HID's gone horribly wrong....This is why u dont go cheap,pics inside

[eutechnyx]

So,I have had hids on every single vehicle ive owned and NEVER had an issue like this before. Long story short I bought xentex HIDS kid for $30 (ive ran them before on other vehicles 0 issues) and a cheaper $10 relay harness on ebay. Ive done the cap mod,relay mod and installed the hids. Everything has been doing good except for mis-firing on occasion Then today I get in my truck,start it up and realize "hey my hids arent coming on at all" So i played with the switch a few times and said ok screw it,pulled it under the carport to wash it and as soon as I turned the truck off i smelled electric melting. I instantly popped the hood and what do u know,the relay harness was MELTED. So i quickly unhooked it all and realized my hid ballast is also melted through with a hole in it. I am pretty confident the issue was the relay harness,as u can see in the first picture they crimped the metal around the wire to connect it and it looks as if it rubbed against the other wires and eventually rubbed through and touched the power wire. This was all covered by heatshrink. NO heatshrink around the actual metal connector and wire itself just the entire bundle,not even some electrical tape! I cut off all the heatshrink etc to find what happened and thats all I could see.ALSO NOT TO MENTION THE FUSE THAT CAME IN THE RELAY HARNESS DIDNT EVEN POP OR BLOW JUST MELTED TO HELL.


PICS OF THE AFTERMATH!!!!

Luckily for me,only cost me $40 for a very bad mistake of trying to save some money. As stated though,im confident it was the relay harness and NOT the ballast themselves but none the less i could have burned my truck to the ground.

 

[ItsOnVoy]

OH dang that I have never seen that before! I do hear a lot of bad about xentex HIDS. Is the factory harness okay and no melting there either? If so then just order new ones off ddmtuning or something and hook those up. Will be much better!!

 

[The_Roadie]

A cautionary tale to be sure. Thanks for the reminder. You know I'm not a fan of going cheap - even if it means saving up. Don't want any member's rides going like this:

View attachment 21685

 

[eutechnyx]

Yea everything seems good on the factory side. Ill be getting the ddm slim ballests this weekend idk if ill buy the harness or not though. That was scary lol.

 

[BOOMERZ]

ive always used DDM tuning for my hid kits in all my cars , but with the TB i went with the harness and cap adapter from xenonsupply as wel as doing the cap mod by the rear fuse box , no issues ever , gald u didnt bbq your truck

 

[MAY03LT]

It looks like the result of heat damage from a poor connection. I don't see any arcing marks on the barrel (metal thing) where it may have arched from one of the B+ leads. Where were the ballasts grounded?

 

[eutechnyx]

The relay harness was grounded at the battery.

 

[ItsOnVoy]

Yea everything seems good on the factory side. Ill be getting the ddm slim ballests this weekend idk if ill buy the harness or not though. That was scary lol.

You should get the relay harness from DDM 100% because that will be way better and stronger. That relay will help for any future problems like you just had so the factory continues to stay safe from harm. HID's draw a lot of power and our weak factory harness isn't strong enough and can melt also. You will not have a problem with DDM I have had them for 2 years and its still like new

The relay harness was grounded at the battery.

Try to ground it to a bolt on the truck, there are those side bolts by the battery, try that out. That is where I have mine grounded too

 

[MAY03LT]

The relay harness was grounded at the battery.

Was the factory negative terminal replaced with an aftermarket type?

 

[Sparky]

The relay harness would not have caused the ballast to burn down. But the ballast could cause the harness to melt.

I've noticed those relay harnesses include too large of a fuse for the wire size.

 

[eutechnyx]

All very interesting info guys. So The ddm tuning relay harness is just like this one right u only use one input (drivers side)

 

[Wooluf1952]

All very interesting info guys. So The ddm tuning relay harness is just like this one right u only use one input (drivers side)

Correct.

 

[Bartonmd]

The relay harness would not have caused the ballast to burn down. But the ballast could cause the harness to melt.

I've noticed those relay harnesses include too large of a fuse for the wire size.

Exactly what I was going to say.

The wire is usually sized for running load, and the fuse is usually sized for the short term load of HID ballasts kicking on. If it draws too much for too long, it'll melt the wires, but not always pop the fuse. This is not the "correct" way to do it, but it's how a lot of the cheapo companies do it.

