Advice on HIDs
 

Well,

All good things must come to an end and I'm deciding to remove my pain in the rear HIDs from DDMTuning. It's been nothing but a nightmare to get these things to work properly without one or the other burning out (ballasts) or causing weird issues with CANBUS - even with the capacitor mod. The solution would probably have been a relay, but once again the battery is in the trunk.

I have 5000k LED City Lights from AZNOptics which have been great, as well as Phillips DiamondVision (5000k) high beams. I'm removing my DDMTuning 55w 6000k low beams and DDMTuning 35w 5000k fog lights in favor of some more Phillips DiamondVision 5000k H7 and H11 bulbs for their respective applications.

The reason I bring this up is this has been the mod that has caused the most issues and headaches when it comes to my car. So my advice is this: get a really high quality CANBUS compatible HID kit (I've heard Morimoto is great) or don't get one at all, go for Phillips DiamondVision halogens instead. Not quite as bright but still brighter than stock and damn good looking. I know other forum members have had fewer issues with DDMTuning HID components than I have, and that could be due to the individual car, or what seems to be the increasingly poor quality from DDMTuning ever since they switched to their Chinese manufactured slim ballasts. Will post comparison pics when the HIDs are out and the DiamondVisions are in.

Sorry to hear you are having issues serious enough to make you want to uninstall the hid kits. Can you give more specific details about the problems you're having? Do you usually turn your fogs on along with the regular headlights? Does it make any difference if you don't run the fogs AND headlights at the same time? Just wondering...
Seems a little odd that you'd need the capacitor mod with the 55watt kit. Wouldn't those draw enough current to not cause canbus related issues? Obviously not in your case, but I wonder if others have had good success with 55watt kits. I've been running a $100 canbus 35watt kit with agt bulbs for the past year and have had zero issues with them. My fogs are stock and I haven't used them once.
This might be a good opportunity for you to try one of the latest/greatest led headlight kits. Saw some on the bay that looked promising, although they weren't canbus.

Sorry to hear you are uninstalling the kit. Mine are still going strong in all of my vehicles.

I purchased innovited hid the cane with the canbus circuit integrated and they have worked flawless.

I did buy the BOW3 error eliminators with the DDMTuning kit as well, but here's a summary of the problems:

Installed the kit and fogs and headlights worked flawlessly for about a week. Then the right side lowbeam went out, I assumed it was a bad ballast after swapping bulbs and ordered a new one. Installed the new ballast then the problem went to the other side. No matter what configuration of low beams I used one side was always out regardless of how many new ballasts I installed or what configuration they were in. The problem was completely transient and random.

Then I did the 2200uf capacitor mod and the problem with the low beams was solved (mostly). To answer your question SorryAboutThat, my thoughts are that while they pull more wattage, the problem is even 55w HIDs pull about half the amperage of stock halogen bulbs which was causing CANBUS to freak out and thinking that one of the bulbs was burned out so it wouldn't send power to it. Hence why the capacitors in conjunction with the BOW3 error eliminators helped.

But I was still not 100% satisfied. For a couple months the HID low beams and fog lights worked pretty well and looked good. No issues on start up. Then one night coming back from dinner one of the low beams stopped working. Checked all of the connections, nothing. Then magically the next morning it was fine. Then it failed so I replaced the ballast and it was perfect for the next several weeks.

Come out from work on a rainy day and go to turn on my fog lights a few weeks later and the passengers side fog light won't stay lit. It will ignite then turn off. Ignite then turn off. So that's an issue I'm still having and I really don't feel like taking off the splash guard for the 500th time until I have a permanent, guaranteed fix like Phillips DiamondVision.

The other consistent issue I had even after the capacitor mod was transiently, I would get a very slight flicker in my low beams, not at the same time. Passengers side would flicker for 30 seconds very lightly then stop, then it would be fine for 10 minutes, then the driver's side would flicker for a minute, then stop.

It's just to the point that I'm so tired of it walking on eggshells to get this thing to work properly ALL THE TIME.

I do like the idea of LED headlights but I'm still not sure they are compatible with our projector lens and they are quite expensive. The current hope is to keep the E550 for maybe a year longer, save up some and then get into a newer E550 with native Bi-Xenon headlights that have auto-leveling. Currently looking at a 2012 E550 4-Matic since they are V8 BiTurbo and I've always aspired to own a biturbo Mercedes, and they're becoming more affordable! So the best course of action on my part if I ever do sell my car is to just get something that still looks good but is reliable.

