[dsutanty]

Hi,
I am just wondering where do you put your ballast for your HID kit, I am struggling looking for the right place. Any pics would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[Tracksyde]

Here are where I originally mounted mine.. the driver side one, I have since moved to under the brake fluid reservoir (sorry, dont have a pic of that)

driver side

passenger side

 

[dsutanty]

Thank you, nice work!

 

[dearmosd]

i got the DDm tuing kit and so far pleased, i did get the 55w which i really bright but so far no on e has flasjed their lights at us so.... But i think i would go with 35watts

 

[dsutanty]

How bright is it 55W HID compare to 35W HID? What brand did you install? do you have any pic where you installed the ballast? thx

 

[dearmosd]

well by accident i got the http://www.ddmtuning.com/Products/Apexcone-Raptor-HID-Kit cause i out this model in the urchase basket and the ddm tuning slim ballast model but i deleted the wrong product, either way i'm so far i'm happy.

They are noticably brighter than 35watters, but the more i drive it the more i get use to it. But when you pull up behind someone at a stop light at night, you see everything inside their car. The wife told me i need to drivein front of her to get a personal view/opinion on the brightness because i thinkn the main focus and brightness of the beam is aimed towards the street and downward enough itmight not effect on coming traffic, but i'm still scared a cop will pull her over and question the brightness. But at least they are not HID bulbs in a regular headlamp were it shines every which way and blind everyone.

I'm thinkning about selling them and just getting the 35watt to be save.

Wife loves them becaue we live were there are a lot of woods and the potential for animals to cross the street this way she feels safer becasue she can see the road better.

Dont have a pic, becasuse i mounted the ballast under the enigine bay frame. I took a piece if rubber and put it inbetween the frame and ballast and used some zip ties to secure them, the ballast were a little thicker (non slimballast) so i didnt want to test the strength of the double sided sticky pad.​

 

[batibot]

dearmosd, let me know if you get a new pair and sell the 55 watt.

 

[dearmosd]

sorry baitbot i sold them already

but i will warn everyone that they are bright. the couple of days my wife drovve with them she got flashed several times a night and stopped by a local cop with just a warning.

 

[batibot]

just bought a set of raptors from ddm. ope it goes as well as the one i have in the corolla

 

[WISHYWASHY]

hi tracksyde, i just received the ddm kit yesterday and looks like the same ballast as yours, did you just 3M taped it on or did you zip tie it to anything?

 

[batibot]

just installed my ddm raptors yesterday. installed the ballests on the frame just under the washer reservoir and just under the fuse box using 3m tape. was not totally happy with it bec its not as white and bright as the one i have on my corolla. must be because we have projectors on the sienna. ita a 35w 5k

 

[WISHYWASHY]

just installed my ddm raptors yesterday. installed the ballests on the frame just under the washer reservoir and just under the fuse box using 3m tape. was not totally happy with it bec its not as white and bright as the one i have on my corolla. must be because we have projectors on the sienna. ita a 35w 5k

i did my 35w 6k today (DDM Slim), excuse my crappy camera phone pic, it is white in person

can you take a pic of yours so i can see how the 5k from DDM looks like

thanks!

 

[batibot]

yes, ill try to take pics when i get home. yours looks like it have a hint of blue on it. how is the light in front. mine seems to be yellowish on the cutoff

 

[gs3tek]

On my driver's side, I WAS going to put it under the reservoir.
However, the paranoia part of me didn't = didn't want the remote possibility of a ballast malfunction to mix with that oil reservoir:ugh3: so it's mounted on the inside of the fender with double side tape:thumbsup:

On the passenger, there's plenty of room.

Here are where I originally mounted mine.. the driver side one, I have since moved to under the brake fluid reservoir (sorry, dont have a pic of that)

driver side

 

[importguy]

Tracksyd,
Did you have to use a separate wiring harness with the DDM HID kit? Also, did you have to remove the DRL fuse to get the HIDs to work with out any issues? The reason I am asking is that I have installed 2 AC Digital HID kits (HIDLook, XenonSupply) and on both kits, either one side works and the other doesn't, or they both don't work, or the both do work; very intermittent. I did reverse polarity and even tried switching ballast from one side to the other but I would never get both HIDs to consistently turn on. I'm thinking its the ballast but they're both brand new kits. I ordered a set of the DDM slim HID kit in hopes that I have better luck. Thanks.

