New owner, 2019 Luxury with roof

Barvic · Feb 25, 2019

Hi folks, brand new owner in western Canada. Traded our 15 Soul SX+ for this so new to the EV world. We loved the 15 with so many features and my wife so appreciates the size and internal capacity it was natural simply to do this side grade. That 15 was flawless.

The headlights are awful compared. Went for a nice drive tonight and three sets of deer did not illuminate until within about 100’. The old soul had HIDs and our Audi does too, so this is quite the difference. That is the biggest concern I have right now. I do miss the really adjustable driver seat on this Soul, I am taller and wish I could rake it more. Miss the sub up front for the deeper richer overall sound of the stereo, that’s really petty I know.

Any ides folks?

I look forward to growing with this car and enjoying the gas-less lifestyle.

Cheers, Bruce in Victoria.

Kish · Feb 25, 2019

Unfortunately, you can't do anything about the seat adjustability or the missing subwoofer.

However, you can replace the front headlight low beam (and high beam) halogens for HIDs and they make a huge difference in both light color and brightness. I have 5000K HIDs and would never go back to the dim, yellow factory halogens. Do note that installing HIDs in the Soul EV is a bit tricky as it requires a more advanced HID controller (e.g. more $$) that work with the car's CANBUS system, plus drilling a hole in the lens cap/dust cover to fit the HID bulb in there. If you get those cheap HID kits off Amazon/Ebay, the HID ballast will fail to ignite 50% of the time and you may be stuck driving at night with no headlights. Enjoy your new EV, Bruce!

greenteam84 · Feb 26, 2019

Where can I buy high quality HID lights?

notfred · Feb 27, 2019

There's a writeup of an install of HIDs in the modifications forum:
http://www.mykiasoulev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=681

Barvic · Mar 3, 2019

Thanks guys, as it is brand new and my wife’s car I will not do the hid custom fit. What about a hid swap that the SX has, anyone tried that?

I did read about better bulbs. Recommendations?

Also, what about raising the front of the seat attachment points with aven a couple washers? I would worry about stress and integrity with g forces in an accident....

Cheers, 360 Kim’s now.

Bruce

mariano3113 · Mar 13, 2019

I used these bulb holder adapters:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01J5SCQ1I/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_T5DICbVW9RY2F

W/LED Bulbs to replace Low beam halogens in the projectors.

I used these LED bulbs as they were $9.37 on sale when I ordered.
Globled H7 200W 20000LM LED Headlight Bulb Conversion Kit 6000k Canbus with 1 Year Warranty (HG-D2-H7) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0787V3L7S/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_DmEICbYJWAANS

***Spoiler blurry images...probably should have used a manual camera app to compensate for the light***

I had to distinguish correct +/- spades when plugging them in and also stuff the wiring & connectors into the housing so that everything fit snugly. (No cutting and I can swap standard Halogens back in without worry)

The beam pattern seams to be clearer and brighter.(road signs are easier to read and the cutoff line is much sharper) Lighting distance seems to be about the same except LED bulbs are more uniform and less of a hotspot...which is weird since it is the same projector.

-Although I did change the rotation of the LED bulbs in the holder to get better uniformity in the projected output.

Rotating the Silver H7 ring as there are several notches you can use to adjust/rotate bulb.

I plan on running higher wattage Halogens for the high-beams since they not normally run for long duration. (Car can only travel so far between charges.)

I have some for the Fog lights, but have been reluctant to change those yet...waiting for a bulb to fail.