I am sure some of you have had this done to your car at the dealership. I recently has this done, not because I really wanted to, but they encouraged me to do it at the dealership so I said why not. Anyways I was wandering if they change any of the screws at the top of the headlight also. I am referring to the two screws at the top of the light you would normally remove then pull the headlight out if your car does'nt have the kit installed. It seems to me like there is some barcket bolted to the bottom. I never really paid that close attention to the headlight before I had the kit installed to seee where they could possibly mount this bracket. But getting back to the original question do they leave the screws the same or do they change them also??

 

It doesn't matter how many stuff they add to the car.. if someone wants your HIDS they are going to get them..... try to save the Ballast... that's what I'm going to work with.......

 

From what I can see, they leave the screws the same but add the brackets and relocate your ballasts so that someone trying to get the lights cannot get it all in one swipe.

 

I am not sure if its the same as before the kit went in but the screws your are refering to that is located on the top of the headlights. Mine are star shaped with a little stem in the middle.

 

Weren't they like that before???

 

There are 2 different tsbs referring to the 5.5 gen HID headlamps, the first was a theft deterrent kit with utilized updated mounting screws, the better one is actually a voluntary recall #P3131 in which modified brackets and "data dots" are installed.

And also, when the brackets are installed, there is NO WAY to steal the headlamps without ruining them.

 

the theives are not interested in your headlights, they only want the ballasts - so they don't care if they ruin the headlight itself.......

 

no, they are just a regular bolt. Of course, i am about to do a "ghetto' preventative measure to make the bolts difficult to remove without specialized tools (no, not a star wrench)...but that's another story for another day (don't ask)....

 

Yeah I actually kinda thought that the screws should have also been replaced with those star shaped screws that HENRYNYC1 was referring to. Anyway it appers that that might have relocated my ballast and the brackets are in place. I am still gonna change those screws. I am looking for a very rare screw perhaps one that is completely flat and is bolted from the bottom rather then just taking a wrench and taking it off from the top. Anything to slow thieves down is always good since time is very essential to them and an extra 3 or 4 minutes could be a difference in them getting caught or not and if it's too difficult or time consuming they might simply abandon that car and move on to an easier one.

 

I have DataDots and have had my headlights out twice now ( ), so I'm pretty familiar with the whole thing. The bolts on the to plastic brackets (attached to the headlight and visible when you first open the hood) require just a regular 10mm socket. So if there are supposed to be star-key bolts there, I don't have them.

As far as the comment about nobody being able to steal the HIDs without ruining them if they have DataDots, that's not completely true. I would have agreed with you a few months ago, but I stopped being naive and realized that, thought time-consuming, the headlight can still be stolen. Certainly the extra time required is substantial and would hopefully deter a would-be theif, but it's not totally preventative. To be honest with you though, I don't think anybody is going to make something any stronger than the DataDots bracket, which is pretty beefy already.

And I'm not sure I buy the argument of theives "only wanting the ballasts." I'm sure most of them set out to get the whole headlight when they set out to steal anything. How many complaints have you heard of people getting their HIDs stolen versus just their HID ballasts? They want the whole thing.

 

Yes you are right on the money.. but w/o the ballast the housing are useless..and if they have to break them..well you know...... I'm going to build a metal plate to separate the ballast and add a piece of metal attached to where the clip is supposed to go ...well I'll take pics of my idea latter and will show it..........