Mustang HID Conversion Installation Instructions
Written and Photographed By Steve of Sacramento Mustang
The following write up was done with the intentions of hopefully answering a few questions on one of the most popular options on new cars today and aftermarket add-ons provided to improve your night time driving experience. All of us have seen these on the road, but unfortunately only a few of us Mustang owners have experienced them since Ford only in the last couple of years produced them as an option on new Mustangs. The add-on I am referring to are H.I.D Lights. (High Intensity Discharge).
A few questions most commonly asked are:
HID bulbs are a Xenon gas filled bulb and does not have a filament like standard halogen bulbs. The Xenon gas is ignited by high current voltage and causes the bulb to glow brighter than halogens. The high voltage is supplied by the ballast included. Just like fluorescent lights in your home, HID bulbs produce three times the light output, only require about 2/3 the energy, and run cooler so there is no worry of melting your headlight housings.
The color temperatures offered are:The (K) Kelvin is the unit of color. Some may think that the higher the K the brighter. WRONG! The lower the K the brighter the output will be. 4000K is the brightest, most natural white light. 6000K is a bright diamond white with a small hint of blue. The 8000K and 10000K are even bluer. And anything higher will become purple. For this reason the most common sold are 4K, 6K, and 8K.
These kits are offered for almost all years of Mustangs 1964-2009 and are available for headlights and Fog lights. Each kit sold is specific to the year of car to insure that all harnesses provided will plug into your factory wires. This is not a universal splice in kit!
I recently installed a set of 600K HID's in my Headlights and Fog lights on my 2002 Mustang GT. The headlights are sold in a low beam only option or with a dual high beam option. I decided to go all the way with the dual high/low kit. Continue reading to see how I installed my lights in my car.
First I started by disconnecting my battery and removing my headlight housings. Next may be the hardest part of the installation and will vary from generation to generation of Mustangs. I had to find a good place to mount the ballasts so that they were secure and I wanted to them to be hidden and not too close to the hot engine. I removed the upper radiator cover and decided that behind the bumper was the cleanest, safest, coolest place to install these. I fastened both ballasts to the headlight panel in front of the radiator core support. But you can really install them where ever you like. If you purchase the low beam kit only, then you are almost done here. Simply plug the factory headlight harness to the ballast and plug the bulbs in your headlight housings and the bulb also plugs into the ballast . Very Easy!
There is an extra harness to install if you purchase the High/Low HID kit like I did. Don’t worry, this is still very easy to install. This harness included in the kit is simply 2 ground connections that I bolted to my radiator core support and power wire with fuse that connects to the battery. The blue connector will attached to the factory headlight harness closest to the battery and the other 4 plugs will go right to both ballasts.
I simply routed all this wiring under the radiator core support cover and with the zip ties supplied I was able to keep it safe, secure, and hidden. When done I was only able to see one single wire going to my battery, completely hiding the fact that I have HID’s installed.
Installing the optional HID fog light bulbs was just as easy as doing a low beam only kit. I fastened the fog light ballasts to the back of the bumper using the supplied brackets and plugged in the factory fog light harness to the ballast. Installed!
After installing, reconnect the battery and turn on headlights to make sure everything is working. If you installed the high/low kit, try switching from high to low. You fog lights should turn off like normal. Everything on mine work as it did from the factory, just much for brighter.
You will want to make sure that your lights are properly adjusted so that you are not blinding anyone at night. I found that I was able to lower my headlights a little because the beam of light was much larger than before.
This changeover is literally a night and day difference and I am sure you will love the upgrade as much as I do.
Kits available for 1965-1973 Mustang, 1993-2004 Mustang and 2005+ Mustang.
