I was very concerned about that myself, in general heat is a bad thing IMHO.

ChuckW was coming down to West End for an alignment, and he offered to make the drive with his HIDs on, during the day, leave them on and meet me at West End, where I used a IR thermometer to measure the temperature of the ballasts. The drive was probably on the order of an hour, during the day, in Southern California. Each ballast was a little over 100F IIRC, with the passenger side being a bit higher, and in fact was the closer to the temperature of the oil cooler behind it. A search should reveal the original post I made with the measured temps.

I concluded that the temperatures generated by the ballasts were not high enough to do any damage, and actually the oil cooler probably drove the temperature at least on the passenger side.

This is during normal HID operations, all bets are off in the event of a short circuit. I fused the power wire on each HID just in case.

 

I would spend the money and try another set from DDM. This upgrade is just too good to not have.

And... perhaps Barney saw something in you that you missed.....

 

Matt, the ballasts in my car were mounted in the luggage compartment with dual sided tape which was coming loose. The only thing I did was re-mount them securely using 3M Dual Lock to keep them in place thereby preventing mechanical shock and vibration.

Mounted just ahead of the brake fluid reservoir...

 

DDM's since 2009 installed in one car, then transferred to the other so about 4K miles I'd say .. I run my headlights whenever I'm driving, day or night ... ballasts inside headlight buckets .. no problems.

 

Vince, I can't say. So many diff versions of these things these days. The ones I have in the current coupe look the same and I've not had any problems with them.

 

I didn't like how much the wires would have to be bent to get them in.

 

^^^ BTW, mine are 55W as well. I am under the impression that the new small ballast also pulls much less current and runs a LOT cooler than the older versions .. but I think you get what you pay for in these instances. I also bought a 'cheapy' set for my foglight 'upgrade' project from eBay for $50 ... and they 'hummed' when coming on ... not a good sign in my book .... They were still working when I took them out, but I got a bad feeling they weren't long for this world.

 

I have the OEM HIDs in the low beams and have installed VVME units in the high beams and fog light projectors. Haven't had issues with the VVME units in over a year. The ballasts are the larger kind, not the optional smaller ones. I also opted for the 35W output since it's more than enough.

That being said, the shop owner of the place where I take my car from time to time has told me that all aftermarket units will fail sooner rather than later. Although at under $50 for a set and with the improved light output it might be worth just buying a spare set.