FEATURED Kensun HID Xenon Conversion Kit “All Bulb Sizes and Colors” with Premium Ballasts – 9006 (HB4) – 6000k
- Simple installation – usually in 20 minutes or less (some cars may require professional installation)
- #1 Customer Service & Quality, 2 Yr Warranty, HID Headlight Bulbs Conversion Kit
- Included in kit: 2 premium ballasts, 2 bulbs, Installation instructions, Smart aluminum carry-case
- Standard kits have a 2-year warranty
- Produces 2 to 3 times as much light as a halogen bulb
Kensun HID Xenon Headlight Conversion Kit
HID lights have a glass chamber of gas, replacing the filament of traditional halogen bulbs. The gas is ignited by a 23,000v charge and stays illuminated by a constant 12v source provided by a ballast which is connected directly to your battery.
Remarkably, HID lights are able to provide greater light output with much less power consumption. Studies show that a 35w HID lamp produces 3 times as much light than a 55w halogen bulb. Also, a halogen bulb uses a continuous power draw of 10-15 amps, while the HID system uses 20 amps for ignition, but then drops to a mere 3 amps during operation (i.e. up to 80% less power during use!).
In addition, the HID headlamp provides longer service life. With no filament to vibrate and fatigue, under normal conditions HID bulbs last roughly 10 times longer than halogen bulbs.
What is HID Color Temperature?
Color temperature is a characteristic of light that is sometimes mistaken as brightness, when it is more closely related to “cool” and “warm” tones of light. Color temperature is a measure in Degrees Kelvin of the hue of a light source, in this case the HID bulb. (The term color temperature actually refers to the color associated with the amount of heat needed to produce that color from an ideal black body.)
It is hard to describe HID colors accurately since many variables such as voltage, type of ballast and the environment can affect color output. Also, color perception is subjective.
Recommended seller but you may still have problems with product,
ORIGINAL REVIEW – Sept 2011
I bought 2 products from Kensun, a H11 3000k kit for my fogs and a H13 5000k bi-xenon kit for my headlights. The H11 3000 kit was plug and play, no problems, really nothing else to say but the ballasts were not damaged so everything is working fine so far. BTW, this may be very important for some of you. These kits (as of my purchase in early Sept 2011) are 35 watt kits, not 55 watts. My fogs are tiny so any of the recent 55 watt versions would have melted my casings in no time so I had to be specific in getting 35 watt kits.
As for the H13 bi-xenon kit, there’s a few things people need to know before you get it and this is where you get to see how Kensun’s customer service is. The instructions were a bit too simplified but people can get through it as did I, just have some common sense and you’ll be fine.
*PROBLEM 1 (Installation-related)
The problem I had was with the casing on the harness that connects to the left headlight power source. The casing that came with the kit didn’t fit all the way in (the pins probably barely touched, couldn’t see inside the casing). I also noticed that my high beams weren’t working either. I called Kensun and explained that my lights would come on but the high beams didn’t work, didn’t mention the fitment since I was able to put electrical tape over both ends to keep them together and my low beams worked (this is why I assume the pins were touching). They explained that not all cars are the same and that the 3 pins were low beam, high beam and ground and that the order of the pins on my car was probably different than how the kit was set up. He offered to send me another harness if I wasn’t up to the challenge of taking the casing off and manually plugging in the pins. Since that wasn’t a big deal, I told him thanks for the info, took the pin casing off (use a minus driver from the front and push each pin inwards, took me about 5 minutes to figure this out…) and plugged them in a different order until my low and high beams worked.
*PROBLEM 2 (ballast)
This problem started on day 2 after installing my kit but I didn’t get around to it until the day after Problem 1 was solved. I noticed my right side wasn’t turning on in the morning. I turned it off and turned it back on and it worked. The next day, even after turning it off and on a few times, it wouldn’t come on. I knew enough this is probably the ballast (a common problem with ANY hid kit on the market) and switched the ballasts around to make sure it was indeed a ballast problem. The next day, as expected, the left side wouldn’t come on. I called Kensun and explained the problem and how I switched the ballasts around. The 3 minute conversation netted me a new ballast and NO request for the damaged ballast back.
*PROBLEM 3 (ballast and cs)
I received the new ballast about 3 business days (USPS) after the Problem 2 phone call and swapped the ballast out. The first thing I noticed was that the newly replaced ballast side was warming up differently after turning it on initially, the coloration was different as was the brightness. I swapped in the old ballast and indeed things looked different (the old ballast still works during the day, just not in the morning). Turns out after looking at the new ballast label that it was a 50 watt ballast, which explains the brightness and slight coloration difference over the other side. I called Kensun again and another 3 minute conversation netted me another new ballast and, again, NO request for the ballast back. I preferred a 50 watt replacement (choice was given) but the 35 watts is currently bright enough to blind people in the current stock housing so I asked for 35 watts.
