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Discussion Starter · #1 ·
I want to get the same kind of headlights that are on the new Camaro, does anyone know if they are available for the Malibu, and where to get them?
 

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I assume you're referring to the HID projectors. They are not made for our car nor will they ever be. You can retrofit BMW, Mercede's, Nissan, etc. projectors in the headlight housings, but it's going to cost about $400 minimum for materials and a hell of a lot of time/patience to retrofit into the housing.

Now, I'm sure you can buy an HID kit for the car which will consist of HID ballasts and remounted bulbs that is essentially the same thing (minus the projectors), but there are a few problems with this setup. First, you need to find a way of wiring them up. Chances are you'll have a difficult time (assuming GM is using a negative ground on their headlights). The next problem is bypassing the DRL's. If you can't do that, you'll have an SVS (Service Vehicle Soon) dummy light constantly bugging you. Also, with the bulbs being remounted, you have a much greater defect rate, and these bulbs aren't cheap, usually around $70 a set. The last issue is glare. You will more than likely be blinding every single driver on the road. While you may not care, it's called common courtesy.
How many times have you had to look into some moron's brights because they are too retarded to turn them off? Well it's even worse with HID's.

Now, don't get me wrong I would love to get HID's on the Malibu, and would definitly try to retrofit a set of projectors given enought money, but it's just not worth the time and effort.

Here's a few links if anyone feels inclined on taking up the project.

http://hidtech.com/
http://www.hidplanet.com/
http://www.hidplanet.com/forum
 

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I assume you're referring to the HID projectors. They are not made for our car nor will they ever be. You can retrofit BMW, Mercede's, Nissan, etc. projectors in the headlight housings, but it's going to cost about $400 minimum for materials and a hell of a lot of time/patience to retrofit into the housing.

Now, I'm sure you can buy an HID kit for the car which will consist of HID ballasts and remounted bulbs that is essentially the same thing (minus the projectors), but there are a few problems with this setup. First, you need to find a way of wiring them up. Chances are you'll have a difficult time (assuming GM is using a negative ground on their headlights). The next problem is bypassing the DRL's. If you can't do that, you'll have an SVS (Service Vehicle Soon) dummy light constantly bugging you. Also, with the bulbs being remounted, you have a much greater defect rate, and these bulbs aren't cheap, usually around $70 a set. The last issue is glare. You will more than likely be blinding every single driver on the road. While you may not care, it's called common courtesy.
How many times have you had to look into some moron's brights because they are too retarded to turn them off? Well it's even worse with HID's.

Now, don't get me wrong I would love to get HID's on the Malibu, and would definitly try to retrofit a set of projectors given enought money, but it's just not worth the time and effort.

Here's a few links if anyone feels inclined on taking up the project.

http://hidtech.com/
http://www.hidplanet.com/
http://www.hidplanet.com/forum
WWWOOOAAAAA. Dude, I am sorry but u are wrong on all counts. First let me clear up who I am. 33yrs old and just purchased a 09 2LT last week. Ive been a GM tech for 8yrs and have the training and experience to back it up. Yes you can convert to HIDs and you can do it for under $100. I have a supercharged 01 Corvette and spend alot of time on the Corvette forum. There is a vendor that sells HID conversion kits and he is well know over there and so u will not be getting some halfazz product.
Our Malibu's take a H11 bulb, here is the link to HID kits
http://shop.jwmotoring.com/product.sc?categoryId=2&productId=120

Remember H11 on the low beam and H9 for high beam. I don't recommend going to anything higher then 8000k. The higher you go up in that number the bluer/purplish it will look and ur light output will decrease, compared to a lower # like 6000k.

The headlamp housings in the malibu are reflector style. I have the same housing in my 04 Impala and been running HID kit in that for over a yr. No problems and no other drivers flashing or honking at me.

Another thing, HIDs run at a lower wattage and provide longer life then standard halogen. There is no element to burn out, its a igniting of gas inside the HID bulb that makes the light. Ur average HID bulb is rated at 10,000hrs, plus replacement HID bulbs are down to $15 each.