I have the same issues with DDMs HID kits in my W211 and BMW E61 Fog Lights. Somehow if it isn't one thing it was another. My W211 had issues with the Left Fog intermittently turning off and on. I thought it was a loose connection, but after I ordered another 55W set to replace them, I could not get one side or the other to work properly. (we even had a discussion on the BOW being a resistor and not a capacitor) I decided to purchase a CANBUS HID but at that time, they were only available in 35W systems so I decided to go with it on both my W211 and E61 (Even in the BMW, the fog lights would flicker off and on and sometimes won't come back on again).

I got tired of the chimes and error messages, I took out the DDM HID systems and replaced with the CANBUS units and have not had any issues with them. I have 3 55-watt HID kits in my garage gathering dust. Unless it is a non-CANBUS system will I use the DDM kits. I have them in the low beam and fog lights of my W163 & W201 and have had no issues. Even on a 1992 R129, it throws a light when the fog lights are used,

Replace all your HID kits with CANBUS systems (these kits do not have a BOWs, resistors or capacitors) and you'll never have another issue.

Right, thanks for the information and for the advice. In my original post that was my advice to other forum members looking for information about HIDs: non-CANBUS compatible HID systems are absolute junk. That includes DDMTuning from my personal experience. So if you want to upgrade your stock halogen lights, either go with a good halogen like a DiamondVision or skip over traditional HID kits and get a CANBUS-compatible system. For now I'm sticking with the former of my suggestions. What CANBUS-compatible kit did you get?

I guess the other note I want to make in this advice thread is for certain bulbs, don't even attempt to use the stock retainer clips to hold the bulb in. It will frustrate you and you will get your hand all cut up in the engine bay trying to get those things twisted in when the clip notches aren't large enough to accommodate a thicker base on most HID bulbs you get with these systems. It's been covered before but just get some aftermarket ones if you do go that route.

There are a number of them out there. I got one from a local place a half mile away from me.

I know Umnitza sells CANBUS HID systems, even 55-watt system are available from them. I am in no way connected to Umnitza, I just saw their posting in the BMW forum I frequent and they are about 13 miles from me. Since they have the 55-watt system, the next CANBUS system I get will be from them.

I know what you mean with the base of the HID bulbs being thicker plastic as compared to the thinner metal HID bases. I've only used the original retainers on the halogen to HID conversions as there isn't anything else to replace it with. You are right, it is a PITA.

All I can say is you won't get anywhere close to the light output of an HID from any conventional Halogen unless you go to 100W Halogen. Just my $0.02. I hope you get it figured out.

I'm liking the sound of a tuned 2012 e550 4matic while pushing 500+hp in comfort :naughty:

I just used the W163 and the right HL was out. So I replaced the ballast and it works again. This is the same ballast DDM Tuning replaced last year as it went out last year. I am just glad the removal of the headlight assembly of the W163 is a 2 minute job.

Exactly, stage I tune is incredible on those cars. Total sleeper and with downpipes would be absolutely insane! Plus 4-Matic is available in the 2012 models not only the 2014. I have to admit the W212 body style is growing on me, the pre-facelift front looks a lot like our cars but more square and modern. The back follows that same design language. I want a bi-turbo E63 but the E550 isn't TOO far off when a few grand is put into one, and underrated for sure.

They're replacement policy is bull****, at least if they follow the one they have posted on their website. It's much easier to just order a new ballast. Yeah I would be complaining a lot less if removing the headlights on the W211 was easily, rather than having to take off the bumper.

Sorry to hear you are uninstalling the HID kit.
I got my DDM 55W last December. 3 months later I start to have problem on passenger side. It would shut off for a day and then back on for 2-3 day then off again.
After 2 weeks doing that I took out and go back to DDM store. They tested and they think that the BOW3 error eliminator could be the problem. So they replaced BOW3 (only one)
Since with new replacement, it's seems to work fine.

I could try unhooking all of the BOW3 error eliminators to see what happens. But the Phillips DiamondVisions are on their way already... and in the end I would probably have to replace them one by one to ensure proper operation anyway. And by the time that is all done and swapped out something else will have failed. Should have gone CANBUS!

Higher wattage setups are buggy and less reliable. I've had good luck with Retrofitsource which includes their warnings about bulb life etc with higher watt set ups. My 35W bixenon setup with factory highbeams is blinding as it is.

I think that's debatable since the amperage is lower anyway, and I was told at the time of purchase that the DDMTuning 55w units were some of the last ones left from them that weren't the cheaper slimline ballast. I was a little dismayed to find that both looked the exact same when I got them and they were both their newer slimline design. I wish I had factory bi-xenon, but oh well! I will on my next car.

