Jerry
Dork
10/18/13 8:10 a.m.
I put HID headlights in the '06 Scion xB 3 years ago. Apparently one ballast has died (swapped bulbs, stayed on the driver side).
I bought the kit from HIDExtra and at the time they were German made kits with reliability, I have heard from friends they have switched to Chinese/something else and are not as reliable. I emailed them about a replacement ballast, they recommended not mixing old and new, and a full replacement is $60.
Does anyone have a good source? A few friends mentioned Meng Motorsports, just not sure they're worth $120. Anyone?
revhard
New Reader
10/18/13 8:20 a.m.
http://www.theretrofitsource.com/index.php?cPath=26
my brother swears by morimoto. i bought their d2s bulbs and my brother runs one of their retrofit kits with their hid kit. I believe he had a bulb or ballast go bad on him once in the past three years but they replaces it no charge.
id either go with them or ddm tuning cuz they are uber cheap
http://www.ddmtuning.com/Product-Categories/HID-Kits-and-Components
I used ddm maybe like 6 years ago on a car long gone. no complaints from them either.
theretrofitsource, hands down.
I've had DDM stuff and while it "works" I had two ballasts go bad, and really they are primarily P&P into stock halogen housings, which doesn't improve anything and annoys other drivers. I had it using the stock WRX (halogen) projectors and it was lousy.
Now I have TRF's quick-retro kit using actual HID projectors (bixenon) and Morimoto bulbs (and stock STi Philips ballasts). Night and day difference (no pun intended).. They compare favorably with the much-adored TSX projectors. No problems in the 3-4 years I've had that setup on the car, other than a bad ground on one light (my fault, easily fixed).
Yep, what they said. I've been to the Retrofit Source's shop and met the guys. They are super knowledgeable and willing to help with anything. I have used their FX-R bi-xenon projectors on my car and am completely happy with them, plus the ballasts just work all the time, every time. I can't say that about some of the other chinese kits I've seen out there.
I really liked the kensun kit I got, plus customer service was great!