OK, I've read every post ever posted about HID's. I know what I want, but I need a recommendation on which company to buy from. I hate mail-order because I like to look before I buy, but with HID's that's not an option.

I would like to know who's the BEST supplier out there. Reliable, ship on time, been around a while, send what you ordered and HONEST. Price isn't really a concern.

I see people buying from all these different companies, with comments like "well, it didn't work", "one bulb was bad", "the bulbs don't fit", "I can't listen to my radio", etc, but then thy say "but it wasn't a problem, they sent me new parts/replaced the kit/told me how to fix it/I can live with it. etc." To me, that's a problem. It seems that everybody is all over the map on these companies.

This is for a 2007 F150 (2008/H13), either L/B only or Hi/Low, not a deal-breaker.

I need a consensus of opinions from people that have actually BOUGHT the kits and got HIGH-QUALITY, trouble-free stuff.

Your PERSONAL experience would be greatly appreciated.

 

I bought from Retro-solutions and couldnt be happier.

Ordered two sets (1 headlights/1 foglight). Bought the fogs about 4-5 months after the initial headlights because i was in love!!

I had one issue after the bulbs burn-in period of being a little discolored but all was rectified by Todd and i am happy as a clam! Fogs were never a problem and have had them both on for a little over a year now. What i experienced can happen with any bulb you get from anyone and i took that as a chance when switching to HID.

The headlights are "bi-xenon" allowing me to give that little F-you at night when I get flashed (which is rare but it happens, happened with stock lights even) or for the move out of my way Mr. 30-in-a-45 ....
Ive never used the high beam feature for any back-road driving the regular beam suffices imo.

Oh BTW ... best part of all ... LIFETIME warranty on the entire kits
Hope it helps, Peace!

 

Funny you should mention them. They were the ones that I almost pushed "buy" from, but then I saw other people having "trouble" with them. That's the problem.....everybody seems to have trouble with every company out there.

There was one company (don't remember their name off-hand) that was new and promoting their HIDs, and everybody seemed to be happy with the guy that was our contact, then one day he was "no longer with the company" and a Michelle-somebody took over. That's the kind of stuff that makes me worry. They were Chinese-based.

I'm AM leaning toward Retro-Solutions. How was their shipping and billing? It doesn't look like it by their website, but are they another one of 100 Chinese re-packagers? I don't want to get a $1,000 debit on my card and get a box of packing peanuts. Ya, I'm paranoid.

Thanks for the response. I might push the button tonight.

I just have a hard time trusting anybody out there.

 

As far as i can tell i would say they are the best (another company i almost bought from but it wasnt a digital ballast which is why i went with Todd).
The packaging was OUSTANDING!! I CANT SAY ANYTHING MORE. They come in a friggin metal briefcase! LOL. Excellent packaging i had no worries of either set being damaged. They are very well packaged.

The bulb itself is wrapped in styrofoam(sp) with a plastic "cup" its sitting in. and everything well sorted out in individual sections/compartments of the box.

The first set i ordered took about a week to get to me which was okay i guess for coming halfway across the country.
The second set only took like 2 days no joke! ordered mid morning and it had to have gone out with USPS that night because it was to my door so quickly.

Like i said tho ... 4 lights only one issue. and that was nothing to do with anything other than the nature of the bulb. Been a year now and all good.

If your surfing forums Todd Thanks and excellent product.

FYI he had a group buy set up let me check and see if i can find his email/group buy site for you before you order.
email them if you have questions, i know i bugged the hell out of him before i ordered. sales@retro-solutions.com

Heres the email from Todd last year about group buy (has a pic of packaging on page as well)
There are two sites. one to the group buy another for the bambi mod (fogs w/ high beam on)

"On Jul 23, 2008, at 9:56 PM, Todd Strong wrote:

Eric-

Just use this link here:
http://www.retro-solutions.com/f150onlineGB.html

When you order that way you will have to order each kit separately. There is also a one time coupon code "f150online" as well.

The recommendation here would be to do the 55w H13 bixenon 6000k for the headlamps and the 35w H10/9145 6000k for the fogs.

