the chassis, that's a misleading statement.

Again, it's for convenience. They ground to the chassis so that you can ground everything else to the chassis, thus completing the circuit. For a 100% guaranteed trouble-free wiring setup in a vehicle, EVERY SINGLE CIRCUIT WOULD BE GROUNDED DIRECTLY TO THE BATTERY. Boy, that would be a mess, wouldn't it?
 
#120 ·
There's no issue with that.

I'm just trying to clarify that there is no difference between grounding to the battery and grounding to the chassis -- THE BATTERY IS GROUNDED TO THE CHASSIS! When grounding back to the battery you're simply using the battery/terminal post as a distribution point for grounding (completing the circuit).

Word. Bad grounds are oftentimes the trickiest problems to diagnose. And why is that? It is probably the first thing that everyone takes for granted when they have problems...

"You got a good ground?"

"Oh, sure, no problems there!"
haha, I got this all the time when I browsed car audio forums.

------

I'm just trying to clarify that there is no difference between grounding to the battery and grounding to the chassis -- THE BATTERY IS GROUNDED TO THE CHASSIS! When grounding back to the battery you're simply using the battery/terminal post as a distribution point for grounding (completing the circuit). If you ground to the battery post or the chassis where the ground from the battery post is - there is absolutely no difference!

Find a solid piece of the chassis, sand it down to bare metal (<-- emphasizing this), bolt or screw the wire termination tightly to this newly made ground = no problems!
 
#121 ·
what size bulbs
 
#131 ·
haha, is that from "I love you man" ...?

Great movie man!

Matt & LipschitzWrath - If I could get a penny for every time I heard "The ground is good" followed by "oh, i guess it wasn't" =) I would say that about 75% of the problems I come across that are HID related definitely have to do with a bad ground.

Steve
haha, I hear ya. It must frustrate the hell out of you when costumers come back and immediately place blame on your kit and not the install. Ugh, that would drive me nuts!

Lol I was totally in that boat :(

my bad.....EVERYBODY PLAIN AND SIMPLE PUT YOUR GROUNDS FOR FUTURE REFERENCE ON THE SIDE PANELS OF YOUR FRAME!!!

its better to be safe then sorry right?
Hey man it happens! And now it's been discussed in multiple threads so hopefully folks in the future will realize how important that measly old ground is :)
 
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