Ordered my DDM HID Kit

Body kits, bling, lights
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Integraautox
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Ordered my DDM HID Kit

Postby Integraautox » Sun Dec 11, 2011 9:14

I just ordered my 35W 6000K DDM HID Kit. Does anyone have any experience with these, I heard the install is pretty simple. How does the 6000K look? I figured for how inexpensive they are and the fairly good reviews about the product I couldn't go wrong. Worse comes to worse I can always resell them and take a $20 hit.

Learjet45
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Postby Learjet45 » Sun Dec 11, 2011 9:14

From my mazda6 days, I pretty much found the general consensus among 6 owners to be shit customer service and shoddy quality. That's not to say everyone had bad experiences, but I found more people complaining about it than people that had good things to say. I eventually decided if I did the HID route, I wanted to go with a retrofit from The Retrofit Source. $300 for a kit (IIRC, they have a full retrofit kit for the 3) which includes new projectors. I would kill for some TL(-R?) projectors (as you may have guessed, TL projectors, those things are damn good headlights, can't remember if they find used TL projectors that they verify the quality of, or if they make replicas).
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Justin
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Postby Justin » Sun Dec 11, 2011 9:14

I was quite happy with mine. Install took a couple of hours (took the bumper skin off for a tidier install). I really liked the 6000k bulbs. Nice and white with no hint of ricey blue. Bright as hell, can't see why someone would use the 55w. I had them in for about 35,000 trouble-free miles and would buy them again in a heartbeat. I can buy 6 sets of them for $300, and given the ease of installation it'd be easy to swap out an entire unit if one went bad. If you're reasonably mechanical, the install is easy, although I vaguely remember thinking the instructions could have been better. Look for an online install guide.

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Postby mOOsE » Mon Dec 12, 2011 9:14

I also had a set of these for my MS3 and had zero issues. Ran the 35w 6000k set. Extremely white with a very light tint of blue (will appear slightly blue compared to normal 4000k temp OEM colors) Very easy install, but I also removed the bumper to get better access for mounting.

lowball
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Postby lowball » Mon Dec 12, 2011 9:14

I am on my 5th or 6th set from them (All different cars Ive owned) And very happy with the product. I have tried their 5000k, 6000k, and 8000k and am most pleased with the 6000k. The only issues I have ever had with them is on the first set I ordered(8000k), one of the bulbs was broken in the package (probably not their fault). They sent me out a new set free of charge and took care of the shipping and provided a return label for the broken bulb. And on another set I ordered, about two weeks after my order I still hadn't recieved my tracking # so I called them and they told me they were on backorder for that color. I talked to them and they somehow came up with a set and shipped it out to me asap. I am also currently waiting on a set from them.
[img][IMG]http://i565.photobucket.com/albums/ss93/mikeandtasha96/pp1.jpg[/img][/IMG]
This is my 6000 kit I have on my protege now and it doesnt look quite as blue in person as it does in the pic.

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SecondGenPAt
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Postby SecondGenPAt » Mon Dec 12, 2011 9:14

I trust that you have the properly engineered headlamp housing to install these "HID" bulbs into, correct? That is saying, a headlamp housing originally engineered to focus the light output of an HID bulb? I know you're not saying that you intend to put these "HID" bulbs straight into a housing that was engineered to focus halogen or other incandescent light sources, correct? You know, because this is illegal due to safety reasons because of the glare it imparts to other motorist.
People like me, that understand the design behind incandescent vs. Xenon lamps, have been known to brake check the douche-bag retards that do crap like this as it hinders everybody's safety on the road.

http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/cfr_2004/octqtr/49cfr571.108.htm
http://fmvss108.tripod.com/fmvss108text.htm

http://isearch.nhtsa.gov/files/Shih.3.html
http://isearch.nhtsa.gov/files/deetz.ztv.html
http://isearch.nhtsa.gov/files/kim.ztv.html

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-Pat
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Justin
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Postby Justin » Mon Dec 12, 2011 9:14

They'll work fine in an '09 MS3. The stock halogen projectors have a fairly aggressive cutoff. I don't think I ever got brighted by someone when I had mine.

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SecondGenPAt
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Postby SecondGenPAt » Mon Dec 12, 2011 9:14

Justin wrote:They'll work fine in an '09 MS3. Besides, they'll look really really cool, and I'm too cheap to do it right


Fixed that for ya there bud:1a98aa81:

Now, without stating the obvious, like; you will actually put less light on the road in front of you, where you need it... oops. just did, my bad.
Also there is a legal stipulation that states all Xenon headlamps must have the ability to adjust beam level automatically to compensate for changes in vehicle loading, which I'm sure your stock halogens have due to Mazda wanting to add cost and weight unnecessarily...

