<<< DDM Slim Ballast HID Kit Install Writeup (pics) >>>
02-17-2008, 09:35 PM
#1
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Thread Starter
<<< DDM Slim Ballast HID Kit Install Writeup (pics) >>>
Hey guys,
Heres my H4 DDM Slim Ballast HID kit. It has a rare feature of having the high beam shield to prevent blinding on coming traffic in an H4 application. Here are the pics (hopefully you can see them).
__________________________________________________ _
Ok heres the general breakdown of the kit and I'll try as be as comprehensive as possible so anybody with even basic automotive knowledge can do this.
First heres the kit itself and how the wiring works, its a bit more confusing than most HID kits but the DDM kit makes it a piece of cake to install b/c of its quality construction and good design. Pardon the cheesy art but it helps explain how it works...
-The connectors circle in orange connect directly to the OEM plug inside the housing. the blue arrows indicate direction (going towards the actual bulb itself so you can follow the path).
- next is the green circled connectors which connect that portion to the ballast (again pretend you are electricity going towards the bulb).
- Next, the ballast and then soon after that the igniter (small black box).
- Next is the small black box (igniter) and then after that the slim ballast itself.
- after that are the connectors circled in yellow which actually connect the igniters to the actual bulb itself which then lights up the bulb.
so basically the wiring harness comes full circle back into the headlight housing and straight to the bulb.
__________________________________________________ __
step 1:
Cut a 1" hole in the housing in order for all the wires and everything to pass through. I chose the flat peice directly behind the lowbeam b/c it seemed like the most logical location to install it and also allowed for the most room. The quality of the grommet is car nicer than any other HID kit I have seen, I had an Xtec kit and it was a joke... ebay... forget about it. The grommet has 1.25" inner lip and 1.5" outer lip, the actual diameter being 1.0" so thats what I chose for my hole diameter and its perfect size for that square section of the housing cover
Heres the breakdown of the remainder of the install:
Step 2:
locate lowbeam plug and install the blue & black leads. Black goes to the brown OEM plug (ground), and blue goes to the yellow wire (lowbeam). high beam obviously gets nothing.
Step 3:
Install bulb carefully by undoing the springs, putting bulb in, then reputting the headlight bulb spring back in place. Then pass wires through the opening you made in the housing cover (may need to be slightly larger than 1").
Step 4:
Pull grommet through so only the first layer of the grommet comes out and sits flush. Then finish up all your connections (they all go only one way so you can't really mess it up, dummy proof).
Step 5:
make sure you put your Ballast in a place that won't get wet or isn't too far away. I weight or as OEM / stealth install as possible so I chose certain locations that looked nice and clean. Also, remember not attach it to something you may upgrade later (aka airbox, if you plan on getting CAI do NOT attach ballast to airbox). Also you NEED slim ballast do do HID, there is almost NO room on passenger side b/c of airbox so I had to mount the ballast UNDERNEATH the airbox opening, you can barely even see it in the pics its hidden so well.
__________________________________________________ __
Pics of the kit at night:
Finally got dark, went outside to take some pics of the kit at night. Surprisingly the bulb reflector/shield did an excellent job of directing the light, you can see just how crisp the cut off is. For an OEM housing this is pretty damn amazing, usually you only get this kind of cut off on projector housings.
There is SOME leakage but its very minor and honestly I don't think it will be an issue (look at hand shadow comparison to see the leakage, its not much but there is a tiny bit. Not that bad though honestly i've seen ebay crystal headlights + halogens with worse leakage than this.
Overall I am very happy with the install and the results. The output is probably between 2-3x more than stock and I can see further down the road than before. those pics aren't even with fogs on so you can see its pretty damn bright. I opted to aim my headlights slightly lower and to the right just to insure nobody gets blinding from oncoming traffic, with the HIDs i felt the stock settings were bit too high and to the left for comfort. Remember be courteous of others when doing this.
The DDM kit with special reflector sheild turned out to be a great investment for $140 shipped. I highly recommend and I would not recommend any other kit for our H4 housing W202s. It really makes it possible to have HIDs in stock housing and is the only kit of its kind that I've seen to do that.
Hope this helps!
Heres my H4 DDM Slim Ballast HID kit. It has a rare feature of having the high beam shield to prevent blinding on coming traffic in an H4 application. Here are the pics (hopefully you can see them).
__________________________________________________ _
Ok heres the general breakdown of the kit and I'll try as be as comprehensive as possible so anybody with even basic automotive knowledge can do this.
First heres the kit itself and how the wiring works, its a bit more confusing than most HID kits but the DDM kit makes it a piece of cake to install b/c of its quality construction and good design. Pardon the cheesy art but it helps explain how it works...
