I have a bunch of questions, and your help will be much appreciated. I did a couple of searches and couldn't find much along the way of help. Sorry for not having pics of the problems.

I have a 98.5 a4 and I bought the xenon ready ecodes from ecstuning. I also bought the city light kit, 6000k D2S bulbs, wiring harness. Then I found out that I needed ballasts, so from the recomondation of a few guys on AF, I went with vvme.com. I got the H7 6000k.

Now for the confusion on my part-

The ecodes have a fairly big open square on the underside of them. It looks like there should be a cover there, but there is not one. I was under the impression that headlights should be sealed,so as to prevent water getting in them. Is there supposed to be a cover there?

The HID bulbs won't fit into the lights. The lock won't come down on them. This goes for the bulb from ecstuning and for the bulb from vvme.com. Both me and my friend couldn't do it, and he installed a HID kit on his car. Also, I guess I did not need to get the HID bulbs from ecs, since the HID kit from vvme.com came with bulbs right? On that same topic, how would I connect the bulb from ecs to the HID ballasts.? The connection is WAY different. Here is a link to the bulbs I got from ecs -

http://www.ecstuning.com/stage/edpd/...productID=5296

Also, where did you guys mount your ballasts?

 

Well VVME's kit would have been H7, right? Sounds like you tried to buy an OEM setup... maybe ECS shipped you the wrong stuff?
The square thing at the bottom holds the OEM ballast.
You should just get H7 ecodes... I don't know what the benefit is to having the D2S ecodes, unless your car came with hids to begin with, and you just wanted to switch to ecodes.

 

Yeah, the vvme kit is H7. That is what the outside of the box says and the plastic tube that the bulb came in says the same thing (h7).

Here is a picture of the sticker off the ecode. It is hard to make out (Cell phone pic), but it says D2S and H7 on it.


So you are saying there is a ballast on my old two piecers? I will have to look at them tonight. My car did not come with HID's

 

sounds like u got a whole bunch of questions, i hope you can get them resolved would suck if you had to return them

 

lol...yup, a bunch of questions. I still need them answered too
I did grind down the fender last night and was able to put them in. Now I just need to make them functional. Speaking of that....... I did not need to take of the bumper. Why did some of you need to take your bumper off, and not me? <------Yet another question!

 

No, you won't have a ballast...
But let me explain:

I've got a 2000 A4 that has OEM xenons... If you flip over my headlight, you see that rectangular section... only there's a ballast there. An OEM ballast.
Seeing as how you don't have an OEM ballast... there's no real point in going with the crazy D2S setup. Might as well just return your ecodes, buy an H7 set, and be done with it. They'll accept H7 bulbs (which are cheaper), and you'll have to hide your aftermarket ballast anywhere that you can.
As for why the bulb wont fit into the headlight... I've got no idea.

 

Sounds like you either ordered the wrong kit from VVME or the wrong lights from ECS. Ds2 and H7 bulbs are different and will not work in eachothers slots - look at the slots on the lights vs the pegs on the bulbs. Options would be to call ECS and try to return the lights and exchange them for the regual H7 kind. Option 2 would be to order a Ds2 kit from VVME and sell the other one to a member who can use them. I don't consider returning a product to china an option due to shipping costs.

Even in the link you provide above it says" Upgrade your factory HID bulbs with these Xenon HID 6000K bulbs" so why did you even think that these would include ballast? I think you should have researched a little bit more before you ordered from ECS. I doubt they will take the lights back since they are an electrical item but I would at least try.

 

Man...this sucks. Ok. So I have a 98.5 - two piece. When I had the money saved up to do my lights, I went to ECS, and the cheaper set (non xenon) ready were sold out. They still are as a matter of fact. So, since I wanted xenons, I decided to go with the "xenon ready" version which was in stock. You would think that ECS could have told me that they wouldn't work with my car since they do make you put in the car year and make with every purchase. The description of the item says "all b5's", so in my limited knowledge on the subject, I got those thinking cool...I am xenon ready now.

I can tell the ds2 and h7 are not compatable. I did research the topic a bunch...on these forums...and a couple others. The description on ECS makes it seem like either of thelight sets are fine for all b5s. I haven't cut any wires yet, but I did put the new lights in my car, to see how they would look and to make sure I had trimmed the fender enough. In doing that, the rubber has some scratches on it due to the cut metal rubbing on it. No tears...just scratches. I'm sure that won't help in me returning it, not to mention that I only have one of the boxes.

If I was able to clip the H7 bulb into the ds2 housings on the headlights somehow, and then mount the vvme ballast somewhere, would I be in the clear? I am going to call ecs again.

Thanks for your help guys.

 

the opening for the ballast is on the underside of the assembly. but it shouldnt be open to the housing. at least mine aren't.

your car does not come with ballasts if it is not HID equipped from the factory.

You will have a problem mixing and matching bulbs and ballasts from different companies due to differences in connectors/adapters. does ECS sell ballasts that are compatible with the bulbs you got from them???

I wouldreturn everything you got and get a kit from one of our sponsors. or at least get everythingfrom the same company...

 

Ok...got off the phone with ECS. Like I thought, and you too akielb, they can't take the lights back. They would have if I had the original boxes...and the lights were in perfect condition, but what is done is done. At least I didn't hit the fender when grinding them.

So.... does anybody want to buy a brand spanking new H7 HID 6000k kit, and does anybody have DS2 ballasts for sale??

I'm gonna go plant a money tree now.

On a side note....I wonder why the lights themselves say both ds2 and h7 on the sticker?