What goes into a quality HID harness?

[Maven]

What goes into a custom relay harness?
Have you ever thought about that..
Have you ever asked some of the other retrofitters and lighting suppliers that commonly service our community? Or better yet do those other guys even offer custom harnesses and can they tell you what goes into them?
Have you ever seen pictures of a harness, the parts that make it up or production of one on the forums?..................wonder why?


Heres what goes into a custom Maven relay harness.

High quality American made 14-18 gauge XLPE wire. Not the typical "hookup" wire you find at a store, meets GM specs for wiring and even feels physically different than the much more common and cheaper PVC and nylon insulated wires, noticeable is the much tougher, higher temp resistant and thinner jacket. This allows for thinner lighter weight harnesses that are easier to hide, are more heat and abrasion resistant and are made to same standards(or higher!) as your factory wiring

Skirted and sealed mini relays. Fully weather sealed, OEM quality, and actually designed for underhood use. No worries of relay ingesting water, or other moisture. 30-40amp properly sized to handle the load of HID ballasts, no tiny 10amp relays.

Factory Delphi/Packard electrical connectors and terminals: The exact same GM OEM connectors, seals, locks and terminals as used on your car. This means the same durability and quality as stock, it also means the new harness looks like it belongs in your car.

All terminals crimped with OEM tools, AND soldered for improved connections, this is above and beyond OEM. All splices soldered AND sealed with adhesive lined OEM type heat shrink. No crappy quick connect bullet connectors, low tension crimps, or wires twisted and taped together. Just OEM Delphi/Packard terminals and the best Kester44 solder.

All harnesses wrapped with abrasion resistant tape or loomed in conduit. No ♠♠♠♠ty Harbor Freight Chinese electrical tape to get gooey and slide around. The best and OEM specified Coroplast and/or 3M tapes, and 300degree rated conduit. A more OEM appearance, less prone to chafing/damage.

All harnesses fused with highest quality OEM (BUSS or Littlefuse)fuses and sealed fuse holders, using same ATM stlye fuses that work with your car. No open to the elements or wrapped in tape fuse holders to collect moisture and corrosion, no low quality fuses that dont blow at proper rating (Google: Harbor Freight fuse or, chinese fuse recall) no having to buy different kind of fuses for your lights and the car.
Harnesses made with our cars in mind No generic harness made by the lowest bidder in China who has never even seen a real Cobalt, but harnesses custom made by a factory trained, award winning, enthusiast who loves these cars as much as you do. Designed to look like they belong, perform as well or better than original,last as long as original, be serviced with readily available parts, and not require any hacking, slashing splicing or swearing to install

Custom Cobalt headlight/highbeam shutter harness:


Ballast relay harness, Cobalt:


Soldered terminals:


All connections treated with high quality dielectric compound to avoid corrosion from both the environment and fretting motion:

What happens to exact same connector after just weeks with no protection:


This is the kind of crap that passes for a harness from a relatively well known retrofit "specialist":


The inside of that super common Chinese relay harness available from other HID suppliers and all over Ebay, how do you sell to power 16amps worth of ballasts and only use a 10amp relay?:





So ask your retrofitter or HID supplier for pics of their harnesses, ask what they build their harnesses from, ask if their harness is held to these standards......you may not like the responses you get.

[emperorjj1]

interesting... and whats an approx on price?

[Maven]

depends on what you need? Just relay harness, relay and high beam......and if your buying lights or just a harness. But the basic range is $50-$125.

[emperorjj1]

esh thats sorta seep but then again not. i highly doubt ill ever pay out to get hids thou. bc i require something like this quality and its not cheap

(i want to retrofit D2S projectors/bulbs into my gen1s, repair the leds i added, quality relay harness/headlight harness, new headlight lens)

[Maven]

I know you know there's differences in wires and terminals and connectors. The cheap stuff is just that, cheap. It works, usually, for a while at least. But its not durable, its not spec'd properly, and it isn't built with any care or proper techniques. I'll post some other comparison pics I've taken of my stuff versus the offshore stuff. The differences are very obvious and rather shocking, even to someone who doesn't understand automotive electrics or wiring at all.

[emperorjj1]

right... well when i get to that point we'll talk. might just pay for the whole dealio. then ud see my shit soldering techniques

[cobalt123]

i myself want to swap my projectors in my 3 out for better ones but the PITA of my cars headlights just to get them out keeping me from it lol

[emperorjj1]

ya i feel u on that. one of the guys at the shop did hids on a mazda 3 sedan a while back.... fuck that shit

[Maven]

Alright as promised, took some comparison photos of my stuff versus common off the shelf harnesses.

Thought id just post some shots of the stuff I use to build harnesses (and retrofits), quality tools help yield quality results.

Quality parts: Delphi and Molex terminals and Delphi/Packard connectors:

Always American made cross-linked insulation wire with at least 125C/257F temp rating



Now a few comparison shots of a common overseas harness, and my work

Ballast connections, overseas harness. Lack of weatherseals visible:


Side by side, top and bottom of ballast connection terminals. Lack of seals, poor crimps, misshapen terminals are visible on the overseas harness( Dont get excited by the huge difference in size in the overseas wire.....youll see why soon )


Overseas 14gauge ballast terminal and wire section. My 14gauge ballast connection and wire section. Non soldered terminals, poor crimps, lack of weatherseal, all obvious. BUT their wire still looks bigger, is bigger better?


Heres what the two section of wire look like after less than 30 seconds exposure to a heat gun:


The red wire is "my" TXL wire, its better than some of the wiring in your car, the orange wire is the overseas "beefy" wire. It looked nice and big and protective before.....but literally a few seconds of heat in excess of 200 degrees just destroyed it. Another 15 seconds it probably wouldve caught fire. Notice it was so soft it actually flowed out onto the table. The TXL wire only just barely started to lighten in color, and otherwise unaffected.

Think it gets 200degrees under your hood? Are you sure the wire in your overseas harness is up to that task? Maybe you should ask the supplier if it is. You probably wont like their answer.

[emperorjj1]

can you shoot me an e-mail to @gmail.com