Mike

 

[ItsOnVoy]

All very interesting info guys. So The ddm tuning relay harness is just like this one right u only use one input (drivers side)

Correct.

umm I have ddm and mine connects on both sides lol

 

[eutechnyx]

Well from what I've read if u do both inputs it will blow the fuse which happened to me in The beginning

 

[kjkim93]

Same here. I use both inputs with the DDM harness. No blown fuses.

 

[ItsOnVoy]

Well from what I've read if u do both inputs it will blow the fuse which happened to me in The beginning

I never blew a fuse when I hooked up both, both sides have the relay hooked to the factory harness.

Same here. I use both inputs with the DDM harness. No blown fuses.

me too. no problems!

 

[eutechnyx]

Ill try the both inputs when I get the harness I have some fuses encase it blows one. Did u guys yet The slim ballast or regular?

 

[ItsOnVoy]

Ill try the both inputs when I get the harness I have some fuses encase it blows one. Did u guys yet The slim ballast or regular?

Ddm only sells slim which are better because they last longer for bulb life and warm up the bulb much quicker

 

[Bartonmd]

Ddm only sells slim which are better because they last longer for bulb life and warm up the bulb much quicker

When we talked about HID stuff in one my EE classes, we talked about warm-up time and bulb life being somewhat mutually exclusive. This is also the same deal with the arc lamps that we use in our equipment at work, and this is why the HID bulbs in factories and gyms take so long to heat up. What's happening when you heat a lamp up, and it gets brighter, is it's bringing the mercury (and/or gallium or Iron or whatever other metal in the lamp) up to plasma temperature in the arc. In order to heat the lamp up more quickly, you have to have a stronger arc, which is harder on the electrodes and the glass/quartz. It also excites the metals more, which causes them to bounce harder against the sides of the quartz, which causes the quartz to cloud up quicker, making the lamp have less output and get hotter, and therefore, fail sooner.

Mike

 

[drkhead]

You should get the relay harness from DDM 100% because that will be way better and stronger. That relay will help for any future problems like you just had so the factory continues to stay safe from harm. HID's draw a lot of power and our weak factory harness isn't strong enough and can melt also. You will not have a problem with DDM I have had them for 2 years and its still like new



Try to ground it to a bolt on the truck, there are those side bolts by the battery, try that out. That is where I have mine grounded too

I always thought DDMs were a cheaper model, now I can't believe there's CHEAPER?!

Mine misfire all the time, due to corrosion that keeps building up on the leads. I've had to replace a relay as well.

 

[ItsOnVoy]

I always thought DDMs were a cheaper model, now I can't believe there's CHEAPER?!

Mine misfire all the time, due to corrosion that keeps building up on the leads. I've had to replace a relay as well.

DDM is pretty solid brand...we to me at least. Them and VVME are good and strong. Only two I would trust myself you know. Did you maybe just have a bad kit? Or did you run DRLs on them? that can cause the kit to go back and misfire also after time

 

[drkhead]

DDM is pretty solid brand...we to me at least. Them and VVME are good and strong. Only two I would trust myself you know. Did you maybe just have a bad kit? Or did you run DRLs on them? that can cause the kit to go back and misfire also after time

Actually modded with lancematic's quadbeams&DRL killer.

But good to hear that DDM is a more trusted brand. I haven't seen any wire burning on my set, like the OP did. That's some scary stuff.

 

[Sparky]

Meh I'm done with $50 or cheaper HID kits. They're all lacking one way or another in quality or consistency. I know they cost more but my Morimoto kit from the retrofit source in my Camaro blow anything else I've had away.

 

[ItsOnVoy]

Meh I'm done with $50 or cheaper HID kits. They're all lacking one way or another in quality or consistency. I know they cost more but my Morimoto kit from the retrofit source in my Camaro blow anything else I've had away.

Are you talking about these ones? 9006: Morimoto Elite HID System - HID Component Kits from The Retrofit Source Inc What is better about them vs the ddm ones we are running?

 

[eutechnyx]

I think the only difference in those is visually higher quality lol. Im buying the ddms and relay harness right now.

Done. Hopefully shipping is pretty quick.

 

[ItsOnVoy]

Done. Hopefully shipping is pretty quick.

its usually no more then a week, they come from china so thats not bad for long distance

Which temp did you get?