Overall thoughts
This is where I stand with the product and my experiences with Kensun so far. Products can be explained better in the initial instructions but its not that bad. Customer service doesn’t ask a billion questions to straigten things out which is always nice. The ballast problem is really a common HID kit problem so I have no big issues over it. Them sending the wrong ballast, that I have a problem and deducted points. Them not asking for the bad and wrong ballasts, add a point or two since its so rare now-a-days. Since I received two kits, one working flawlessly (5 stars) and one not so much (3 stars for faulty product, bad replacement but good customer service), I average them out 4 stars.
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UPDATE – Oct 2011 (about 1 month after installation)
The other headlight ballast has started to not turn on. Turn off and on does not work sometimes. ALSO, one of my fogs turns on but decides to turn off on its own. This last one may be the ballast also.. I have to switch around the fog ballasts to see if its the bulb or the ballast but since the northwest rain season already started, I’m not as inclined to role…
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|Excellent… That pretty much sums it up,
The kit was very simple to install, not much in the way of directions but really it was very adequate. They are dead simple to install, I could have done it in 15 minutes or so if it weren’t for a couple of things that are specific to my Tundra. The truck came with shields for the stock bulbs, and these light ran into them. They were a bit of a hassle to get out, since the headlight assembly is completely glued tight and they are a little bigger than the hole for the bulb to go through. I also had to spend a few minutes figuring out how to put the stock rubber boot on over these bulbs. The bulbs had a twist lock bayonet style mount to lock the bulb to the big part in back for the high beam, and I had to work the boot on but it’s all good now.
The lights didn’t work at first, and I spent a few minutes figuring out what was wrong. The directions said to reverse the polarity, but it could have been more clear if they had said to reverse the polarity where the harness plugs into the ballast. The ballast are marked “+” and “-” right on the plug housing… But I put a volt meter on the harness and there was no power coming out of it. Then I ran jumpers to the ballasts directly, and both lights lit up. It turned out that the relay assembly (What they call a “Control Box” in the directions) was not working at all. I called the number at their web site, […]. I left a message since they are closed on Friday and Saturday.
They called back and got my amazon order number and said they’d ship me a replacement. I told them I would need the wiring harness too, since I needed to have headlights in my truck and I cut the harness to wire in a Bosch relay so I would have low beams at least. They said no problem.
A couple of days later the new harness/relay arrived, and I swapped it out. Honestly, though, I don’t know if I really needed the HID high beams… (Several reviewers said to be sure you ordered the bi-xenon kit with HID low and high beams.) These lights are so bright on low beam it borders on ridiculous! They look like they put out more than three times the light of the 100W halogen bulbs… If I bend over and look right into the headlights from 20 feet in front of the truck I am temporarily blind for 20 or 30 seconds… These things are freaking bright!
When you flip the high beams, it’s instantaneous… I was wondering if there might be a slight delay, because they actually actuate a solenoid type of assembly in the back of the bulb to reposition the bulb. No delay at all… And on high beam my truck lights up the street all the way down to the end of the block… I’ll probably not use the high beams much, but when I’m driving up in the mountains at night, it will be really, really nice to have these things.
When they fire up, you can hear a slight buzzing from the ballasts when you are standing next to the truck with the hood up and the engine not running, but there is absolutely no electrical noise. I have the Toyota high end stereo for the truck, and also a satellite XM radio, and an Ipod connector… No interference at all with the stereo system.
I am planning on replacing the headlights in two more cars with these. I don’t know how I went so long without putting in the HID bulbs, but now I am a huge fan! I just have to do it when my wife is not around, so I don’t get yelled at… 🙂 (She has great night vision, and she doesn’t see why I wanted brighter headlights… )
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|Bulbs and ballasts are amazing, but wiring harnesses feel cheap.,
This is my second purchase of a Kensun HID Conversion kit. I had a great experience with the first kit for a 2001 Nissan Sentra, so, I decided to get another Kensun kit to upgrade a ’95 Dodge Ram Van. Second kit configuration is 9004 Bi-Xenon 6000k. The light quality is amazing! However, I can’t really rate the performance/durability of this kit yet as it is brand new and I haven’t driven with them long enough. I would have rated this a 5-Star, but doing a comparison with the first kit (9007 HID Bi-Xenon 6000k), I’m quite disappointed at the quality of the wiring harnesses. The wires seem very flimsy and thin. The Control Unit, bottom half where the wiring harness is connected in, is covered with a thin rubber casing that feels loose and does very little for weather protection like water. The first kit did cost $20 more and the wires were very sturdy, better insulated, stronger gauge, and better sealed Control Unit. Honestly, I like quality and wouldn’t mind the extra cost for better wires, if it was an available option.
Update(7/11/2013)- Both of my kits, the controller on the wiring harness died after nearly 2 years. For my Nissan, it died 6 months ago, and the seller was really good about sending out replacement parts. On my Dodge van, the lights went out and I spent the time this morning to check the voltages around all the connectors, and isolated the problem at the controller. I don’t know what everyone else’s experienced performance life is, but mine is under 2 years.
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