Now I'm wondering if I've had really bad luck with kits or if something is wrong with my car. I know it's long but explains a lot, I need help and opinions.

Original kit was a 10,000k one from HIDextra. I went through a lot of bulbs and ballast because of all the issues. Bulbs sometimes wouldn't turn on, or only one would. Shut off while driving. The would fade color and get yellow around them. Bulbs would burn out often. I actually had a set of bulbs not just burn out but actually break while I was driving, I got home took the bulb out and the only thing keeping it together was the wire through it. I only kept the kit for about 7 months including all the changing of parts, I figured it was because it was a cheap priced kit so I threw it out and bought a new set.

The new kit was a Meng slim ballast 10,000k. As soon as the kit was installed one bulb blew out immediately. Received 2 new bulbs and ballast wouldn't work if it was touching metal, but if i had it hanging out of the engine bay it would work. I was sent 2 new ballast. finally had a working kit. Few dats later the kit shut off while driving. The relay blew the fuse and kept blowing them until I put a 35 one and noticed one bulb had burnt out. Sent the kit back to be tested.

I was told everything but 1 ballast worked, possibly caused by faulty relay. I was sent a regular non slim kit and installed without a relay. Everything was fine until a month later when they started to flicker. then 1 light lowered to about 6,000k. The both then matched at around 8,000k and got some yellow around them. sometimes 1 or neither would light up and required a few on/off cycles for both to work. Both bulbs became barely visible on the ground. Was told the reason for many on/off cycles could be a battery issue not giving enough power on start up to ballast but doubt it since I bought the car new 2 years ago new.

Received an upgraded V.2 kit today. Installed it with the relay. On start up both lit up but passenger shut off almost instantly. Turned it off and on and the driver was now off and passenger on. on/off again and they worked. While running some errands at night I've had to do quite a few on/off cycles to get both bulbs to be on.



So once again is it bad luck with the kits and should try another company? (opinions on what to try) Or some sort issue with my car that should be checked out? (opinions on what it could be). Not saying anything bad about either company, especially Meng they have been extremely helpful. Just don't understand why I can't get a kit to work for more than a month or so. Help???

 

Is there anyway to bypass any factory wiring and only use the wiring that came with kit and use an on/off toggle inside the cab? If that works fine then its ether the way you’re wiring it or your factory wiring harness has some issues.

 

Try getting your battery and voltage tested while the car is running, If you only see the startup flash (23Kv) and then nothing, it could be shorting out somewhere or there is a gap/fault in the wiring. Try turning the headlights on with the car off and listen for any high voltage arcing. What style headlights do you have? 05'-07' or 08'+ projectors?

Take a look here for high quality aftermarket PNP HID systems. Sure the price is 3x as much.

 

But you get what you pay for. I haven't had a single issue since I bought a quality kit.

 

When I bought my XB RS3.0, I also bought a hi/low 5300k HID kit, a wire harness and heavy duty relays. The wire harness was connected to the battery then to the HID kit.

I installed it right about the time I bought the car and never had any problems with it. But this kit was no $50 eBay special. I paid around $375 for the whole setup and it worked perfect.

I sold the car but still have the kit and harness for it. I have been contemplating on selling the kit but haven't decided yet as I really don't have any use for it now.

 

r2d2michael- I'm not sure if I can do something like that

DigitalPro- I have projectors, I'm thinking of having the battery tested but haven't since its
years old I kinda figured that wouldn't be the cause. From the other times I have tried the Meng kit with and without the relay I only hear a sound when I have the relay installed. I wanted that Morimoto kit but they don't have 10,000k and I'm kinda set on that. $150 for it is not too bad, the Meng one was around $120 so the money wouldn't be the issue its just not the right color bulb I'm looking for.

Jon-I thought the Meng one was a quality kit since everyone has great reviews about it but I've had nothing but issues. I'm not blaming them they are a great company with great customer service, I just don't know if I'm being unlucky with my kits or if it is an issue with my car.

PIMPmyPride-What exactly is the harness you are talking about?

 

It looks like this in the pic below.



Description:
Relay harness for direct connection between the ballast and the battery so that the HID conversion kit draws power directly from the battery. A 30A relay box is included.


PIMPmyPride-What exactly is the harness you are talking about?[/QUOTE]

 

10k? Isnt that illegal? Also whats the point? Maybe stop wasting all this money on HID's and do a retrofit with real quality stuff or stick with some decent halogen bulbs.

 

Get a retrofit and get a quality kit.

 

PIMPmyPride- that looks like a typically relay harness. I've been using one.