 

[Sparky]

Are you talking about these ones? 9006: Morimoto Elite HID System - HID Component Kits from The Retrofit Source Inc What is better about them vs the ddm ones we are running?

Higher, more consistent quality (practically OEM-like) and visually as well. They are just built better. I had a set of the "old style" Xentecs which were better than the current ones and while they were good they aren't as good as the Morimotos.

Someone over at LS1tech had a direct comparison between the Xentec and the Morimotos. Night and day difference in light output.

 

[eutechnyx]

I got 5k

 

[ItsOnVoy]

Higher, more consistent quality (practically OEM-like) and visually as well. They are just built better. I had a set of the "old style" Xentecs which were better than the current ones and while they were good they aren't as good as the Morimotos.

Someone over at LS1tech had a direct comparison between the Xentec and the Morimotos. Night and day difference in light output.

I hear bad things about Xentec kits. They seem to have problems more often then other brands. For light output, how much better are they then the DDMtuning lights? I think the ddm is pretty bright thats for sure!

I got 5k

Good choice

 

[eutechnyx]

If ddm is any brighter than xentec that's gonna be crazy!!!!

 

[ItsOnVoy]

These are mine 6k DDM...there pretty bright for me (and prob oncoming cars too lol). I will prob even go to 5k for a bit more light and these are no fog HIDs either. Been very lazy to order HIDs for them and hook them up

 

[eutechnyx]

How hard are the fog hids to do? Gotta relay them etc too?

 

[ItsOnVoy]

How hard are the fog hids to do? Gotta relay them etc too?

Yeah I would relay the Fogs also, prob the hardest part is feeding the harness up to the battery. I have not done them yet but that looks to be the hardest part

 

[kjkim93]

DDM HIDS are pretty bright. Friend has a Scion with xentecs. DDMs are much brighter. And i have 5000k in my fogs. No Relay. No problems

 

[eutechnyx]

What is the bulb size on the fogs? Do they have plug and play kits like the headlights?

 

[kjkim93]

Yes same basic principals as low beams. There is no DRLs to worry about. and if i remember correctly it is bulb size 880

 

[ItsOnVoy]

Yes they are 880 and I highly recommend a relay harness for the fog lights also. It's only $10-$15 more and can save you a huge headache for the future, so well worth it in my eyes. Also not sure how blue you want the lights but check on your state laws because I know in MI we can't have any blue what do ever in our fogs. You can do 5k again to match the low beams or lower whatever you like

Also make sure to stick to the 35w kit because 55w will damage the housing because of its power and heat. Hope this helps and good luck

 

[Irishboy02]

Have run DDM's in my Trailblazer, buddys sentra, maxima, alitma, civic, delsol, mustang, cobalt, crown vic and Evo. Not one issue with any of these setups. On my trailblazer i ran two ballasts, both off of each respective headlight harness. Currently have them on my Sierra, have their 'raptor' ballasts (8k) on my lowbeams and their 'slim digital' (3k) on my fogs. Not a problem with either of them.

Was given a set, for free, of Xentecs - also in 8k for my lowbeams. After about 3 weeks, the light started to dance as if there was a bug in my headlights. Happened on both bulbs. Two months later, driverside headlight stopped igniting. Wasnt sure why but figured it was blown. Turns out it blew a fuse for my low beam, only the driverside though. Also noticed that the gas ball inside that bulb was black as opposed to the normal color of the one that was still operational. Decided to just get my DDM's and be done. Ordered my DDMs and not a problem since, also, in the same bulb temperature (8k 35w) the DDM's are significantly brighter. Was tossing up the idea of doing the 55w lows but that would just be stupid bright on the road and piss alot of drivers off - bad enough im in a lifted pickup.

Side note: DDM's are available in their slim digital ballasts, as well as full sized 'raptor series' ballasts. Both work great. I have the raptor as my lowbeams and the digital for my fogs, i feel they handle the water a little bit better.

 

[ItsOnVoy]

Side note: DDM's are available in their slim digital ballasts, as well as full sized 'raptor series' ballasts. Both work great. I have the raptor as my lowbeams and the digital for my fogs, i feel they handle the water a little bit better.

I believe when you get the kit they only come in the slim ballast as the option.

Only thing I wish DDM did was send instructions on how to install them and a nicer packaging lol