I suggest you order the CANBUS HIDs from Umnitza.

Let us know how the DiamondVisions work out. I like what I've seen online, and they should be a very simple swap for me.

:y

I've been using the Morimoto 55w ballast and 4300XB lights from TheRetroFitSource and haven't had any issues yet.

IMO if your going to add HID lights to your car might as well do it right with OEM grade parts such as denso or matsu****a Ballasts, and Philips or Osram bulbs. Then you don't have the stupid bulb or ballast issues that most of the cheaper Hid kits have. Also on the w211 you can easily swap the projector to a d2s one that will work much better and give you BIX!!
https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...-retrofit.html

Good advice, though I read somewhere that to get the bi-xenon auto-leveling it's expensive and really a pain in the ass to code if you want to swap the whole bi-xenon unit into a car that doesn't have one from factory.

True to get the auto leveling would require much more work but if your running a hid kit this would be a nice upgrade from stock. The coding for it should take someone who knows what they are doing 5-10 minutes.

Hey AMG, I'm assuming you've been rocking the Phillips Diamond Visions for a while now and am curious about how much you like them. How do they compare to HID's? You usually give a pretty thurough and accurate product review so I'm wondering what you have to say about your new bulbs. I wanna hear all about them...the good, bad and the ugly lol...

Hey SorryAboutThat! I've been meaning to update this for a while! Pics to come soon.

The good: They're definitely whiter and brighter than stock, or at least how I remember stock lights. I think proof that affirms was the other night when I was in a parking lot parked up against a stone wall. The car next to me had its lights on (stock halogens) and mine were considerably brighter and definitely whiter. My major reason for doing this was reliability, and I have to give it an 10/10 in this department so far - I'd hope so for halogens lol. At least now I know whenever I want my fogs and my low beams on they will always come on at full brightness right away.

The bad: They're not as bright as the HIDs, I know this isn't a legitimate complaint since they are not HID bulbs and you can't expect halogens to compare to a 55w HID kit, but it was definitely a hit in light output that I noticed my first time out on the road with them. I don't feel like the output is inadequate anymore, however. Night time driving is fine, just not like daytime anymore ;)

The ugly... no... the strange: I'm a little confused about why this happens since warm-up is usually just a feature of HIDs and traditional halogens don't have a warm-up period, but I guess the 'ugly' here is in relation to the color. On start up the Phillips Diamond Visions are definitely 5000k, a very white light with a veryyy slight blue tint to them that I like a lot. But wait a couple minutes they seem to get more yellow. I thought I was going crazy but it's something I've definitely noticed, and perhaps I need to do some searching online to see why this is. After they "warm-up" and settle into their color, they're definitely slightly yellow, which is disappointing. At least this is in comparison to my LED city lights from AZNOptics, which are awesome and pure white.

So I'm not quite sure why they're not as white as they should be after they seem to warm up, but they're definitely reliable and whiter than stock. I'm just glad they're not a maintenance item I have to worry about anymore. The take away is that they are nice competitors (color-wise) to stock 4300k HIDs and they make it look like you have a stock xenon setup, with better light output than stock but still nowhere near real HIDs.

First off my friend I would like to say you are not alone in your world of HID kit headaches. I am right there behind you in terms of Tylenol bottles. You are probably wondering as to why fully functional HID kits will not light up on the passenger side when both your bulbs and ballast are free of defect? Then you wonder as to why when you do not use CANBUS both sides always turn on but flicker or as you mentioned. With CANBUS the lights turn on and then randomly flicker ten minutes later. Then for some reason you put in a DiamondVision (H7 I'm guessing for your car) and everything lights up perfectly (aside from blue to yellow colors:/.)

The culprit in my case and it seems yours as well is the CANBUS plugs are not properly sitting in your fog light harness. It is likely that there is some kind of alteration in the structural integrity of the outlets which receives the CANBUS plugs (Like 2 metal teeth). I had to straighten up the orientation and make sure the CANBUS plugs properly fasten if you will into the fog relay harness.

I feel your pain of removing the fender liner 500 times. I have a w203 and after my OEM xenon upgrade I have been playing cat and mouse with my morimoto HID kit in my fog lights. I hope this helps. My mechanic also suggested that I replace the fog light relay harness so that way it will be sturdier. That is why I guess MTECH never fails on Mercedes because the CANBUS is built inside the ballast therefore no CANBUS plugs ever go into that fog relay harness.

Interesting information, unfortunately I'm probably not going back to HID on this car but I never really considered that as a culprit.