HIDgate Ballast dissection

[noremac]

Well, long story short, i ordered my HID's from HIDgate on ebay a few weeks ago, and a balast went out on me last weekend. I sent them an email, and they said to send them a picture of the destroyed product, and they would ship me a new one.

So far, their customer service is very responsive and helpful!

anyways to the pictures...
This thing is made to be water proof! i have no doubt that you could submerge this thing and not harm it at all!

and yes, these were taken with my phone...

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the rip in the silicone was my fault.. it was stuck to the back plate...

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[tattooed4life]

Alot of power in a little box, 10 years ago that would cost an arm and a leg, now there a dime a dozen. Isn't technology great.

 

[Mike]

So that ballast only lasted a few weeks? Sounds like what I've heard many times. Cool to see the inside though.

 

[1badgmc]

So that ballast only lasted a few weeks? Sounds like what I've heard many times. Cool to see the inside though.

I have 2 sets of HIDgate HIDs that have been flawless for well over a year now.

 

[noremac]

yeah, this one was a fluke.. the other one is going strong... just get strange looks wiht having a stock halogen bulb in, and a HID bulb.....


and earlier had two little kids laughing when they seen the two different colors.... oh well

 

[1badgmc]

Ewww...I wouldn't be able to live with the embarassment of that. I'd have to throw halogens in both sides while I waited on the replacement ballast to come in.

 

[noremac]

i dont really care right now lol, its not bothering me, i pulled the DRL fuse, so only time its seen is at night

 

[1badgmc]

It'd bother the **** out of me, even if I'm the only one that ever noticed. ha

 

[noremac]

never said it didnt bother me.... just said i dont care... its purely temporary right now..

 

[NacIK]

That is slick how they told you to destroy it and send pics. Saves on shipping and hassling.

I have one of these kits I just bought a few weeks ago. They work damn good for the price; well worth $50. The only flaws I have found are minor: slow warm-up time (about 6 seconds) and flickering when the engine is not running. The flickering I think can be easily solved by installing the optional $10 relay kit. This way it will get more current.

As far as the DRL's. How do you guys use them? Are you just disabling them? I know that in stock form the power to the low-beams when the relay is switched to DRL power is less that 12V due to the dual diodes powering the circuit. This low voltage I think will ruin the ballast. What I have done is just remove the diode and splice the two wires together. This puts out full voltage to the ballast. Technically this is not legal in some states because you are not allowed to use headlights during the day, thus the reduced power and brightness from the factory. However I don't see a cop giving me a ticket for this, and I would rather run DRL's than disable them because they have saved my a$$ before. It also makes the bulbs duty cycle longer causing the bulbs to have a shorter life, but HID's are supposed to last at least 10X as long as halogen's, so I don't think that is too much of a problem.