Hey guys,
First post on this forum. Just wanted to share my experience with the DDM HID kit and LED turn signals I just installed.

I have a 2010 Lariat, and have had Eagle Eye CCFL Projector headlights installed for a while. I decided recently to upgrade my bulbs. I installed a 35w, 6000k DDM slim ballast kit. I was a little apprehensive bc it seems like I read a lot of horror stories on here about tough instals or HIDs not working/firing properly. I found the install to be a breeze, and it was my first HID install ever. Everything went exactly like the instal guide from DDM. The headlights I have use H7 bulbs for the lows. I had to drill the dust cover on the back of the housing, but it worked out great. Overall the headlights look amazing, and everything works properly. I only did the lows, and got a hyper-white bulb for the highs since I don't really use them much.

For the turn signals, I ordered a decent pair of switchback LED signals from eBay, the 'type 2' ones. They were like $40 shipped. The bulb was a direct replacement, but I had to install resistors to defeat the 'fast flash'. Through trial and error I found that the resistors had to be spliced into the black(ground) wire and the yellow(turn function) wire, NOT the purple middle wire. I used tap-in splice connectors and it was easy. The LED signals look great, they are super bright, are amber when flashing and hyper white the rest of the time.

The one thing I'm not happy about is that my fogs don't match in color to the HID's at all. The LED turn signal bulbs match great when in parking light mode, so that's cool, but the fogs just don't come close. I have mid-priced 6000k halogen bulbs in there, but they don't cut it. I don't want to get HID fogs, anyone have suggestions for a H10 bulb that matches 6000k HID's?

Overall, everything was simple. I'm not sure why it seems like so many people have problems. Sorry I don't have pics for now, but if anyone has any questions, let me know and I'll do my best to answer. I also recently opened the headlights with a heat gun to tint the Amber reflector, and that was easy too. One more thing: I also changed all of my interior bulbs and my license plate bulbs to LEDs from DDM and they look awesome. Super white and bright. A cheap and simple, but cool mod.

 

You will have nothing but troubles as those are NOT true projectors. They are not designed for HID lights, only halogen bulbs with halogen type reflectors. Save your $$ and do a real projector retrofit to have it right.

 

Thank you sam for the free lesson!

 

Yeah you aren't going to have very good output by putting illegal HIDs in a halogen projector.

Halogens will NEVER match HIDs. Your "6000K" halogens are more like 4200-4300K. And even some HIDs don't match eachother due to manufacturing processes. I know my Morimoto 5000Ks look like 4300K DDMs. But don't put HIDs in fog lights- you will be blinding the **** out of other drivers.

 

Yeah I have no plans to put HID's in the fogs. Just thought I could get a bulb to match slightly better. As for the HID's in my projectors, they seem to be working well. I'm not sure of the differences between a HID projector and Halogen projector, or what 'illegal" HID's are, but mine seem to have greatly improved my light output, with a nice cutoff. It's definately not like I put HID's in a regular halogen housing.

 

Yeah they definately are not that bad as putting them in reflectors. But basically- if your truck did not come with HIDs, they are illegal. H7 is a halogen bulb, so a H7-based HID means its a Chinese knockoff. Halogens dont have great output so thir projectors seems to be more "focused" towards the center in that they don't have great spread. So compared to HID projectors, you will have severe hot-spotting up front which will hurt your down-the-road vision and also impact your high beams negatively.

Just be careful with them, I've been seeing quite a few vehicles catch on fire with those things. I wouldn't trust something made in China that costs $30 to handle 20,000 volts of AC current.

 

OK thanks, I installed a relay too so they can't overheat the factory wiring, and it's just the 35w kit. I'll keep an eye on them for melting, etc. They do seem to cast good light at night though.

I appreciate the actual info, rather than just "you'll have lots of trouble!" I'm new to THIS forum, not new to cars or forums!

 

OK here's the cutoff patern. Pic taken on my phone so it's not great. Honestly, the lights came out great and are way better than before I had HID's. The light pattern is full and focused, with a better cutoff than I've ever had.

 

I'd be happy with that!

 

As 'Raptor' pointed out, HID bulbs are illegal to use on the highway unless they are factory or installed in a projector designed for HID bulbs...It's a glare issue for on-coming traffic. As pointed out, it's not the factory wiring to watch out for (I see you did a harness with relays) it's the cheap chinese ballasts carrying all that current you need to watch out for and no relay will prevent problems if they short out internally. As for your sarcastic comment, I am 65 and made a living on these things for many years myself.

