Can I swap the stock ballast out of my 06 m35

[xxxalpinexxx80]

My hids just suck. I just can't even see that well. They just don't cover too much distance. I wanted to order 55watt raptor balasts from DDM tunning. Is it a lot of work or even worth it?

http://www.ddmtuning.com/Products/Apexc ... or-HID-Kit

[Ilya]

I personally wouldn't go with DDM. I had a bunch of their kits and finally got nice Morimoto stuff from TheRetrofitSource.com.

You can definitely swap it out, but you may have slightly different plugs. I am a non-HID car originally, so my plugs were different. Just keep that in mind. The customers service at TheRetrofitSource is great, give them a call and they can help you out.

[XIS]

+1 on the Morimoto stuff from theretrofitsource.com

Just installed some 4300K in my EX and super happy with the classy results.

[EniGmA1987]

My hids just suck. I just can't even see that well. They just don't cover too much distance. I wanted to order 55watt raptor balasts from DDM tunning. Is it a lot of work or even worth it?

http://www.ddmtuning.com/Products/Apexc ... or-HID-Kit

Dont attempt to do this yourself, I did and I put about 16 hours of work into swapping them out (4 hours though were wasted the first day just figuring how to take things apart and where wires would have to be run. Only to run out of daylight and need to reassemble the car). The kit says plug and play, however it is not at all even remotely close to plug and play.

First you need to jack up the car and remove the wheels, then remove the front bumper and grill, then disconnect the wiring from the lights, then remove the lights from the car. Then you remove the back cap and disconnect the cable from the bulb, cut it off and leave the extra inside the light (it is impossible to remove completely without taking the entire light assembly apart). Then you need to drill into the back cap and push the new wiring through, and hopefully you have small fingers so you can reach inside through the cap and plug the new cable into the bulb. Next, cut the connectors off for the bulb end of the ballast, you will need to manually tie each wire into the bulb wiring. Also cut the connector off of the wiring that connects to the bulb itself. Use either wire nuts or crimp connectors to connect the bare wires from the bulb to the ballast. Then you need to run the wiring harness through the engine bay and connect it to the battery. Put the lights back on the car and connect the wires, use double sided tape and zip ties to mount the new ballasts somewhere. Or buy the full size ballasts and drill holes into the frame somewhere for the mounting brackets. Once you have all that done you can then put the bumper and tires back on.

If you attempt this, be sure and have a lot of alcohol on hand and ask a friend to help you. It will make things a lot easier because you wont be so pissed off at the amount of work you are having to do.



Now about the stock ballast, it is mounted to the bottom of the light assembly and can be removed. However, the cable from the ballast to the bulb is run through the inside of the housing AND attached to the housing. My friend and I tried for a full hour to figure out some way to get the wiring out so as to make use of that mounting location and the ability to run the new wires through. It just inst possible unless you completely disassemble the light assembly/housing.



And if you didnt know, our bulb sockets are D2S, so that costs an extra $15 from DDM kit.

[XIS]

I didn't jack up the car. I didn't remove the wheels. Just turned them out all the way. I didn't remove the bumper either.
The litterature said it was a 20 minute job and it took me a couple hours. The Retrofit source has a customer service line for Q&A too... An actual human that spoke english answered. I bet the 20 minute estimates are for cars with lights that you can get to from the hood, but our Infinitis have to get them from under the wheel well and the plastic liners. (at least in the EX)

Do you HAVE to remove the bumper, or is that just supposed to make it "easier"?

Don't be too intimidated by it.

[EniGmA1987]

Do you HAVE to remove the bumper, or is that just supposed to make it "easier"?

Don't be too intimidated by it.

From what I recall, there is a screw located behind the bumper that holds the light assembly in. I suppose you dont have to remove the assembly, as long as you can reach in and do the drilling in that small space, and can route the wiring through in the same small space. But is seemed a lot easier to look at how things are connected and do the work with the light housing on a workbench.