Piaa 510 Hid Conversion *pictorial*

[motomikedh]

Awesome job Rich !!! I can't wait to see those lights again in Moab lighting up the canyon walls. Everyone should have HID's. My XR is next on the list for the 35 watt upgrade. See ya soon !! Ha ha.

[freedomtwoup]

Thank you Rich.
Received the kit from DDM
Any shots of the wiring connection?
Thanking you in anticipation.
David

[RPMINC]

Hey Bud , shoot me an email and I can send ya what I got , must be that time of year again , my bike currently sits in a "heated haven" out in a trailer surrounded by 4' of snow , hopefully an early melt ,

[Semper Fi]

Excellent write up

[sdpc2]

i have two different sizes, 4" on my GSPD and 6" on my GSA.

also, how have these been over the long term? Any issues?

TIA

[Scottly]

Originally Posted by scooteraug02

Nice report.


Is this where you got them? http://www.ddmtuning.com/product.php?II=101

I got mine there. I converted my low-beam and both BMW factory GSA aux headlamps. They work great, no CANBUS problems. Total spent for all three = $105.

[1coolbanana]

Thanks for posting up, it inspired me to do both my PIAA 4" 510's, low and high beams on my GSA.
No Canbus issues.
I left the fogs as fogs with halogen (learnt that the hard way!)

This pic is taken in daylight (and raining a little) but gives you an idea.
Thats 220 watts of HID

As a bonus, it may fry most bugs before they hit me

[freedomtwoup]

Originally Posted by 1coolbanana

Thanks for posting up, it inspired me to do both my PIAA 4" 510's, low and high beams on my GSA.
No Canbus issues.
I left the fogs as fogs with halogen (learnt that the hard way!)

This pic is taken in daylight (and raining a little) but gives you an idea.
Thats 220 watts of HID

As a bonus, it may fry most bugs before they hit me

Converted my 510's but it was suggested to use only 35W 5K HID's. (DDM's)
They are a little yellow against the 55W LB HID, I read that heat might be a problem in the 4" 510's . . .

What say you?

[1coolbanana]

Originally Posted by freedomtwoup

Converted my 510's but it was suggested to use only 35W 5K HID's. (DDM's)
They are a little yellow against the 55W LB HID, I read that heat might be a problem in the 4" 510's . . .

What say you?

55 watt HID does not produce any more heat than 55 watt halogen.
55 watt Super White halogen is what my PIAA 4" 510's long range spots came with originally.
I wont damage or make anything melt any more than the standard halogen.

I used 55W 4300k (natural sunlight) in all 4, HB, LB and the PIAA's.
Any higher in colour temp becomes blue'ish and reduces lumens and penetration.

Always go for max penetration

[DenniSMC]

What size bulbs do the 510's use? And how did the beam change once going to hid? When I did my stock lights, the beam is now higher. Did it do the same?

[Dan Cãta]

Does anyone know what the difference is betwen the 510's and the ff50 from Hella? I am considering in adding both fogs and driving lights with 4300K HID's inside and would like to make the best choice.

Dan.

[1coolbanana]

Originally Posted by DenniSMC

What size bulbs do the 510's use? And how did the beam change once going to hid? When I did my stock lights, the beam is now higher. Did it do the same?

H3's in the 510's.
Cant say if its higher, I removed them to convert them and realigned when I replaced.

[tellec]

I picked up a pair of PIAA 510s for my GS from my buddy Kbasa a couple of months ago, and while I was digging the additional lighting, they weren't as bright as I was hoping. Ho ho ho - I found a 35w HID kit from DDM Tuning under the tree this year! I'm just guessing, but I think Santa went with the 35w ballasts instead of the 55w to save space and reduce the amount of heat in the 510s' housings. Good call Santa, good call.

Following RPMINC's writeup, I upgraded my 510s this afternoon. Other than drilling out the back of the housings, the install kit was plug-n-play - nice:


I attached the ballasts to the underside of the oil cooler using 3M "Extreme" double-sided tape:


I wanted to use Dual Lock, but couldn't find any locally. If I have any problems with adhesion, I'll swap it out. The rest of the wiring tucked up nicely, and the PIAA wiring harness was already hooked up to my fuse block:


Hot damn, these things put out a huge amount of light. Here are the old halogens only (the close-up illumination is from LEDs installed on the handguards) - all pictures below were taken with a Canon S95 - f2 0.25s ISO400):


...and the new HIDs:


Everything on (LEDs + low + high + PIAA 510 halogens):


Everything on (LEDs + low + high + PIAA 510 HID):


The color temperature is a bit bluer than I was expecting - I was hoping the 5000K would be daylight-ish white, but they seem a bit colder than that. No biggie - I can deal!

More install pics:
http://fallingwithstyle.com/pics/GS_Lighting_Upgrade/

[Plane Dr]

I have been considering doing the HID as well. I'm finding my piaa 510 s don't really contribute much. So I assume they are fogs. They have worked well at that the 2 or 3 times I've used them for that compared to LED spots.

Any idea if they will be less useful at that if converted?

I currently have the 35w HID low beam and 2 LEDs. I simply haven't got to the high as around town I find the standard bulbs nice for a "flash". That said the LEDs are great daytime visibility and with the low beam conversion flashing is not quite as important. It would be nice to expand the use of the PIAAs as fog isn't much of an issue in TX!