As for the daytime running light being the lowbeam. U can do two things. One, install the HID kits and they would run as DRLs, not bad , but would be using the 10,000hrs up. Or what I did is shift the DRLs to be the parking lights.

This is how. When the BCM turns on the DRLs, it grounds the circuit and provides 12v to the low beam right headlamp. What I did was take out the fuse box under hood and pull the connector out. 3 big ones. Then were the DRL circuit is crimped onto the low beam right headlamp terminal, I cut it there. NO YOU WILL NOT GET A SVS, I verified it. Now w/ the DRL wire cut from the low beam, you would just solder it onto the PARKING lamp wire. Then its back to normal, BCM ground DRL circuit and instead of feeding voltage to lowbeam it goes to PARKing lamps. Or you can run it to highbeams, or just cut it and not worry about DRL. The BCM is not going to notice a difference cause it just grounds the circuit.
Now w/ my parking lamps as the DRL, it is all the parking lamps, side markers and reartail lights. Not a big deal, cause on a somewhat cloudy day at least your butt is seen.

If anyone needs schematics or pics let me know:)
 

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WWWOOOAAAAA. Dude, I am sorry but u are wrong on all counts. First let me clear up who I am. 33yrs old and just purchased a 09 2LT last week. Ive been a GM tech for 8yrs and have the training and experience to back it up. Yes you can convert to HIDs and you can do it for under $100. I have a supercharged 01 Corvette and spend alot of time on the Corvette forum. There is a vendor that sells HID conversion kits and he is well know over there and so u will not be getting some halfazz product.
Our Malibu's take a H11 bulb, here is the link to HID kits
http://shop.jwmotoring.com/product.sc?categoryId=2&productId=120

Remember H11 on the low beam and H9 for high beam. I don't recommend going to anything higher then 8000k. The higher you go up in that number the bluer/purplish it will look and ur light output will decrease, compared to a lower # like 6000k.

The headlamp housings in the malibu are reflector style. I have the same housing in my 04 Impala and been running HID kit in that for over a yr. No problems and no other drivers flashing or honking at me.

Another thing, HIDs run at a lower wattage and provide longer life then standard halogen. There is no element to burn out, its a igniting of gas inside the HID bulb that makes the light. Ur average HID bulb is rated at 10,000hrs, plus replacement HID bulbs are down to $15 each.

As for the daytime running light being the lowbeam. U can do two things. One, install the HID kits and they would run as DRLs, not bad , but would be using the 10,000hrs up. Or what I did is shift the DRLs to be the parking lights.

This is how. When the BCM turns on the DRLs, it grounds the circuit and provides 12v to the low beam right headlamp. What I did was take out the fuse box under hood and pull the connector out. 3 big ones. Then were the DRL circuit is crimped onto the low beam right headlamp terminal, I cut it there. NO YOU WILL NOT GET A SVS, I verified it. Now w/ the DRL wire cut from the low beam, you would just solder it onto the PARKING lamp wire. Then its back to normal, BCM ground DRL circuit and instead of feeding voltage to lowbeam it goes to PARKing lamps. Or you can run it to highbeams, or just cut it and not worry about DRL. The BCM is not going to notice a difference cause it just grounds the circuit.
Now w/ my parking lamps as the DRL, it is all the parking lamps, side markers and reartail lights. Not a big deal, cause on a somewhat cloudy day at least your butt is seen.

If anyone needs schematics or pics let me know:)
Of course there are work arounds for the DRL's and any warning lights, but your average joe isn't going to know how/want to start rewiring their brand new car. Also, some cars are more problematic and cause a huge hassle to get around some of these issues. The '99+ Grand Am/Alero is a prime example. It is near impossible to wire up to the existing light switch (due to the headlights being negatively ground). They may have figured a way around it, but at the time the only way was to wire a seperate switch. That's what I had to do when I had retrofitted OEM projector/ballasts into my Grand Am. I believe people found a work around for kits, but doing a true OEM setup is next to impossible (on the grand am/alero).

