I was washing the truck today and noticed behind the lens for the first time in both headlights something black resembling some sort of a bracket. The lights work as they always have. No better and no worse. Check out the pictures!

 

Yeah that's this thing right here:



Some kind of glare shield around the bulb or something... not sure what it does really.

 

It covers the very tip of the bulb which is incredibly intense to look at for oncoming drivers, without those shields you will always have people flashing their lights at you even with the low beams on. The lack of shields like this in many driving and offroad lights is also the reason they are generally not legal to use on highways.

 

No it doesn't. Look at my pic again and you'll see there is a hole in the center of it. The black part you see is the end of my LED module, and if you look at standard halogen bulbs you'll see the tips of them are blacked out with some sort of coating too.

Maybe it shields the view when looking at it from an offset angle?

 

This happened in my left headlight, and there seems to be no difference in output between the two. Now, how to get it out of there without removing the headlight...

 

As far as I can tell, it's a heat shield to keep the bulb from damaging the plastic housing. I say that based on the fact that mine fell off at some point in the truck's life, and the top part of the housing right above the bulb is slightly melted showing signs of heat damage.


Still haven't replaced the housings yet... but it's on the list...

 

Hey I think we have a winner! That makes perfect sense, especially given your observation on the melted housing.

Good 'ol halogen bulbs... something like 30% efficient I think? The other 70% of energy consumed is given off as heat instead of light.

 

I'd like to get them out too! From what I can tell so far it looks like the loose parts will not fit through the bulb hole. I have not been flashed yet from them laying in the bottom of the bucket. I just did a 1000 mile drive too. 12 hours in the dark! New headlight buckets needed? The lenses are cloudy anyway. Tried the polishing kit. Worked sort of.

 

Only way to get that part out is get the lens off.

Or just get new lights... I LOVE my aftermarket housings with the clear lenses. They spread the light better than stock, I don't get flashed at all, and they take away that look the stock lenses have where the truck looks like it has cataracts.

 

Hey Dixie, I'm in need of some after-market housings. Where did you get yours and you didn't spend a fortune on them, did you?

 

So how do you get the lenses off? and where did you get the clear aftermarkets

 

Bird-Dog, the right way to get lenses off is warm up the housings in an oven to warm the sealant up, then pry the lens off. That don't always work with every type of housing/sealant though, but you can certainly try. 150-200 degrees should do, you don't want to melt the plastic!

The way I got MINE off in that pic was the lens was already somewhat loose, so I gave it a few good punches with my fist and it popped off the rest of the way.

As to where I got my new ones, they're from eBay for $70 + shipping. I know a lot of guys recommend adding additional sealant to aftermarket housings but I didn't and they don't leak a drop. And I have halogen bulbs in there until my LED's arrive, no condensation/moisture problems either.

The ones I bought are no longer available, but these look like the same thing and are cheaper too: 92 96 Ford F150 250 350 Bronco Crystal Chrome Clear Headlights Pair | eBay

Here's a pic of my truck with them installed...

 

Always wondered what those domes were. I thought about breaking them off on mine when I installed new headlights. I thought it may just be there to protect the bulb from getting broken and it seems to make a shadow on the ground. Glad I didn't now