Im just wondering if all types of ballasts basically the same, like for instance, aftermarket HID ballasts and OEM ballasts, and would it affect the brightness of the light bulbs and is there a difference in the life expentency of them?

and another question is, are the oem and aftermarket bulbs the same, again, the difference in the life span and the brightness.

 

There is most definitely a difference in quality. I have heard so many reports of the ballasts crapping out in those cheap kits.

Meanwhile my Philips ballasts have been working great for nearly 6 years.

 

I bought the cheap ebay PnP kit.

Some one popped my hood and took my ballast only,.

I used my klight ballast and they seem to work just fine, its been a few years now. Also correct me if I am wrong, but klight is suppose to be a good quality brand?

 

The eBay pnp ballasts are really shitty. You get what you pay for plays into this subject.

 

well other than the lifespan of aftermarket ballasts and bulbs are there any other differeneces such as brightness ?

 

Probably are, because I'm sure there is nowhere near the level of quality control on those things as there on say Osram, Philips/Hella, Matsushita ballasts, etc.

 

oh. then which oem bulbs, if any, are the brightest? and i kind of want white light rather than the oem yellowish white light..

 

would you say an aftermarket ballast would cause the bulbs to be not as bright as an oem ballast would?

 

From left to right:
$90 ebay kit ballast that wouldn't fire properly or stay lit, $80 ebay kit ballast that will light up with just 3amps (neither of the other two can), $50 used Hella Gen 3 ballast (used in BMW's and such), OE fit n finish.

As for brightness, it's all subjective on several things (bulbs, housings, wiring...) but for the most part a good aftermarket ballas (like the middle one) will be just as bright as the OE equipment. I've currently got the middle ballast and the Hella side by side in my car (had a bad connector and swapped ballasts before discovering it and haven't changed back) and the Middle ballast till slowly warm up to full brightness but it does not flicker AT ALL, the Hella will get to full brightness faster but it will flicker several times before it gets there (new bulbs mainly).

If you want to do PNP but have reliable equipment I'd say OE ballast with D2r/s to AMP converter plugs to aftermarket bulbs, works perfectly fine (been running this set up for over 4 years with ZERO issues) but in the end a full Retrofit will yield you the best possible output....

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by htsang07 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">oh. then which oem bulbs, if any, are the brightest? and i kind of want white light rather than the oem yellowish white light..</TD></TR></TABLE>

All OEM HID applications use 4300K bulbs, which puts out +/- 3200 lumens in the early part of their life.

By comparison, Philips Ultinon 6000K bulbs put out around +/- 2400 lumens when new, and any higher K just goes down in brightness from there.

 

well i currently have a retrofit done and everything i have is OEM EXCEPT for the ballasts. oem projectors, oem bulbs, etc. the ballasts im not sure where they're from but they're definately aftermarket. I havent experienced any flickering.. but for some reason im getting paranoid that because it's not oem ballasts the light ouput isnt as bright. but i cant really tell if theres any difference because im currently in nyc and the city is too bright to see any difference in brightness.

i hope that the ballasts doesnt have any negative consequences... =/

 

anybody?
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by htsang07 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">well i currently have a retrofit done and everything i have is OEM EXCEPT for the ballasts. oem projectors, oem bulbs, etc. the ballasts im not sure where they're from but they're definately aftermarket. I havent experienced any flickering.. but for some reason im getting paranoid that because it's not oem ballasts the light ouput isnt as bright. but i cant really tell if theres any difference because im currently in nyc and the city is too bright to see any difference in brightness.

i hope that the ballasts doesnt have any negative consequences... =/</TD></TR></TABLE>

 

Right now I'm using a Hella gen 3 and the middle ballast from the pic above side by side and they are equaly bright. The age of the bulbs can contribute to the dimmer output, this might be something to concider.

You should be perfectly fine using aftermarket ballast as long as they are workin for you...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by htsang07 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">well i currently have a retrofit done and everything i have is OEM EXCEPT for the ballasts. oem projectors, oem bulbs, etc. the ballasts im not sure where they're from but they're definately aftermarket. I havent experienced any flickering.. but for some reason im getting paranoid that because it's not oem ballasts the light ouput isnt as bright. but i cant really tell if theres any difference because im currently in nyc and the city is too bright to see any difference in brightness.

i hope that the ballasts doesnt have any negative consequences... =/</TD></TR></TABLE>

I'm pretty sure if the ballast fails then that's just that; the ballast fails. I've heard people talking about this and they don't include any extra problems coming with it. Keep in mind that's hear-say.

As far as the light output goes, if you're in NYC and the city is too bright to tell then who cares?

Seriously, if you can see decent and you're projectors aren't halogen then any difference that occurs by using OE ballasts is probably minimal.