Then there is this neat little trick to separate the fog light and high beam wiring:
http://www.landstromsfoundry.com/Tec...Foglights.html

Let me know if you have any questions!

Todd Strong - Retro-Solutions, LLC

We strive very hard for 100% customer satisfaction before, during,and after sale. As much as we would like to know each customer's wants and needs personally we find it difficult to keep up with all of you! Please be kind and attach previous text for reference in email strings so that we better assist you."

 

i get my kits off of ebay..pretty cheap but good quality and they are still going strong for 10 months now..if a bulb or ballast goes, its 35 bucks for a new pair. but every place is diiff.. they are bright as hell. people flash me there brights alot. i dont got the dual for the headlights. i put them in myself with a little research on the wiring and it went good. also installed them in my bros 2007 shelby and he luvs them.i bought from 3 diff sellers and they were all pretty good. matter of fact, when i ordered diff collor bulbs with the ballast for my fogs, i didnt get it when i was suppose to and i contacted the seller. therefore we thought the 1st kit was misplaced therefore he sent out another kit. the outcome was the 1st kit was late and i still got the 2nd. i made out good on the deal.lol.

 

I just ordered a set from DDM TUNING after seeing all the orders these guys have placed.....
I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

NICE truck, Anthony!

 

I went with McCulloch HIDS for my headlights and foglights. Bi-Xenon headlights and regular fogs. They were a little pricey but of good quality. The bi-xenon heads were on sale for 40 dollars off. I also got 20% off of the website I ordered from using a coupon code, so that was a plus. I got them from ultrabrightlights . com. Pretty simple install and I didn't have any problems. Pluged them in and was good to go. I feel they were worth the money.

 

Apparently you haven't read every post out there on HID's, then. HID kits are all built in the same type of Chinese warehouses. There is no quality control in their construction. So, just as you mentioned, every company has problems. Some work and some don't. Don't spend a lot of money on any kits, just find the cheapest kit with a lifetime warranty and the customer service to follow through on the warranty.

They're all Chinese products, products made outside China are too expensive to resell to end users. If they say they aren't Chinese made, then stay away because they're lying.

Again, they're all Chinese. No ifs ands or buts about it. Just find the cheapest kit out there with a lifetime warranty against failure, they will all fail at some point.

On top of this, no matter what the company advertises, every kit out there is illegal everywhere in Canada and the USA and most other countries. No, you probably won't get pulled over because the cops are just as confused on the topic as everyone else.

One more thing, if a kit is advertised as "digital", it's a sales gimmick. Absolutely none of the ballasts out there; including OEM ones such as Hella, Matsu****a, Mitsubishi, etc; are computer controlled. The only way to stop radio interference and the such, is to better shield the ignitor. That costs money and is a quality control issue, that none of the makers want to spend money on.

It's your choice, I'm not trying to tell you not to, but there is another side to the topic that kit makers don't want you to hear about. It loses them money. Just contemplate the legal and quality issues before you hit the "Buy" button.

 

I get mine off ebay too the brand is VVME just like he said if a bulb or ballast breaks a new set is only 35 bucks. I run the 6000k H1s in my Hella 4000 offroad lights and have had 1 bulb go bad. So I just bought a new set so I have spare bulbs and ballasts encase another one goes out.

My friends have had just about the same luck with the VVME brand they said 1 out of 4 usually has a defective part in the kit.

 

Im calling BS on that one. I have cheapo ebay HIDs and they still work after 2 years of mud, rain etc. I had radio static with them so I switched the ballasts to Retro-Solutions "digital" ballasts. Voila, no static. Thats a direct A to B replacement. Might not be digital controlled, but they advertise no radio static and they aren't lying. Some makers out there do have a high quality product compared to the rest, and I can vouche for that with first hand experience...

Secondly, a lot of the cheaper kits dont come with a proper relay harness. This means you must plug the ballasts into the stock wiring...which cannot support the voltage requirements to ignite the ballasts and the ballasts die a month or two old. Quality vendors supply you with the proper harness, and warranty it.