-The connectors circle in orange connect directly to the OEM plug inside the housing. the blue arrows indicate direction (going towards the actual bulb itself so you can follow the path).
- next is the green circled connectors which connect that portion to the ballast (again pretend you are electricity going towards the bulb).
- Next, the ballast and then soon after that the igniter (small black box).
- Next is the small black box (igniter) and then after that the slim ballast itself.
- after that are the connectors circled in yellow which actually connect the igniters to the actual bulb itself which then lights up the bulb.
so basically the wiring harness comes full circle back into the headlight housing and straight to the bulb.
__________________________________________________ __
step 1:
Cut a 1" hole in the housing in order for all the wires and everything to pass through. I chose the flat peice directly behind the lowbeam b/c it seemed like the most logical location to install it and also allowed for the most room. The quality of the grommet is car nicer than any other HID kit I have seen, I had an Xtec kit and it was a joke... ebay... forget about it. The grommet has 1.25" inner lip and 1.5" outer lip, the actual diameter being 1.0" so thats what I chose for my hole diameter and its perfect size for that square section of the housing cover
Heres the breakdown of the remainder of the install:
Step 2:
locate lowbeam plug and install the blue & black leads. Black goes to the brown OEM plug (ground), and blue goes to the yellow wire (lowbeam). high beam obviously gets nothing.
Step 3:
Install bulb carefully by undoing the springs, putting bulb in, then reputting the headlight bulb spring back in place. Then pass wires through the opening you made in the housing cover (may need to be slightly larger than 1").
Step 4:
Pull grommet through so only the first layer of the grommet comes out and sits flush. Then finish up all your connections (they all go only one way so you can't really mess it up, dummy proof).
Step 5:
make sure you put your Ballast in a place that won't get wet or isn't too far away. I weight or as OEM / stealth install as possible so I chose certain locations that looked nice and clean. Also, remember not attach it to something you may upgrade later (aka airbox, if you plan on getting CAI do NOT attach ballast to airbox). Also you NEED slim ballast do do HID, there is almost NO room on passenger side b/c of airbox so I had to mount the ballast UNDERNEATH the airbox opening, you can barely even see it in the pics its hidden so well.
__________________________________________________ __
Pics of the kit at night:
Finally got dark, went outside to take some pics of the kit at night. Surprisingly the bulb reflector/shield did an excellent job of directing the light, you can see just how crisp the cut off is. For an OEM housing this is pretty damn amazing, usually you only get this kind of cut off on projector housings.
There is SOME leakage but its very minor and honestly I don't think it will be an issue (look at hand shadow comparison to see the leakage, its not much but there is a tiny bit. Not that bad though honestly i've seen ebay crystal headlights + halogens with worse leakage than this.
Overall I am very happy with the install and the results. The output is probably between 2-3x more than stock and I can see further down the road than before. those pics aren't even with fogs on so you can see its pretty damn bright. I opted to aim my headlights slightly lower and to the right just to insure nobody gets blinding from oncoming traffic, with the HIDs i felt the stock settings were bit too high and to the left for comfort. Remember be courteous of others when doing this.
The DDM kit with special reflector sheild turned out to be a great investment for $140 shipped. I highly recommend and I would not recommend any other kit for our H4 housing W202s. It really makes it possible to have HIDs in stock housing and is the only kit of its kind that I've seen to do that.
Hope this helps!
02-18-2008, 04:20 AM
#3
Banned
Thread Starter
no prob. I may eventually upgrade to high/low kit and do a writeup for that as well. For now I'll drive with these and see how they are. The high/low kits introduce a whole new set of fitment issues which is why I avoided them in the beginning but I will see if I can overcome them. Honestly If you plan on doing HIDs but also doing CAI, try and knock the CAI out first b/c it will give you ALOT more room to work with.
02-18-2008, 06:12 PM
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sounds like airplane
and post a new thread every time you look at your car...
waiting for the new windshield wiper thread and the big vinyl sticker thread to find their rightful place in your soon to be 100 line signature
waiting for the new windshield wiper thread and the big vinyl sticker thread to find their rightful place in your soon to be 100 line signature
02-18-2008, 09:43 PM
#7
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Thread Starter
jealousy is not an attractive quality, stop acting childish and trying to start flame wars, you have a mercedes for god's sake, act like an adult.
If you keep pestering every single one of my posts I will be forced to take further action with the moderators. Last warning
If you keep pestering every single one of my posts I will be forced to take further action with the moderators. Last warning
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02-18-2008, 11:36 PM
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sounds like airplane
I doubt the moderators here really appreciate the posts either...
