Elwood4u

Hey, I stumbled across this forum since I have a mazda 3 question. I recently bought my mazda 3 so its good to know there is forum dedicated to it.

I actually bought replacement headlights but the ones I bought I didn't realize they were the HID headlights. Does anyone know if you can use HID headlights in a non-HID car?

Obviously all the connectors are different between the two but perhaps there is a way around this and the computer.

Appreciate any help.

icspots

If your '06 has the factory halogen headlamps then it uses H7 lamps for the low beam. If you inadvertently purchased HID lamps it's likely that you got D2S lamps which won't fit in the projector at all.

It is possible to install a HID kit in the halogen projectors, however that involves using H7 rebased HID lamps (read: they changed the base from D2S to H7), so you still won't be able to use the D2S lamps you have.

The only way you could use the D2S lamps would be to retrofit a real HID projector into your car. It would give awesome results, but it would involve time, money, and a deal of effort to install........ or paying someone else to do it for you.

Elwood4u

Thanks for the reply, I think I was un clear about the problem I have.

MY 2006 is a halogen car, but all that is left is the harness. I bought a front clip (so I could get headlights, fender, hood,bumper). This clip said it was Halogen but actually the headlights are the stock HID with harness.

What my thought is after investigating this weekend is that the stock Halogen harness for my car appears to be your standard 12 volt with a ground. And the HID connector for the ballast is a standard 12 volt and a ground.

My plan is to splice the low beam harness for my actual car(halogen harness) into the HID ballast connector from the front clip. There is a second connector which appears to be a level control (to aim the headlights) but it appears it can also be manually adjusted. Therefore I don't plan on hooking the level control up.

High beam and turn signal is the exact same between both.

Do you see any problem with splicing ballast connector to my stock low beam harness?

icspots

Score, accidental upgrade.

As long as the halogen wiring provides a constant voltage then it should be fine for powering the ballasts. I'd double check what the power draw for the ballasts to be sure it works, but I imagine you'd be fine.

Elwood4u

Yep, I double checked it. Saturday I spliced the harness for the low beam and wired them up, soldered, taped and heat shrinked just to be safe. MN winters can be pretty bad so I didn't want them shorting out.

Powered them up and they work like a charm. I'm going to have to give them a good polish but that should just take some elbow grease. There is also a level adjustment up/down that normally gets wired into the cabin but there is also a manual adjustment so I left that.

I've always wanted HID's myself but never wanted to spend the money on a higher end car to get them so I'm happy.

Thanks for the help.