Morimoto HID kit from TRS, review

[tibimakai]

I have the 35W VVME kit, for about a year and they work great. Once in a while, the passenger side does not turn on at first, but after switching the switch again, it will turn on.
I have the big ballast, not the slim ones(I don't trust those).
Did you have, the 35W or the 55W?

 

[desTROYer]

I had the 35W Slim

 

[tibimakai]

This is the only type, that I trust:
http://www.vvme.com/search-result?m...t=20a&option_7=92&option_30=154&option_31=152

 

[tdman]

I finally has time to install the kit, with the new ballast and mounting bracket, I find it hard to find a spot to install it.

I ordered the XB35 bulbs according to the TRS tech that the return wire will be on top to avoid the shadow, turn out the return wire is at the bottom anyway, tried this several times to make sure but there's only one way the bulbs go in so I spent an extra $20 for nothing, could have just ordered the regular HID bulbs.

Light output is really nice and white, somehow I don't find it much brighter than the H9 bulbs I was using in place of the OEM H11, maybe my eye not use to it yet. Also the right side doesn't want to turn on when I have the switch on AUTO, if I turn the light off and on again, it will turn on, it did this every time but for some reason it work ok now, will see if it back to the same again tomorrow, not sure why maybe because there's only 1 OEM source and there's a delay or something? Did yours did this vroom?

 

[istay808]

I recently received my morimoto x35 kit and I have a question in regards to the harness. In the bundle of wires that come attached to the harness, there is a cable which is labeled car input, I am wondering what this is for? Is this where you plug in the old wire which was attached to the old bulb?

 

[vroom]

Also the right side doesn't want to turn on when I have the switch on AUTO, if I turn the light off and on again, it will turn on, it did this every time but for some reason it work ok now, will see if it back to the same again tomorrow, not sure why maybe because there's only 1 OEM source and there's a delay or something? Did yours did this vroom?

Not first, but it did it a couple times recently. Two times is not enough for a trend to emerge, but I would say one out of every 5 or 6 times I turn it on. Also on the passenger side and on AUTO. I'll need to check my ground on that side...

 

[vroom]

Sorry for the double post, I didn't have time to adress a few other points in my reply this morning...

I ordered the XB35 bulbs according to the TRS tech that the return wire will be on top to avoid the shadow, turn out the return wire is at the bottom anyway, tried this several times to make sure but there's only one way the bulbs go in so I spent an extra $20 for nothing, could have just ordered the regular HID bulbs.

No, because of the optics (reflection off a bowl reflector and lens) the "image" of the bulb is inverted at output. So a wire on top produces a shadow on the ground and vice-versa. The tech was correct in suggesting the XB35, he just got his up and down wrong.

I recently received my morimoto x35 kit and I have a question in regards to the harness. In the bundle of wires that come attached to the harness, there is a cable which is labeled car input, I am wondering what this is for? Is this where you plug in the old wire which was attached to the old bulb?

My wires were not labled, but yes, it is almost certainly what you say. The relay is basically a set of nice big cables that pump the juice directly from your battery to the ballasts to make sure they have enough, along with an on/off switch. When your car sends voltage to the wire that normally connects to the H11 hallogen bulb, that voltage triggers the switch to go to the ON position. You can connect any one of the H11 connectors to the relay, depending on what is most convinient for your installation.

 

[tibimakai]

Whit my cheap kit, I still have that passenger side not turning on sometimes.
It could be a grounding issue?

 

[tdman]

I do see a faint ground wire on the ground but it's not dark enough to cause any distraction. I do check all the wires and ground was attached firmly to the chassis, there is one OEM wire attached to the metal part where the strut mount is, I used this for the right ground. Once again it did not work at all today in AUTO. Seem to be the trend for the right side not light up time to time with our CX-5. Maybe a chat with TRS see if they can figure out what's wrong?

 

[vroom]

I do see a faint ground wire on the ground but it's not dark enough to cause any distraction. I do check all the wires and ground was attached firmly to the chassis, there is one OEM wire attached to the metal part where the strut mount is, I used this for the right ground. Once again it did not work at all today in AUTO. Seem to be the trend for the right side not light up time to time with our CX-5. Maybe a chat with TRS see if they can figure out what's wrong?

Again, with the XB35 bulbs, the shadow is upwards (and blocked by the cutoff shield) as it should be, NOT on the ground. Wire on bottom of bulb = shadow on top. What you are seeing on the ground is not the ground wire shadow. I don't know what it could be. I don't see anything on mine.

