Finally got the HID (8000k bulbs) and Headlight upgrade done. HID's came 2 days after i ordered them (ordered wednesday 9-9-09, came friday 9-11-09). I hooked them up just to see how bright they were and man are they bright! it took a few tries tho because the polarity is reversed so i had to switch the plug to the ballast around after scratching my head wondering why they wouldnt turn on. i couldnt actually put them into the stock housing because there is a piece that screws onto the stock housing and holds the bulb down and i didnt wanna spend time working the HID into it when i didnt really need to cuz new headlgihts were on the way. but finally on tuesday the 15th the headlights came and they looked good. the install wasnt so bad. removing the old headlights was a PITA. new headlights required a little mod to the fiberglas shroud or whatever its called, nothing major and the old headlights will still be able to go right back in. i took my time with the projectors and they went in rather easy. with a lack of resources that day i couldnt cut enough room in the shroud/metal to where the wing clip thing that holds the headlight in place, there's two of them, could be put back on on the fender side but its very secure and it doesnt seem to be an issue. wiring to the led's and halo ring was fairly easy. positive spliced into brown wire on turn sig/running light and ground was worked into the back of the 9007 plugs ground. some bad news, nothing major but in order to change the bulbs you have to take the whole housing out, theres no room or access to do it otherwise and it seems like thats what you had to do on the old headlights with the turn signal bulb, but anyways it is a snap to do and the HID's are lifetime (or so they say) and the brights should last a while so im not worried just FYI. i found out the hard way the HID's i ordered were 9007 because i forgot to doublecheck when i bought them cuz the new headlights are H1 style so it took another week to swap them out. they just came yesterday and i put them in on the spot and i love them. im very satisfied with how everything looks and turned out. the lights are super bright and the new projector lights look good. i will never use halogen in another one of my vehicles again. now its time for pictures. they are pretty self explanatory so if you have questions let me know.
this is where i had to cut, it is cleaner on the drivers side just didnt take a pic cuz i was too focused on installing them. sorry for the crude use of MS Paint to show what was cut but i didnt feel like firing up photoshop right now.
before the HID's
HID left side of picture, stock halogen on the right
both of them done
the rest is just more pictures of the finished product
brights
mix
yea they are a very good investment for any vehicle. ive adjusted them, not by much, but they still have some high scatter as you can see in the last picture because the projector was basically designed for a halogen, at least thats what i heard before i bought the headlights. but other than that they are very bright, i was behind a small car at a red light tonight coming home from school and the guy waited for the light to turn green and immediately moved outta my way cuz he didnt like the light reflecting off his mirrors. guess he should look at getting some tint, it helps alot. but yea i havent gotten flashed either and i say that because i can see a bit of blue shining off the overpass on the highway. i cant control the scatter tho and i dont think its gonna blind people and im not going to adjust them anymore because i have the cutoff at the correct height, id feel uncomfortable going any lower. i think that because the trucks so big, people kind of expect it to shine in their face a little more than a prius would so i think they just accept it. with the stock headlights it would be hard to avoid that problem without aiming them straight at the ground which then just defeats the purpose of buying HID's in the first place. they are 3x brighter than halogen so they will be bright regardless and i dont think that people should be harrassed for keeping them in the stock housings, ive seen it and i have yet to be blinded at all, even in a mazda at the headlight level
About a month ago I was driving to Dunkin Donuts and a truck got behind me with real blue headlights. I thought it was a cop. I pulled over and when he passed I saw it was just a pick up. I called the cops and they got him. I don't know if he got a ticket but they were just to blue.
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2005 Eddie Bauer 4x4 w/6.0 PowerSlot Cryo Rotors up front, Hawk LTS pads all around, Bi-Xenon HID's.
yea thats why i went with 8000k. i didnt want to go with 6000 because pure white would blend in too much. i like to stand out a bit, thats why i drive the biggest SUV there is. i was debating to go with 10 or 8 and i picked 8 just because of that fact. i dont wanna stand out too much and be pulled over and end up wasting money to end up paying a ticket and the price for lower kelvin bulbs. to me they are perfect. the pictures make them look a little bluer. they are a sky blue and are very easy on the eyes and still give a very great quality of vision on the road. its almost like High Definition driving. halogens dont expose the same quality of vision as HID's do. theres just no comparision, hands down HID's take the cake in safety and performance.
looks great. i hope those lights are better quality then the projectors i had for about a week. they look like they are, i ended up going back to stock style lights but in black with 6K HIDs
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'04 excursion xlt 4x4 v10 : 20" AR wheels, bull bar/HID driving lights, 6000k HID headlights, LED tails.
