I have a 2011 maxima S w/ Halogen headlight assemblies. I came across a set of 2010 HID Headlight assemblies. The housings themselves are damaged but all internals (bulbs, ballasts, wiring) are fine. My question is can i disassemble the HID headlight assemblies and swap the internals (bulbs, ballasts, bulb socket, etc.) into the standard halogen assemblies? Is there a difference in headlight wiring harnesses? Thanks.

 

HID assemblies have an opening at the bottom of the light where the OEM ballasts go, the halogen does not. Also the projector on the HID assembly is different than the halogen as well as the cut off shield on the inside.

If you want to swap the plastic bezel and trim pieces from light to light, thats fine. Even the clear plastic cover you could swap. I would just buy another halogen set.

If you are looking to upgrade the halogen set, you could swap the shields from an HID set or buy them on Theretrofitsource. You can also buy the black series clear lens and an HID kit from there as well. You will notice a great difference coming from halogen lights.

 

Thanks grego. I was hoping it would be as easy as swapping all components from the HID set into the Halogen Housing, oh well. How bout the harnesses? all wiring the same?

 

Everything is the same, turn signal, side marker, high beam.

The difference is the low beam because the HID lights projector you mount the bulb inside the headlight to the projector with two fasteners. Then the OEM ballast connects onto the back of that and runs out the bottom of the headlight to the hole I mentioned. From there the ballast is screwed to the bottom of headlight to close that hole.

 

Gotcha Thanks

 

Is there a substantial difference between stock HIDs and halogens with a quality HID conversation kit? Obviously going from halogen to HID is a dramatic difference either way, but would it be worth a couple hundred dollars more to get a complete OEM HID assembly?

 

What you could do is just buy the Maxima HID projectors taht come in the OEM HID lights, swap them into the halogen lights, get an aftermarket hid kit and the black series clear lens from Theretrofitsource and you will have an amazing result.

 

Yup, and they're $60 for the pair right now, but they're not always available since these are the closeout items.
http://www.theretrofitsource.com/clo...trsdefaultview

And the black series clear lens (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)
http://www.theretrofitsource.com/com...lear-lens.html

 

This may be a stupid question, but aren't OEM halogen and OEM HID assemblies interchangeable? I'm not sure what plugs into the factory ballasts but would think that you could plug and play swap the whole assemblies?

 

No, they are different.

 

Read the replies in the above thread and you will have your questions answered.

 

I upgraded with Morimoto XB35's (6000K) and would like to do these lenses as well. However I'm tentative about "baking" the headlights. Is there a comprehensive how-to somewhere? "baking" is used to gain entry into the housing, correct?

 

Below is a link to a thorough walk thru made by Ghozt aka Dan. Its fairly simple to bake them open and then once your have them open, the projector is held on by 4 screws. Remove those then take the projector out. The lens bracket is held on by 3 or 4 screws and you take that off. After that, you need to press in on the 3 tabs holding the lens in. Be careful not too put too much pressure on it or else they will break. Once you have the lens out, the black series lens should pop in. If it doesn't completely fit (it should) then you will need to add a spacer that TRS provides when buying.

http://my7thgen.org/f57/how-bake-ope...-headlight-69/