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Another 2010 Luxury Low Beam thread...

4K views 21 replies 9 participants last post by  Deef3 
#1 ·
Hi all, long time lurker here... We have a 2010 Carib Blue SRX Luxury that my wife drives primarily. It's been good for the most part... it doesn't have a lot of features but she loves the color and the way it looks, and overall is pretty practical, has a warranty, got it for a good price... you get the picture. No complaints, except for the low beams. We've had the car for nearly 3 years, and always have hated how crappy the low beams are in this car. I've replaced the bulbs once about a year ago with Sylvania Silverstars, and they improved marginally, but not that much. This year I finally decided to take another shot... did some research and found some people had moderate luck with HID conversion kits. I went the the KENSUN kit off of Amazon. It had great reviews, so figured I'd give it a shot; I also ordered the capacitors that are supposed to handle eliminating any electric issues (recommended by their support for the SRX). Installation was easy... I see many people say that you have to remove the bumper to replace the bulbs, however I had no trouble removing the airbox to get to the passenger side bulb, and for the driver's side you just pop off the fuse cover. No problemo there.... but a week later, a bulb goes out, and then the car is getting errors and goes into limp mode. Unplugging the kit fixes this. I emailed support, and they sent out all new ballasts and bulbs and capacitors.... same issue. They are at a loss of what else to do, besides trying the relay harness, but I'm going to hold on that until I can research further.

There are no DRL in our SRX (or at least, none I'm aware of), just the Auto headlight function that doesn't really give you an option to disable permanently... but please correct me if I'm wrong here. Is it possible that we need to upgrade the fuse to a higher amp? I could not find the fuse for low beams anywhere.... the manual states position 46 and 47. And of course there are no fuses in that position. Are there simply no fuses in this model for the low beams?? That would be surprising.... but I'm not seeing them anywhere, unless they are tied in with another fuse.

I've also tried a couple other H11 halogen bulbs (Phillips X-treme vision, their brightest model) to no prevail. None are really any brighter than the others, and if they are, it's just a little. Even the HIDs themselves were a little disappointing; it's almost as if there's not enough power going to the low beam sockets (which is why I asked about the fuse). They were certainly brighter, but again, marginally. I compared the lights to our other car (07 Saab 9-3 Aero w/ OEM HIDs), and it's like the SRX's aren't even on...and that's with the HIDs! My next attempt is to try hooking up an H9 bulb after "converting" it to fit..... I've read some have had success with this method.

Sorry for the long post, but I know I'm not alone and they are just so absurdly dim, I want to make sure I'm trying everything. It's been a good car overall, but I'd like the visibility at night to improve a bit for safety's sake.

The TLDR:
-headlights are dim... what has everyone else tried?
-reputable HID kit doesn't work... does that mean there are no options for HID conversions with this car?
-Where the HECK IS THE FUSE for the low beams?!?!
- Any luck with H9 bulb "conversions"?

Thanks!


Scott
 
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#2 ·
Hi Scott, I'm also on board with you regarding to inefficient low beams. I live in upstate New Youk in a rural community. Traveling at night is a challenge to say the least. I use the high beams when I can and they seem ok, not great compared to other vehicles that I've owned.

I'm looking for feedback from the forum as well as you are to see if there are alternative options out there that have improved their night visibility concerns.
 
#3 ·
Got the H9s in today and was able to modify it with a simple nail file. Unfortunately, they are no good, about the same amount of brightness. I'm really beginning to think this is mainly a power issue and has less to do with the bulb. That would explain why the HIDs weren't much brighter, and also probably why the ballasts blew out as well (due to being underpowered or not receiving a steady current).

I am no electrician, but would bumping up the fuse to a higher amperage send more power to the lights? I wouldn't think so but at this point I'm willing to try anything. And of course, I would need to find the damn fuse for the low beams first, which I've been unable to do. If anyone has ANY clue about the fuse for the low beams, please let me know.

If I have to reroute the high beams into the projectors, I'm going to do it and make them fit. I'm through with these crappy low beams.
 
#7 ·
Yeah I wouldn't think bumping the fuse up would change anything. So with a relay harness, it's pulling power straight from the battery... If my ballast blew from low or inconsistent power, it would make sense if that fixes it. Thanks for the info. I'll follow up after I try that out.
 
