The ballasts are attached to the flat portion of the car's body just under where the turn signals are. I should have taken a picture, but I was really wanting to get everything installed before it got dark. They're also the slim ballasts, so if you have the huge boxes, they won't fit under there.

I toyed with the idea of darker or black housings, but didn't like the results against the black car and the chrome helps break it all up. I've got to put the eyelids back on there, so that will change it some too.

EDIT: I meant to add that the relay is mounted on the passenger side behind that headlight and that the power source for the relay was taken from the fuse block up near the firewall. If you unbolt the box, there's a large red w/ black stripe (IIRC) wire that carries 12v+ when the key is in any position, that's the power source I used. Each ground wire is bolted to the ground distribution block underneath each headlight.

Why don't these have the usual slanting up to the right light that H4 halogens have, for lighting high up street signs to the right?

It does (see attached picture with red arrows). The car is so close to the garage, about 1.5 car lengths, that the slant is not as pronounced. I think the slant for halogens and projectors are also different.

No, Euro halogen low beams typically have faint light in the pattern I drew in green:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1295988938

My stock 2000 has it with stock halogen bulbs on low beam.

Like this:

http://www.members.shaw.ca/trust.no....tternClose.jpg

Looks like your light pattern is DOT, the above is Euro.

Thread discussion here:
http://www.nastyz28.com/forum/showpo...0&postcount=14

The rationale of the Euro pattern is to produce this on the road:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...raffic.svg.png

DOT vs Euro low beam comparo.

Left is Euro, right is DOT

http://tychl.txf.com/europerf/highre...0right%202.JPG

Green area lights up road straight ahead while minimizing blinding oncoming drivers.
Red area (faint) lights up street signs up and to the right and pedestrians to the right.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1295989968

More.

Euro:
http://www.dirte30.com/dirte30/docs/headlightaim/5.png

DOT:
http://www.dirte30.com/dirte30/docs/headlightaim/6.png

The Euro pattern is known to be better at reducing glare for oncoming drivers.

Good grief, how hard would it have been to hit "Edit"? lol

I see what you're saying now, these projectors are definitely not the Euro cutoff, but they are able to light up street signs (or anything else) up and off to the right just fine as is. I don't believe the chart with the "glare" comparisons, with projectors made for HID use, the cutoff is extremely sharp and as long as the oncoming driver's eyes are below that line, all they see is light coming from the car. There is no unusual beam or glare hitting them in the face.

I don't recall my '99 or my g/f's '00 having the Euro cutoff stock either, but the lighting just sucks so all I knew is that I wanted to change it and paid no attention to it.

*edit* Also looks like in your picture posted above (attached with an edit) that you would actually be casting light above the cutoff line on the left side. That's no good. That would be in oncoming driver's faces.

So that particular beam pattern is an imperfect implementation of the Euro pattern.

Some interesting comments about what situations E-codes are better than DOT and vice versa:
http://forums.audiworld.com/showthre...ad.php?t=41004

Sounds like DOT is better in the rain, but E-codes are better for dark twisty backroad bombing when it's not raining. Having said that, if said backroads are empty you would use hi beams.

Hey it looks like the shield in your pic is what produces the low beam pattern. It should be a simple matter of modifying the shield. See the pattern of the little diagonal step up then flat again?:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5288/...22be47ce_z.jpg

BTW thanks for a great DIY thread.

Yep, that is the shield that creates the cutoff, it is pulled down out of the way to create the high beam. It's also curved but I don't have a picture looking straight down on it. You could probably either modify it or just create your own shield to get the desired effect. Probably some trial and error and lots of test fitting.

BTW I realized you don't have high beam pattern photos... ?

Nope, haven't had the time to take the car out in the evening to find a good large wall and shoot some pictures. I will though.

i'm doing/did the same retrofit with the same exact parts. i have the harness from TRS. I asked on cr.net where i could get power from and you have the answer right here for me ... only thing is, i looked in the place you said to look for this red w/black stripe wire and there are two of them (well i took a quick look, i didnt remove anything since its getting dark already and i cant really see).

Did you splice into the wire?

If you're seeing 2 of the red w/ black stripe wires, you're probably looking under the relay pack (next to the fuse block). I didn't tap into any of those wires, but you can check those in the various key positions with a voltmeter and use one of them if they're easier to get to for you.

I tapped into the wire with no cutting. Pull the sheath back, open the center of the wire and loop the HID relay harness' 12+ wire through and around it. A little solder if you'd like, although it's a strong connection if you can't. Cover it and you're done.

So today I took some time out of my day off to unbolt the fuse box and look under. I saw two wires that have black in red ... one is red with a black stripe while the other is black with a red stripe. Which one did you solder too? I don't have a voltemeter so I wouldn't be able to check that way

Thanks for your help btw

hmm, I was looking on the TRS and thinking hard about picking these up and ditching my 01+ conversion