DDM Tuning HID kit. Intermittent HL

Hey I bought a car in August and it has the DDM 35/55 watt kit with 6000k HL's and 3000k fogs. I was told a week ago that one HL was out the driver's side. I know it was working upon getting the car so I inspected when I got home. I think I remember it being off but upon playing with the Hi beams, switching on off it may have came back on. I don't think I had the car switched on for the some of the tests and damn now that I think about it I guess with the ballast it needed to be; probably? First set of HID's and dealing with all of the extra stuff so it's new to me indeed. Another day I took the bulb out and inspected and then I might have not had the car running/switched when I checked to see if the HL was on. The bulb actually did look fine to me.
Now as to why it was not on that time when my step dad looked at it I'm not sure. I think maybe it appeared that it was not lit up as some headlights that have that piece where it seems the bulb sits under, maybe it doesn't have that look like old school lights to where the illumination of the bulb was very noticeable. Anyway sorry if this is confusing but i'll continue to monitor and keep an eye on. I don't daily the car btw. As for questions other than input on what I've said, what do you guys think overall of the DDM HID kits? Experiences with them over the years and present? Any other tidbits to share please do so.

Thanks

Here is my strong opinion on the matter which others will disagree.

You have an expensive muscle car that came with a $50 HID kit from China which is now not working. Is it the bulb? Is it the ballast? Is it the wiring? Who knows.

I had a DDM kit that fried my stock wiring harness and cost me $400 to repair with a new harness due to overdraw. I junked it and never considered using cheap crap again.

At a minimum, you could start by putting stock bulbs in the housings affixed to the stock harness to ensure your stock wiring works and then start trouble shooting backwards (swap components side to side to see if the results replicate themselves). You also cannot visually see if HID bulbs are burnt out.

IF you must have HID style lighting in your stock housings, I highly recommend either a Morimoto 2 Stroke LED 9007 replacement set which costs $120 from EBay seller LightWerks, or go back to stock.

BTW, as an electrician, it is my opinion that you should NEVER use a 55w bulb or HID system in our cars. The light output is negligible and the risk of excess heat is higher than I would accept.

FWIW, after trying both HID and LED in stock housing, I now run a retrofitted Morimoto Xenon system with a fused relay system that uses hi/low 35w ballasts which I am quite happy with.

03yllwguy said:

Here is my strong opinion on the matter which others will disagree.

You have an expensive muscle car that came with a $50 HID kit from China which is now not working. Is it the bulb? Is it the ballast? Is it the wiring? Who knows.

I had a DDM kit that fried my stock wiring harness and cost me $400 to repair with a new harness due to overdraw. I junked it and never considered using cheap crap again.

At a minimum, you could start by putting stock bulbs in the housings affixed to the stock harness to ensure your stock wiring works and then start trouble shooting backwards (swap components side to side to see if the results replicate themselves). You also cannot visually see if HID bulbs are burnt out.

IF you must have HID style lighting in your stock housings, I highly recommend either a Morimoto 2 Stroke LED 9007 replacement set which costs $120 from EBay seller LightWerks, or go back to stock.

BTW, as an electrician, it is my opinion that you should NEVER use a 55w bulb or HID system in our cars. The light output is negligible and the risk of excess heat is higher than I would accept.

FWIW, after trying both HID and LED in stock housing, I now run a retrofitted Morimoto Xenon system with a fused relay system that uses hi/low 35w ballasts which I am quite happy with.

Click to expand...

cool man I appreciate the insight and I will definitely consider that.
I mainly didn't want to have any issues right away with the car and I will troubleshoot the lights to infact see if it was just the way the light appeared as I said earlier. I had to look /double take also when I first saw lights that had the housing over the bulb to where it wasn't super easy to tell if the bulb was lit at least to me but it could have been me

03yllwguy said:

Here is my strong opinion on the matter which others will disagree.

You have an expensive muscle car that came with a $50 HID kit from China which is now not working. Is it the bulb? Is it the ballast? Is it the wiring? Who knows.

I had a DDM kit that fried my stock wiring harness and cost me $400 to repair with a new harness due to overdraw. I junked it and never considered using cheap crap again.

At a minimum, you could start by putting stock bulbs in the housings affixed to the stock harness to ensure your stock wiring works and then start trouble shooting backwards (swap components side to side to see if the results replicate themselves). You also cannot visually see if HID bulbs are burnt out.

IF you must have HID style lighting in your stock housings, I highly recommend either a Morimoto 2 Stroke LED 9007 replacement set which costs $120 from EBay seller LightWerks, or go back to stock.

BTW, as an electrician, it is my opinion that you should NEVER use a 55w bulb or HID system in our cars. The light output is negligible and the risk of excess heat is higher than I would accept.

FWIW, after trying both HID and LED in stock housing, I now run a retrofitted Morimoto Xenon system with a fused relay system that uses hi/low 35w ballasts which I am quite happy with.

Click to expand...

What's going to be different about the other kit I know it cost more is it just built better overall and that's what the cost difference is? Miami as far as overheating to and frying your wires

It may not change your situation if you have an issue with your stock wiring but if it is one or more of the DDM components, my recommendation would be a upgrade in component quality and electrical safety of your wiring.

Switching to the LED setup I mentioned will remove separate ballasts from the equation all together (the LED system has them built in as well as cooling fans) and would give you a “plug and play” 35w LED system that will function more like stock than a bolt on HID system that is currently drawing (IMO) way too much power and scattering light everyone but where it is needed.

I personally would not run a DDM $50 ballast on my stock wiring (especially considering my experience) because there are no built in safe guards. If you are stuck on a HID kit, Morimoto makes digital ballasts which have a chip that monitors for excess voltage and can “save itself” and your wiring.

Regardless, I would isolate to ensure your stock wiring is good and work from there.