VinceL Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 Hello all, After doing a number of searches on this forum and the internet in general, I have not found an answer to the following question: If someone were to purchase the HID headlight assemblies for an Edge Limited, could those be installed on a Edge Sport? Are there any wiring or fuse considerations? The reason I ask is I have a friend who is very interested in the Sport, but greatly prefers the HID lights. He would eat the cost of buying the headlight assemblies to get the bigger wheels, engine and look of the Sport. The HID's can be found for about $600 each side online for the whole assembly, but am not sure if it is okay to just buy the ballast and the new bulb/holder (saving a little money), or if the whole thing is necessary due to design differences. He prefers factory/OEM parts and is not interested in cutting/hacking/drilling to install aftermarket solutions. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks everyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickF1011 Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 I believe they use slightly different housings, so you'd need the complete assembly. They should basically be plug-and-play though I would think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NWS Alpine Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 The housings themselves are the exact same part but the projectors inside are different. You can't swap the bulbs and add the ballasts to the halogen projectors. You can either go with a HID kit (would never suggest this but the halogen projectors have a nice cutoff so there will be no dangerous glare). The other option is like you mention of buying the OEM housings with bulbs and ballasts. You will likely need to purchase an aftermarket relay harness to protect the factory halogen wiring. This can be bought for ~20 or built yourself for less. I am in the same position with a 2012 sport and I decided to go with a full custom retrofit. The OEM xenon projectors are so so at best. I am retrofitting lexus RX350 bi-xenon projectors into the stock housings. I am also running rare OSRAM 66240 CBI bulbs which are OEM 5K bulbs with more lumens than OEM phillips 85122 bulbs. They are $225+ a set and hard to get in the US right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VinceL Posted September 21, 2011 Author Share Posted September 21, 2011 Thanks for the replies! So, NWS Alpine, if I understand you correctly, you are keeping the stock housings and going to remove the OEM optics (lenses and all) and replace them with the Lexus one? Are you going to have to mod the mounts for the optics? How would you make sure you have it all aimed correctly and if not, what would you do to get them aimed properly? Sorry about all of the questions, by I am very interested in your project. Hmmm, relay kit. Will have to do some research on that. This whole topic is new to me so I am climbing the learning curve as we speak! Thanks again for the info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NWS Alpine Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 That is correct. The lens and reflector bowl make up the projector unit. The stock bracket for mounting the projector needs to modified slightly to get the new projector to fit. Since it already has a projector it's much easier to do a retrofit. I can retain all stock leveling adjustments and it looks the same as a stock headlight but with vastly improved optics. Take some time to read up on retrofitting on hidplanet.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VinceL Posted September 21, 2011 Author Share Posted September 21, 2011 Cool, thanks NWS Alpine. I'll check out hidplanet as you suggested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WVURaptor11 Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 I'm not sure if your friend has decided what to do about the Sport yet but I was in a similar quandry when I purchased my Edge Sport in March. I ultimately went with a conversation kit and did not have to drill or change anything except for adding the ballasts and harness and there was plenty of room under the hood. The bulbs that I purchased actually put out a better quality light than the OEM's in my sister's 2011 Edge Limited. Let me know if you have any questions.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VinceL Posted October 20, 2011 Author Share Posted October 20, 2011 I'm not sure if your friend has decided what to do about the Sport yet but I was in a similar quandry when I purchased my Edge Sport in March. I ultimately went with a conversation kit and did not have to drill or change anything except for adding the ballasts and harness and there was plenty of room under the hood. The bulbs that I purchased actually put out a better quality light than the OEM's in my sister's 2011 Edge Limited. Let me know if you have any questions.. Thanks for the offer, and I'll definitely take you up on it when (or if!) the time comes. My friend is still shopping, and trying to decide if he wants to dump his Infiniti now or later. He might test drive a black sport this weekend, so we'll see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NWS Alpine Posted October 31, 2011 Share Posted October 31, 2011 (edited) I am not a fan of HID kits but the Edge is an exception where it is not bad. The stock bi-halogen projectors are actually quite good and are safe for use with a HID kit. They are an open design so potential heat damage is minimal as kit bulbs run much hotter than OEM bulbs. Also it's safe for oncoming traffic as it's a projector system. I would still go OEM wherever possible for reliability. When you intall a kit I would make sure to make your own harness with a relay on both lights. Don't want a single point of failure to take out both headlights. If anything fails it's likely going to be the relay or the ballast. Edited October 31, 2011 by NWS Alpine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
e350 coupe Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 I am not a fan of HID kits but the Edge is an exception where it is not bad. The stock bi-halogen projectors are actually quite good and are safe for use with a HID kit. They are an open design so potential heat damage is minimal as kit bulbs run much hotter than OEM bulbs. Also it's safe for oncoming traffic as it's a projector system. I would still go OEM wherever possible for reliability. When you intall a kit I would make sure to make your own harness with a relay on both lights. Don't want a single point of failure to take out both headlights. If anything fails it's likely going to be the relay or the ballast. I was torn between the Sport and the Limited. With the Sport I could not get HID's or Turbo. With the Limited I could not get the paddle shifters or black grille. Price wise it was identical in AWD mode comparison. I went with the Limited with turbo as the HID's was the deciding factor. Both vehicle use projector headlights with the exception being that one use quartz bulbs and the other use HID bulbs. Now if you are not in Canada you should be able to install a high quality 4300K conversion kit and probably no one would be able to tell any difference. In Canada we have mandated DRL's which use the low beam at reduced voltage for the DRL's, so you cannot make this conversion on a Canadian vehicle with out a lot of problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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