Please keep us up to date after troubleshooting with TRS. Mine does it very rarely, and lit up perfectly tonight at -30C while my engine was cranking like crazy. But I'd like to know what to do if it ever acts up.

I'll eventually check the resistance/continuity of my ground on the right side to be sure as well as the voltage going to the ballast with a multimeter just to be sure when I have time and it's not absurdly cold outside.

 

[yunvi]

Also the right side doesn't want to turn on when I have the switch on AUTO, if I turn the light off and on again, it will turn on, it did this every time but for some reason it work ok now, will see if it back to the same again tomorrow, not sure why maybe because there's only 1 OEM source and there's a delay or something? Did yours did this vroom?

Not first, but it did it a couple times recently. Two times is not enough for a trend to emerge, but I would say one out of every 5 or 6 times I turn it on. Also on the passenger side and on AUTO. I'll need to check my ground on that side...

If I turn on the vehicle (with the headlight switch on auto), most of the time one or neither headlight comes on.

if im driving (headlight switch on auto) and it gets dark enough, then both headlights come on no problem.

In the event one headlights comes on, its usually the left one. Thats where I left the OEM source connected (dont know if it would make a difference)

in either case, i have to switch to off position and then back to auto and its all good after that.

I mentioned this to TRS support, and the one fellow I spoke to said that sometimes

 

[vroom]

I mentioned this to TRS support, and the one fellow I spoke to said that sometimes

yunvi, would you mind finishing that last sentence? I'm interested in what the guy had to say about the issue and if he had a fix for it. This is rare for me, but it does happen once in a while and I was about to contact them before updating this thread with my impressions after using them all winter...

Thanks!

 

[yunvi]

yunvi, would you mind finishing that last sentence? I'm interested in what the guy had to say about the issue and if he had a fix for it. This is rare for me, but it does happen once in a while and I was about to contact them before updating this thread with my impressions after using them all winter...

Thanks!

whoops. sorry about that.

he said sometimes when the vehicle starts the voltage isnt high enough to get the headlights to turn on, and he suggested switching to off then back to auto (which i had been doing previously without fault).

So basically, nothing we didnt already know. I couldnt begin to know where or how to rectify this supposed low voltage issue, but obviously, it has to do with their ballasts (i guess). because the stock bulbs/circuitry work just fine.

 

[vroom]

whoops. sorry about that.

he said sometimes when the vehicle starts the voltage isnt high enough to get the headlights to turn on, and he suggested switching to off then back to auto (which i had been doing previously without fault).

So basically, nothing we didnt already know. I couldnt begin to know where or how to rectify this supposed low voltage issue, but obviously, it has to do with their ballasts (i guess). because the stock bulbs/circuitry work just fine.

What is your ballast model? From what I read online, the new XB35 ballast were supposed to solve the voltage problem when on AUTO setting at startup.

 

[yunvi]

In August 2013 I bought the following:
H11 morimoto elite hid
3 five (35w)
Bulb spec xb35 h11b
Kelvin 6000k
Wire harness h11
Wireharness type heavy duty relay.

After installing this, my bulbs flickered alot. Was pretty frustrating. Contacted trs about the issue and they sent me new ballasts in December 2013:

I haven't seen any flickering since installing the new ballasts. But as noted previously my new ballasts have this voltage "issue" as per the trs Rep I spoke to last year sometime.

Headlights set to auto...turn vehicle on...one or neither of the lights come on. They do after I select off then back to auto.

While driving if Headlights are set to auto, the Headlights turn on as required.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[vroom]

OK, you have the same old DSP model that I have, not the newer XB35.

Can anyone with the new model report if these turn on consistently when starting the car while on AUTO?

 

[yunvi]

Just bought the kit from the Black Friday sale as Christmas gift for me will post impression once install. On it way now, can't wait.

tdman, what model ballasts do you have ? i imagine yours would be newer than mine and vroom's !?

 

[yunvi]

OK, you have the same old DSP model that I have, not the newer XB35.

Can anyone with the new model report if these turn on consistently when starting the car while on AUTO?

I spoke to TRS today. The new ballasts that are currently being sold did not include any modifications to account for this issue that we are having.

The Rep did say that their current ballasts do require a lower voltage than the DSP models which *may* solve the issue we are having.

He said this failing to turn on when the lever is set to auto is as a result of "incompatibility" between their product and the Mazda head light system.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[vroom]

Well, I've been running the HID kit on my car for a little over a year now, including a long dark winter and some summer night backcountry driving, so I though I'd come back and update y'all with my long term impressions!