-Pat


Edit:
Hell, even Lear got this one right. Nicely done John
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mOOsE
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Postby mOOsE » Tue Dec 13, 2011 9:14

SecondGenPAt wrote:People like me, that understand the design behind incandescent vs. Xenon lamps, have been known to brake check the douche-bag retards that do crap like this as it hinders everybody's safety on the road.

-Pat


So, pretending you are in a position of automotive authority while on the road, then performing an unnecessary (and dangerous) maneuver because something frustrates you is somehow the correct way to deal with a situation?

And the real d-bag award goes to...

BTW, early HID-equipped vehicles did not all have auto-leveling. Sure, installing HID's without some sort of projector looks and performs poorly. But I would venture a guess that 99% of the people who like to modify their cars in some sort of way that clashes with the law and may actually hinder some aspect of performance. Dealing with it the way you do is dangerous, idiotic, and dumber than putting an autozone wing and NOS decals on your car.

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RichB
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Postby RichB » Tue Dec 13, 2011 9:14

The stock MS3 sport halogen housings have the same projectors that the GTs models use with stock HIDs so you should be good to go. The only difference is that you won't have a leveling motor.

Another thing to note is that the GT leveling motor isn't automatic. Its a manual switch with 3 positions so the legal stipulation noted above is false....
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mOOsE
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Postby mOOsE » Tue Dec 13, 2011 9:14

RichB wrote:The stock MS3 sport halogen housings have the same projectors that the GTs models use with stock HIDs so you should be good to go. The only difference is that you won't have a leveling motor.

Another thing to note is that the GT leveling motor isn't automatic. Its a manual switch with 3 positions so the legal stipulation noted above is false....


+1

Forgot that they were the same housing. The location for the leveling is even there. Just no motor. My Evo X doesn't have auto-leveling either with it's factory HIDS... Must be illegals!!!! :eek:

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RichB
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Postby RichB » Tue Dec 13, 2011 9:14

Some people think mine are illegal because I get flashed all the time. Little do they know that I am completely stock....

My wife's Mini Cooper had Auto Leveling HIDs. It was pretty cool when you started the car because it did a full sweep. It was annoying in traffic though because it would lag after you hit bumps...
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Learjet45
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Postby Learjet45 » Tue Dec 13, 2011 9:14

I'm sticking by what I said, and going with Pat on this may. The DDM HID "kits" are the cheap way instead of the right way.
If you wan to upgrade to HIDs, do it right. I honestly suggest a Morimoto Retro-Quik system. Includes brackets to mount up new projectors in place of your old ones and everything else you need to get a good setup. It doesn't come cheap at $300, but it's going to be better than trying to take the easy way out by getting ballasts and bulbs. You'll end up with a true Bi-Xenon setup with better output than just putting in ballasts and bulbs.
http://www.theretrofitsource.com/product_info.php?products_id=254
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RichB
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Postby RichB » Tue Dec 13, 2011 9:14

I agree that you may run into issues with a Halgoen style projector but on the MS3 sport, getting bulbs and ballasts would give you an OEM MS3 GT set-up (minus the leveling motors).

Also, to install the Morimoto kit you will have to bake the housings in order to swap the projectors. Upgrading the projector lenses will give you the best results but it may not be worth it since you already have HID style projectors.
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Justin
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Postby Justin » Tue Dec 13, 2011 9:14

SecondGenPAt wrote:Fixed that for ya there bud:1a98aa81:

Now, without stating the obvious, like; you will actually put less light on the road in front of you, where you need it... oops. just did, my bad.
Also there is a legal stipulation that states all Xenon headlamps must have the ability to adjust beam level automatically to compensate for changes in vehicle loading, which I'm sure your stock halogens have due to Mazda wanting to add cost and weight unnecessarily...

-Pat


Edit:
Hell, even Lear got this one right. Nicely done John


Seriously? How much of an assmunch are you? I'm an relaying actual experience. They were a hell of a lot brighter than stock, both in intensity and distance. From what I can tell you've never run and MS3 with the kit in it, so quit waving your pointless little internet wang around. "People like you?" You have a PhD in being arrogant, right? I'll agree that most halogen housings aren't well engineered for HIDs and blind oncoming drivers. That's why I haven't put them in my WRX, despite the lousy stock lamps. The stock MS3 housings work great with HIDs, so I ran them. Please bother to know what you're talking about before you shoot your mouth off.

Lear, I agreed that the DDM kits are the cheap way out. I just couldn't rationalize paying 6x more for a little more light. I figured I'd give the DDM setups a try before going to something more expensive. I was really happy with them and didn't opt to upgrade.


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