And FYI, a majority of imported products are assembled in China, quality or not. Not everything from China is a piece of trash, its just cheaper labor. The quality control is where it goes bad, and the parts that the companies chooses to use to make up their products. Its all part of economics.

 

It's not BS, but believe what you want. I'm just telling the other side of the story and don't particularly care if anyone believes me or not. I've got nothing to lose whether you believe me or not. I never claimed that the static wouldn't go away, I just said the "digital" part is a lie. Why would a cheap ballast that costs 1/5th of the price of a OEM ballast have a computer chip controlling them if the OEM ones don't? The OEM ones have a <.1% failure rate, the cheap ones you guys are talking about in here, by your own admissions, have a failure rate of approximately 25% (1 in 4 mentioned above). You can't really believe that cheap companies are putting higher class electronics inside their products than those that the vehicle companies are putting in their cars?

I also stated that some will last and others won't, it's not like OEM where 99.9% of their products last for at least 5 years and usually longer. Again, 25% failure rate means only 75% of their products last. If you don't have to use the lifetime warranty, great. If you do, at least you had it to protect yourself from product failure.

The radio frequency interference (RFI), you are describing, doesn't come from an analog or digital ballast, it comes from the AC electrical current running through the ignitor and then through the high voltage wires. If those wires/ignitor are not properly shielded, you will have problems with RFI. That's why D1S systems (that have the ignitor attached to the back of the bulb) and certain OEM D2S ballasts (like the Matsu****a OEM one I use, that has the ignitor connecting to the back of the bulb) don't suffer from RFI. So, the kit companies spend a bit more and shield it properly and then claim digital. The end user doesn't know any different and they've charged you more for basically the same product.

That's not really got anything to do with quality. Anybody can make a relay setup for their vehicle and all kits should use one to protect the stock wiring. If it's going to cost me an extra $25 for a relay, I'll tell them to stuff it and make my own for $3. If they include it in the cost, great. It just tells me they actually put forth the effort to make sure I don't burn out the stock wiring and actually, maybe, care about their customer's vehicles. Not really quality, more customer satisfaction (which is important in itself).

I agree with you. Not everything that comes from China is crap. When it comes to ballasts, though, you need a fair bit of quality control to keep your failure rates down. Hella makes their ballasts in Germany, Matsu****a and Mitsubishi are out of Japan. It's funny how none of the OEM ballast makers are building their products in China.

Again, I'm not bashing you if you bought a kit or a "digital" product. I'm just saying the other side that nobody ever hears. Oh, and the maker that keeps getting net nanny'd out is Matsush.ita, without the period.

 

I went with Xenonlink myself. One of the biggest things that put me over the top with them was their customer service both here online and on the phone as well. They even gave away 5 free kits so that people could see how good their product was and every review was very good on them.

I spent about 30 minutes on the phone with their representative and he answered every question honestly and thoroughly. I felt very confident at the end of the conversation and he sent a paypal request to me. I paid it, and 2 days later they showed up at my door.

I went with the Hi/Lo kit which is a bit cheaper than the Bi-Xenon kit as in TX we only need brights for inspection so as long as they work you will pass. You can be very sure you will be happy with their service and product.

 

Is there anyone on here that has had a problem with their DDM TUNING HID's?
Like the radio interference? Or any other issues?

What's my next step if I install this and have RI?

This is all GREEK to me so I'm trying to educate myself. THX! :o

 

I went with KENSUN kits.. good products and come with 2 year warrenty off Amazon.com. They have fast response customer service and they shipped me a free LED interoir dome light for giving them a 5 star rating. I installed it wrong and thought it was a bad bulb, but after a short talk with customer service i switched the boxes around and it was fixed. they shipped me a replacement ballist incase something happens in the future. I think i paid 62$ for the kit.

 

Retro-Solutions here. Installed on my
2005 F-150 FX4
my wife's 2009 Ford Edge SEL
2007 Ford Explorer
2004 GTP

No issues at all!