The problem with most, if not all, plug and play kits is that they do not use OEM quality bulbs/ballasts. This leads to a much greater rate of failure in the bulbs/ballasts themselves. Using the stock wiring harness is problematic in that they are not meant to handle the initial power spike created by the ballasts. There are workarounds in which you power the ballast straight from the battery which is the way to go IMO. That way there is less chance of ruining your stock wiring.

I'm not going to get into all the technical aspects since I have not read up on them in over 5 years. All I'm saying is that unless you can get OEM quality out of a kit, it is not worth the money for the potential problems you'll run into down the road. If I couldn't use OEM parts and do a full OEM conversion, the only way I would use a kit is if I could be certain the ballasts and bulbs were OEM quality, or very close to it. Argue with me all you want, but the fact is many kits fail due to cheap parts and no quality standard.

The glare issue is left to the eye of the beholder. Halogen housings are not made the same as HID housings (non projector) so there is more glare created. How bad the glare is depends on the housing itself.

http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=31997 Create an account and read up on conversion kits. There's a slough of information about them.
 

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Yes there are low quality HID kits. But like a said , the vendor on the Corvette site sells alot and backs up his product. Trust me, there is no one more anal then a Vette owner:D. I would trust his kit before an ebay one. Just cause of the customer service.

Yes, maybe I went to far on rerouting my DLRs, but just pull the fuse or relay and see what happens.

Like I said, I'll be installing a set shortly and I will post results
 

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Well i Installed My HID on My BU ... tomorow i will send you picture ... it's loook very good and no glare ...

My kit was a 50 Watts ( more than regular HID... brither then 35 Watts kit )

And i didn't get a SVS error because i plugged my hid direct on the original wire ...

The hard part on this project was to romoving bumber without broke the snap ...

Well Now My bu is the most beautifull :)
 

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most people in the cavalier world have an issue when they set the factory alarm the headlights blink...this causes the hid to burn out. I am not sure if the bu does it also keep a close eye on you wires and make sure they don't melt. also where did you mount your balist
 

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most people in the cavalier world have an issue when they set the factory alarm the headlights blink...this causes the hid to burn out. I am not sure if the bu does it also keep a close eye on you wires and make sure they don't melt. also where did you mount your balist
I believe you can disable the lights from flashing through the DIC.
 

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most people in the cavalier world have an issue when they set the factory alarm the headlights blink...this causes the hid to burn out. I am not sure if the bu does it also keep a close eye on you wires and make sure they don't melt. also where did you mount your balist
I think when u use the fob, its the parking lamps that flash and not the headlamps
 

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Discussion Starter · #13 ·
Well thanks for the responses, but I think you have all gone way over my head. All I really want is the halo's that are on the Camero can I get them for my malibu and where can I buy them?
 

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Well thanks for the responses, but I think you have all gone way over my head. All I really want is the halo's that are on the Camero can I get them for my malibu and where can I buy them?
Now those are nice. Here is a company I dealt with buying LED products. They sell universal sizes halos aka Angel Eyes
http://www.oznium.com/circle-ccfl

Now the only downfall is installation. You have to remove your headlamp assembly, then bake it in an oven to loosen up the adhesive that secures the lens to the housing. Can be done, but have to be very carefull, since so many things can go wrong.

Here is a write up on a guy doing it on a Scion
http://www.scionlife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=176590
 

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WWWOOOAAAAA. Dude, I am sorry but u are wrong on all counts. First let me clear up who I am. 33yrs old and just purchased a 09 2LT last week. Ive been a GM tech for 8yrs and have the training and experience to back it up. Yes you can convert to HIDs and you can do it for under $100. I have a supercharged 01 Corvette and spend alot of time on the Corvette forum. There is a vendor that sells HID conversion kits and he is well know over there and so u will not be getting some halfazz product.
Our Malibu's take a H11 bulb, here is the link to HID kits
http://shop.jwmotoring.com/product.sc?categoryId=2&productId=120

Remember H11 on the low beam and H9 for high beam. I don't recommend going to anything higher then 8000k. The higher you go up in that number the bluer/purplish it will look and ur light output will decrease, compared to a lower # like 6000k.