'96 explorer limited 4x4 v6, lifted on 31s, custom 2/tone paint, HIDs/projectors + more
About a month ago I was driving to Dunkin Donuts and a truck got behind me with real blue headlights. I thought it was a cop. I pulled over and when he passed I saw it was just a pick up. I called the cops and they got him. I don't know if he got a ticket but they were just to blue.
You called the cops cause a dudes headlight were too blue??? Damn.....things must be pretty friggin' slow in Stuart.
I guess it's a matter of personal pref as far as the color temp goes...the 8K's are too high for me...a buddy has them in his truck and I will never drive it again, I had to take it out in nighttime with a wet road and you could not see ANYTHING, you just loose too much of the spectrum to be safe in my opinion...
It's kinda hard to tell from those pics, but it doesn't look like that housing is giving you the best cutff, hard to tell if that is mounting or what, but the theory of"the guy in front needs window tint if he doesn't like it" is a crappy attitude.
I ride a motorcycle 90% of the time, first of all I don't like the blinding lights in my mirror and making it hard to see, another good example is that I had a guy almost kill me the other day when he pulled a left turn in front of me..the reason being...the lights in the truck behind me were too scattered he couldn't tell I was even in front of him...
time to think about the safety issue before looks....
all i meant when i said the window tint was that it helps out at night. when i had a mark vii with no tint at all, it didnt matter what headlights were in someones car, stock or hid, truck or car, the lights just shine right in your face and is annoying regardless. my stock headlights shined into cars the exact same amount as the HID's do now. ive had the same reaction before when i had halogens. one time a lady pulled over to the side when it was dusk. its a personal opinion on headlights shining in your face.
monday was the first night i had them and it was raining pretty bad, we had those bad winds up here in michigan also. i could see just fine, here on the island the roads arent lit except for the main road where all the stores are. anytime i got on a lit road i couldnt see the lights on the ground very much but i could see them on signs and objects off the side of the road and passing cars.
the projectors seem to be pretty good. i was getting nervous when i had halogens cuz the light output wasnt the greatest but i waited until my HID's came and now they are great. hopefully they keep working good, they do seem to be fairly nice so ill see how things go
Seal the covers of the ballast! I replaced 2 already because I pressure washed the truck... on of them survived but nuff water came out so I sealed them up with silicon.
__________________ 2000 2WD EX V10 6.8L
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I always love chiming in on discussions about HID lighting.
Now as far as Kelvin... or the temperature. Anything over 5000K will be less usable light on the road. 6000K will give you a nice blue, but anything over that and you are seriously decreasing light on the road.
The wrong way to do HID's. Buying an HID kit and sticking it in your halogen reflective housing. It will glare, and blind everyone including drivers in front of you and oncoming drivers.
Another wrong way to do HID lights is to put an HID capsule in a projector made for a Halogen bulb. A projector is like a prescritption eye glass lense, designed specifically for certain bulb.
The only right way to do HID lighting. It is a complete Retrofit. That means you purchase HID projectors, ballasts and bulbs from a higher end vehicle. I used I bixenon projector off of a Acura TL. You then cut your stock housing and make the projector fit into it. You now have real HID lights that will be aimed, and will not blind anyone. The cutoff is just below the drivers eyes and they will thank you for that.
i dont think i will have a problem with the ballasts. they dont have a particular gap on them to seal at all. the whole thing is water proof and there is a video on youtube showing a guy dunking the whole system in a fish tank without it shorting out.
im fine with 8000k. my visibility on the road is 2x that of when i had the stock headlights.
yes i know about the retrofit and prolly will just switch out the projector itself if it proves to be an easy swap. the lights dont have the cleanest cut off, due to a different shield style, but its fine for me. if it causes problems later i will get new projectors for the housings.
__________________ 2002Excursion Limited 4x4 V10 - Small ProComp lift on 35's (The family hauler) 2000Excursion Limited 4x4 V10 - Stock w/37k miles 2006 300c SRT-8, The daily driver 2007 Charger SRT-8, The weekend car (12.7 1/4 mile, few mods) 2000 Volvo S70 5speed
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