 

[Tracksyde]

Tracksyd,
Did you have to use a separate wiring harness with the DDM HID kit? Also, did you have to remove the DRL fuse to get the HIDs to work with out any issues? The reason I am asking is that I have installed 2 AC Digital HID kits (HIDLook, XenonSupply) and on both kits, either one side works and the other doesn't, or they both don't work, or the both do work; very intermittent. I did reverse polarity and even tried switching ballast from one side to the other but I would never get both HIDs to consistently turn on. I'm thinking its the ballast but they're both brand new kits. I ordered a set of the DDM slim HID kit in hopes that I have better luck. Thanks.

No, I didnt use a separate relay/wiring harness. I just used the wires that came with the ballasts to plug into the stock harness. I didnt need to do anything else funky other than mounting the ballast and plugging in the wires.

With that said, my friend bought a DDM slim ballast kit at the same time as I did, but for his Prius. He had the same issues you are describing. We swapped out bulbs and ballasts with ones that worked on my Sienna, but he still had intermittent firing issues. He even installed the relay harness, but that didnt seem to make a difference.

This was about 18 months ago. I actually asked him last week if he still had any issues and he said that a few months after installing them, the intermittent firing "went away" and that now his HIDs fire up fairly consistently. So much so that he doesnt even think about it anymore.

Another thing I will throw in is that when I was researching the DDM kits, I found a post on a BMW forum or something where the DDM guy was talking about his kits. He said the "fat ballast" (the non-digital ones) were by far the most popular and trouble-free ballasts he sells. IIRC, he even claimed they may be the most reliable on the market.

I've recently been looking into HID kits for another car and the retrofitsource.com came up a lot as a reliable source. When I looked at their kits, I saw it used "fat ballasts" (appear to be non-digital). So with that said, if you just cant get digital slim ballasts to work for you and you can get over the "fat vs slim ballast" thing, then you may just want to go with the fat ballasts. On my Sienna, I'm actually using the fat ballasts in the fog lights and the slims for the headlights. In the 18 months I've had them, neither of them have given me any issues (although when I first installed the slims, I did have one ballast swapped out).

Lots of people will say to run the harness. But from what I've seen, I dont think that is necessary. Yes, it may be better for your stock wiring. Yes, it may help with intermittent firing (but I think that has more to do with loose tolerances between various ballasts). But in my Sienna, they've been pretty reliable without it.

I was going to go with another brand of HID kit for my other car. But I've since decided to just get another set of the DDM slims, but I'll get it with the harness. The cost for the kit + harness is still less than most of the "so-called reliable brands". I will also say though that I work fairly close to DDM's office in Huntington Beach, CA. So its much easier for me to take advantage of their lifetime warranty on their bulbs and ballasts.

 

[importguy]

Thanks for your help, Tracksyde.
I know the post is old but I didn't want to start a new thread. Anyways, I have aftermarket HIDs in my 2007 Camry and don't use a wiring harness. Both the Camry and the 2011+ Siennas use the same H11 bulbs so I thought it would have been an easy install in my wife's new Sienna. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. I even took it to a custom shop to get my windows tinted and inquired about needing a wiring harness for the HIDs. The installation manager said that on 2012+ Camrys, a wiring harness is needed because of all the additional electronics. However, he didn't think the new Siennas needed a wiring harness and said that the issue is probably with the kit's ballasts. I don't have any issues using either the fat or slim ballasts because there is so much room in the Sienna's engine compartment. When the DDM kit comes in, I try it out w/o the harness and hopefully I have better luck. If not, I'll just take it in to the custom shop and let them take care of the install cause I don't want to mess anything up with the electronic and void the warranty. Thanks again for your help.

 

[cyawong69]

just installed my ddm raptors yesterday. installed the ballests on the frame just under the washer reservoir and just under the fuse box using 3m tape. was not totally happy with it bec its not as white and bright as the one i have on my corolla. must be because we have projectors on the sienna. ita a 35w 5k

I want to ask... What is the difference with using a relay or without.

One my old 2005 sienna, I was using a DDM tunging slim ballast with 35W 6K.. It was OK...

So now considering installing HID on my 2013 XLE Sienna.

Any suggestions?? I am thinking slim ballast:-

http://www.ddmtuning.com/Products/DDM-HID-Kit-Slim-Ballast-35W-or-55W

with may be 6K.

Hope someone who has this kit can help to comment.