2010 Kawasaki Ninja 650R - HID Installation (Guide?)

[TekNinja81]

Folks,

Does anyone here who has a current-gen Ninja 400R or 650R, have an HID kit installed/have an installation guide?

I had a low-beam HID kit installed by a shop on my 650R a while ago, and have since had it die twice. The first time, the light seemed to be flickering for about 5 minutes or so, and then died completely. Afterwards, at first when I started up the bike, the HID would sometimes fire up and stay on for a few seconds and die; eventually it would just flicker and immediately die. Same behaviour now (it died again last night, but died suddenly rather than the flickering bit.)

According to the installer at the shop, it seemed to be the bulb/igniter that died, as changing the ballast did not fix the issue the first time. He changed the bulb+igniter instead (left the original ballast in), and it worked until now.

Aside from it possibly being a poor-quality kit, I'm wondering if this could be a wiring problem, a defective ballast damaging the bulb/igniter, or something else.

I took a look at the wiring last night, and from what I can tell, he has connected the HID kit's wiring into the factory H7 bulb connector -- it looks like the kit is designed to be installed this way, but is this correct? Someone asked if it was blowing the fuse/suggested I'd need a larger one, but the fuses seem fine. Another person suggested cutting the factory wiring and splicing the HID kit to that rather than using the H7 connector.

I am not at all experienced with HID kits, so if anyone can offer advice I would appreciate it. I'm going back to the shop (again) today to have the kit replaced, but if it happens again I'll probably be looking at installing my own kit...

 

[jeffjones]

Folks,

Does anyone here who has a current-gen Ninja 400R or 650R, have an HID kit installed/have an installation guide?

I had a low-beam HID kit installed by a shop on my 650R a while ago, and have since had it die twice. The first time, the light seemed to be flickering for about 5 minutes or so, and then died completely. Afterwards, at first when I started up the bike, the HID would sometimes fire up and stay on for a few seconds and die; eventually it would just flicker and immediately die. Same behaviour now (it died again last night, but died suddenly rather than the flickering bit.)

According to the installer at the shop, it seemed to be the bulb/igniter that died, as changing the ballast did not fix the issue the first time. He changed the bulb+igniter instead (left the original ballast in), and it worked until now.

Aside from it possibly being a poor-quality kit, I'm wondering if this could be a wiring problem, a defective ballast damaging the bulb/igniter, or something else.

I took a look at the wiring last night, and from what I can tell, he has connected the HID kit's wiring into the factory H7 bulb connector -- it looks like the kit is designed to be installed this way, but is this correct? Someone asked if it was blowing the fuse/suggested I'd need a larger one, but the fuses seem fine. Another person suggested cutting the factory wiring and splicing the HID kit to that rather than using the H7 connector.

I am not at all experienced with HID kits, so if anyone can offer advice I would appreciate it. I'm going back to the shop (again) today to have the kit replaced, but if it happens again I'll probably be looking at installing my own kit...

If your installing your own kit www.ddmtuning.com is where I got mine for my bike and truck and buddies bikes and all work amazing and they are super cheap($) as well.

I would follow the wiring he did and see if it is pinched anywhere? Maybe when reinstalling your fairings he nicked the cables jacket and caused a short?
I would highly suggest not directly splicing the kit in as if you ever want to change them it will be a pain in the *** to do.
Or they are just a cheap ebay set? What brand are they?

 

[TekNinja81]

If your installing your own kit www.ddmtuning.com is where I got mine for my bike and truck and buddies bikes and all work amazing and they are super cheap($) as well.

I would follow the wiring he did and see if it is pinched anywhere? Maybe when reinstalling your fairings he nicked the cables jacket and caused a short?
I would highly suggest not directly splicing the kit in as if you ever want to change them it will be a pain in the *** to do.
Or they are just a cheap ebay set? What brand are they?

Wiring doesn't appear pinched anywhere that I can see, but I'd have to probably take some of the front fairings off to get a better look. Good suggestion though, when I'm there tonight I'll have him double-check that as well.

Glad to see the spade connectors are supposed to be installed the way they have been; I wasn't sure f that was normal or not. Unfortunately I've got no idea what brand the kit is that he used, the only thing I remember seeing was Xenon/Xeon/something on the box, but I know that doesn't mean much.

BTW, are the ballasts etc ok to get wet? I do ride in the rain fairly often, just want to be sure it's not *that* that's killing the things... but was dry out when it died last night -- foggy the first time.

 

[jeffjones]

Wiring doesn't appear pinched anywhere that I can see, but I'd have to probably take some of the front fairings off to get a better look. Good suggestion though, when I'm there tonight I'll have him double-check that as well.

Glad to see the spade connectors are supposed to be installed the way they have been; I wasn't sure f that was normal or not. Unfortunately I've got no idea what brand the kit is that he used, the only thing I remember seeing was Xenon/Xeon/something on the box, but I know that doesn't mean much.

BTW, are the ballasts etc ok to get wet? I do ride in the rain fairly often, just want to be sure it's not *that* that's killing the things... but was dry out when it died last night -- foggy the first time.

I would ask him what brand they are, it should say right on the ballast.
The ballasts are water resistant, so as long as they arent constantly have water on them they should be fine.
You might want to look into this as well: http://www.ddmtuning.com/Products/HID-Kit-Wiring-Harness
Your wiring might not be able to handle the current draw on start-up, this wiring kit will draw the power directly from your battery instead of through your headlight wiring.

 

[TekNinja81]

So we installed a totally different kit last night, got it up and running again but this morning on my way to work it shorted out again. This time, the light *will* fire back up and run normally when I start the bike up, but I'm sure it'll cut out again.

Something we noticed last night (AFTER finishing installing the bloody thing of course...) is that the bulb/wire looks like it's touching/very close to the "stem" inside the headlight fixture. I'll post pics from my phone to help illustrate this. We realized that it's possible that the bulb may be shorting out due to this possible contact. The new kit is considerably closer to it than the old one was, so it's still just a speculation. A friend of mine got dual HIDs installed in his 650R, and it's been working fine so far -- I suspect his bulbs actually sat further back than either of my kits though.

What we're considering doing is ripping out the stem from the headlight casing, to avoid the possibility of the bulb shorting on it. Has anyone done this with their 650R, and/or would it be a bad idea? I'm aware that this may cause my headlights to be quite blinding, and/or may cause the light to be distributed unevenly or something.

 

[TekNinja81]

Here are the pics as promised:

*NOTE: I'm considering, if we have to remove the stems/whatever they're called, just going all-out and installing a halo/projector kit and blacking out the reflectors. Would love to see if anyone here has done that on their own 650R, and feedback on how it worked out. A friend of mine did this for his FZ6R, minus the halo/angel eye, and it looked amazing.

 

[VFR.CBR]

You've pretty much answered your own question. As you have noticed, the bulb location is not consistent.
All HID conversion kits are crap. They're illegal for a reason. Just because some guy in China can mount an HID burner on a halogen base doesn't make it right. (or legal)
If you haven't damaged your housing, replacing the halogen bulbs and stock wiring should fix your problem.