Bulb warm up

In my first post, just about the only con I cound find was a wacky warm up color sequence. Bulbs would go through pinks, greens and blues in the first few seconds of warm up. Worst: the left and right bulbs would not go through the sequence in sync resulting in what I called a "disco light show".

I'm happy to say that this goes away as the bulbs break-in. The bulbs now light up simultaneously in a deep blue tint and within about 5 seconds are bright and pure white.

Glare

When I drive back home from work I need to drive about 8 miles on some dark roads during the long winter months. These are one lane in each direction with no separation whatsoever except the width of a double yellow line. Traffic is light in the direction I travel, but relatively dense in the other, so I end up crossing paths with about 200 cars each night. Last winter, I must have gone by several thousand cars (16,000 from a quick napkin calculation).

I was not flashed once.

Not a single time.

Now either the good people here in Quebec are particilarly tolerant (they might, but only to a point), or this is a testament to the quality of both the Morimoto kit and the Mazda reflectors. I don't care what HID retrofit purists rant about in every automotive forum on the Internet: the sharp cutoff I talked about in my initial post does the job, and under normal circumstances you will NOT be blinding anyone with HID bulbs within the Mazda Halogen reflectors. Period.

I do mention "normal circumstances" because there is a cautionary tale to be told... This very weekend, I whent on a trip up the magnificent Gaspesie peninsula - hundreads of beautiful sea-side miles of two-way roads with no divider. I was comming back from camping with the family there last night. The trunk was packed with gear from floor to celing like a perfect game of Tetris. Man you can fit a lot in there! But I digress... Of the maybe 500 cars I passed head-on, two or three flashed me (mostly low to the ground sports cars I think).

I soon realized that all that weight in my trunk was causing the back to drop, and as a consequence my headlights were pointing UP much more than usual. At that point, I understood the usefulness of the auto-leveling system on the OEM HID Mazda headlights. Mind-you, no amount of retrofiting with expensive aftermarket HID reflectors would have helped me, or the poor soles I might have blinded, sorry. I also suspect that non-leveling OEM HID headlights (there must be such a thing) suffer from the exact same problem, as well as standard halogens (although to a lesser degree because of the reduced brighness). Heck, under these circumstances, I would possibly have been flashed with my halogens on.

In any case, be careful with the weight distribution in you car with any kind of retrofit.

Lighting problems

If you've read trough the entire thread up until here, you've noticed people (including myself) talking about bulbs somtimes not lighting initially when on "auto" setting. During the entire year, including probably a couple hundread on-off cycles, this happened to me maybe three times. Once on the left, once on the right and once both sides at once. Each time it was dead cold outside (I mean minus-thirty-degrees-bring-a-canadian-lumberjack-to-tears cold). In each case, a manual off-on cycle instantly solved the problem.

I would love the kit to be 100% reliable. I hate having to watch my reflection off the bumpers of cars ahead thinking "did they both turn on this time?". But in the end, it's not that big a deal.

Conclusion

I love these. I would never go back to dull yellow squint-to-see-ahead headlights. Sure, I might go with the OEM HID or LED upgrade next time if 80% of the upgrade price does not go towards stuff I don't want or need. This retrofit was less than 10% of the upgrade cost. A 150$ very well invested indeed.

Next time I go on a camping trip, I'll just swap my halogens back in. It's a 2 minute job really, and should happen once or twice a year at most.

Now HID retrofit purist/ranters, rant your heats out!

 

[yrwei52]

I soon realized that all that weight in my trunk was causing the back to drop, and as a consequence my headlights were pointing UP much more than usual. At that point, I understood the usefulness of the auto-leveling system on the OEM HID Mazda headlights. Mind-you, no amount of retrofiting with expensive aftermarket HID reflectors would have helped me, or the poor soles I might have blinded, sorry. I also suspect that non-leveling OEM HID headlights (there must be such a thing) suffer from the exact same problem, as well as standard halogens (although to a lesser degree because of the reduced brighness). Heck, under these circumstances, I would possibly have been flashed with my halogens on.
In any case, be careful with the weight distribution in you car with any kind of retrofit.

Thanks for your long-term report. In Europe, every HID requires auto-leveling and headlight washer. This is something we should adapt in North America. Have you tried to look into manual leveling retrofitting as this is also required in many EU countries for halogen headlights?