# DDM Tuning 55w 10k HID kit



## ZincGT (Dec 1, 2010)




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## Oh5V (Jan 4, 2011)

how is the light pattern cut off line? does it blind on coming drivers?


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## 70AARCUDA (Nov 14, 2010)

...if the curb height is 8-inches on that building across the street, then the cut-off line _appears_ to be about twice that distance, or about 16-18-inches above the roadway.


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## ZincGT (Dec 1, 2010)

70AARCUDA said:


> ...if the curb height is 8-inches on that building across the street, then the cut-off line _appears_ to be about twice that distance, or about 16-18-inches above the roadway.


That curb is not 8 inches. I have yet to be flashed by another driver, I have over 2k miles with these lights.


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## nickatjvill48 (Jan 10, 2011)

just ordered a set of 35watts for my truck and am thinking about 35watts for the cruze now. 55watt im scared of melting plastic. also did they set off a check engine light


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## ZincGT (Dec 1, 2010)

You wont melt anything. The temp difference is marginal. I have no errors, highs work no problems. Don't let every one scare you, we now have them in all 8 of our cars with no issues.


They are all 55w 10k
88 mustang, 00 mustang, the cruze, 96 ranger, 05 f150, 06 odyessey, 96 honda civic, 97 eagle talon


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## wolfpack86 (Jan 26, 2011)

nickatjvill48 said:


> just ordered a set of 35watts for my truck and am thinking about 35watts for the cruze now. 55watt im scared of melting plastic. also did they set off a check engine light


Check Engine lights should only be set off if the vehicle becomes emission incompliant, so you shouldn't have anything to worry about as lights should have nothing to do with emissions.


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## Knightslugger (Jan 11, 2011)

How did you defeat the PWM for DRL?


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## itsbmw (Feb 5, 2011)

I love DDM! The kits are amazing, I have always used them. 

I have a question for you, is there a way to disable the DRL for these, and do you have any issues running these with DRLs?

I have the same exact kit you have.(The bulbs are on the way(10k as well)) I pulled my 55w slim ballast from my old car.

Thanks.


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## oolowrideoo (Mar 2, 2011)

Anyone ever determine if DRL's are an issue with these, or if there is a way to permanently disable DRL's?


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## itsbmw (Feb 5, 2011)

DRLs are not an issue if you use a harness(since I purchased the Hi/Low Bulbs I got the harness with it), And I cannot find a way to disable them.


Also:

My headlights were aimed WAY! too high, I had to readjust them for my 55w 10k kit. I got flashed everywhere I went


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## GMMillwright (Mar 5, 2011)

Just ordered my 35w 6000k HID for headlights and driving lights from DDM. Having a car-audio friend install them (and HIDs for my wife's new Impala, too) on the 27th.


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## jakkaroo (Feb 12, 2011)

how much did you pay?and where can i buy some online


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## GMMillwright (Mar 5, 2011)

DDMTuning.com

$115 shipped for both headlights and driving lights.


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## jakkaroo (Feb 12, 2011)

GMMillwright said:


> DDMTuning.com
> 
> $115 shipped for both headlights and driving lights.


nice thats pretty cheap


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## jakkaroo (Feb 12, 2011)

i bought some 6k hids but when i pull the oem bulb off its a 3 wire plug and my hid kit i got is only 2 wires then there is and extra 2 prones that are positive and negative can someone pls post a pic of how they installed


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## GMMillwright (Mar 5, 2011)

Just called DDM about my order. All HIDs are back-ordered. They don't have any in stock. None. They expect delivery by month end. So that means my HIDs won't be here until the first week of April (while I'm on vacation -- of course). Super. Too bad my local guy couldn't get the H8s. He could get the 8000k H13, but I prefer the whiter light of the 6000ks.


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## MetallicBlackCRZ (Mar 21, 2011)

Got 7k 55w bulbs on ther way today...


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## Blue Angel (Feb 18, 2011)

So what do you do for high beams now? Make sure you never leave the city and its lit streets?


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## Skilz10179 (Mar 22, 2011)

Are these DDM kits true plug and play or is there wire splicing involved?


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## Inline4_driver (Jul 23, 2010)

Cut-off looks ok. But why are they pointed so low?? Also why'd you go with 10k. Anything higher than 6k youre actually getting less light output. Which kinda defeats the purpose of getting HIDs in the first place.


