Aftermarket hid's, what fails?
- Thread starter budsang1
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I have had 4 DDM 55W kits , two for my Impala and I've run two kits through this car.
All four harnesses did this.
I'm glad I had my ventilation turned on and was able to smell the smoke early enough to pull over and open the waterproof box I have setup for my relay/fuse for the HIDs..
Someone said that it's the cheap-o fuse that they send the relay harnesses out with.
I don't know.. but the next kit I get will likely be through the retrofit source.
All four harnesses did this.
I'm glad I had my ventilation turned on and was able to smell the smoke early enough to pull over and open the waterproof box I have setup for my relay/fuse for the HIDs..
Someone said that it's the cheap-o fuse that they send the relay harnesses out with.
I don't know.. but the next kit I get will likely be through the retrofit source.
TRS has much, much higher quality kits, and are 3 times the price of DDM.
And DDM kits seem to be hit or miss. Like Mook said, some people run them for years w/o issue, others fail quickly. But, at the end of the day, it's a $50 kit for a part that costs several hundred from an OEM supplier. What did you expect?
And DDM kits seem to be hit or miss. Like Mook said, some people run them for years w/o issue, others fail quickly. But, at the end of the day, it's a $50 kit for a part that costs several hundred from an OEM supplier. What did you expect?
I just did a hid retrofit conversion on my mustang. I went with the morimoto ballasts and bulbs from theretrofitsource.com. Since it is a newer vehicle you might need a relay harness for the hid kit. TRS sells that as well. That is a must have IMO and theirs is plug and play. Also some newer vehicles need a extra inline resistor to keep the hids from flickering but the relay harness and a good ground seems to fix most of em. Could be your ballast just took a shit though.
I have had 4 DDM 55W kits , two for my Impala and I've run two kits through this car.
All four harnesses did this.
I'm glad I had my ventilation turned on and was able to smell the smoke early enough to pull over and open the waterproof box I have setup for my relay/fuse for the HIDs..
Someone said that it's the cheap-o fuse that they send the relay harnesses out with.
I don't know.. but the next kit I get will likely be through the retrofit source.
Theretrofitsource is the best relay I've seen (and I've seen a lot). I have two of them sitting in my tool box waiting to go on my Silvy. You had some really bad shorting or maybe even arcing and I wouldn't even think about upgrading your relay, just do it. Also get rid of the 55w system and stick with a 35w system, chances are you cars wiring isn't designed for the extra wattage and you had a shitstorm of problems that all surfaced at once. Bad ballast, cheap relay all going bad at once = shitstorm.
Turn the lights off, count to three, turn them back on. If that doesn't work turn on your high beams (flash to pass) and see if the lows fire up. I know it sounds stupid and it is but my SS did the same thing with brand new correctly run HIDs and every so often I had to do that to fight off the gremlin in the wiring. If you don't have a DRL killer you're on borrowed time and you might as well start ordering HID kits in bulk, you'll be replacing them quite often. If it's just a cold ignite problem it's pseudo normal but if it continues you'll need a new ballast.
If you want help installing an HID kit let me know, I could probably do a TBSS blindfolded.
I have had 4 DDM 55W kits , two for my Impala and I've run two kits through this car.
All four harnesses did this.
I'm glad I had my ventilation turned on and was able to smell the smoke early enough to pull over and open the waterproof box I have setup for my relay/fuse for the HIDs..
Someone said that it's the cheap-o fuse that they send the relay harnesses out with.
I don't know.. but the next kit I get will likely be through the retrofit source.
Whoops, I glazed over the 55W part. That is definitely user error.
And [MENTION=117]Slow Buick[/MENTION] gets dickbag of the day award for running 55W HID's in halogen housings.
55w kits are marginally brighter than 35w kits and definitely not worth the extra voltage and heat in the OEM wiring. Multiply 35w and 55w by 3 and that's what you have at initial fire up at the ballast, I metered my 35w kit at 92 for almost a full second which doesn't sound like much but it adds up when you think of how many times your lights will be turned on and off and is the exact reason you need a good quality relay harness that's connected correctly or just stay away from HIDs all together. And not all halogen housings cause that blinding glare that people cry about all the time, if you're truly being blinded then you lack the basic common sense to not look directly at the light. No one stares at the sun or peers mercilessly at a 40w bulb in a lamp on the nightstand and then curses someone out do they?
Is 92 watts a lot? 92 / 12 = 7.67 amps(and theoretically less if the system is running up closer to 14v)
In comparison, a standard Halogen low-beam 9006 bulb is typically 55w each, or 110 watts total. There's no extra voltage running through the factory harness, and the different in current is negligible. In fact, the main reason for a good relay kit is to make sure the ballasts have enough initial current to ignite the bulbs...Otherwise you have issues where only one bulb will turn on...But that's a reliability issue, not a safety issue.
His setup melted because the contacts either corroded or water got in there and started shorting it out. The fan wiring on my Mustang I had when I was 18 would do the same thing. The blades of the inline fuse would corrode and the whole fuse/holder setup would melt. (BTW, you'd shit if you knew how much current one of those popular Ford Taurus fans pulls on initial startup)
My eyes are really sensitive to light and react slowly to changing light amounts. I have zero problem driving at night around cars that use OEM designed and NTHSA approved headlights, but the glare from people using HID's in halogen housings is both blinding and painful, even looking as far away from them as safely possible.
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