Well last weekend wasn't busy enough for me between driving the Porsche and doing an emergency fuel pump replacement on the Audi. I also installed two sets of aftermarket HID 3000K lights - in the fog and high beam sockets.

I'm a big fan of selective Selective Yellow Light. I have yellow fogs and high beams on my Audi and they work great, especially in incremental weather. I was very disappointed with the light output on the high beams of the 993, even with a set of Sylvania SilverStars. And the fogs that come with the aftermarket turbo S ducts are a joke so I figured it was time to change them.

I found the units on VVME.com - they cost $52 a set shipped for the 3000K option. Cheaper if you use the higher temp output lights. The kits look identical to the ones sold by DDM tuning that people have used here.

Install was pretty straight-forward. The biggest challenge was mounting the ballasts. I was able to place the fog light ballasts above the bumper rebar and the high beam ballasts behind the headlights - there is plenty of room to mount them there. All in all took about an hour and a half for all four.

The end result - WOW! Nothing short of spectacular. The cutout on the fog lights is incredible and they light up the road right in front of the car really well.

As for the high beams, I couldn't believe how far ahead they light up the road! They seriously exceeded my expectations. I would never use them on reflector housings in a low beam application because they would completely blind oncoming traffic, but for a high beam light they work incredibly well. Now I'm seriously considering a set for the Audi!

Here's a couple of pics of the fog lights, as I couldn't get any decent photos of the high beams.

 

993 Lights really do underwhelm. I have HID's in my low beam projectors (with no issues of blinding to other drivers) but have standard bulbs in the Highs. We recently ran a track event into the dark and found my headlights to be atrocious, ended up driving more by memory than vision...

How have you overcome the delay of the HID's warming up for the highbeams? Does switching the highs on and off cause any issues?

 

The projector headlights are perfect for HID bulbs. They don't blind oncoming traffic if properly aimed. It's the reflector housings that are a problem, especially for US vehicles. European code strictly forbids any lights scattering above the cut-off. In the US the DOT specifies that there should be a small amount of light going above the cut-off in order to see road signs (and probably deer, hehe). So that, paired with a reflector housing is what causes glare and blinding oncoming traffic if you install HIDs.

Regarding warming of the high beams, they come on instantly but initially have a greenish hue which turns to yellow within a few seconds. If I need to flash somebody, I just keep the high beam on for 2-3 seconds, instead of a series of blinks. The light output is really incredible, it will get a dead man's attention. I've only had them for a weekend and haven't had to switch them on and off too much. Can't guarantee longevity obviously, but so far so good. They will be used mostly on the back roads by my house so I don't anticipate too much on/off switching.

 

When you do get better pics of the high beam, please post

 

Thanks for posting the link to the company where you bought your HIDs. I've been thinking about buying from DDM, but it seems DDM is hit or miss about sending the correct stuff that was ordered. Have you had any problems with VVME?

 

Sorry, no usable photos of the high beams.

I didn't have any problems with ordering or shipment from VVME. The box was shipped directly from China via DHL and took less than a week to come to NY. The other thing I noticed in the DDM HID Install Thread from a few months ago was that some people had problems with bulb fitment on the DDM units and had to file off the base of the bulb. I anticipated having similar problems with the kits I got from VVME but they fit perfectly.

 

ilko: Thanks for posting. I was thinking about this as well. Did you buy the harness as well or is the kit all you need? I see the harness is $13 more. How long did shipping take?

 

I didn't buy the relay harness. My understanding is that it is only necessary if you increase the wattage of the lights. That's what I had done to the RSA when I installed the H4 ROW headlights with higher wattage bulbs. In the case of the 993 I decreased the power from 55W to 35W.

Shipping took under a week. I don't remember the exact time because I bought them a couple of months ago but only found time to install them last weekend.

 

I'm curious about the color...How yellow is yellow?

I was planning on switching to the 4K HID's for the low beams, and probably the fogs also. I want white light, not blue. My fogs are pretty impressive now-must have an aftermarket bulb...or something in them already. I plan on looking eventually.

But, does the yellow look OK?

Loaded question I know, you obviously like it. The whole idea with the HID's was to get AWAY from the faded yellow(ish) factory lights, wasn't it...

 

Yellow looks like this:



I use it for the fogs and high beams because it reduces glare in fog/rain/snow. For the low beams I have the OEM Litronics with OEM 4300K D2S bulbs. They are white. A 5000K bulb has a blueish hue and 6000K and above are turning more and more blue.

 

Getting the harness depends on your application. I want to get some HIDs for my wife's Honda Fit, which has very thin gauged headlight wiring. The initial power surge when turning on HIDs could melt "angel hair pasta" thin wires. So if you plan on adding HIDs to another car, make sure to check the headlight wiring first.

 

Hi

Here in the UK I am pretty sure that HID's in the main beam would be illegal and an MOT fail. They are great for the projector style dipped and possibly fog lights though. I would like to try a 3K set for my fogs, I have 4.3K for the dipped already. Just to note the higher up the scale you go the less light you get, so 6K are not as bright as 4.3K and so on. 6K is too blue as well IMHO.

Berni

 

I'm game. Just ordered the high beam and fogs HID's from VVME.com. They charged and extra $9 for the yellows in 3000K.

 

they charge extra $15 for the yellows in 3k when i ordered fogs hid from http://www.vvme.com

all of their special color like 3k and 15k charge more $15 from other colors....

do you get any coupons from them ??????

 

how yellow ???? it is not so yellow as orange....
you can compare with this hid color chart to see ...
http://www.vvme.com/page.html?chapter=1&id=34
it is better for you to choose 43k for your low beams, pure white and very bright... i run vvme 43k for low beams and 3k for fog beams for one and half year already.... everything work well even though it is aftermarket hid from Chian....