 

Sorry for the sarcasm, I just found it funny that after getting a lot of info from this forum, I joined to write a nice post about my experience with them so far, and how they seem to be working great, and the first comment I get is a negative one about troubles i'm going to have. I can go back to the Audi forum for condescending comments. I did my research, and after carefully and properly installing them, was careful to aim them properly, and make sure they actually do improve my light output and that I was not just excited about them bc they're HIDs. And I have a friend who installed DDM HID kits in several different kinds of vehicles with no issues.

Sincere question: in technical terms, why do you guys think my projectors are not suitable for HID? I'm not aware of the differences between HID projectors vs. halogen projectors, and I thought projectors were designed for HIDs. They seem to be creating a very focused beam pattern, and give me much greater visability, enough that I was able to aim them lower than I had my headlights before going to HID. In fact, my pattern looks very similar to Raptors in his picture.

 

What do your headlights look like and where did you get them?

 

It's these, but I got them from another seller about a year ago.

Look for Eagle Eyes as the manufacturer, or 'CCFL' when searching, that seems to separate the better ones from the lower quality ones, IMO, which usually just say 'halo'. The CCFL rings are much brighter. I'll try to post pics of them on my truck. I also opened them up and smoked out the amber reflector. I know a lot of people don't like these style lights for our trucks, but I think they look and function great, and for me are working well with HIDs in the low beam.

 

The difference between mine is your is focal plane and available candlepower. Yours are really narrow where as mine are wide. I can light up an 8-lane interstate with my lights. If you look in my signature, I am aimed on an aircraft hangar that is about 100 feet wide, and even then, the beam extends past both walls. Your beam appears to only be 25-30 ft wide. My high beams (bi-xenon) will light up visually down to about a half mile.

Halogens only have around 1000-1200 lumens, so a halogen projector focuses more light towards the center, to have so much candlepower. Since HIDs have 2-3x the lumen output (2800-3000lm), the beam is spread wider to maintain that candlepower. When you put those 2-3000lm of HID in the narrow beam of a halogen projector, you are creating so much foreground light that the cutoff will act as a laser of sorts in that when someone is under your cutoff (hill, bump, etc), you are going to blind the **** out of them. Another drawback is high-beams. When it comes to down-the-road lighting, you want as much light as possible being thrown at a minimum 400 yds down the road. When you have 3000 lumens sitting in front of you, your retinas are going to focus on that, which negates the whole idea of a high-beam system. This is why cars with OEM foglights will kill them when you switch to high beams, as well as some models killing the low-beam bulb as well.

But this is all just school talk. Right now yours are at least being controlled versus being in a halogen reflector, so you've got no bad rap from me. The only downside is for you that you are limiting yourself in terms of light output.

And don't kid yourself when you think you got better quality ones. They all come from one single factory in China. The manufacturer sells different variations/designs to different sellers who slap their own label on them. The ones are eBay for $150 are the same ones you linked to that are $299 and those are the same ones that Recon sells for $400+. So as far as build quality goes- the lenses will begin to fade/oxidize within a year, the CCFLs will die within that year due to cold solder joints and overall poor quality items, and the reflective material in the projectors (which is really nothing but a focusing lens in front of a reflector from what I saw in the last one I tore down) will crack and lose output over time. So all in all, just find one that is the cheapest since most people replace them after a while anyways.

 

First I want to say that I've browsed the forum a lot, and read your posts here and I respect your level of knowledge, including on the subject of HIDs. I wanted the 'school talk.' The technical info you gave me above is great. I can see why your headlights are better. My point is that mine are now a definite upgrade over stock, and as far as I can tell, not blinding anyone. I drive an average of 2 hrs one way for work, mostly at night, and I even had a friend drive ahead of me for a while tonight to let me know if my headlights were a danger, And he said no. Granted, he was not oncoming at any point. I'm happy with my setup, and also acknowledge that better setups exist.

As far as cheap lights, I get the china disapproval, and realize that many 'manufacturers' carry the same headlight with their own label on it. I was referring to mine being better than stuff like this. I've owned mine for literally 26 months now and they are holding up well, no fading, CCFLs are still bright, etc. Maybe I got lucky. I can only speak to my own experience.

Anyway, like I said, you obviously know your stuff. Thanks for sharing. I just wanted to share my experience with my setup, which has been positive so far. That's what forums are for. I still have my stock housings, maybe ill retrofit them one day too!