US smoked ELIPS 55 watt 6k bulbs....mahhhhhh lighting????

[Quailane]

DDM has 4500k bulbs, not 4300k. Their 4500k bulbs are very white compared to the slightly yellowed halogen look of 4300k bulbs. Also I've noticed that 55w ballasts just make it more whitish because they are brighter, not changing the hue like they make it sound like. Also if the low beams are aimed down too far than they do really suck. Another factor that goes against them is that since there is a sharp cutoff that is not supposed to be angles up at all, if the road is hilly or bumpy it greatly reduces the distance you can see with them. But still, the US or Euro ellipsoids do not suck at all. They work as advertised even with halogen bulbs. I actually kind of like them better with 9005 or H1 halogens on backroads because they could be aimed up a little bit and not blind anybody. But with my highs and driving lights on there it doesn't matter.

[der affe]

don't install the bulbs, call DDM and see if they will exchange for a 4300K or 5000K. if they wont, instal them and order the other bulbs.

they ARE blue.

[georgE30]

oh shit... my friend just got me the 55 watt 6000 k raptor kit for my bday... DDM states that, "55w kits tend to wash out some of the color of the HID bulb due to the light output( for example, a 55w 8000k will look similar in color to a 35w 6000k kit)."

I hope what they say is true because I really don't want blueish headlights...

[der affe]

they are not brand new, but the pitting is minimal and not the cause. this is not my first car.
if it was an obvious reason for the non impressive light output, i would not bother posting and would have fixed it.

[gearheadE30]

^^ the fluting of the glass causes them to look a little gray where the outer reflector was painted, and the design of the internal optics and due to incoming light means that the projector part is never actually black. What you're probably seeing is ambient light being reflected back towards the lense. Pitting, however, can contribute to this.

[bp9129]

I know they're "smoked", but they look more foggy than anything. Maybe just pitted to shit but they don't even look black lol

[StereoInstaller1]

Why are your lenses foggy as shit? That might have something to do with it

OK, now I am pretty convinced you might be an idiot.

Say something else, prove it true one way or the other.

[bp9129]

pics....see no stupid tint film





once the sun goes down, i will shoot some of the lights on

Why are your lenses foggy as shit? That might have something to do with it

[DaveSmed]

I'm no help, H4/H1s are a tough to beat lighting setup in an E30.

That said, the 55w HID kits always seemed sketch, in my experience (for all that's worth :P ) they were always much less reliable and not much brighter than the cheaper 35w kits.

You could always crosshair the H4s, treat them to some HL78159/HL78130 bulbs, and call it a day.....

Oh yea, relays are a must if you do that. Highbeam power consumption will be close to 40A. 460W of lighting is close to X-ray vision though.

[gearheadE30]

I got 5000k 55w recently, and its only a little more blue than the OEM Infiniti HIDs on our FX35 for reference. If you want white, 4300 sounds good.

[der affe]

pics....see no stupid tint film





once the sun goes down, i will shoot some of the lights on

[der affe]

changing the fuses wont make them brighter, but i had heard that you might need to up grade the fuse from the 7.5 that is in there orginally to something of a higher amperage. this is when you use the 55 watt kits.

i am pretty sure that the low beam fuses both crapped out. i have been driving my dad to dr's apointments all day today so i have not had time to check yet. they work on the highs, but not on the lows. well the drivers side did for a couple of seconds then died.

i will order the other kits and bulbs tomarrow morning. hopefully that will solve the problem.

i think most of our problem is the stupid blue lights (6K) a lower K like a 4K or a 43K would be better suited to actually seeing better.

[Heysüß]

i just got a 55w 6k kit from DDM and for a second I was impressed.

My left beam was REALLY bright it made up for the fact that the right one was on the fritz. Today I go and swap sides to see what the problem could be and the son of bitches evened out but not to a brighter degree (IMO) the bright one seemed to tone down. My dad says I'm crazy but i'm pretty sure I'm not.

I'm gonna check the wiring on this tomorrow and I hadn't thought about changing the fuse. Is this a normal thing to do if you want them to be brighter.

One test I did to see if they did tone down was drive on the same lonely back road to my gf house. It just got repaved and had new reflector thingys. My left beam used to light these up great and now they barely light them up. Any advice or suggestions?

[bp9129]

pictures.......

[der affe]

no film or painted lenses.
the outer reflector on the low beams was painted black (the silver circle around the outside of the projector lense) which should not effect the light output. the projector lense itself was in good shape and the reflector was also (chroming nice, no pitting, rippling/peeling). then i put the crosshairs painted black in the highbeams. i am also going to put CLEAR lamin-X on everything when it arrives, but the clear should not effect the light out put as it is clear.

maybe i should call it BLACKED out with crosshairs and i am using the wrong terminolgy to describe them.

i called DDM prior to buying them from the seller to find out exactly what the light output would end up like since they say the 55watt will wash out the colour. they told me it would white with just a slight blue tinge to it. well, it is pretty dam BLUE!

if it was a matter of me putting on film to the lenses, i could totally blame the film and my stupidity for putting it on. the fact of the matter is i did this for a lighting up grade not an appearence thing.

i have also had modern HID projectors side by side with regular projectors from US elips And i do not see and great differences. the reflector seems to be similar angles (just looking at it) and the lense does not seem to be any clearer or have different angles to it (again, just eyeballing it). these are HELLA projectors out of BMWs and MBs not a cheap Japanese stuff from an Infinity/Lexus.


i am going to order a set of the 4300K today along with the 35 watt kit for the fogs and re-aim them a little higher tonight. hopefully that will help.