Put in Morimoto Elite HID kit

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gen2cudas

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I finally ran into the same problem as most do with my '97 Mark VIII: headlight bulb out, no good choices...and it is time to get her inspected.

Tried the Sylvania Halogen conversion- not impressive with OEM HID reflectors....

After a lot of study, decided on the Morimoto Elite HID, mostly for the customer service, the warranty and the reviews.

Ordered through Amazon (Headlights_Quick), $162.55- their XB55 50 watt ballasts, XB35 9006 4500k bulbs, heavy duty relays, in line amplifiers....package arrived quickly, installation quite simple, bulbs fit nicely into the original reflectors, easy to fab a retainer for the bulbs..... the whole kit had a pleasingly high quality look and feel....

And damn. Nice, bright white light again, no blue tinge, no glare, no flicker, buzz, radio interference, no check headlight message. They light up as fast as the OEM lights did.....

Now, just gotta adjust them properly so they don't dazzle oncoming traffic!

Thought I'd have to put rally lights in the grille and hope It would pass inspection to drive it at night.....
 
Wow price seems high. But at least you got it done. Now you can sell your good stock HID bulb to make some of that money back.
 
Morimoto is the house brand of The Retrofit Source. There's no bigger authority on HIDs than they are and their kits are of the highest quality. No cheap junk parts there.

You can click the link in my sig to see what their complete projector retros look like. It's how my car should have come from the factory!
 
Meh. Cheap kit or expensive kit, it either works or it doesn't. The DDM tuning kit sells for $30 with a lifetime warranty.
 
And with DDM you will NEED that warranty over, and over, and over, and over.... trust me. I went with DDM based on rep. Next time, eBay for cheap import kits - cause that is what DDM sold me anyway for twice the price.
 
morimoto is miles ahead of DDM. miles..
i've had experience with both.
and The Retrofit Source is undoubtedly the authority.
 
I've had good luck with my $40 VVME kit. From what I've heard on here it seems like a much better choice then DDM as far as the cheap popular kits go. No flicker,bright, fire every time and works with autolamps.

Whatever you do don't buy the cheap kits with plastic ballasts. I.e Xentec- Bought one as a spare incase of a failure on my dd. Facking junk.
 
DDM is crap compared to the OEM HID bulbs of Mark VIIIs. Had one of their bulbs explode in the housing of my Town Car in less than 2 years. Now just the other day, one of the bulbs wasn't firing. Gave it a couple of off-on turns till it finally came on. But at least they sent me a new bulb because of their lifetime warranty.

While my old Mark VIII which was 18 years old with 190K still worked perfect and fired up every time.
 
mark0101 said:
DDM is crap compared to the OEM HID bulbs of Mark VIIIs. Had one of their bulbs explode in the housing of my Town Car in less than 2 years. Now just the other day, one of the bulbs wasn't firing. Gave it a couple of off-on turns till it finally came on. But at least they sent me a new bulb because of their lifetime warranty.

While my old Mark VIII which was 18 years old with 190K still worked perfect and fired up every time.
Click to expand...

My 35w DDM kit is way brighter than the stock bulbs were.
 
unity said:
You just described my DDM kit :) I am going to wear out my headlight switch!
Click to expand...

I've had mine for 5 years without problems and I use the auto headlamp feature too.
Maybe you should take advantage of their lifetime warranty?
 
Well with no problems, you might not know how difficult the warranty process is. I have already had two warranty dealing with them. When I first got them, they were not a matched pair as on HID was much more magenta in color. So I requested another matched set of lamps. Of course I had to cut mine and send a pic in. No main headlights for a week and half. Luckily the car has city lights and fog lights. Of course the second set was a poor match too. Then the high/low module failed and I had to deal with the process again. Except this time it took several emails and calls and they twice "lost" my warranty request. The module is failing again as my passenger high is no longer working - swapped lamps too.

Just not worth the trouble. I'll just buy a cheap eBay kit next. Then my expectations wont be so high. My kit was $66 and $75 with shipping.

In short, DDM sucks - and I am not the only one that thinks so. I think they used to be good, not sure what happened.
 
todd2fst4u said:
My 35w DDM kit is way brighter than the stock bulbs were.
Click to expand...

I meant from a reliability stand point the Mark VIIIs system is much better. I have never installed a DDM kit on a Mark VIII. Actually scratch that, my brothers 93 with LSC housing has them and they have the same light out from what I remember. Although his DDM kit has been running fine, but the DDM kit on my TC has always been problematic. They were bought at the same time also so IDK why one has been good and the other has problems
 
todd2fst4u said:
But it either turns on, or it doesn't. I don't see the additional cost being worth it.
Click to expand...

thats true of the DDM kit. LOL.
the morimoto kits do not have that issue. ;)

my 96 hasn't had any issues with my DDM kit, but my brother has had a few ballasts pass on.
 
To the OP, was this kit that you bought and installed a plug and play or did you have to make new adapters?

Also, does anyone know what brand 98lincmk7lsc uses in his kit? I like the fact that it's a true plug and play, but after reading this thread I don't want DDM... and I think one of my lights is on it's way out.
 
I have a ddm kit in my 96 lsc. I also just put a kit in from the retro source. if i had a chance to do it over again i would not of used ddm in the 96 lsc. Please do not get me wrong for the cheap price its not a bad product it just isnt as quality as the ones you get from retrofit. if you are on a budget ddm kits work dandy if you not on a budget skip it for better quality.
 
S
Trippen Out said:
I have a ddm kit in my 96 lsc. I also just put a kit in from the retro source. if i had a chance to do it over again i would not of used ddm in the 96 lsc. Please do not get me wrong for the cheap price its not a bad product it just isnt as quality as the ones you get from retrofit. if you are on a budget ddm kits work dandy if you not on a budget skip it for better quality.
Click to expand...

I'm not loaded with tons of money, but I've got too much invested in this car to start skimping on parts now. The kit that 98lincmk7lsc provides looks like a quality product and I like how he goes the extra step and solders on true plug and play connectors, especially since I'm not too electrical savvy.

I just wasn't sure if anyone knew what brand he provided with his kits. I guess I should/should've PMed him.
 
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