Headlight Upgrade --> new housings and HID - Diesel Forum

rotozuk · 09-16-2008, 01:33 PM

My 2000 F250 came with the typical ugly headlights that did not put out much light. So recently I did something about it.

Step one was to order up some new light housings. I searched around, and ended up buying a set of ebay. I picked a smoked version of the better OEM clear style housings. Cost was about $150 shipped. They were well packaged and arrived fast.

Light install went pretty well, I had checked a few threads here and learned how to deal with the clips on the top, then moved onto the lower clip.. what a pain. The socket technique did not work, so I ended up snipping one plastic leg off with wire cutters, and out came the old lights. The new lights installed just like stock, and a very nice fit. The smoke looks really nice (to me) but when you turn on the lights they get a bit of a haze to them. You might be better off spending a bit more if you want to avoid the haze issue.

The lights came with new bulbs so I used them. The light beam seemed to have much better cut off and also threw some light out to the sides to help with reading signs in the dark. I liked this. But the overall light output was poor. Heck, in the city it was hard to even tell if the lights were on at times as the tented lens made the already yellow light even more yellow. Out on the highway away from city lights the light output was so-so, and reached further then the stock housings. I would be afraid to drive with them in a deer infested place.

So I had a couple of options.. new brighter halogen bulbs & wire harness, or for a few more dollars I could go with a Bi-Xenon HID kit. I have done the wire harness brighter halogen route on other cars, and the results were good, but spendy. I decided I'd try the HIDs this time.

I ordered up the HIDs for about $100. Kits includes everything you need including the wire harness. (Some companies charge extra for this.) Needless to say, for this price it is coming from China. It arrived in 3 days. (I went with 6000k bulbs to help offset the yellow tint from my housings.)

I have some pictures of the install I'll post up later. Once I figured things out the install took about 40 minutes, and required a little trimming of the stock bulb retainers. You will need to flip 2 wires on the wire harness to make your high beams = High, and lows = lows. (They are backwards without the mod.)

I'm sure the normal guys on the list here will post up talking about all of the glare an HID upgrade will produce. Well, my housings do not have any annoying glare. I have walked all around while carefully aiming my lights and never found the light annoying. The cut off with the low beams is very defined, and the high beams put out a nice flood. I am able to aim them lower then if they were halogens. I have been blinded by many a Ford truck over the years as some seem to have their low beams aimed way to high. I don't want to be that guy.

Anyhow, I only just installed these last night. I read around the internet before I bought from this company. They have been a popular source for many different makes, and also for motorcycles (where I originally heard about them.)

I thought about getting a set of the single beam kits for some fog/spot lights, but I don't see a need for them now. Light fill in front of the vehicle is very nice. Yeah, there are some hot spots onthe ground, but that is better then DARK spots.

-Wayne

Hawker · 09-16-2008, 02:23 PM

i did the same thing, ebay lights and all, even the grill, and what a difference. like night and day. ha ha. only thing was, i upgraded from the sealed beam of the XL unit. i might go the same route you did though with the HID's. I have 8000K's in my 150, but they're a bit too purple

rotozuk · 09-16-2008, 03:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hawker

I have 8000K's in my 150, but they're a bit too purple

I debated the temperature as I did not want much blue, but what the light output. I finally decided on the 6000k, and am very happy with them. There is just a hint of blue to them. If they sold a 5000k version I would have gone with that.

-Wayne

rotozuk · 09-30-2008, 12:44 AM

How about some photos?

1) My lights with the tinted housings.

2) Bulb (in foam), ballast, stock light, and stock and modified bulb holder (black and gray things in the bottom center of the photo)trimmed to clear the wiring of the new light base.

3) Found a simple location for the ballast, right behind the grill. Easy access by removing the lower turn signal. Attached with high quality velcro.

4) I was affraid to mess with the light at first, but after some head scratching I finally discovered that the base of the bulb comes apart. Simply twist and pull them apart (don't touch the glass bulb though) The smaller part mounts into the housing like a normal halogen witht he stock lock ring holding it in, then you slip the HID light in and twist lock it into position. You will probably have to trim the stock lock ring to clear the wider base of the HID blulb.

Wire harness is pretty easy, but you do need to flip to wires at the where it plugs into the stock wire harness to get the high/low beams correct. (high=high, low=low)

-Wayne

stevedunham · 10-02-2008, 12:19 PM

Can't tell from the pics or from your writeup but are the Xenons light pattern guided by the housing lense or from a projector lense that the Xenon bulb slides into...? Typically, most glare complaints from oncoming drivers is caused by HID conversion kits simply sticking a Xenon bulb into a Halogen lense and the light cutoff not being defined enough and blinding oncoming drivers. It's hard to believe you found an HID kit that gives satisfactory results for $100.00... But more power to you if you did, they work better than stock and don't annoy other drivers...

Layson · 10-02-2008, 02:05 PM

Got a set in my 05 headlights... they are awesome over stock

rotozuk · 10-03-2008, 02:10 AM

Well, the lens's are designed for halogen bulbs. Basically a tinted version of the stock units. Anyhow, I posted the picture of the light on the garage door to give an idea of how clear the light cut off is on these. I very impressed for the money.

I'd post up a web link to the company, but not sure if it is cool on this forum..?

-Wayne

stevedunham · 10-06-2008, 02:53 PM

Just curious, what's the reading on the "oncoming-driver-complaint-ometer" ...? Any approaching drivers flashing you ...? The pic you posted of the light beam on the garage door looks like a pretty well defined cut off pattern at the top of the light beam, so I'm assuming if you aimed them correctly, you might not get much complaining...

rotozuk · 10-08-2008, 12:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevedunham

Just curious, what's the reading on the "oncoming-driver-complaint-ometer" ...? Any approaching drivers flashing you ...? The pic you posted of the light beam on the garage door looks like a pretty well defined cut off pattern at the top of the light beam, so I'm assuming if you aimed them correctly, you might not get much complaining...

Zero. All city driving so far. Will be doing 2000 miles of testing this next week.

Funny thing is that every time I see an HID equipped vehicle coming up on me I try to play the OEM or after market guessing game. I rarely get it right as I'm expecting the after markets to be annoying, and thus far every annoying HID has been a BMW. I think that says something in itself. (And I have tinted windows.)

-Wayne

stevedunham · 10-08-2008, 09:25 AM

I did a search for VME HID's and got alot of hits from Motorcycle and European Car Websites like Audi, VW, etc... These HID kits seem to get more praise than negative comments compared to some I've read about... I'm thinking I'll put a set of these in my Bronco Rockcrawler ( Offroad only) to see how they work and go from there... Let us know if you run into any early hardware failure issues like ballasts, etc...