#10 ·
I would think you should be ok with just the harness, they do make a double relay harness which has one relay per headlight, that might be the better choice since the car will see two connected. Try unplugging both low beams and see if it gets any warning on the dash, I recall on mine one bulb blue and it never told me on the dash
 
#11 ·
I thinking the problem that you had the first time with the HIDs was because of the kit you used. Those kits usually are pretty hit or miss and don't have much if any quality control. If you buy a quality kit like from the retrofitsource you shouldn't have a problem (DDM tuning is hit or miss). I have a H11b (you need the "b" due to the orientation of the electrode) kit in my '13 srx and I haven't had any issues at all. Its much better than the halogens, but definitely not on par with OEM hids that you'll see. I have a relay kit in mine along with the error code eliminator capacitor.
 
#12 ·
As for quality kits, I think they are all pretty bad. I bought a kit from The Retrofit Source. Wasn't cheap but wasn't expensive. ($150) 1 bulb stopped lighting after 1 month. Plus the color of the 4300K kit was actually 6000K. I checked with my Nikon D3s camera shooting in RAW, easy to do. But could tell even before as they were WAY bluer than the stock. Not what you want when the high beam is a 3300K halogen, as it really makes the 6000K look blue. Sure the kids think the blue look is "cool" but I just wanted more light that matched the high beam so wife didn't ask, "Why are they so blue?"


Can't afford to have bulbs burning out in the middle of no where, as not safe, and I didn't trust the other bulb, so I pulled the kit and went with highest halogens I could find. Still REALLY bad on low (come on Caddy, really annoying that would went "looks of reflector" and then cheaped out with halogen bulb where it is NOT up to the job) but is better.

Lows are probably the worst part of the vehicle (followed by LARGE blind spot at C pillar). To bad it is also a safety issue slightly too, as they just do a terrible job compared to all other new cars. Just terrible. I know, they meet the DOT standards, but they just suck. And every other car must way exceed the DOT standard because, again, they just suck. And don't say I should have bought a Premum or Performace, I bought used and never test drove at night. How may people do? And Caddy is a "PREMIUM BRAND" so I should get premium lighting on ALL their vehicles. Hell, $20k Fords and Chevys have better lows.

Hey at least the lows are brighter than the lights in my 55 Chevy now. (That's not saying much).
 
#18 ·
UPDATE:

So I wound up ordering a relay harness kit and installed it last night. Was pretty easy: one wire hooks to the positive battery terminal, and the other to the ground, which is located close by in our cars. Everything tucks away pretty well with a few zip ties. I made sure I can still unhook the battery cover without anything getting snagged, so if I ever need my car serviced it won't get in the way. The only issue I had during installation and testing was that the relay switch would buzz extremely loud, but only when the car was on. I suppose this is once again due to the inconsistent signal that comes from the OEM low beam socket. I took one of the capacitors I had from my previous installation, and placed it in line between the low beam wire and the relay switch, and boom, no more cricket on steroids.

The verdict: So far, so good. The HIDs definitely aren't as bright as the ones on my SAAB, but are certainly an improvement over the Halogens. Not to mention, they look WAY better from outside the car, which is definitely part of the reason I wanted them in the first place.... this is a Cadillac, and the dim yellow low beams just look horrible, besides the fact that they provide hardly any light. Time will tell if they will blow out like before (so far I am 2 ballasts down from the previous install), but so far I'm not seeing any flickering whatsoever during driving. I'll give it another week and post back if things haven't changed.

In the future I may play around with different color bulbs (right now at 6000k, might shoot for 4300k next) to see if I can squeeze a bit more light out. Might even look into a more expensive kit (Phillips, etc) down the road, now that I know this works.

So for any forum dwellers that see this in the future, your best bet to improve the crappy luxury low beams is to:

-Buy an HID kit (read the reviews first, and talk with the vendor about your car). Obviously you get what you pay for... the Phillips kits are likely brighter and will last longer, but there are kits on Amazon with hundreds of positive reviews worth checking out if you're willing to compromise a bit.
-Buy a relay harness, which pulls power straight from the battery for the ballasts. The driver's side low beam connector will hook into the relay switch... you will need a warning canceller/capacitor in between this plug and the relay or there will be noises and probably other issues.
-Buy the capacitor mentioned above if it wasn't included.
 
#22 ·
Awesome, hope it works for ya. I've done a couple HID projector retrofits in my last couple cars, but these SRX headlights look like they would be a bear to open up (permaseal and whatnot). I'm going to try to add OEM xenon headlight housings to my SRX (have a used one on the way). Should be feasible with some wiring changes. I have the plug n play rebased H11 bulbs in mine now, but there is too much foreground light and I'd rather use OEM bulbs and ballasts.
 
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