After market HID kit ballasts

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Seems everyone has trouble with these regardless of what brand kit they buy. Is the price the problem, that no one sells one as good as OEM? Thanks.
 
Originally Posted By: ffhdriver
Seems everyone has trouble with these regardless of what brand kit they buy. Is the price the problem, that no one sells one as good as OEM? Thanks.


In short, the answer is yes. This equipment is designed and manufactured to be sold at very low cost and not to any durability/quality targets. At least not to levels set in targets established by an OEM.
 
I have projector housings retrofitted into my fogs, run them as DRLs for well over a year now, so they have accumulated some hours on them DDM ballasts. no failures yet.
 
The price for Morimoto ballasts is $115 for a set, I don't think that's expensive at all considering what your getting.
Morimoto aftermarket ballasts are extremely reliable and warrantied as such. See theretrofitsource.com
They are completely waterproof (not just potted) and their fit and function is comparable to OEM.
Personally, I think they are the closest to OEM that you can currently get. The three top hid retrofit shops in NY and the two top ones around here, use only Morimoto or OEM ballasts, that says something.
I've gone the cheap Chinese made ballast route, threw them out within an hour of install....
The Morimotos I replaced them with have about 3 years of solid reliable start ups on them.
grin.gif

I'd suggest checking out the site above and looking at the specs of the ballasts, their quite impressive.
So no, I don't think price is the problem at all. At $115 the ballasts are by far the cheapest part in my retrofit.
 
I agree, if it's a cheap kit with rebased HID bulbs designed to plug into the halogen socket in reflector headlights.
The end result is an all encompassing alien death glare that blinds everyone.
However, if an OEM/aftermarket projector is retrofitted into the headlight professionally, the end result in fit and function, is very hard to distinguish from OEM.
 
Originally Posted By: skyactiv
No one has any business tossing in a HID kit in a headlight housing designed for halogen bulbs.
http://xtremerevolution.net/are-hid-kits-legal-or-safe/


Really? You make such an absurd statement, at a forum populated with engineers? And, you expect it to be taken as truth. Let's deal with facts, not conjecture. Headlight output can be measured accurately. There are some of us, who can do this. There are also some HID bulbs that are properly configured to limit output in certain applications.

For example: An 35W, 4300K, H1 HID kit in a Jaguar X-Type halogen projector low beam WILL NOT exceed ANY headlight output regulations and the installation meets all the requirements of FMVSS No. 108. The design of the projector (reflects only 1/2 of the light produced) and then has a mechanical cutoff device that cuts lumens again in half, results in a 3000 lumen bulb with an "out the front" output of about 700 lumens! Right in line with FMVSS No. 108. Nor are there any areas in the beam pattern that exceed federal regulations. It retains the sharp cutoff required, the color temperature required, and will not illuminate a rear view mirror with more than 7 Lux.

We can go on and on if you'd like.
 
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Of course, but this was designed by the auto manufacturer and not by somebody in his garage.

Yes, there are examples of HID without projectors but those were all specifically designed for such an application. Older Acura being one such case.
 
Its not about lumen's, its about how a particular bulb design dissipates light and the type of housing needed to project that output forward (or focus the output). Further more the "cutoff" is not about "reducing lumen's" its about focusing usable lumen's in the correct place.

to answer the OP's question ,I have ALWAYS had good luck with over 20 kits from DDM tuning.
 
Does this kits have auto leveling sensor? Aftermarket kits are ilegal in Europe last few years because they lack that sensor.
 
not any kit that I have purchased....but than I was not asking about E-code compliance.
 
Just watched an hid kit installed on wheeler dealers on 94 Lexus ls400 pretty flagrant if it's illegal to televise it and show new owner.
 
Originally Posted By: purelux
Just watched an hid kit installed on wheeler dealers on 94 Lexus ls400 pretty flagrant if it's illegal to televise it and show new owner.


Yikes. You obviously didn't notice what country that was filmed in.
 
The TRS (morrimoto) parts are all pretty good, they have very good import parts all the way up to OEM take off parts depending on how much you want to spend.

If you want cheap, DDM are OK, I've got a few sets of their ballasts that have lasted several years. Their bulbs are not the best but not the worst, they do seem to care about quality with the focus on price. Ebay kits tend to be garbage.

Like others have said, HID plug in kits in standard housings are not the best, especially in the low beam sockets, they throw light in all the wrong places and tend to make other drivers angry. The proper way to do it is to retrofit a set of projector housings into the assembly and use the proper bulbs.
 
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