Highvoltage1- every HID set is illegal because it didn't come factory installed. 10,000k would make it more illegal because they are blue but I haven't had any issues with the police here in Las Vegas or anywhere in California. Haven't spent too much because all I have bought were the 2 kits, every other part has been warranty replacement. Don't want to get halogen bulbs that's why I was asking if anybody had any idea what was going on because nobody else seems to have had as much trouble. What retrofit would I be able to do? I have a 2010 so I already have the projectors, the projector retrofit is the only one I'm familiar with.

XIEmporerIX-what retrofit? and in your opinion what would be a quality kit? Everybody swears by the Meng ones but I have only had problems with it.

 

Check out retrofitsource.com. I wouldn't use anybody else as far as retrofits and HID's go.

 

i recently just bought Meng V.2 6000k last week. i had the same problem ur having..one of the bulbs kept switching on and off..sometimes both! then i replace the bulbs with the old ddm bulbs with V.2 ballasts. they work fine! so i talked Meng and theyre shipping me a new bulb set.

 

if you want a quality kit, that has NEVER failed on me and includes a lifetime warranty (no hassles), you should try ddmtuning HID kits.

Look them up, nothing but good reviews. they also have a lifetime warranty on their bulbs. 55w kit is around 50$

 

I have heard nothing but good reviews from DDMtuning. I ordered the ebay special kits for my car and also for my wifes car. 5 kits total.

My H3 kit for the fogs are the worst. they light up when they want. Sometimes neither will come one and sometimes only one but once they are on they stay on till I turn them off. Its really odd. I can't figure it out. Both mine and my wife have had some issues with the low beam bulbs also but not nearly as often as the H3's, The really bad part is that when mine don't work, no matter what you do they will not come on. I have to fiddle with them unplugging them and trying different ballasts and all. Finally they will work but I can't pinpoint what the issue is because once I get them to work they will work with all the old parts also.

Very odd, I will probably be returning all of them here soon and getting the ddm kits.

PS they are Xentec brand HID's

 

dmm tuning has bad customer service! the kit i bought from them one bulb was brighter than the other one. and i tried to call them and i sent them 3 email messages including the pictures...but they never respond back!!

 

XIEmporerIX- they sell the Morimoto kit which doesn't go up to 10,000k

NaH- that's what is happening right now and takes about 5 or 6 on/off cycles to get them on. They actually sent me the 6,000k when I waited for about a month for the replacement set so they could send me 10,000k. So it was kind of upsetting to get a kit not working properly and get the wrong bulbs. I'm going to try them with some old bulbs and the new bulbs with old ballasts. If that works then I might just ask for my money back because I keep getting to many parts that go bad fast or come bad. I have also heard of the bad customer service from DDM, Meng has really great customer service which I really appreciate I've just had too many issues with the kits.

mrjtang- I'm a little uneasy about getting kits that cost that much, like I said I've actually had bulbs from HIDextra (which cost that much) break inside the headlight housing.

TheMuffinMan00-basically everyone has issues with any bought on ebay. there are a few people though that have never had issues. ebay kits are just really low quality. My friend bought 10,000k off ebay and they look like 6,000k but barely light up the road.

 

c500129 its prob the bulbs. cuz that happened to mine too. right now im waiting on the new set of bulbs Meng is shipping...i currently have ddm bulbs with Meng V.2 ballasts and theyre running fine.

 

DDM has awesome customer service if you do it right. A simple phone call got a friend a completely new kit overnighted!

Never had a single problem out of my DDM kit, 5 other friends (vehicles vary from audi s4 to lexus is300) haven't either. The one vehicle that had a problem (and had replacements shipped to him) was a miata, and it was a faulty ballast.

Great product, AWESOME price, great customer service.



Also...a 10k kit WILL barely light up the road...even when working properly. Any kelvin over 5k will begin to go into the blue/purple color range, which doesn't actually help you see at night.

 

I have had similar issues with my HID kit also. First kit I had was off eBay from XENTEC 6000K which was ok in the first month but then the bulbs started to flicker which annoyed me. Not long ago I went to mod-express.com and bought the XTC SLIM HID Conversion Kit for $85 if I'm not wrong. One of the ballasts came broken but I was sent a new one a week later. They both worked but then another ballast was broken. I had been through 3 ballasts but I decided to get 2 new ones at the same time through the one year warranty. Rob from Mod-Express is very good with customer service and will be glad to help you out. I switched to the 08-10 projectors on my 06 tC and I hope the HID kit will work perfectly fine once everything comes in.

 

The reason why The Retrofit Source doesn't have 10,000k lights is because they strive to have the best and legit quality anywhere. If you email them they will guide you to get the best quality they can get you within your price range.

Also, just because you have projectors does not mean that HIDs go with your car. HID projectors have different optics that distributes the lighting differently and correctly compared to a regular projector.

My advice is to spend a bit of time researching retrofits and go with something of great quality the first time.