The headlamp housings in the malibu are reflector style. I have the same housing in my 04 Impala and been running HID kit in that for over a yr. No problems and no other drivers flashing or honking at me.

Another thing, HIDs run at a lower wattage and provide longer life then standard halogen. There is no element to burn out, its a igniting of gas inside the HID bulb that makes the light. Ur average HID bulb is rated at 10,000hrs, plus replacement HID bulbs are down to $15 each.

As for the daytime running light being the lowbeam. U can do two things. One, install the HID kits and they would run as DRLs, not bad , but would be using the 10,000hrs up. Or what I did is shift the DRLs to be the parking lights.

This is how. When the BCM turns on the DRLs, it grounds the circuit and provides 12v to the low beam right headlamp. What I did was take out the fuse box under hood and pull the connector out. 3 big ones. Then were the DRL circuit is crimped onto the low beam right headlamp terminal, I cut it there. NO YOU WILL NOT GET A SVS, I verified it. Now w/ the DRL wire cut from the low beam, you would just solder it onto the PARKING lamp wire. Then its back to normal, BCM ground DRL circuit and instead of feeding voltage to lowbeam it goes to PARKing lamps. Or you can run it to highbeams, or just cut it and not worry about DRL. The BCM is not going to notice a difference cause it just grounds the circuit.
Now w/ my parking lamps as the DRL, it is all the parking lamps, side markers and reartail lights. Not a big deal, cause on a somewhat cloudy day at least your butt is seen.

If anyone needs schematics or pics let me know:)


Hi. Would you happen to know how to adjust the factory fog lights on the 2009 LTZ? Thanks alot.
 

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Hi. Would you happen to know how to adjust the factory fog lights on the 2009 LTZ? Thanks alot.
From GMs service website

Important: Horizontal aim is not adjustable on this vehicle. Vertical aim is done by an adjusting nut located on the rear of the fog lamp. Prior to aiming the fog lamps, perform the following steps:

Completely assemble all of the components on the vehicle.
Place the vehicle on a level surface.
Stop all unnecessary operations or work that could affect the ride height of the vehicle.
Close the doors and verify that the luggage compartment is empty.
Stabilize the suspension by rocking the vehicle sideways.
Ensure that the fuel level is full.
Ensure that the tires are inflated to the proper pressure.
Ensure that the driver or a similar weight , approximately 75 kg (165 lb), is in the vehicle driver seat.
Aiming Procedure




Park the vehicle 7.6 m (25 ft) away from the target screen.
Measure from the center of the fog lamp to the ground line. Using this measurement, mark the horizontal centerline (2) of the fog lamp on the target screen directly in front of the vehicle.
Turn ON the fog lamps. The top of the fog lamp beam image (4) on the target screen should be 102 mm (4 in) below the center of the fog lamp lens height.
Adjust the fog lamp as required using the adjusting screw above the projector lens on the outside of the front bumper fascia.
Turn OFF the fog lamps.
 

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WWWOOOAAAAA. Dude, I am sorry but u are wrong on all counts. First let me clear up who I am. 33yrs old and just purchased a 09 2LT last week. Ive been a GM tech for 8yrs and have the training and experience to back it up. Yes you can convert to HIDs and you can do it for under $100. I have a supercharged 01 Corvette and spend alot of time on the Corvette forum. There is a vendor that sells HID conversion kits and he is well know over there and so u will not be getting some halfazz product.
Our Malibu's take a H11 bulb, here is the link to HID kits
http://shop.jwmotoring.com/product.sc?categoryId=2&productId=120

Remember H11 on the low beam and H9 for high beam. I don't recommend going to anything higher then 8000k. The higher you go up in that number the bluer/purplish it will look and ur light output will decrease, compared to a lower # like 6000k.

The headlamp housings in the malibu are reflector style. I have the same housing in my 04 Impala and been running HID kit in that for over a yr. No problems and no other drivers flashing or honking at me.

