They are? Their site still has everything HID related still on it.
2000UZJ's big HID thread - what, where and how (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter 2000UZJ
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They are? Their site still has everything HID related still on it.
- Thread starter
- #582
Well, little over a year and here are a few observations.
Cold ignite-
-Seems to take a few seconds (around 15) to get to full brightness and color to be white, otherwise they are VERY blue.
- They have a little "jumpy-ness" but never fail to start on first try (not really noticeable unless your outside looking at them, they go through stages of brightness every 2-3 seconds, I guess that is normal?)
- Never had a issue with any of the components on a cold start (Summer heat all the way to single digit)
Driving-
- Bright as hell, which is good.
- some hot spots in the halogen reflectors but doesn't bother me.
- Cutoff is
, it's about as good as it will get with a stock halogen housing.
- Have not been flashed (to my knowledge) 1+ year after installation.
Component Quality-
- this is my first and only HID kit I have ever bought or seen upclose. So I'll make fair opinions.
. .Ballasts= Very well built, 1+ year under my hood is quite a achieve meant for something that dangles by a ziptie and sticky tape. They have sat under the hood running (headlights on) for hours in the summer heat while sitting still on trails with no airflow. Never failed to ignite HID bulbs, warm up with no noticeable issues (actually quicker than my friends 8K eBay kit that he paid 200 bucks for, same time I bought my 29.99 DDM kit). Not sure if DDM said they were waterproof and all that but I will say... They sure seem to be waterproof and shock proof. All the seals (which I thought were a little cheesy with the snap together things, thought those would heat up and become brittle plastic garbage) are very water/dust tight (picture below).
HID Bulb-
Haven't seen many aftermarket HID bulbs, but so far no hazing or heat stress on the tip of the bulb. They do get a little warm after running for a bit (headlight glass is warm to touch after running them for 30 minutes in 65* weather). I put my halogen headlight back in to see the difference in light output and was very obvious. Cutoff, surprisingly is about the same. HID has a tiny bit more scattered light but like above, I have not been flashed or any complaints since I put them in. Which I was not expecting.
Overall, a year later I like them. I was not expecting them to last this long, maybe 6 months max under a hood of a LC. I actually drove for quite some time with the ballast bouncing around by the airbox, my zip tie broke and when at Durhamtown I kept hearing a bang from the engine bay. I opened it up and the ballast was swinging around and hitting the inner fender. I guess I could get some brackets.
If you like light, and want to improve your light output for cheap... get the HID's. Best cheap mod I have done to my 100 in 11 years (besides remove all the crappy plastic add on stuff)
Cold ignite-
-Seems to take a few seconds (around 15) to get to full brightness and color to be white, otherwise they are VERY blue.
- They have a little "jumpy-ness" but never fail to start on first try (not really noticeable unless your outside looking at them, they go through stages of brightness every 2-3 seconds, I guess that is normal?)
- Never had a issue with any of the components on a cold start (Summer heat all the way to single digit)
Driving-
- Bright as hell, which is good.
- some hot spots in the halogen reflectors but doesn't bother me.
- Cutoff is
, it's about as good as it will get with a stock halogen housing. - Have not been flashed (to my knowledge) 1+ year after installation.
Component Quality-
- this is my first and only HID kit I have ever bought or seen upclose. So I'll make fair opinions.
. .Ballasts= Very well built, 1+ year under my hood is quite a achieve meant for something that dangles by a ziptie and sticky tape. They have sat under the hood running (headlights on) for hours in the summer heat while sitting still on trails with no airflow. Never failed to ignite HID bulbs, warm up with no noticeable issues (actually quicker than my friends 8K eBay kit that he paid 200 bucks for, same time I bought my 29.99 DDM kit). Not sure if DDM said they were waterproof and all that but I will say... They sure seem to be waterproof and shock proof. All the seals (which I thought were a little cheesy with the snap together things, thought those would heat up and become brittle plastic garbage) are very water/dust tight (picture below).
HID Bulb-
Haven't seen many aftermarket HID bulbs, but so far no hazing or heat stress on the tip of the bulb. They do get a little warm after running for a bit (headlight glass is warm to touch after running them for 30 minutes in 65* weather). I put my halogen headlight back in to see the difference in light output and was very obvious. Cutoff, surprisingly is about the same. HID has a tiny bit more scattered light but like above, I have not been flashed or any complaints since I put them in. Which I was not expecting.
