HID ballast died - aftermarket ones worth the money?

N

nthach

Joined
Jan 2, 2004
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Location
California
My driver’s side headlight gave out last night. I suspect moisture intrusion, since I was seeing condensation for a while in the headlight assembly. New OE headlight is almost $1000, aftermarket Depo brand is $300 without ballast. For now, I’m going to track down the leak with the original OE and repair it with 3M Strip-Calk, a butyl tape that’s similar but not quite like the butyl used at the factory.

I see lots of aftermarket copies of the Toyota/Denso(Koito) on eBay and Amazon - one of them on Amazon gets decent reviews. Dorman and Standard/BWD sell Chinesium for $180ish. I decided to gamble with a used OE one for $50. OE is $280.

Has anyone here used a replacement aftermarket HID ballast with success?
 
nthach said:
My driver’s side headlight gave out last night. I suspect moisture intrusion, since I was seeing condensation for a while in the headlight assembly. New OE headlight is almost $1000, aftermarket Depo brand is $300 without ballast. For now, I’m going to track down the leak with the original OE and repair it with 3M Strip-Calk, a butyl tape that’s similar but not quite like the butyl used at the factory.

I see lots of aftermarket copies of the Toyota/Denso(Koito) on eBay and Amazon - one of them on Amazon gets decent reviews. Dorman and Standard/BWD sell Chinesium for $180ish. I decided to gamble with a used OE one for $50. OE is $280.

Has anyone here used a replacement aftermarket HID ballast with success?
Click to expand...

Can you give us the vehicle details please?
Thanks
 
I have been using ddmtuning set (bulb and ballast) for a long time.
It is good.
It has lifetime warranty, so keep the receipt as pdf and send it in everytime it gave up for the bulb and ballast..

I never have a car that comes with HID so I used aftermarket HID from them.

Or, if it has standard bulb and fitting like other Toyota models, you can replace just the bulb with LED bulb.
 
I’ve played with HID projectors for about a decade. It seems that most aftermarket has a lifespan. I used DDM as well, and they warranty their ballasts without complaint. I later started buying morimoto ballasts from TRS; they are slightly nicer, but also fail, though they seem to last one year longer. TRS does carry a ballast with lifetime warranty, and I’m close to installing a pair I’ve had on hand as spares as the current ones are starting to flake.

it does seem to me that oem units probably last longer. It would be interesting to see if oem-like replacements fair better than regular aftermarket.
 
I used an ebay chineseium ballast on my 05 prius with HIDs.

At first I thought it was the bulb-- got ebay bulbs that sucked and didn't fix it. Went back to the OE bulb which I carefully packed away and the cheapo ballast. Mint! I like to think I only paid $58 or so for the ballast.

Symptoms were, IIRC, that it would sometimes light and sometimes not.
 
I’ve found that the name brand bulbs for $100 at autozone last longer with less drama than the TRS house brand at 1/3 the cost. I like that I can choose TRS color, and go for the 3.1k bulbs which look just like halogen and have a wonderful warmth to them, but they start to become unreliable in circumstances where a standard Philips bulb just keeps going. while the Philips bulb lacks the warmth, I can’t keep messing with the headlights annually.

My recommendation: pay for something decent, or you’ll be swapping out ballasts, bulbs and ignitors in a year chasing down an intermittent no-light condition.
 
As far as I know, genuine Phillips ballast are the best. Careful as there are fakes out there.

...and I thought it was really dumb making the ballast a part of the sealed headlamp assembly, and many had the ballast on the bottom, where water, if any would pool!
 
I had an HID ballast fail on my 2001 BMW 540 about 7 years ago. They are like $250+ for new, I found a good used one on Ebay for $45. Works just fine. Just make sure the seller warrants the product for 30 days or so, so you know it is good. I would definitely not buy a third party ballast...seems risky
 
Jeez, I didn’t realize these things were so expensive! Only our ‘14 Forester has HID, but it has over 100k miles, with enough night driving to make the components “old”.

WRT to the bulbs, they’re still great. My previous ‘08 Subaru had HIDs that started to look purple at only 50-60k miles, especially while warming up. Maybe a different type of HID? The ’14 is pretty much instant-on, even still, whereas the ‘08 took a couple of seconds to warm up, IIRC.
 
meep said:
I’ve found that the name brand bulbs for $100 at autozone last longer with less drama than the TRS house brand at 1/3 the cost. I like that I can choose TRS color, and go for the 3.1k bulbs which look just like halogen and have a wonderful warmth to them, but they start to become unreliable in circumstances where a standard Philips bulb just keeps going. while the Philips bulb lacks the warmth, I can’t keep messing with the headlights annually.

My recommendation: pay for something decent, or you’ll be swapping out ballasts, bulbs and ignitors in a year chasing down an intermittent no-light condition.
Click to expand...
Yep, I’ll always use Osram or Philips HID capsules - made in Germany and always consistent quality. I’ve seen people use Eiko HID capsules at the O’Reilly parking lot - if it’s a Japanese Ushio capsule it might be fine but it’s Chinese most likely.

Philips no longer makes bulbs of any kind - their halogen bulbs are made in China now. Vosla owns the German plant that made their incandescent/halogen line and I have a feeling Philips HID === Vosla.
 
I have the headlight apart - the HID ballast died due to water infiltration and the resulting water damage killing the capacitor and boost component. I’ve decided to split the lens/housing and replace the butyl sealant. It’s much more of a pain than I was expecting.
 
gathermewool said:
Jeez, I didn’t realize these things were so expensive! Only our ‘14 Forester has HID, but it has over 100k miles, with enough night driving to make the components “old”.

WRT to the bulbs, they’re still great. My previous ‘08 Subaru had HIDs that started to look purple at only 50-60k miles, especially while warming up. Maybe a different type of HID? The ’14 is pretty much instant-on, even still, whereas the ‘08 took a couple of seconds to warm up, IIRC.
Click to expand...
Usually a color change is a sign of wearing out. They commonly turn pink, but sometimes yellow or purple. But they can operate for years with this color change. I finally got sick of the pinkish hue and ordered new Osram bulbs. I noticed the output was better with the new bulbs.
 
nthach said:
My driver’s side headlight gave out last night. I suspect moisture intrusion, since I was seeing condensation for a while in the headlight assembly. New OE headlight is almost $1000, aftermarket Depo brand is $300 without ballast. For now, I’m going to track down the leak with the original OE and repair it with 3M Strip-Calk, a butyl tape that’s similar but not quite like the butyl used at the factory.

I see lots of aftermarket copies of the Toyota/Denso(Koito) on eBay and Amazon - one of them on Amazon gets decent reviews. Dorman and Standard/BWD sell Chinesium for $180ish. I decided to gamble with a used OE one for $50. OE is $280.

Has anyone here used a replacement aftermarket HID ballast with success?
Click to expand...
It's going to take some work since aftermarket ballasts uses a 9006 style plug input, which is different than OE style plug, not to mention mounting the ballast also.

There should be a denso from TRS that works:
 
gathermewool said:
Jeez, I didn’t realize these things were so expensive! Only our ‘14 Forester has HID, but it has over 100k miles, with enough night driving to make the components “old”.

WRT to the bulbs, they’re still great. My previous ‘08 Subaru had HIDs that started to look purple at only 50-60k miles, especially while warming up. Maybe a different type of HID? The ’14 is pretty much instant-on, even still, whereas the ‘08 took a couple of seconds to warm up,
Click to expand...
On many ballast, they say "2000 hr life" or something like that.
 
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