Another thing, HIDs run at a lower wattage and provide longer life then standard halogen. There is no element to burn out, its a igniting of gas inside the HID bulb that makes the light. Ur average HID bulb is rated at 10,000hrs, plus replacement HID bulbs are down to $15 each.

As for the daytime running light being the lowbeam. U can do two things. One, install the HID kits and they would run as DRLs, not bad , but would be using the 10,000hrs up. Or what I did is shift the DRLs to be the parking lights.

This is how. When the BCM turns on the DRLs, it grounds the circuit and provides 12v to the low beam right headlamp. What I did was take out the fuse box under hood and pull the connector out. 3 big ones. Then were the DRL circuit is crimped onto the low beam right headlamp terminal, I cut it there. NO YOU WILL NOT GET A SVS, I verified it. Now w/ the DRL wire cut from the low beam, you would just solder it onto the PARKING lamp wire. Then its back to normal, BCM ground DRL circuit and instead of feeding voltage to lowbeam it goes to PARKing lamps. Or you can run it to highbeams, or just cut it and not worry about DRL. The BCM is not going to notice a difference cause it just grounds the circuit.
Now w/ my parking lamps as the DRL, it is all the parking lamps, side markers and reartail lights. Not a big deal, cause on a somewhat cloudy day at least your butt is seen.

If anyone needs schematics or pics let me know:)
Hi. Thanks for your detailed post. Very well done but I still have couple questions.
1.) Is your re-wiring method working on my year 2000 malibu?
2.) How to locate the DRL wire?
3.) Can I just cut the DRL wire and NOT solder onto any lamp? If I do it this way, will I get SVS?
4.) What is BCM stand for?
 

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WWWOOOAAAAA. Dude, I am sorry but u are wrong on all counts. First let me clear up who I am. 33yrs old and just purchased a 09 2LT last week. Ive been a GM tech for 8yrs and have the training and experience to back it up. Yes you can convert to HIDs and you can do it for under $100. I have a supercharged 01 Corvette and spend alot of time on the Corvette forum. There is a vendor that sells HID conversion kits and he is well know over there and so u will not be getting some halfazz product.
Our Malibu's take a H11 bulb, here is the link to HID kits
http://shop.jwmotoring.com/product.sc?categoryId=2&productId=120

Remember H11 on the low beam and H9 for high beam. I don't recommend going to anything higher then 8000k. The higher you go up in that number the bluer/purplish it will look and ur light output will decrease, compared to a lower # like 6000k.

The headlamp housings in the malibu are reflector style. I have the same housing in my 04 Impala and been running HID kit in that for over a yr. No problems and no other drivers flashing or honking at me.

Another thing, HIDs run at a lower wattage and provide longer life then standard halogen. There is no element to burn out, its a igniting of gas inside the HID bulb that makes the light. Ur average HID bulb is rated at 10,000hrs, plus replacement HID bulbs are down to $15 each.

As for the daytime running light being the lowbeam. U can do two things. One, install the HID kits and they would run as DRLs, not bad , but would be using the 10,000hrs up. Or what I did is shift the DRLs to be the parking lights.

This is how. When the BCM turns on the DRLs, it grounds the circuit and provides 12v to the low beam right headlamp. What I did was take out the fuse box under hood and pull the connector out. 3 big ones. Then were the DRL circuit is crimped onto the low beam right headlamp terminal, I cut it there. NO YOU WILL NOT GET A SVS, I verified it. Now w/ the DRL wire cut from the low beam, you would just solder it onto the PARKING lamp wire. Then its back to normal, BCM ground DRL circuit and instead of feeding voltage to lowbeam it goes to PARKing lamps. Or you can run it to highbeams, or just cut it and not worry about DRL. The BCM is not going to notice a difference cause it just grounds the circuit.
Now w/ my parking lamps as the DRL, it is all the parking lamps, side markers and reartail lights. Not a big deal, cause on a somewhat cloudy day at least your butt is seen.

If anyone needs schematics or pics let me know:)
First off, big time congrats on your new 'bu. Use it in good health. Along other lines, how the he-- do I adjust the fogs on my '09 'bu? Thanks alot.
 
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