Overall, a year later I like them. I was not expecting them to last this long, maybe 6 months max under a hood of a LC. I actually drove for quite some time with the ballast bouncing around by the airbox, my zip tie broke and when at Durhamtown I kept hearing a bang from the engine bay. I opened it up and the ballast was swinging around and hitting the inner fender. I guess I could get some brackets.
If you like light, and want to improve your light output for cheap... get the HID's. Best cheap mod I have done to my 100 in 11 years (besides remove all the crappy plastic add on stuff)
Last edited:
FullyLitLED
Supporting Vendor
change the fuse to a 30a(replace your 25a), solved my problems! Does not make sense as to why it did, but it works
Are you talking about the fuse in the relay harness?
LJ - You may have had a bad fuse, but it is not wise to upsize the fuse. I would just go with a new 25Amp. You may burn your wiring, if it is not 10 gauge (rated for 30A).
One more thing that I wanted to post was more detail to my mounting location. I used the brackets from DDM and zip tied my ballasts to them, both vertically and horizontally, and then drilled and mounted the brackets to the front corners of the engine compartment. See the photo of the passenger side. I tried to get one of the driver's side, but the battery was in the way.
One more thing that I wanted to post was more detail to my mounting location. I used the brackets from DDM and zip tied my ballasts to them, both vertically and horizontally, and then drilled and mounted the brackets to the front corners of the engine compartment. See the photo of the passenger side. I tried to get one of the driver's side, but the battery was in the way.
Trunk Monkey
Moderator
Hate to say, but the issue probably is that they're $40 lights. I've got them too, but I keep bulbs in the glove box waiting.
FullyLitLED
Supporting Vendor
Yes, to keep it safe, you can just keep a spare 25A fuse in your glove box just in case you burn them over and over again
Good point! Just experimenting to see if it works
I was considering putting HID's in these projector housings...
1998-2005 TOYOTA LAND CRUISER LED PROJECTOR HEADLIGHTS - eBay (item 190510634826 end time Apr-08-11 17:25:01 PDT)
any good?
If you feel like you MUST have projectors then get some BMW or S2000 projectors off of ebay, pick a shroud for the projector (again, BMW and/or S2000 are most popular) then open up your OEM lights and mount the projectors inside them.
Well I finally got around to ordering a set of these today. I wanted the 55w kit though with the slim ballast and the website only gives me the option for 35w. I have tried calling twice and keep getting a voicemail(I did leave a message a few hours ago). I was also going to order some of the led bulbs for the dome's also but I'm hesistant to order anything off of their website until I speak to someone. Anybody order from them recently and have the same experience?
- Thread starter
- #590
Don't order any LED's for the 100. Wait a week and I will let you know what I have.
I might order a set of these and mount them in my stock '98-'02 headlights. I plan on marking the beam pattern of a newer LR3 on teh wall with tape and using that as a guide to properly aim the headlights.
Bi-xenon: Morimoto Mini (D2S) - HID Projectors from The Retrofit Source Inc
here is a pic of a LC with the projectors installed.
Bi-xenon: Morimoto Mini (D2S) - HID Projectors from The Retrofit Source Inc
here is a pic of a LC with the projectors installed.
Trunk Monkey
Moderator
So I'm guessing you have to hack up the back of the housing to fit those in?
I'd use a circular bit and slightly trim as necessary.
I recently ordered mine. Did all of my ordering from the website, but did follow up when my wiring harness did not come in with the rest of the stuff. I did get their voice mail once and ended up calling them back. The second time I got a live person who was extremely helpful. My harness was on back order and they shipped the same day I called.
I would recommend calling them back.
)I originally put in a 35W DDM kit in the headlights with harness and then added a 35W DDM kit to the fogs.
At first I was impressed with the increased light output but I had a couple ballasts go bad (would flicker or not start, etc.), they interfered with my radio reception and got tired of chasing issues. I was on the verge of ripping it all out and then as a last shot I replaced the DDM ballasts in the headlights with a couple of used Matsu****a OEM ballasts.