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## 4piecekit (Mar 17, 2011)

GMMillwright, let us know how your lights look when you do get them installed. I was thinking about the 35w/6000k as well. Did you order the harness too? I was asking about Piaa bulbs in another thread but I guess I didn't realize HID kits were very affordable now.


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## GMMillwright (Mar 5, 2011)

I got an email from them today stating that my order had been "packed", whatever that means. I hope the product is worth the hassle and poor customer service....

No additional harness. I think I read it comes with one, hence the additional $20 charge.


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## Blue Angel (Feb 18, 2011)

Inline4_driver said:


> Also why'd you go with 10k. Anything higher than 6k youre actually getting less light output. Which kinda defeats the purpose of getting HIDs in the first place.


If you ask me, anything over 4100K (the OEM standard) defeats the purpose of going HID. OEMs chose 4100K because it provides the best mix of light color and output.

The higher the color temp goes above 4100K the less output you're getting and the more aggravating it is on your (and everyone else's) eyes; shorter light wavelengths (higher color temps) are progressively more and more irritating for the human eye to process, this is why there are so many complaints refering to those "blue" headlights.

OEM HID headlights are not blue, they are 4100K white. Most projector based HID systems have a very small amount of blu-ish output right near the top of the light cutoff, that's why the lights of an oncoming car can "flicker" a blu-ish hue. This phenomenon is caused by the projector optics, not the bulb, and passes DOT regulations because it is only a very small percentage of overall output.

A traditional reflector-based headlight (like most cars use) cannot do this, so people take it upon themselves to put blue-ish looking bulbs in their headlights to try to make them look like HID (even those retrofitting HIDs into their cars!).

Also, projector based headlights typically perform better than reflector based units, that's why there are so few reflector based HID systems out there; it's simply harder to control where the light is going, the result being more light leakage above cutoff (more glare for oncoming traffic) and less light spread side to side (bright up front with little illumination into ditches and sidewalks). This is why OEMs choose projectors, and why "retrofits" are not legal.

Lastly, since OEMs don't make the "blue" looking HID bulbs, you're putting your money into a product of questionable quality and origin that has little to no testing or quality control... it should be no surprise then that most of these aftermarket HID retrofit kits don't last too long; they're just cheap knock offs of the real thing.

If you want to do it right, get an OEM (Valeo, Bosch, etc.) projector from a wrecked car and retrofit it into your existing headlights using OEM bulbs and ballasts. You'll see better, and so will everyone else.


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## Skilz10179 (Mar 22, 2011)

Great post Blue Angel. But even when using a higher temp bulb than 4100k the h.i.d. bulb is still going to be about 3X brighter than a halogen bulb. I've used 6000k h.i.d. kits in a couple cars and the light output was at least double of stock.


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## GMMillwright (Mar 5, 2011)

Just got an email that my order is in transit via US Mail. Not from California. From China. Appearently, they drop shipped straight from the manufacturer. No big deal, I guess. Hopefully, the quality of these is on par with the quality of the German units I've used in the past.


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## Skilz10179 (Mar 22, 2011)

I just ordered a complete plug and play 6000k kit for $35 shipped from an ebay seller I've bought kits from in the past.


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## GMMillwright (Mar 5, 2011)

Well, had the DDM Tuning kits (6000k - H13 and H8) installed today by my "car audio buddy". He's a seasoned pro, so I'll pass on some issues he had. I would have gotten the kits from him, but he could only get the H13s (and only in 8000K) and not the H8s.

First, the H13 bulbs were too loose in the back of the headlights with the supplied rubber gasket. Ended up using the gasket from the OEM bulbs and the gaskets DDM supplied to tighten them up. Worked fine with the 2 gaskets.

Second, the relay wiring harness had the wrong relay connector. IIRC, he said it had an H7 male plug. Probably a shipping mix up, but when the stuff comes straight from China, that's a real problem. Fortunately, he had a harness from the 8000k kit he had in stock and just swapped them.

Lastly, he didn't like the fuse holder DDM supplied. He said he's seen many of that style burn up. He replaced DDM's with a heavy-duty one.

