Q on HID kits

55watts will run hotter than the 35watt HID kit......as to how hot will all depend on the bulbs & ballast u use. I can't say which is better since I don't use any 55watt HIDs.

I would be worried about them melting the stock projector or the chrome inside.

 

I have the DDM 35W slim kit. But I followed F8L's lead/advice and replaced the DDM bulbs with a pair of Morimoto 5000K bulbs. It has the ground wire shadow, but I'm pretty happy with the color and intensity.

I also have a DDM 35W kit with DDM 5000K bulbs in a 2011 Sienna and although its not an apples-to-apples comparison, to my eyes, the Morimoto bulbs in my Prius are much brighter than the DDM bulbs in the Sienna. I never actually even tried the DDM bulbs in the Prius so I cant say for sure. But it seems that is the general consensus with Morimoto vs DDM bulbs.

 

Why not just change to better bulbs but keep the ballasts as I've heard from others of the not-so-good quality in DDM bulbs. Anyhow, F8 is very knowledgeable in the lighting dept. & hopefully he'll chime in soon.

 

Morimoto bulbs will give you the wire shadow. I'd stick with the 35w and go with XenonSupply bulbs.

 

I will say that I've never heard any good reviews about DDMs HIDs.

 

I like the DDM kits. I have 2 sets in my camry bought in 2009, never any issue. I just ordered 2 new sets for the prius although I dont have fogs yet. I like the quality not sure about now since this one is drop shipped from china where in 2009 i got it from cali so the quality could be worse. In any case if its not bright ill follow what others are doing and replace the bulbs.

 

I don't have first hand experience with using DDM but on a Bimmer forum there have been lots of issues with the ballasts failing & bulbs not matching in color. I guess this is 1 of the #1 reasons why I always do my HID retros.....to stay with OEM. I have OEM Denso ballasts w/TRS H11 bulbs (yes, I have the gnd wire issue) but am doing a HID retro.

 

My original advice to run the DDM ballasts and Morimoto bulbs was based on experience using non-OEM projectors in my GenII. With the GenIII there is a ground wire shadow "issue" when using the Morimoto bulbs. The Xenon Supply bulbs do not produce the ground shadow but neither do the DDM bulbs. The DDM bulbs are total crap IMO and no not accurately produce the color you expect. My 5000K bulbs look like 6000K bulbs. This has been the case with all 5 sets of bulbs I have owned from them. The bulbs were also tested to be dimmer than bulbs from Xenon Depot and Morimoto. Since I have no experience with Xenon Supply I cannot say if their bulbs are any good or not. I'm still leaning towards swapping my bulbs for Morimotos when I can afford it. I hate my blue headlights!

 

Lol F8l 5 sets?, when I first got the kits in 09 I got 5k and I was like damn thats still pretty blue many people with other kits said 5k would be pretty clear. The only thing is that I was coming from a kit with 8k and since it was less blue I was ok with it. Not until joining the forum did I realize that they jerk us on the bulbs lol.

 

Yeah, LOL.

I went through 4 sets in my GenII because of the blue color and general dimness (foglight and headlight). I tried everything from 4300K to 6000K and they all looked the same. I purchased the 5th set for the GenIII. Garbage I tell ya! Haha

 

Aren't you supposed to learn from experience? lol.

When TRS is done with my lights, I believe they'll be putting in new bulbs to the projectors. I have Morimoto bulbs in my current housings, so I can sell em to ya discounted since they'd be used.

The Morimoto's are definitely a better light output than DDM. I had something before DDM, and I honestly noticed next to no difference when I put the DDM bulbs in. I have no clue what ballasts I'm using now, though. I noticed a decent improvement when I removed the DDMs and put in the Morimoto's, though. So much so, that I just tossed the DDM bulbs in the trash can!

 

Some people don't ever learn