I doubt i'm jealous- since you haven't done anything which isn't already done to my car. Although, potentially maybe i'm jealous of the fact that you have enough time to go through and take/post all those pictures. Additionally, I think your the one being childish and self-centerred by flooding the forum with your cheap modification threads. isn't it more adult to want to keep it a bit more cleaned up such that it's easier for people to find tech help etc. (and to cut down on bandwidth usage/costs).
Report me to the mods if you want- either way from this point forth i will stay out of things. I think my kinder earlier response on another of your posts was pretty clear as to why it's kind of ridiculous that you feel the need to post everything you do. I have been a moderator on other automotive forums in the past and what i would do is combine all your posts into one.
-drew
I doubt i'm jealous- since you haven't done anything which isn't already done to my car. Although, potentially maybe i'm jealous of the fact that you have enough time to go through and take/post all those pictures. Additionally, I think your the one being childish and self-centerred by flooding the forum with your cheap modification threads. isn't it more adult to want to keep it a bit more cleaned up such that it's easier for people to find tech help etc. (and to cut down on bandwidth usage/costs).
Report me to the mods if you want- either way from this point forth i will stay out of things. I think my kinder earlier response on another of your posts was pretty clear as to why it's kind of ridiculous that you feel the need to post everything you do. I have been a moderator on other automotive forums in the past and what i would do is combine all your posts into one.
-drew
Last edited by silence; 02-18-2008 at 11:39 PM.
02-19-2008, 01:21 AM
#9
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Thread Starter
You have been warned.
02-19-2008, 03:35 PM
#12
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Thread Starter
what do you mean by drilling? You do have to make a small opening in the rear plastic cover on the headlight housing just to pass wires through but other then that there is not "drilling" per say. thanks
02-19-2008, 04:33 PM
#13
MBWorld Fanatic!
04-07-2009, 01:17 PM
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1997 C36 AMG
What bulb color (temperature) did you order? Were the reflector shields
extra? The bulbs are H&'s, correct? Thank you in advance. The lights look great.
extra? The bulbs are H&'s, correct? Thank you in advance. The lights look great.
everyone knows how to install HID kit. it takes me less then 5 min
y u had to post this thread
04-07-2009, 07:45 PM
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1999 W210 E300 Turbodiesel
I doubt the moderators here really appreciate the posts either...
I doubt i'm jealous- since you haven't done anything which isn't already done to my car. Although, potentially maybe i'm jealous of the fact that you have enough time to go through and take/post all those pictures. Additionally, I think your the one being childish and self-centerred by flooding the forum with your cheap modification threads. isn't it more adult to want to keep it a bit more cleaned up such that it's easier for people to find tech help etc. (and to cut down on bandwidth usage/costs).
Report me to the mods if you want- either way from this point forth i will stay out of things. I think my kinder earlier response on another of your posts was pretty clear as to why it's kind of ridiculous that you feel the need to post everything you do. I have been a moderator on other automotive forums in the past and what i would do is combine all your posts into one.
-drew
I doubt i'm jealous- since you haven't done anything which isn't already done to my car. Although, potentially maybe i'm jealous of the fact that you have enough time to go through and take/post all those pictures. Additionally, I think your the one being childish and self-centerred by flooding the forum with your cheap modification threads. isn't it more adult to want to keep it a bit more cleaned up such that it's easier for people to find tech help etc. (and to cut down on bandwidth usage/costs).
Report me to the mods if you want- either way from this point forth i will stay out of things. I think my kinder earlier response on another of your posts was pretty clear as to why it's kind of ridiculous that you feel the need to post everything you do. I have been a moderator on other automotive forums in the past and what i would do is combine all your posts into one.
-drew
04-08-2009, 02:42 PM
#19
Dr,c36 SEEMS like the kind of person that likes attention, is that wrong?
At least he shares what he has done which do benefit other people. I use to get annoyed at first too with all his postings but now I see that he does help out people. Besides, this forum is boring anyway, nothing much NEW to read so its nice to see his posts!
04-08-2009, 07:01 PM
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1999 W210 E300 Turbodiesel
Come on not EVERYONE can know how. If the man wants to post his doings why bother him. Just dont look at his threads piriod. If he does something the moderators think is wrong let THEM take care of it. Otherwise you guys do sound like your jealous(not saying that you are, but that is how it looks).
Dr,c36 SEEMS like the kind of person that likes attention, is that wrong?
At least he shares what he has done which do benefit other people. I use to get annoyed at first too with all his postings but now I see that he does help out people. Besides, this forum is boring anyway, nothing much NEW to read so its nice to see his posts!
Dr,c36 SEEMS like the kind of person that likes attention, is that wrong?
At least he shares what he has done which do benefit other people. I use to get annoyed at first too with all his postings but now I see that he does help out people. Besides, this forum is boring anyway, nothing much NEW to read so its nice to see his posts!