I haven't driven with them at night yet. I'll do that on the way home from work, but we did re-aim the headlights. From the factory, the passenger side was quite a bit higher than the driver side. We split the difference. We'll see if that's too high tonight.

Also, the DRLs can be turned off by just turning off the auto-headlights. That way, they'll last a lot longer. I was worried about that since the Cruze doesn't have a dedicated fuse for the DRLs (which I just pull), like my other cars.

Install took about 3 hours. We didn't have to remover the bumper or headlight assemblies. We only had to remove the front windage tray under the bumper to access the fog lights.


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## CHEVYCRUZE RS (Mar 29, 2011)

those are 10000k? I was planning on getting 6000k headlights and 8000k foglights..
do you guys recommend anything? I want the fogs being a bit more "bluer" then my headlights.?


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## Cruzin mando (Apr 19, 2011)

GMMillwright said:


> DDMTuning.com
> 
> $115 shipped for both headlights and driving lights.


 
wow really? i go to their shop and get them for $55 i should start selling them lol


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## Blue Angel (Feb 18, 2011)

Skilz10179 said:


> ...even when using a higher temp bulb than 4100k the h.i.d. bulb is still going to be about 3X brighter than a halogen bulb. I've used 6000k h.i.d. kits in a couple cars and the light output was at least double of stock.


You're right, Skilz. I should have been a bit more clear:

An OEM 35W 4100K HID bulb has roughly 3 times as much light output than an OEM halogen bulb. A higher color temp HID bulb will have reduced output compared to an OEM HID bulb but will still technically have higher output than an OEM halogen bulb.

The main issue is that increasing the color temperature of your headlights reduces the effectiveness of that higher output since you are producing light over a narrower and narrower spectrum the higher you go.

I read a technical paper years ago that explained the effects of light color temperature of vehicle headlights on human sight. The overall conclusion of that paper was that the farther the color temperature strays above 4100K the less effective the light output is for the driver. An example depicted a high color temp bulb (6-8000K, I don't remember) that produced a "measured" output of roughly twice that of a halogen bulb (not 3X like an OEM 4100K bulb). The "measured" output of the bulb was twice that of the halogen reference, the "percieved" output was also higher than the halogen reference*, but the effectiveness of the light in illuminating objects for the human eye (and brain) was THE SAME OR LESS than the halogen equivalent.

(* - it was determined that the human-percieved output was un-naturally high due to the eye's higher sensitivity to shorter wavelength light, which is irritating to the eye and percieved brighter than it actually is when considering the "normal" operating light spectrum of the human eye)

Granted, this test was done in a controled environment that definitely would not cover all driving situations, but it was used in actual headlights to illuminate actual objects in front of a car and actual humans were used in the test to evaluate the effectiveness of the illumination.

As could be predicted, I'm sure if this test was performed with various color temperature bulbs starting at 5000K and working up to 10,000K there would be a "trend" that would develop showing that the 10,000K bulbs performed the worst and the performance would gradually get better as the color temps approached daylight.

I don't see any problems as far as the driver of the car goes if they are modifying their own lights... it's their choice if they want to improve/degrade their own vehicle's lighting. The problem is with the effects on other drivers since the reflector housings in most cars do not control light output well enough to guarantee that the increased output will not blind oncoming traffic. Add to that the irritant aspect of the shorter wavelength/higher color temp. bulbs, and the problem can get quite serious.

If everyone was to take their car to a lab and have their modified headlight's output measured after upgrading to HIDs and ensure that there is not an offending amount of glare to oncoming traffic (which will never happen) my thoughts would be different, but there will always be "that guy" who ruins it for everyone by putting 10,000K headlights into the faded foggy headlights (and/or foglights) of his 15 year old pickup truck and drives around micro-waving the eyeballs out of everone they comes across on the road. If they get caught or reported they'll get a slap on the wrist and keep on keepin' on.


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## itsbmw (Feb 5, 2011)

Cruzin mando said:


> wow really? i go to their shop and get them for $55 i should start selling them lol


 
Take into account he probably bought the harness and the Hi/Low(bi-xenon kit)


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## unitednations161 (Mar 13, 2011)

when ordering these from ddm do i have to add the harness like it asks or is one just givin to me since the are low and high?


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## GMMillwright (Mar 5, 2011)

Harness comes with the H13 high-low beams, hence the extra $20 charge.


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