You need to get some adapters to use the ballasts with the DDM bulbs and harness but the first thing I noticed was they fire up almost immediately, they are apparently potted and you can add a little liquid electrical tape to the connectors for extra water resistance. Also, they didn't interfere with my radio reception. I managed to find a second set and then replaced the fog ballasts also.
To date I've been much happier using the Matsu****a ballasts. They are OEM and made in Japan and so far have proved much more reliable. You can get adapters on e-bay but I've noticed that the prices of the ballasts themselves vary widely from $50 each to over $200. I ended up paying under $100 a pair for mine.
At first I was impressed with the increased light output but I had a couple ballasts go bad (would flicker or not start, etc.), they interfered with my radio reception and got tired of chasing issues. I was on the verge of ripping it all out and then as a last shot I replaced the DDM ballasts in the headlights with a couple of used Matsu****a OEM ballasts.
You need to get some adapters to use the ballasts with the DDM bulbs and harness but the first thing I noticed was they fire up almost immediately, they are apparently potted and you can add a little liquid electrical tape to the connectors for extra water resistance. Also, they didn't interfere with my radio reception. I managed to find a second set and then replaced the fog ballasts also.
To date I've been much happier using the Matsu****a ballasts. They are OEM and made in Japan and so far have proved much more reliable. You can get adapters on e-bay but I've noticed that the prices of the ballasts themselves vary widely from $50 each to over $200. I ended up paying under $100 a pair for mine.
Were they Toyota / Lexus ones? The only ones I see a ton of on ebay are Nissan ones. Would be very interested in seeing pictures of your ballast and the adapts please.
Also curious, what did you search for the adapters? What are they called? Thanks.
Two things that I thought I would add:
1. Typically, heat can be dealt with if the ballast are firmly mounted to the vehicle's sheet metal, allowing for the ballast to sink away the built up heat. I mounted mine to the engine compartment's inner wall in the front most corners to get it as far away from the engine as I could. I have seen several mount them behind the corner lights - great location.. I could not figure out how to drill this location out and get my holes lined up correctly.
2. Typically, noise from the ballasts can be a symptom of bad or not so great grounding. This is true for a lot of electronics. Larger wires and direct grounding can help.
1. Typically, heat can be dealt with if the ballast are firmly mounted to the vehicle's sheet metal, allowing for the ballast to sink away the built up heat. I mounted mine to the engine compartment's inner wall in the front most corners to get it as far away from the engine as I could. I have seen several mount them behind the corner lights - great location.. I could not figure out how to drill this location out and get my holes lined up correctly.
2. Typically, noise from the ballasts can be a symptom of bad or not so great grounding. This is true for a lot of electronics. Larger wires and direct grounding can help.
I'm using the Nissan ones. I'll try to take a pic for you but they are all mounted up so it may not be too visible.
Basically you need a power plug adapter such as this:
Matsushita HID Ballast Power Plugs Harness 9005/9006 - eBay (item 380169859548 end time Apr-13-11 01:23:20 PDT)
If your Nissan ballasts have igniters, you can get new igniters with after marker bulb connectors or I think you can get adapters for the Nissan igniters.
I didn't buy stuff from here, but this is basically my setup (Nissan ballast, power adapter to 9006 and igniter with connectors for after market HID bulbs):
Nissan 350Z Murano Maxima OEM Xenon HID BALLAST IGNITER - eBay (item 170504456522 end time Mar-20-11 18:03:04 PDT)
Basically you need a power plug adapter such as this:
Matsushita HID Ballast Power Plugs Harness 9005/9006 - eBay (item 380169859548 end time Apr-13-11 01:23:20 PDT)
If your Nissan ballasts have igniters, you can get new igniters with after marker bulb connectors or I think you can get adapters for the Nissan igniters.
I didn't buy stuff from here, but this is basically my setup (Nissan ballast, power adapter to 9006 and igniter with connectors for after market HID bulbs):
Nissan 350Z Murano Maxima OEM Xenon HID BALLAST IGNITER - eBay (item 170504456522 end time Mar-20-11 18:03:04 PDT)
Cool thanks for the links, going to try the wiring harness this weekend since I already have it. But may look into OEM quality ballast if that doesnt help.
