I just finished the install of one set of DDEs. I was unable to do the second because I broke the larger ring, so I'm waiting on it to be shipped. Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of my struggles with this project. The one completed headlight has a larger ring that won't shine fully bright. Here's the strange part. I proved to myself that the ring has no issue for the following reason: If I disconnect the smaller ring then the larger ring (half dim) gains full intensity. If I let it sit like that for several seconds then it will maintain its full intensity even after reconnecting the smaller ring back (now both rings are brilliantly sexy). I wondered then if the ballast could be on the fritz so I connected to my second ballast... same result. So basically I have a working set of rings and should-be good ballast.... So why aren't both rings fully bright during normal startup??

Has anybody else witnessed similar loading issues? It seems that both rings simultaneously are drawing a load that is too big for the 12V, so when stepping consecutively I'm ok. Any recommended work around for this? I guess I'd really just love to know if this has happened to anyone else. Its so damn strange!

 

When it is colder outside, my rings are not fully bright at start up.

 

Yes, I'm familiar with the cold start issue, but this was worse. I let the car run for about 10 minutes at one point and the larger ring never got fully bright. I actually found a solution this morning, triggered in part by the following thread:

http://www.unitedbimmer.com/forums/t...start-fix.html

I think that these ballasts just aren't sending enough current to the larger ring (and probably just barely enough to the smaller ring which gets fully bright). I bypassed the little black connector and soldered the two wires together (4 wires altogether) and i think bypassed just enough resistance in doing so to get enough current through to the large ring. I still have to wait between 15 and 45 seconds for the larger ring to achieve full brilliance, but that seemed to do the trick for me. Housecor mentioned that he bypassed these connectors as well, I think they're just crap.

Now I'll just have to wait to get the second headlight set done.

 

Yes, I did the same and hardwired mine.