[noltondyer]

It has been just over a year since I purchased my 2013 Volt Premiere Edition, and boy what a fun ride it has been. I have gone from 49,000 miles to just over 60,000 (my volt was used) and it is still running like its brand new. I have recently started down the road of tweaks and modifications to make my Volt even more unique than it already is.

I recently bit the bullet and purchased a 9006 55w 6000k Kensun HID kit. A relay harness was not needed, BUT warning cancellers/capacitors were needed to keep the lights from flickering and to keep the car from displaying a bulb error warning. The lights are a brilliant shade of white with almost no blue. There is just enough blue to make it look sleek and modern, but not to look aftermarket.


Buying both of the products together will (at least at the time of writing this post) give you a 50% discount on the capacitors. The light kits are very high quality, and I highly recommend.

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I am currently working on a project to add LED strips to the tops of the headlight assemblies. I have purchased the strips, and a dimmer, seeing as the light strip I purchased is extremely bright.

I will keep this thread updated with the progress on this project. I am wiring the LED strips into the parking lights, so they will illuminate when the remote start function is activated. For the positive connection, I am tapped into the yellow wire with a white stripe in it on the driver side turn signal, this is the positive wire for the parking lamp. For the ground, I am just tapping into one of the many grounding blocks under the hood. I will post pictures once the lights arrive, but I have already gotten the wiring ready, and have tested everything to make sure it functions properly.

 

[colchiro]

Instead of a dimmer, you could simply wire the left and right strips in series, which would get you 6 volts on each strip.

 

[noltondyer]

I did think about something like that, but I wanted a bit more control over the brightness of the strip.

 

[DMC5180]

Instead of a dimmer, you could simply wire the left and right strips in series, which would get you 6 volts on each strip.

It doesn't work like that with LED's. You need a PWM (pulse width modulation) dimmer. Superbright sells a simple inline unit for $6.95 (I think) . You must run the Plus 12 and Ground return through the dimmer unit. You can hook the 2 light strips in parallel and get away with one dimmer. Or you use two dimmers but you will need to manually eye ball sync them to match each other. Once you've adjusted the light level to your liking your done. It will stay at that level regardless of how many times the lights are turned on and off.
You can always change the level any time you feel like at the controller though.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Marty]

It doesn't work like that with LED's. You need a PWM (pulse width modulation) dimmer.

Aha! So that's it! My Valentine One gave occasional false laser alarms when a car with eyelid LEDs was in view. I fixed it with a tiny strip of Wratten 35C filter over the sensor which blocks visible light but passes IR. I figured it was something in the 200 Hz rep rate range of lidar, that's probably about where the dimmers operate.

 

[Raymondjram]

Thw warning cancellers you mentioned are not "capacitors" but resistors. The BCM that controls all the interior and exterior lights need to sense a certain amount of current to accept the LEDs. If the current is low, it believes that a bulb has burned out. I have upgraded all (100%) of my bulbs and lamps to LED in my 2009 Chevy Equinox, yet I needed the load resistors in parallel to the LEds for the turn/emergency lights.

I bought all of them in one kit from Formula-J87: http://formulaj87.com/

 

[turboguy327]

The 55w HID kit will damage your headlights, just a heads up. They are $250 a side to replace.

I'd highly recommend sending that kit back and buying a good quality 35W kit. You will also want to use the relay harness to give the ballasts good, clean power and a good ground.

 

[Mister Dave]

I am currently working on a project to add LED strips to the tops of the headlight assemblies. I have purchased the strips, and a dimmer, seeing as the light strip I purchased is extremely bright.

I will keep this thread updated with the progress on this project. I am wiring the LED strips into the parking lights, so they will illuminate when the remote start function is activated. For the positive connection, I am tapped into the yellow wire with a white stripe in it on the driver side turn signal, this is the positive wire for the parking lamp. For the ground, I am just tapping into one of the many grounding blocks under the hood. I will post pictures once the lights arrive, but I have already gotten the wiring ready, and have tested everything to make sure it functions properly.

You may find this thread helpful: http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread.php?120922-Alpena-LED-headlight-mod-my-way

 

[noltondyer]

Wow thank you so much. Instead of the resistor, I may wire the dimmer into the circuit where the resistor is so I can adjust it to my liking. The dimmer stays at it's set position even after being power cycled.

 

[noltondyer]

The wattage actually does not make much of a difference with the temperature. The main risk with temperature is the Kelvin. (Color Tempeture compares to ambient tempeture) a 35W 8000K bulb will burn hotter than a 55W 5000K bulb. So running the 55W 6000K bulb isn't a risk when it comes to the lenses.

 

[Mister Dave]

Wow thank you so much. Instead of the resistor, I may wire the dimmer into the circuit where the resistor is so I can adjust it to my liking. The dimmer stays at it's set position even after being power cycled.

Welcome. After finding the brightness you like you could measure the pot and swap it out with a resistor of the closest value. Likely that pot will corrode over time. It's on a car after all.