decent 35w HID ballasts?

[Thaco]

I bought a cheap set, obviously they are low quality, had 2 ballasts go out within like 6 months, anybody have an experience with some reliable ballasts? i am not looking for the best, or to spend a mint, just want something that will last at least a couple years

this is what i have, hoping to find something compatible with the existign wiring so i don't have to pull the headlights out
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/H7-35W-Car-Styling-Xenon-HID-Bulb-Kit-12V-Slim-Ballast-3000K-4300K-5000K-6000K-8000K/32419229916.html?spm=2114.13010608.0.0.uk39fI

[RickDaTuner]

I have used VVME.com ballast with great success, had a set run for 4 years with out a hiccup till the bulbs finally gave out

[jacky4566]

Man those looks really cheap. No wonder they fried.
The Retro Fit Source should have something compatible.

[mzdspd]

I have always used DDM, they are cheap and definitely not high quality like TRS. But I have always bought two complete kits (usually around 25 per set). I have had them on 4 vehicles now. And I have replaced probably 2 ballasts in 4 years. Good enough for me and still much cheaper then TRS.

[tha_bandit]

I had good experiences with xentec from amazon

[94boosted]

Morimoto from The Retrofit Source. Quality is top shelf.

[samo147]

I bought from TRS and VVME. I would go with VVME.

I've had a bad ballast from TRS that died within a week of use. I had to warranty the TRS ballast and they charged me 20$ for shipping. I thought TRS was high quality stuff but was pretty disappointed. Spending 500$ on a kit and my time to install it only to have it break and have to waste my time to reinstall a bad part.

I have since used a VVME ballast without any issues.

[Thaco]

thanks for the suggestions guys, TRS is way out of my budget, but vvme looks reasonable and has a year warranty so thats comforting

[redblack]

I've been using the same morimoto kit from the retrofit shop on my car for 4years now with no issues at all. Wait for the Black Friday sale, they always discount them 10-20%

[J-hop]

I've been using cheapo kits for a while (set on my Jetta is about 5 years old) and have had pretty good experiences.

6 months seems REALLY short. You no doubt know this but you aren't using them with DRL enabled are you? No matter what voltage companies claim their ballasts will operate at I've never heard of good experiences running HIDs with DRLs

[Thaco]

Originally posted by J-hop
I've been using cheapo kits for a while (set on my Jetta is about 5 years old) and have had pretty good experiences.

6 months seems REALLY short. You no doubt know this but you aren't using them with DRL enabled are you? No matter what voltage companies claim their ballasts will operate at I've never heard of good experiences running HIDs with DRLs nah my car doesnt even have DRLs its all automatic, i'd have to manually turn on the drls every time i get in the car, which i dont do

nvm, just googled it, this may be my problem, looking in to solutions now.

[HiSpec]

I've had good luck with ballast and bulbs from TRS. But it is their OEM stuff not their own line.

[J-hop]

Originally posted by Thaco
nah my car doesnt even have DRLs its all automatic, i'd have to manually turn on the drls every time i get in the car, which i dont do

nvm, just googled it, this may be my problem, looking in to solutions now.

Yea on my Jetta it was quick, just bent a pin in the switch and drls were disabled. I know guys that didn't do that would get a slight flickering with the drls which is really hard on the ballasts and we're going through them regularly until they disabled them.

[Thaco]

Originally posted by J-hop


Yea on my Jetta it was quick, just bent a pin in the switch and drls were disabled. I know guys that didn't do that would get a slight flickering with the drls which is really hard on the ballasts and we're going through them regularly until they disabled them. yeah mine is odd, the passenger side flickered, and eventually died, i moved the dirver side ballast over to see if the problem was the bulb or ballast and now it flickers too, but it was fine on the drivers side, kinda strange.. looks like for my car its not quite as easy as bending a pin or pulling the fuse, might have to throw in a relay and capacitor, gotta do some more research on it.

[J-hop]

In the mean time I guess you can run with the headlight switches turned on that way you aren't running them at low voltage. Yea I bet some cars can be a pain in the butt to disable the drls. My cars are too old to be complex.

[Thaco]

Originally posted by J-hop
In the mean time I guess you can run with the headlight switches turned on that way you aren't running them at low voltage. Yea I bet some cars can be a pain in the butt to disable the drls. My cars are too old to be complex. there are ways to do it without disabling the DRLs just have to add a relay and capaciter to smooth out the voltage since technically its illegal to disable the DRLs in canada, this is probably the best route... but will probably cost me more than new ballasts, lol... but new ballasts will just be a bandaid, so i need to do both.

https://www.hidplanet.com/forums/forum/general-discussion/wiring-questions/36925-drl-and-hid-issue-fix-keep-your-drl-s-no-flickering

i have also read that just a cap across the stock headlight harness would be sufficient, still researching that since i probably have a bunch of old PC power supplies sitting around i could nix the caps from for free.

[relyt92]

Could you check and see if you have a DRL fuse, and just remove that?

[Thaco]

Originally posted by relyt92
Could you check and see if you have a DRL fuse, and just remove that? not that easy in my car, i looked it up on a forum for my specific car, the year i have doesnt have that option, and again, that technically makes the car not legal for use in canada

[Zero102]

I was frustrated by a similar problem and ended up just building my own microcontroller (attiny84) based ballast/high beam controllers. My van PWMs the high beam as the DRL, then 99% duty cycle on the low beam when headlights were on, and 99% duty cycle on the high beams when high beams were on. It also shut off the headlight on each side when you turned on the signal light.

To improve ballast lifespan and avoid hot starts killing my bulbs I built controllers that plug into each side's headlamp harness and also each other, so that it checks both sides for a highbeam DRL signal, low beam signal or a high beam signal and controls the ballast and high beam solenoid appropriately.

I'm surprised there aren't more off-the-shelf products for this.

[Prelude_dude]

Originally posted by mzdspd
I have always used DDM, they are cheap and definitely not high quality like TRS. But I have always bought two complete kits (usually around 25 per set). I have had them on 4 vehicles now. And I have replaced probably 2 ballasts in 4 years. Good enough for me and still much cheaper then TRS.

+1 for DDM.

Put them on our scion xd. Had them for 4 years now on the car. The lights also run as the DRLs. We daily the car, and the lights still seem to be going strong. *knock on wood*

Plus they come with lifetime warranty. ive never made a claim as i am still on my first set; i can't comment how hard it is to make a claim.